Run a Complete SEO Audit on Your Nail Salon Website — In Under Two Hours

An SEO audit is a structured diagnostic — not a random checklist of things to improve. For nail salons specifically, it answers one question: why isn't my website showing up when someone nearby searches for what I offer?

There are five areas every nail salon audit should examine, in this order:

1. Technical health — Can Google actually crawl and index your pages? Are there broken links, duplicate content, or crawl errors blocking your visibility?
2. On-page content — Do your service pages include the keywords real clients use to search? Are pages long enough to be considered substantive by Google?
3. Local signals — Is your name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings?
4. Google Business Profile — Is your GBP fully completed, actively maintained, and optimized for the right service categories?
5. Backlinks and authority — Are any credible local websites linking to yours? Are there spammy links that might be dragging down your domain reputation?

Most nail salon websites have issues in at least three of these five areas. The goal of this audit isn't to find everything — it's to find the issues with the highest impact on your local rankings and address those first.

One important framing note: not all SEO problems are equal. A missing meta description is not the same severity as pages that Google can't index. This guide assigns severity ratings so you spend time on what actually moves the needle.

Technical SEO is the foundation. If Google can't crawl your pages correctly, nothing else in this audit matters. Here's how to check the basics without needing developer access.

Google Search Console (free)

If you haven't connected your site to Google Search Console, do that first — it takes about 10 minutes. Once connected, look for:

• Coverage errors — Pages marked as "excluded" or "not indexed" that you want Google to rank
• Core Web Vitals — Google's page experience metrics, especially on mobile
• Manual actions — Any penalties applied to your site (rare, but serious if present)

Mobile speed

Run your homepage and your top service page through Google's PageSpeed Insights (free tool). In our experience working with local service businesses, nail salon websites often struggle here — image-heavy galleries and unoptimized booking widgets are the most common culprits. A score below 50 on mobile warrants immediate attention.

HTTPS and security

Your website should load with a padlock icon (https://) in the browser. If it doesn't, that's a trust signal problem for both Google and your visitors.

Duplicate content

Check whether your homepage loads on both yoursalon.com and www.yoursalon.com as separate URLs. If both load without redirecting to one version, you have a duplicate content issue. Your web host or developer can fix this with a canonical redirect in about 15 minutes.

Severity note: Crawl errors and mobile speed failures are high severity. Missing HTTPS is high severity. Duplicate content from www/non-www is medium severity and easy to fix.

Thin, generic service pages are the most common SEO problem we find on nail salon websites. Google needs enough content on each page to understand what service you offer, where you offer it, and who it's for.

Check each service page for these signals

• Page length — Pages with fewer than 200 words rarely rank for competitive local terms. Aim for 300-500 words on each core service page (gel nails, acrylics, pedicures, nail art, etc.).
• Location keywords — Does the page mention your city or neighborhood? "Gel nail extensions" is a generic term. "Gel nail extensions in [City]" is a local search term. The page should include both.
• Title tags and meta descriptions — Open each page, right-click, and select "View Page Source." Search for the title tag. It should include your primary service keyword and your location. Generic titles like "Services – Glam Nails" waste a critical ranking signal.
• Header structure — Each page should have one H1 tag that describes the page topic clearly. Subheadings (H2, H3) should break up content logically.

Booking and gallery pages

Many nail salons have booking pages that contain almost no text — just an embedded scheduler widget. Google sees an empty page. Add a short paragraph above the booking widget explaining your salon, location, and what clients can expect when they book.

Photo gallery pages are similar. Beautiful images alone don't rank. Add alt text to every photo describing what's shown (e.g., "pink ombre acrylic nails — [City] nail salon") and include a short caption or description block on the gallery page itself.

Severity note: Missing location keywords on service pages is high severity. Thin content is medium-to-high. Missing alt text on photos is low-to-medium severity but quick to fix.

For nail salons, local SEO is where most of the ranking opportunity lives. Someone searching "nail salon near me" or "best gel nails in [neighborhood]" is ready to book — and Google's Map Pack is often what they click first.

