Keyword Research - Which is More Accurate: Broad or Exact Match?

[fated82]

I am looking for a the right keywords for my new niche site and I am a little confused. Should I follow the stats from the broad search (I am using Google Keyword Tool) or should I search based on exact match?

[Adsman68]

I always use exact. Never even look at broad.

[Wechito]

Exact match will give you most accurate results. If you go broad, you will get a bigger number of searches but not all them will be as targeted as going exact or even phrase.

[ktmakwana]

Always use "Exact" match.

[John Williamson]

Indeed, stick with exact.

[moerdo]

Originally Posted by wk_lee

I look at Exact Match when doing keyword research, including SEOT and OCI using Market Samurai.

yup. it's too bad, MS doesn't have those anymore

[considertheluke]

Originally Posted by moerdo

yup. it's too bad, MS doesn't have those anymore

I use MS (Market Samurai) every day and they do have an exact match as well as a broad and phrase match.

[askloz]

LOL... you shouldnt be using exact match, thats for PPC... its to give you an idea how many clicks that campaign gets based on the main phrase that is searched for.

of course, some wont agree with me, but hey, i showed George Brown that he should be using phrase match and guess what, its in his google sniper 2.0 now

I told him from day one that GS1.0 should not of been using exact match.

[Steven Dybka]

I always use exact match as a reference but even those numbers are not always accurate but are a good guide compared to broad or phrase.


Steve

[TBInternetMarketing]

Always use Exact. This is a reflection of how many times people are actually typing your exact keywords into google. I consider any other traffic just a bonus after that.

[samual james]

I always use Exact Searches instead of broad. It shows how many clicks your keywords get.

[signity]

Well exact match give us a very very close idea about that keyword searches so I'd love suggest your to go with exact match.

[faceblogger]

Exact Match of course!

[Caragui]

I used to look at broad match as it makes the niche more "attractive" but after a few failed site (even got a site at #3 out of 29 million results). I now look exclusively at exact match results only. I also look at the braod results but only for comparison.

[StoneWilson]

Use "exact" match to check whether a possible keyword worth to promote, use "broad" match to find longtail keywords.

[gundammeister]

Originally Posted by askloz

LOL... you shouldnt be using exact match, thats for PPC... its to give you an idea how many clicks that campaign gets based on the main phrase that is searched for.

of course, some wont agree with me, but hey, i showed George Brown that he should be using phrase match and guess what, its in his google sniper 2.0 now

I told him from day one that GS1.0 should not of been using exact match.

Hey askloz!

Could you tell us the reasoning behind this? Is the phrase match more accurate in terms of the searches that we get?

[PLRwithAlex]

To find your competition, always use Exact.

[gundammeister]

Whoops, sorry. I meant searches. I've always used exact match for searches.....would phrase match be more accurate in the number of monthly searches?

[yukon]

Keyword Research - Which is More Accurate: Broad or Exact Match?

Wouldn't the word exact be a giveaway?

[Fraggler]

Broad match does have its use if you are looking at building out a large site.

Broad match will give you an idea of how much potential is in the niche in general.

It also lets you quickly know that there are a lot of long tails using the broad term. So when you find a term that has a large number of broad searches you can then dig down with that term to find your lucrative exact/phrase keywords.

A term with a large broad search also has potential for hitting weak long tails that you don't directly target, these are the one-off searches that are common with the way people search.

I use broad to find my site's categories. It gives you a lot of room to expand if the site takes off. I then use phrase/exact to finalise the keyword for an article.

[askloz]

Sure.

first... the google suggestion tool is ONLY a tool for PPC, period!

When you visit that page before they changed everything around, at the top of the google suggestion tool there was a link called

KEYWORD SEARCH BASED TOOL... that, is for TRAFFIC analysis.

They are two complete different tools.

People were complaining how the google suggestion tool was not accurate, for the most part, for what they were wanting to use it for, are correct...

they should have been using the KEYWORD SEARCH BASED TOOL instead, the total searches were COMPLETELY different to that of the google suggestion tool, they were far more accurate.

What google has done now, they have integrated the two tools into one... so now, the search results you see now, are accurate, despite what people feel.

Now... broad match, will bring back your keyword phrase in any order.

Phrase match will FOCUS ON YOUR ACTUAL PHRASE, IN THAT ORDER, regardless of the phrases (filler words) is in front of it, or at the end of it.

ie.

some filler words1 "some unique phrase you want to rank for" some filler words2

note, this is not how the user enters their search phrase in quotation marks, its just how google works out the searches performed that have their main keyword phrase in there and compares it to natural searches made.

EXACT match, will just reveal that actual phrase. the search number is derived from broad match search results, but filtered down to just the word that were typed. But it's not a good idea to work out how much potential traffic you'll get. and it's handy to use if you use PPC to get an idea how many ppl will click your ad so you can work out a budget.

Now, its OK if you want to get an idea of the actual targeted traffic.

However, just because its exact match, it doesn't mean its 100% targeted traffic.

targeted traffic can still come from broad and phrase.

if you want more traffic, you need to use phrase match, plus it gives you a better analysis of how easy it is to rank for a particular phrase...

