Keyword Research- Broad or Exact?

[dageniusmarketer]

Im using google keyword tool + market samurai, and im trying to find out what data exactly should I rely on to do my research? The broad data gives me 10's of 1000's+ of searches a month, but then the exact data on the same keyword, only gives me a few hundred searches a month,.... which with only a few hundred a month, dosen't really do me any sort of good.

Im guessing my question is which data am I better off relying on when choosing my keywords so that I don't waste my time in picking my keywords?

[seobro]

I use broad. Most of my traffic now comes from the long tail. Try to create loads of content using long tail keywords. The amount of back links needed to get position one for high traffic keywords keeps growing - exponentially.

[dandee0014]

Do the exact search, not broad, which can be extremely misleading. Sure, there's long tail in broad but how many of those you'll rank for without knowing the specific terms is a complete shot in the dark.

For a more accurate picture if you're looking for some kind of long tail potential, you can do a phrase search, but not broad. I'd still recommend exact though.

Look at a random term like "green dogs" in the keyword tool. Gets 27,000 searches a month if you do broad, and only 590 if you do exact. Even phrase match still shows 14,800 (I have no idea why, it must be inaccurate).

You can be sure you won't be ranking for any keywords associated with just green or just dogs either.

Stick to exact. Anything above and beyond should be considered a bonus.

[vicone]

Broad search can be very misleading as the search is for the listed words in any order.

If you use exact, the search is for only those words in the specified order. No other words allowed.

I prefer "phrase" as then the search is for the keyword phrase I nominated, with the words in the specified order but allows other words to be included in the search.

For instance if my keyword phrase is "best red widgets" it is also acceptable if the search returns "small best red widgets", "easy and best red widgets" and "best red widgets in NY".

Ivan

[dageniusmarketer]

Ok, ok........so let me ask this...

The purpose of my keyword research is to write articles. How many searches per month, at phrase or exact, would qualify a keyword as a STRONG money keyword? disregarding competition for right now.... just the amount of searches.

[Kevin Riley]

Originally Posted by dageniusmarketer

Ok, ok........so let me ask this...

The purpose of my keyword research is to write articles. How many searches per month, at phrase or exact, would qualify a keyword as a STRONG money keyword? disregarding competition for right now.... just the amount of searches.

The problem is, it's a bit of a "how long's a piece of string?" question. You could have a kwp with few searches per month that makes you a tidy bundle, because it is focused on a buy. Or, you could have a kwp with tons of searches that makes you nothing, because it is a "just looking" type of kwp. This is where you must exercise the little grey cells.

As for your original question, always go exact. Good marketing is all about focus.

[waihon]

Search volume indicates the 'demand' of a keyword phrase. Among broad, phrase, and exact match, I'll choose exact match to determine the 'demand' of a keyword phrase.

Let's take 'canon 40d' (a specific model of DSLR camera) as an example. Your article might be targeting 'canon 40d' but not 'canon 40d accessories'.

But the search volume figure for the phrase match of 'canon 40d' would include both 'canon 40d' and 'canon 40d accessories'.

However, the search volume figure for the exact match of 'canon 40d' would include only 'canon 40d', which better reflect the actual 'demand' of the keyword phrase you were targeting.

[Swastik]

Exact.

Broad, as others have said, can be extremely misleading. The exact figures tell you about the search volume of that exact keyword. Broad figures include the search volume of other keywords that contain the main keyword, as explained in the post just above mine.

[The Expert]

How many searches per month, at phrase or exact, would qualify a keyword as a STRONG money keyword?

You should watch the 3-part video series that the Market Samurai team put out. I think it's called "The Three Golden Rules of Keyword Research" or something.

A "strong" keyword is one that a) you can rank for because there is low enough competition, b) has enough search volume to justify you creating and promoting the website (or article) and c) has a high value ascribed to that keyword.

You don't want to target a keyword that has very little traffic if you are going to invest a fair amount of time into the web property, you also don't want to pick a term that will require you to work very hard for a very long time in order to get Top-3 ranking (unless you have a specific reason for doing so, such as building a long-term "authority" site) because the competition is too high.

Finally, you can always screw everything up by picking a keyword that has high traffic and low competition and find yourself in the #1 position for that keyword. You check your Analytics and see tons of uniqe visitors but then you fight to try and monetize it.

In the end you find yourself broke with a high traffic site and discover that PPC people are willing to pay only 10-cents a click for that keyword. The market has spoken and you find that traffic for that keyword doesn't convert and you have a worthless, high-traffic site on your hands.

Anyway...those three videos go over all three of these issues in-detail. I suggest you check them out.