Most salon owners have a vague awareness of their local competitors — who they are, roughly what they charge, whether they seem busy. Very few have done a structured analysis of what those competitors are actually doing online, what they’re doing well, and where the gaps are that represent opportunities.
A simple competitor analysis, done once a quarter, takes about an hour and can inform your marketing decisions for the months that follow. Here’s how to do it.
Start with Google.
Search for the terms your potential clients use to find salons — “hair salon [your town]”, “balayage [your area]”, “highlights near me”. Look at the top three results in the local pack and the top five organic results. These are your primary competitors for local search visibility.
For each one, note: how many Google reviews do they have, what’s their average rating, when was their most recent review, how complete is their profile, how recently have they posted? This gives you a clear picture of where you stand relative to the competition on the single most important local marketing channel.
If a competitor has 200 reviews and you have 40, that’s a specific, measurable gap with a specific, addressable solution. If their most recent review is from six months ago and yours is from last week, that’s an advantage worth understanding and maintaining.
Check their website.
Visit each competitor’s website and ask the same questions you should be asking about your own: Does it load quickly on mobile? Is the booking process straightforward? Are there individual service pages? Does it show up in Google for relevant search terms?
Look specifically for what they’re doing that you’re not — and what you’re doing that they’re not. A competitor with a beautiful website but no blog content, for example, represents a content opportunity. A competitor with strong service pages targeting specific techniques suggests that approach is working in your market.
Analyse their social media.
Look at each competitor’s Instagram and Facebook. How frequently are they posting? What content types are they using? What’s getting the most engagement? How many followers do they have and how is that number trending?
You’re not looking to copy — you’re looking to understand the landscape. If every salon in your area is posting the same type of content (transformation posts, product features), there may be an opportunity to differentiate with a content type nobody else is producing. If a competitor is generating strong engagement with educational content, it suggests that format resonates with your shared audience.
Mystery shop the booking experience.
Go through the booking process for one or two key competitors — not necessarily all the way to booking an appointment, but far enough to understand how easy it is. How many clicks to find the booking page? How long does it take to load on mobile? How clear is the pricing?
This is often where the most actionable insights are. A competitor whose booking process is significantly smoother than yours is converting a higher percentage of their website visitors into appointments. That’s a direct revenue difference that’s fixable.
What to do with what you find.
A competitor analysis is only useful if it leads to action. After each analysis, identify two or three specific things to address. Not a wholesale overhaul — two or three targeted improvements based on what the analysis revealed.
Over time, this process compounds. Four analyses a year, each producing two or three improvements, represents eight to twelve meaningful marketing improvements annually. That’s the difference between a salon that’s incrementally improving its competitive position and one that’s standing still while competitors move around it.
The right mindset for competitor analysis.
The goal isn’t to obsess over what competitors are doing or to replicate their approach. It’s to understand the landscape clearly enough to make good decisions about where to invest your marketing effort. A competitor who’s significantly ahead of you on Google reviews tells you where to focus. A competitor who’s neglecting their website tells you there’s ground to be gained there.
The salons that grow fastest aren’t necessarily the most talented. They’re the ones that understand their market clearly, make decisions based on evidence rather than instinct, and consistently execute on the things that move the needle.
If you’d like a professional analysis of your salon’s competitive position — where you stand relative to competitors across Google, social media, and your website — our free audit covers exactly this. Book yours here and we’ll show you the specific opportunities in your local market.