NAP consistency

Your business name, address, and phone number should be identical across your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, and any directory listings. Even small inconsistencies — "Suite 4" vs. "Ste. 4" — can dilute your local ranking signals. Search for your salon name on Google and spot-check the top five places your NAP appears.

Google Business Profile audit

Log into your GBP and check each of the following:

• Primary category — Should be "Nail Salon" not a generic beauty category
• Secondary categories — Add relevant ones: "Waxing Hair Removal," "Eyelash Salon" if applicable
• Services list — GBP lets you add individual services with descriptions. Most salons leave this blank.
• Photos — Google rewards active profiles. Your GBP should have at least 10 photos, updated within the last 90 days.
• Business hours — Are holiday hours updated? Incorrect hours generate bad reviews and hurt trust signals.
• Q&A section — Check whether anyone has asked questions you haven't answered. Unanswered questions are a missed opportunity.

Review velocity and responses

Review count and recency both influence Map Pack rankings. Check: how many reviews do you have, when was the most recent one posted, and are you responding to reviews consistently? Salons that respond to every review — positive and negative — tend to outperform those that don't in competitive local markets.

Severity note: Incomplete GBP categories and missing services are high severity. Inconsistent NAP is high severity. No recent photos is medium severity.

Use this scorecard to tally your findings. Rate each item as Pass, Needs Work, or Fail. Any item marked Fail in the High Severity column should be prioritized before anything else.

High Severity Items

• Google Search Console connected and no critical crawl errors
• Website loads correctly on mobile with PageSpeed score above 50
• Site secured with HTTPS
• Primary service pages include city/neighborhood keywords
• Google Business Profile category set to "Nail Salon"
• NAP consistent across website, GBP, and top directories

Medium Severity Items

• Each service page contains at least 300 words of original content
• Title tags include service keyword and location
• GBP services list populated with descriptions
• GBP photos updated within last 90 days
• www and non-www redirect to a single version
• Booking page includes descriptive text (not just a widget)

Low Severity Items (but worth fixing)

• Image alt text describes content and includes relevant keywords
• Meta descriptions written for all core pages
• GBP Q&A section monitored and answered
• At least one local website (press, directory, partner) links to your site
• Schema markup (LocalBusiness) present in page code

If you scored three or more High Severity Fails, those items alone are likely responsible for most of your visibility gap. Fix them before moving to Medium or Low items. If you're unsure how to fix what you've found, the next step is deciding whether to work through it yourself or bring in specialist help.

Not every audit finding requires professional help. Some issues are genuinely straightforward. Others look simple but have technical dependencies that make DIY fixes easy to get wrong.

You can typically handle these yourself

• Updating your Google Business Profile categories, hours, and photos
• Adding descriptive text to your booking page
• Writing longer, keyword-rich content for service pages
• Responding to reviews consistently
• Adding alt text to your photo gallery

These are better handled by a specialist

• Fixing crawl errors and indexation problems in Search Console
• Correcting redirect chains and www/non-www canonicalization
• Implementing LocalBusiness schema markup
• Building local citations at scale and resolving NAP inconsistencies across dozens of directories
• Diagnosing why a page dropped in rankings after a Google algorithm update

The honest decision threshold

If your audit turned up primarily content and GBP issues, a motivated salon owner can address most of them in a focused weekend. If you found technical crawl issues, ranking drops you can't explain, or a backlink profile with spammy links — those are situations where specialist time pays for itself quickly, because the wrong fix can make technical problems worse.

In our experience working with local service businesses, salons that attempt to fix technical SEO issues without a clear understanding of how Google's crawler works sometimes introduce new problems while solving the original one. The cost of that cycle is usually more time and more lost revenue than hiring someone competent from the start would have been.

If you want a second set of eyes on what your audit turned up, get a professional nail salon SEO audit from a team that works specifically in this space — not a generalist agency running the same report they send every client.