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Setup the Booking Portal for Appointments

Your booking portal is a branded web page where clients book appointments and classes, see their bookings and, if you sell online, shop. You set it up once in Online Booking & Store: switch on bookings, add your logo and colours, choose the portal address and copy a link or embed code for your website.

Available withBookingsIncluded in the Complete plan.Plans and modules
Prerequisites
  • Services with Allow Online Appointment turned on. See Setup Services.
  • If you want clients to log in or confirm their phone with a one-time code, a location with WhatsApp connected or an SMS provider. See WhatsApp Cloud API.

Open the settings​

  1. Go to Settings > All Settings.
  2. Under Website & Booking Portal, click Online Booking & Store.
Online Booking and Store settings on the Manage Sections tab with Enable Online Bookings, Require Sign Up / Login and the Branding card

Manage Sections tab​

  1. Turn on Enable Online Bookings to show appointment and class booking on your portal.
  2. Optional: turn on Require Sign Up / Login so clients sign up or log in before booking or ordering.
  3. Optional: under Verify guests with a one-time code (OTP), choose Phone only (code by WhatsApp, or SMS as backup), Email only (code by email) or Phone and email (a code to each) so guests enter a code before they book or pay. See Verify Guests with a One-Time Code.
  4. If you have several locations and use login or phone codes, choose the location in Send verification codes from. Codes go by WhatsApp from that location, or by SMS when it has an SMS provider.
  5. In Branding, set the Primary color, Upload your business logo (150 x 50 px, white or transparent background) and Upload your favicon (32 x 32 px).
  6. In Page Settings, under SEO Metadata, fill in Title, Description and Social share image for search results and link previews. See Search engines and public service pages.
  7. Optional, under Analytics & tracking: paste your Google Tag Manager container ID (for example GTM-XXXXXXX). Your container then loads on every booking page and records each page clients visit. Leave it blank to run no tracking code at all.
  8. In Progressive Web App settings, set Your app name and the app icons (144 x 144 px for Android, 192 x 192 px for iOS) used when clients add the portal to their home screen.
  9. Click Save.
warning

If you turn on Require Sign Up / Login or phone codes for guests, connect WhatsApp or an SMS provider at the sending location first. Clients cannot finish without the verification code.

Portal Settings tab​

  1. Turn on Enable Portal.
  2. Choose your Portal URL, the first part of your portal's web address.
  3. Click Save.

These settings are shared with your client portal and online store.

Policies tab​

Add your Terms & Conditions (incl. Refunds & Cancellation) and Privacy Policy. Click Insert default content to start from a template. Leave them empty to use the default text.

Embed Portal tab​

Copy the option that suits your website:

  • Public Link: a direct link to share in messages, social profiles or QR codes.
  • Iframe: shows the portal inside a page of your website.
  • Popup: a button that opens the portal in a pop-up.
  • Lightbox: a button that opens the portal over your page.

To link straight to one service category or one team member, use Get Booking Link in Catalogue or on Team Members.

Search engines and public service pages​

Your portal is built so search engines list it as your own site, not as a copy of every other booking page:

  • Title, description and share image: every public page gets its own title and description. The home page uses the SEO Metadata Title, Description and Social share image (or your business name); service, class, product and plan pages use their own name, description and photo. Links shared on WhatsApp or social media show this preview.
  • Public service and class pages: each active service with Allow Online Appointment on has its own page with its photo, duration, price (with "from", sale and tax display as set) and description, and a Book button (See class times for classes). People can land on it from Google and book straight away.
  • Structured data: pages carry schema.org details (your business and locations with address and phone, services, products and plans with prices) so search results can show them.
  • Sitemap and robots.txt: each portal address has its own sitemap.xml listing your public pages and a robots.txt pointing to it.
  • Private pages stay out of search: booking steps, checkout, the client portal and links from your messages are never indexed.
Public service page for Deep Tissue Massage on the booking portal with its photo, duration, price, description and a Book button

Nothing to set up: keep service names, descriptions and photos up to date, and fill in the SEO Metadata.

Check your portal​

Click Visit Your Portal at the top of the page and make a test booking. See Customer Booking Portal for what clients see.

Tips​

  • The booking portal and your online store are the same portal with the same branding and address. Use the Online Store tab to sell products and plans on it; see Sell Online with Your Online Store. The tab needs the Sales module. See Plan Modules.
  • Booking rules such as how late clients can book or cancel are in Appointment Settings.
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