Keyword Research - Broad or Exact?

[Seofarmer]

Should I be looking at BROAD or EXACT match for 'true' estimate? (Google Keyword Tool).

I got different answers and debates from ebooks/forums etc.
What are you thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[lovboa]

The EXACT match is the one that you want. So many people including myself made the mistake of going with data from the BROAD searches when making our first site. My keyword had 40,000 broad searches and it was after I made my site that I learned that it only had 250 exact searches. It was one of the biggest rookie mistakes I made.

[Seofarmer]

Originally Posted by lovboa

The EXACT match is the one that you want. So many people including myself made the mistake of going with data from the BROAD searches when making our first site. My keyword had 40,000 broad searches and it was after I made my site that I learned that it only had 250 exact searches. It was one of the biggest rookie mistakes I made.

Thanks!
Out of those 250 exact seaches, how much traffic do you get?
How accurate is it, from your experience?

Thanks for your time again

[iocioc]

Always stick with EXACT searches. Broad results may result in terms that will most probably never get any search traffic.

[iocioc]

Depends on your ranking for the terms searched for.. Even if you are ranked #1 on google for the particular search term, you will not be receiving 250 hits on your link.

[lovboa]

Originally Posted by Seofarmer

Thanks!
Out of those 250 exact seaches, how much traffic do you get?
How accurate is it, from your experience?

Thanks for your time again

Right after I made my site, I found warrior forum and asked the exact question that you had asked. I was sitting at the third page in less than a month. 250 a month is like no visitors unless you're in the top 5 of first page, and even if you are no.1 it is still very few visitors to make this your main keyword. It was not worth it at all to continue working on the site to improve this ranking. I changed my keyword right away using the exact match data.

[Andy7]

When I use Googles Keyword Tool I can't see an option for either 'Broad' or 'Exact' results. Where are you getting this information from?

Or is this for adsense?

Many Thanks

[carolynccourtney]

Exact is the best option, IMO, because they want to know the amount of traffic on individual sentences, not all phrases are anything even similar to the one introduced in it. The latter is what you get with broad match, you do not say anything.

[Srinagarhouseboats]

Exact is the best . It show the real search results . So use this option

[Andy7]

Originally Posted by Srinagarhouseboats

Exact is the best . It show the real search results . So use this option

How do you find the exact option in the Keyword Tool?

[JamieSEO]

Look for the exact match numbers.

On average if you are ranked #1 in Google for your keyword you get 41% of the traffic, so if a keyword has 1,000 exact matches the most you would get is about 410 visitors

[lovboa]

Originally Posted by Andy7

When I use Googles Keyword Tool I can't see an option for either 'Broad' or 'Exact' results. Where are you getting this information from?

Or is this for adsense?

Many Thanks

should be on the left hand side...scroll down