Salon Soma| Website Design | 2026
SALONSOMA.comCustom Squarespace Website Design for an Aveda Concept Salon in Long Beach, CA
Salon Soma is a long-standing and beloved Aveda concept salon in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach, CA, in a popular and walkable part of their vibrant and busy community.
The problem
Salon Soma was in need of a website renovation after several years of becoming stagnant online, but the business owner, Tula, was busy behind the chair herself and didn’t have the time to figure it all out. What she knew is that she needed her clients to better understand her business and how to shop her products– both online and in the salon. She wanted to make things easier for them and she also wanted to represent her business more accurately online.
The thinking
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard these issues from a business owner, so I got to work solving them by creating a new visual language and messaging for the website that would better position the salon for their goals. Our end goal for this project was to have a strategically branded website that complements Tula’s personality and showcases her brand affiliation with Aveda to create a seamless and memorable experience for website visitors, encouraging them to call for an appointment or purchase Aveda products.
We also needed to create a path for Aveda fans to purchase products from the salon’s branded storefront on the Aveda website instead of the salon maintaining an e-commerce site of their own. Since we accomplished that pathway, Tula can now market it without wasting any time, money, or efforts, and people can easily find the information they need on her website.
The method
Building this website was a matter of balancing several things at once: the visual look and feel, the written message, the structure and hierarchy, the customer journey, and the SEO/AI search friendliness. All of these need to be taken into consideration as I blend the tech world and the design world into a cohesive online home base for a business.
I also added some fun motion features that make the site feel fluid and modern. The website was built on Squarespace which capably handled everything we needed.
The outcome
With no interest in anything technical, and purely a love for her own work and loyal clients, Tula is now able to trust that her website is doing what it’s supposed to be doing without giving it another thought, and she’s pleased with how much clearer it is and how it represents her and her business. She also now feels ready to do even more promoting of her business with the website as a solid foundation.
The Home page scroll
The Home page thinking
The first sections of the Home page were designed to mention 2 key things right away: That Salon Soma is an Aveda salon and retail store, and that they are located in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach. These were important details to call out since they both set Salon Soma apart and help drive business from local Aveda fans.
Their own work
One fun feature is that the hero image of the woman in red is actually real work done by the salon. Tula requested this later after the site was built, so we changed out the stock image of the smiling woman for this one.
All the slider images further down the page under Services are the salon’s own clients as well.
What they do
Most people are going to the site to look at services and pricing, so we wanted to make that easy to find right away by including it near the top of the page.
Adding trust
Once we talked about who this business is and what they offer, it was important to highlight their position in the community. The longevity of the business helps to establish trust with new clients.
Positioning
“Why Clients Choose Us” positions the salon based on their unique qualities. Not many salons offer Aveda discounts and work with every hair texture, even offering some of the old-school techniques for perms. These features set them apart from the competition.
Testimonials
Testimonials help site visitors relate to other happy customers.
SEO and AI search
Footer information is designed not only to make things easy for the website visitor, but also for search engines to gather the right information.
Overall, the site has been designed to be AI-search friendly, helping the business get found by people asking questions in both traditional Google search and AI models.
From the Client
"I'm not a techy person. I know you’re supposed to have a website, but I never really understood why, or if clients even find it. Carly understands all that and built my salon a new website that answers the questions my clients and new customers have. It's clear, clean, and all the information is right there. It reflects what you get when you come here: me, this salon, and this whole experience. My website has definitely improved thanks to Carly’s work."
– Tula Trigonis | Salon Soma, Long Beach, CA