When doing keyword research why do ppl say to use " " rather than without?

[steadypay]

I don't quite get this.

As I see it atm most people, unless they are internet savvy, don't use a term in quotes and when searching for something would instead just put the phrase in google without quotes and hit enter.

Why then do ppl talking about keyword research always say how important it is to look at exact match?

There is a big difference in comp when you hit enter with or without quotes (with quotes being many less).

If potential buyers are not using quotes then shouldn't we be looking at this for the true competition?

I imagine I am missing something here seeing as everyone goes on about searching in quotes so if someone would be kind enough to fill me in...

[Always-A-Warrior]

without quotes is called Broad Search and this is where you want to be because rarely does searchers uses quotes to do searching. Now for quoted keywords, they give exact keyword searches but as we all know it only matters when using Google Ad Tool.

So without quotes is better.

[John Williamson]

What exactly are you referring to as "comp" ? If you mean the number of competing pages, well that's completely irrelevant to begin with...

[steadypay]

I think someone explained it on another forum by telling me doing an exact search allows you to narrow down who has done SEO on their sites for keywords so you can then get an idea of the quality of the comp.


This sound about right?

[mikeroosa]

I don't quite understand it either. I always type without the quotes and look at page 1. Can I beat those sites showing up? If so, then I go for it.

[Bryan V]

Originally Posted by steadypay

I think someone explained it on another forum by telling me doing an exact search allows you to narrow down who has done SEO on their sites for keywords so you can then get an idea of the quality of the comp.


This sound about right?

Yes thats right. If you see it in their title and description then they might be optimized for it.. and trying to rank it. But as Williamson said earlier.. if they aren't already top 10 it doesn't really matter.

Searching without quotes gives you your current competition.

You can use quotes to see if new sites are optimizing for the keyword.. maybe they're new and hittin it hard so you know you will have to worry about them soon. but in most cases it is completely unnecessary.

[ksetu]

Google ranks pages on multiple ranking factors - on page seo, incoming links, outgoing links, content update frequency, authority of domain etc. When you search for a broad keyword in google - it looks for website exactly related to the keyword and also semantically/thematically related to keyword. And after calculating all above parameters, it ranks website. So even if a website is not exactly related but thematically related, it can get higher ranks if those ranking factors are favorable. These sites should not be considered active competitors because they are not actively optimized for searched keyword but are still getting good ranks based on other factors. So these can be dominated easily. So by doing a phrase search - we try to eliminate these websites in doing competitor analysis - and just focus only on those websites who actually are actively/intensely optimized for keyword. It gives us a fair idea about the actual head-to-head competition. And that's the reason - while doing research - we are suggested to use phrase words instead of broad words.

Hope it makes it clear.

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by mikeroosa

I don't quite understand it either. I always type without the quotes and look at page 1. Can I beat those sites showing up? If so, then I go for it.

Exactly! This is what I've been trying to explain to everyone for so long.

[jacked]

Use exact search only for when you are estimated guaranteed traffic to your site. This is because, this shows you the exact number of people who will find your site for that term if you rank it. I only use it in the keyword tool and market samurai for checking potential traffic. If you are checking out your competition, just do a normal search.