Broad, Exact, Phrase - which monthly search volume is most accurate to tell client?

by D37
11 replies
  • SEO
  • |
So as I'm looking up local keyword terms I'm wondering which search volume number I should tell my client (broad, exact, or phrase). Because each varies quite greatly.

One keyword I'm looking at under "broad" has over 2000 local monthly searches whereas it has under "exact" only 36...
#accurate #broad #client #exact #monthly #phrase #search #volume
  • Profile picture of the author Oliver Hart
    Hi.

    I am not sure what you are asking here.

    Do you know the difference between those search yourself?

    - Oddvar.
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  • Profile picture of the author hashbury
    I think this belongs in the seo forum.

    You want to use exact as it provides the most accurate number.
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  • Profile picture of the author D37
    Yes I use exact myself, but in some videos I have watched people are telling their clients the broad search volume and is why I asked my question..
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  • Profile picture of the author Jim Nariel
    Hi

    The [exact] is the most accurate. In my view beware broad. I bought a product and

    I spent weeks looking for Keywords with broad
    More weeks creating 30 articles, 30 videos, 30 squidoo lenses, 30 hubs - so much content and..........no traffic. I was gutted

    When I went back to the drawing board I found that it was my keyword research at fault as I had picked broad

    If youy found a keyword phrase "tasty chocolate"

    Exact would be exactly that and the keyword tool would could every time "tasty chocolate" was put into the search engines

    However for broad the keeyword tool would count

    "Carrots are tasty but chocolate is not"

    Its not relevent content and the tool will give you an inflated figure

    Maybe other warriors can tell you where Broad is useful - I'm sure it is but not sure where

    cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author smodha
    Always stick to EXACT. Like Jimln says BROAD includes any search terms which contains your keyword(s). If my keyword is "Big Booties" I want Google to tell me how many people are searching "Big Booties". I don't need results with variations like "Big Booties in the UK" or "Man in jail for harassing big booties".

    See where I'm going with this?
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    I Sell What People Want. The Money Is A Bonus..
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  • Profile picture of the author D37
    Thanks for the input guys... I'm wondering how many people tell their offline clients the broad match result....
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    • Profile picture of the author nicholl08
      Originally Posted by D37 View Post

      Thanks for the input guys... I'm wondering how many people tell their offline clients the broad match result....
      A lot of people do tell their clients the broad result...as it inflates the numbers and the "value" of ranking for the keyword.

      Personally I usually look at phrase - if you rank for the exact you often can get traffic from the surrounding phrases.

      Exact is supposed to be most accurate, but realistically google's keyword tool is usually way off. I've had some sites where it says there is only 10,000 searches/month, and when I run PPC for exact, I find there are actually that many searches per day, or more.

      The keyword tool is the best we have...but it's still a very rough estimate, and in my experience, it usually estimates way too low.
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      • Profile picture of the author D37
        Originally Posted by nicholl08 View Post

        A lot of people do tell their clients the broad result...as it inflates the numbers and the "value" of ranking for the keyword.

        Personally I usually look at phrase - if you rank for the exact you often can get traffic from the surrounding phrases.

        Exact is supposed to be most accurate, but realistically google's keyword tool is usually way off. I've had some sites where it says there is only 10,000 searches/month, and when I run PPC for exact, I find there are actually that many searches per day, or more.

        The keyword tool is the best we have...but it's still a very rough estimate, and in my experience, it usually estimates way too low.
        I see. This is exactly what I was wondering. I think I will start telling clients phrase match instead of broad...
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  • Profile picture of the author unclebuck
    I would never use broad match, some people use phrase match but I generally only use exact match...just make sure that you use the same numbers for comparisons everytime and I would never use broad match.
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  • Profile picture of the author D37
    I was always using exact. I just wondered cause I saw some training videos with people using broad and was wondering why they were telling their clients an inaccurate number
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi D37,

      The exact, broad and phrase match data is all accurate, they are measuring different sets of keywords and that is why they are so different.

      Only the exact match keyword data tells you search volume for a particular keyword. Phrase and broad match tell you data for a group of keywords, the problem with that is you do not know exactly which keywords are included in that data, you do not even know how many different keywords are included.

      So, when it comes to individual keywords, only exact match gives you that data. If a training video is telling to use broad match data for an individual keyword, obviously that video has erroneous information and I wouldn't trust anything they are telling you.
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