Keyword traffic estimator

Not that sort of planning permission Lina.

Permission to use the dwelling house as a business where joe public comes to your property and where a business activity takes place that can affect the environment, etc. Trust me, it does apply to you.


No they dont take into account you not knowing. They presume that anyone starting a business will do their research. Just like the tax man expects you to know how much tax and NI to pay, and when. The onus is always on you to make yourself aware; this applies to everything.

Again, and as I did say, that doc was an example so you can see what the council look into. Its irrelevant it was a garage. They consider the same things for your home internally as well as an external building, if not more.

I wouldn't take the time to type out all this information if I knew it did not apply to you; i'm saying this to help you and before someone gets wind of what you are doing and possibly reports you (your competitors will eventually, no fear of that).

You may get all that printing done to find that you cannot operate a salon from in your home address. Just a thought. It's up to you to take this on board or ignore it. If someone trips on your drive and sues you, you will be personally liable. In fact, your current buildings & contents insurances on your house will be void as things stand. If your activities caused an accident that endangered life you could also be prosecuted for failing H&S standards. Yes this sounds extreme, but we all have to comply none the less.

Not sure if this has been answered yet as I have not read the entire thread but thought i would chip in.

When doing keyword research there are 3 different searches you can do, Phrase Match, Exact Match and Broad Match. There is an option in the Google Keyword tool to select which one you would like to use (i think you have to do one search first and then it appears on the left had side of the page).

Basically, the results you have been getting are the results for broad match. Broad match will give you results based on the keywords appearing in any order, so it could be "hairdressers milton keynes" or "milton keynes hairdresser" or "milton hairdresser keynes" etc. If you want to know the figures for just "hairdressers milton keynes" then this option is no good.

You then have Phrase Match. This will give you results with the keywords appearing in the order you specified but with other words attached. For example "male hairdressers milton keynes" or "cheap hairdressers milton keynes" or "hairdressers outside milton keynes" etc. As you can see this would be no good.

We then come to Exact Match. This is what you need to be looking at as it will give you results based on "hairdressers milton keynes" only. So if you want to know how many people are searching for this phrase you would need to unselect broad match and select exact match.

Having said all that, the figures in the Google Keyword tool are not accurate (none of the research tools are that accurate to be honest) but can be a good indicator. Use the results as a guideline.

Hope that makes sense. you might want to read this as it explains it a bit better than I have: Keyword Research

Innocent Advertising thank you for the fantastic explanation!

Yeah, we have covered that when it became clear Lina wasn't aware of it. Have to say, it looks a lot more complicated to use these days.

However we've gone off track a little as Lina mentioned the flyers werent getting a results then looking at that, I gave my thoughts on why that might be and it's opened up other things as a result.

I would suggest before chucking any money at anything to attract more business, be it on or offline marketing, that the basic, legal things of the business are reviewed and addressed first.

Because to attract more people and then have to close the business down at home for any temporary period of time, even permanent if they reject the planning app, would not be good PR, and she would lose those customers she gained; most would just go elsewhere.

But ultimately, I wouldn't be too concerned that the search engines weren't bringing me customers for a haidressing business as it's not the predominant place people look. My marketing money would be going on other things.

Phrase match is your exact keyword but with any word before or after it and not in the middle of it such as 'hairdressers outside milton keynes' (that would be a broad match)

Broad match results include:

1. those words in any order
2. it could have other words before or after it again in any order
3. it might also be just one of the words e.g. milton
4. it could be similar words (eg hairdresser, hairdressing)
5. It could be variants e.g. hairdresser training milton keynes

Yep you are right.

You'll notice I did actually explain phrase match correctly, I just got a bit carried away with the examples.

Makes sense

Lina, you've had some superb advice there from someone who clearly knows what they are talking about.

Definitely worth following up, as Indizine says, ignorance is no defence when it comes to business.