Why do we use exact match and not phrase count?

by nest28
7 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I just did a search for "internet marketing" here are the results.


exact -22,000

broad-368,000

phrase-301,000

Now I've had people tell me I'm leaving money on the table by focusing on long tail keywords and not going after short 2 word phrases. But why would I go after "internet marketing" with a 5 page mfa site and settle for 22,000 searches a month, when I could build a massive site that will tap into that broad and phrase count which is much higher.


I've been thinking a lot about why google doesn't include certain phrases into it's keyword tool, I've seen phrase in my analytic's that account for almost a thousand searches yet Google keyword tool will say it gets 0 searches.


That's when it dawned on me that they probably include these searches into phrase and broad. So if that's the case why do we go after exact and settle for the least amount of traffic instead of trying to tap into broad and phrase.


exact-22,000

phrase +broad =669,000



I think this is why Fraser's universe today site get's a hundred thousand visits a day.

stats for "universe"


exact-33,100

broad-4,090,000

phrase-3,350,000

Now if he settled for exact match he would only get 22,000 a month, wait as a matter a fact he wouldn't even have gotten that, because first place only gets around 50% of the search the rest being divided among the 2nd and 3rd place results.


The only way "universe today" could possibly get 100,000 visits a day would be if he tap into that broad and phrase count, so I ask why are you making 5 page mfa sites?

How would I be leaving money on the table by going after more traffic, instead of settle for low exact match counts.


Rule of thumb every keyword as a larger broad/phrase count, than exact. So why not make a large authority site and get more traffic.

I don't know maybe I'm wrong, if I am there will be plenty of warriors telling me why .


Also that thread Fraserc made "ranking are a trap focus on traffic" couldn't have been more on point.

I try to rank for ultrasound tech, exact search 6,600 and made it to 4th palce and saw just 2 visits a day from that term, and it took a ton of link building just to get to 4th.
#count #exact #match #phrase
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    What I've found is a keyword/phrase depends a lot on the niche.

    I've been watching the [exact] incoming search phrases from Google for an Amazon camera site, the keyword phrases are usually very short & mostly contain product model numbers.

    These are [exact] incoming Google search phrases for the camera site:
    • canon 650d
    • nikon p510
    • Nikon 35MM lens on a D5100
    • continuous shooting canon sx60 hs
    • canon 1dx viewfinder

    Notice these are not really questions, there simply product numbers & brand names with a few product related keywords (lens, continuous shooting, viewfinder).

    I think keywords ultimately depend on the niche, at least that's what I'm seeing outside of any keyword tools.

    I've also been watching a few other sites [exact] keywords in different niches, one site is a lawyers site, I've noticed their traffic tends to use question type searches.
    • how does family court decide who takes sole custody
    • do parents have to share a vehicle with their child
    • Lawers who have helped clients involved with cps
    • mesothelioma lawsuit settlement amounts
    • what should my solicitor ask for mesothelioma claim

    The difference between how traffic searches for these two niches (camera, lawyer) is huge.

    The search phrases above are real traffic searches & include their typos.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi nest28,

    I think you have the wrong idea about the meaning of those terms, "exact", "phrase", and "broad". How you use those terms, particularly the context in which you use them, matter a great deal.

    For the sake of clarity, let me explain what the terms mean. And then I will discuss a couple of different contexts for the use of those terms. Hopefully, this will give you a clearer picture of the meaning of those terms.

    Those terms are labels that Google invented to define how their AdWords system triggers ad impressions in their Search Network. As an advertiser, you can select keywords that are defined as "broad match", "phrase match", or "exact match". There are also other matching options such as "broad match modifier", "negative broad match", "negative phrase match", or "negative exact match", but I will not discuss these varients in this post. For more in depth information on AdWords keyword matching options see this link: Using keyword matching options - AdWords Help

    Now to address the context in which you seem to be using these terms:

    Many webmasters use the AdWords Keyword tool to gather data about specific keywords, or groups of keywords in some cases. I assume you are discussing the match type data in this context, if not, please correct me.

    It is important to understand what each of those data types represents to be able to use the data properly. The exact match data is the only data that represents information for an individual keyword. The other match types represent data for an unknown number of keywords, therefore useless in analyzing individual keyword search volume.

    The whole premise of your post is based on a false notion about search volume data.

    You cannot target a broad match keyword in the context of SEO, that is a targeting option reserved for AdWords advertisers. The same is true for phrase match keywords. The data for those two match types includes many different keywords, and you have no way of knowing exactly how many keywords are included in that data. You would first need to identify the individual keywords included in that data and then target each and every one of them, individually.

    You are indeed missing out on a lot of traffic in the long run if you ignore short head keywords. Creating a page for a long tail keyword can be nearly as costly as a page that targets short head keywords. The best strategy, in my opinion, is to use long tail keywords that include your primary head keywords within a phrase and target both simultaneously. This way you get twice the benefit for the same effort.
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    • Profile picture of the author ronaldec
      We should be make those bigger site with tons of phase match keywords rather then just worrying about some main key word. I still make the EMD name based on the main keyword. The pages which are the items that are ranked (big point there) should have more phases. The more the better.

      How to optimize a page for search engines | Wordtracker
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      • Profile picture of the author nest28
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        What I've found is a keyword/phrase depends a lot on the niche.

        I've been watching the [exact] incoming search phrases from Google for an Amazon camera site, the keyword phrases are usually very short & mostly contain product model numbers.

