Link in bio for small businesses: cafés, salons and shops

What a café, salon or shop should put on its link in bio, so people can see you're open, book you and find you.

Checked on

Put the thing people most want to do first (book, order or find you), then today's opening hours, then your menu or price list, then directions and a phone number. Treat it as your front door. Someone tapping it wants to know if you're open and how to get in.

What people want when they tap

Think about who taps your link. Someone saw your Instagram post of a cinnamon bun at 8.40 on a Saturday. They want to know three things: are you open, where are you, and is there a queue. Someone who saw a balayage on your salon page wants to know if you have anything this week and how much it costs.

Answer those before anything else. Your story, your values and your full gallery can go further down.

The order for most small businesses

  1. The main action. Book, order, or reserve. One big button, linked straight to the booking or ordering page.
  2. Opening hours. Today's hours at the top, the week below. Bank holiday changes up front.
  3. Menu or price list. As text on the page if you can, not a PDF.
  4. Find us. Address, a map link and a call button.
  5. Today's notice. Closing early, sold out of sourdough, new autumn menu.
  6. Socials and reviews. Your Instagram, and a link to leave a Google review.

For a café

Steep Hill Coffee, Sheffield (an invented example):

  • Notice: "Out of cardamom buns for today. More tomorrow from 8"
  • Open now until 4pm (Saturday)
  • Order ahead for collection
  • Menu: coffee, breakfast, cakes, with vegan and gluten free marked
  • Find us: Division Street, Sheffield, and a call button
  • Instagram and a Google review link

The notice does the work of a chalkboard. Someone deciding whether to walk over sees it before they leave the house.

For a salon or barber

Halo Hair, Cardiff (an invented example):

  • Book now (Fresha)
  • Prices: cut and finish from £42, colour from £70, with a note on patch tests
  • Open today 9 to 6, late nights Thursday until 8
  • Find us: Pontcanna, with parking notes
  • Instagram for recent work

Put the booking button first and prices second. People who can see a price before they book have one less reason to message you, which saves you a reply between clients.

For a shop

Paper and Thread, Bath (an invented example):

  • Shop online
  • New this week: hand bound notebooks, link to the product
  • Open today 10 to 5. Closed Mondays
  • Click and collect details
  • Find us: Walcot Street, with a map link
  • Instagram and the mailing list

If you sell online, link to a real product as well as the home page. Someone who saw one notebook in a reel wants that notebook.

Get the basics right

One set of hours everywhere. Your link in bio, your Google Business Profile and your door sign should all say the same thing. When they disagree, people trust none of them.

Link deep. Send the booking button to the booking page, not to your booking app's home page where people have to search for you.

Avoid PDFs for menus. They're slow to open on a phone and hard to read. If your menu only exists as a PDF, it's worth typing the main items onto the page.

Make the phone number a call button. A number in a picture can't be tapped.

Think about the window. A QR code in the window or on the counter sends people walking past to the same page as your Instagram.

Common problems

The hours are wrong on a bank holiday. Change them the week before, or use a tool that knows your holiday dates.

The booking link opens a login page. Test it in a private browser window. If it asks visitors to sign in, find the public booking link in your booking app's settings.

Nobody uses the page. Check the first thing on it is the thing people want. A café whose first link is "Our story" will get fewer taps than one whose first link is "Order ahead".

You keep forgetting to update the notice. Use a notice that clears itself at closing time, so yesterday's "sold out" doesn't greet tomorrow's customers.

On Zest, opening hours say open or closed by themselves and know your bank holidays. A Book or order block links to Fresha, OpenTable, Square and the rest, and a Notice clears itself at closing time. All of it is on the free plan.

Sources

This guide is advice, checked on 6 November 2026. The businesses are invented; the streets are real places used as settings.