This is what I showed George Brown, and how he's using it in google sniper 2.0 and has made a HUGE improvement in the amount of traffic and sales he's made.

of course, that's my view and it works a lot better than exact match and I'm pretty sure 90% of us here is not going to agree with me, maybe that's why not everyone makes money online like me and George.

Exact match works ok, im not saying it doesn't, but its not the optimized method like phrase match.

I've been talking about this for about 2 years now on this forum and i've always done it this way, which had lead me to pulling in over 10 million unique visitors to my entire network of websites per month.

All the best
P.s
It's LOZ

Originally Posted by gundammeister

Hey askloz!

Could you tell us the reasoning behind this? Is the phrase match more accurate in terms of the searches that we get?

[Fraggler]

Loz,

Some long phrases are more competitive, SEO wise, than shorter ones. It often comes back to the anchor text the competition are or aren't targeting.

I do use phrase myself but it still comes down to context.

I'll give you an example of what I mean:

Say I was doing research and came across a keyword phrase "blue widget" that had a phrase match of 10,000/month but an exact match of only 500/month. That would have me worried as there is obviously something else happening in the search that people aren't actually interested in "blue widget" but some extension of that phrase.

I do the SEO competition analysis on "blue widget" and see that the competition is really weak and achievable. Based on looking at just the phrase match I would think I was onto a winner...but I am in for a disappointing fraction of 500/searches per month.

Why?

I looked a bit deeper by narrowing down my search to focus on "blue widgets". I now see that the traffic is split between "blue widget review" and "make my own blue widget", with a small fraction spread between all sorts of phrases.

Knowing that I would struggle to create an article that would cover how to "make my own blue widget" and "blue widget review" I decide to look at the SEO for each individually - they would have to be their own article.

Both of these terms have really tough competition from different competitors. They are all focusing on these 'long tails' and not the broader (short) phrase.

From what would have been a goldmine if I only had to focus on the phrase match for "blue widget" has become a very tough up hill battle for longer phrases with the majority of the exact searches.

I'm not saying that the phrase match isn't useful, but just that it must be taken into context with the search phrase, and the exact searches for a longer tail keywords using that phrase.

I don't think many people get confused about the use of the quotes with the user entering searches, they just know that a phrase search isn't as specific so as my example shows, two searches with the same phrase can be quite irrelevant.

This is without going into words and phrase with multiple meanings such as name and Towns etc.

[askloz]

I totally agree with your analysis Troy...

What Im trying to put out there to everyone here, is not to dismiss the other functions like phrase match cos they really hold the true picture overall. Adding your analysis to incorporate the exact match into your studies, does for the most part fill that extra gap - we all have our ways of doing things
However, there are other ways to fill those gaps that can bring back better results back without using exact match, ie, locating user generated content.

You see, Im all about productivity - the faster I can get stuff done, the better... im not scared of a little competition if the analysis matched your scenario...

I've used other techniques to get around the exact match which works just as well.

All the best

Loz

Originally Posted by Fraggler

Loz,

Some long phrases are more competitive, SEO wise, than shorter ones. It often comes back to the anchor text the competition are or aren't targeting.

I do use phrase myself but it still comes down to context.

I'll give you an example of what I mean:

Say I was doing research and came across a keyword phrase "blue widget" that had a phrase match of 10,000/month but an exact match of only 500/month. That would have me worried as there is obviously something else happening in the search that people aren't actually interested in "blue widget" but some extension of that phrase.

I do the SEO competition analysis on "blue widget" and see that the competition is really weak and achievable. Based on looking at just the phrase match I would think I was onto a winner...but I am in for a disappointing fraction of 500/searches per month.

Why?

I looked a bit deeper by narrowing down my search to focus on "blue widgets". I now see that the traffic is split between "blue widget review" and "make my own blue widget", with a small fraction spread between all sorts of phrases.

Knowing that I would struggle to create an article that would cover how to "make my own blue widget" and "blue widget review" I decide to look at the SEO for each individually - they would have to be their own article.

Both of these terms have really tough competition from different competitors. They are all focusing on these 'long tails' and not the broader (short) phrase.

From what would have been a goldmine if I only had to focus on the phrase match for "blue widget" has become a very tough up hill battle for longer phrases with the majority of the exact searches.

I'm not saying that the phrase match isn't useful, but just that it must be taken into context with the search phrase, and the exact searches for a longer tail keywords using that phrase.

I don't think many people get confused about the use of the quotes with the user entering searches, they just know that a phrase search isn't as specific so as my example shows, two searches with the same phrase can be quite irrelevant.

This is without going into words and phrase with multiple meanings such as name and Towns etc.

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by askloz

What Im trying to put out there to everyone here, is not to dismiss the other functions like phrase match cos they really hold the true picture overall.

Absolutely! The broad search numbers are ignored even more than phrase yet it is one of the best indicators for a strong niche.

It is just harder for people to understand I guess as it does take experience to read.

People usually can't go wrong with the exact matches and a sniper site so I guess that is why it is used so often.