Do you search in quotes with keyword tools?

[Charles Montgomery]

I always search keyword phrases by putting them in quotes. I then select the results be in quotes also. Should I instead search the phrase without quotes, but look at the results in quotes?

The reason I ask, I came across a keyword phrase that gets 4000 searches/month w/o quotes. But when I search with quotes there are only 17. Also, there are only two competing sites within those quotes.

If I optimize, say for green widget sale, would my site come up high in the search results if the person searches that phrase w/o quotes?

I am new, so bear with me.

[Charles Montgomery]

Anyone have any tips on this?

[zeppb]

As far as tools for checking searches I don't use quotes. When I'm checking ranks for my site in the serps then I use quotes.

[Carl DiNello]

Keep your potential site visitor (the searcher) in mind; while it may appear to offer a better opportunity for good search result rankings using quotes when evaluating your keywords, the vast majority of those actually doing the searching will not be using quotes.

[richfit]

I don't use quotes either...that's when I run an Ad to be more specific.!

[impact-productions]

People's search mechanisms vary widely.

From what I've seen, most technical people (and, to some extent, this includes marketers) dramatically overestimate the Internet skills of people. This includes searching it.

So those skills that we have, even down to the level of refining a search by putting in extra keywords, aren't that widely used. Things like searching within sites and using the Google cache are not very well understood.

There's a load of research in the academic literature about this. Somewhere like useit.com would be a good place to start.

From a purely personal viewpoint, I do many of my searches in Firefox, which has a great feature where you can highlight a term in the text and choose 'Search Google' from the menu. That does a search without quotes.

If I'm typing multiple words directly into a search box I'll nearly always use quotation marks. If that search method doesn't work I'll use more sophisticated methods.

So what's the moral of the story?
- for inexperienced Internet users you need to rank well for searches without quotes.
- if you're target market is experienced Internet users, then ranking well for quoted terms is very powerful (however that market is smaller than you might think, and there's no guarantee that this user group see a need to pay for information).

[melanied]

Most casual surfers will search without quotes. HOWEVER, in the vast majority of situations, when your page is optimized for the term in quotes, it will rise to the top of the listings even when the search is performed without quotes.

For instance, I have two pages in the top ten for a term that has 27 million competing pages without quotes. BUT - it only has 13,000 competing pages with quotes. It just happens to be made up of very common words. Still, my two pages are optimized for this exact phrase in quotes, so they rose to the top of the listings even when the search is without the quotes.

Does that make sense?

[Charles Montgomery]

Originally Posted by melanied

Most casual surfers will search without quotes. HOWEVER, in the vast majority of situations, when your page is optimized for the term in quotes, it will rise to the top of the listings even when the search is performed without quotes.

For instance, I have two pages in the top ten for a term that has 27 million competing pages without quotes. BUT - it only has 13,000 competing pages with quotes. It just happens to be made up of very common words. Still, my two pages are optimized for this exact phrase in quotes, so they rose to the top of the listings even when the search is without the quotes.

Does that make sense?

This is kinda what I am asking. If some one searches without quotes for blue widgets rock, It doesnt matter if they use quotes at all, right? Because if you are optimized for that phrase, you will still rank high. Am I right about this?

Answer these questions

1. I know most people dont use quotes. But, does it matter if they do or not, as long as you are optimized for that phrase?

2. If there is a huge difference between the search results with and without quotes, what should I do?

[zerofill]

"blue widgets rock"

You can still rank for

Big shiny blue widgets rock

But you are optimizing yourself for blue widgets rock...and you will appear for things that have other words prior to that in the phrase...

Do a search for:
Broad Match, Phrase Match, Exact Match in Google and you will get a better idea of what Melanied is saying to you...

[traces2757]

I always use quotes; it's a habit. I know most people don't, though, so when considering SEO I have to think "no quotes".

[Charles Montgomery]

I am soo confused ;(