        These are [exact] incoming Google search phrases for the camera site:
        • canon 650d
        • nikon p510
        • Nikon 35MM lens on a D5100
        • continuous shooting canon sx60 hs
        • canon 1dx viewfinder

        Notice these are not really questions, there simply product numbers & brand names with a few product related keywords (lens, continuous shooting, viewfinder).

        I think keywords ultimately depend on the niche, at least that's what I'm seeing outside of any keyword tools.

        I've also been watching a few other sites [exact] keywords in different niches, one site is a lawyers site, I've noticed their traffic tends to use question type searches.
        • how does family court decide who takes sole custody
        • do parents have to share a vehicle with their child
        • Lawers who have helped clients involved with cps
        • mesothelioma lawsuit settlement amounts
        • what should my solicitor ask for mesothelioma claim

        The difference between how traffic searches for these two niches (camera, lawyer) is huge.

        The search phrases above are real traffic searches & include their typos.
        Thank you so much for pointing that out, sometimes I forget not everybody makes information type sites, all my experience and data comes from sites dealing with careers,salary,school etc so there are always plenty of questions to be ask, vs a site about products which would be mostly serial numbers or searches for brand names.
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        Hi nest28,

        I think you have the wrong idea about the meaning of those terms, "exact", "phrase", and "broad". How you use those terms, particularly the context in which you use them, matter a great deal.

        For the sake of clarity, let me explain what the terms mean. And then I will discuss a couple of different contexts for the use of those terms. Hopefully, this will give you a clearer picture of the meaning of those terms.

        Those terms are labels that Google invented to define how their AdWords system triggers ad impressions in their Search Network. As an advertiser, you can select keywords that are defined as "broad match", "phrase match", or "exact match". There are also other matching options such as "broad match modifier", "negative broad match", "negative phrase match", or "negative exact match", but I will not discuss these varients in this post. For more in depth information on AdWords keyword matching options see this link: Using keyword matching options - AdWords Help

        Now to address the context in which you seem to be using these terms:

        Many webmasters use the AdWords Keyword tool to gather data about specific keywords, or groups of keywords in some cases. I assume you are discussing the match type data in this context, if not, please correct me.

        It is important to understand what each of those data types represents to be able to use the data properly. The exact match data is the only data that represents information for an individual keyword. The other match types represent data for an unknown number of keywords, therefore useless in analyzing individual keyword search volume.

        The whole premise of your post is based on a false notion about search volume data.

        You cannot target a broad match keyword in the context of SEO, that is a targeting option reserved for AdWords advertisers. The same is true for phrase match keywords. The data for those two match types includes many different keywords, and you have no way of knowing exactly how many keywords are included in that data. You would first need to identify the individual keywords included in that data and then target each and every one of them, individually.

        You are indeed missing out on a lot of traffic in the long run if you ignore short head keywords. Creating a page for a long tail keyword can be nearly as costly as a page that targets short head keywords. The best strategy, in my opinion, is to use long tail keywords that include your primary head keywords within a phrase and target both simultaneously. This way you get twice the benefit for the same effort.
        What i mean is, instead of making a 5 page mfa site focused on ranking for just "internet marketing" why not make a large site that will receive phrase match searches.

        By making a site that talks about more than just "internet marketing" itself.

        Case in point the warrior forum, look at all of the threads here, is the warrior forum settled for just "internet marketing" they would only get of 11,000 searches which is half of the 22,000 exact searches a month vs ranking for a bunch of broad terms/phrase matches for plenty of different keywords related to "internet marketing" .


        You can't predict what a broad/phrase search will be, like you can a exact match, but by using post titles that are long tail phrase you can start to tap into the phrase/broad search count is what I'm saying.


        Like I said Fraser's universe today is a prime example, if he show us his google analytic it would probably be filled with a bunch of very long phrases like:



        What happens to parallel universe theory if a universe is created where parallel universes dont exist?

        How come the universe growth is accelerating when it should be asymptote to zero?

        What is the meaning of the space and time and the universe?

        What distinguishes the observable Universe from the Universe as a whole?

        What is Universe, an accidental creation an intelligent creation or something else?

        How is it possible for the universe to be expanding faster than the speed of light?

        How did scientists realize that the universe is expanding?

        All these phrases are from yahoo answers, all would probably be considered phrase/broad. Since Fraser's site has 16,000 pages on the subject I'm guessing he'll rank for plenty of these searches resulting in his 100,000 visits a day vs is he settled for just making a small site on about the universe.
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        • Profile picture of the author Wakunahum
          I think these terms are being complicated here. Here is a simple way of understanding them using "dog treat" as the example.

          Broad match = the keywords will be in the search phrase regardless of order.

          examples:

          My dog wants another treat
          how should I treat my dog
          xyz brand dog treat is the best

          Phrase match = the keyword phrase will appear in the search phrase but may have other words.

          best dog treat
          make your own dog treat
          dog treat problems

          This differs from broad based on the fact that the words must appear together in the right order as opposed to being in any part of the search term. i.e. "dog treat" must be together.

          Exact match = "dog treat" and only "dog treat"
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

          What i mean is, instead of making a 5 page mfa site focused on ranking for just "internet marketing" why not make a large site that will receive phrase match searches.
          Hi nest28,

          I apparently did not make my point clearly enough.

          This is no such thing as "phrase match searches".

          The term "phrase match" refers to a condition for triggering ads. The "phrase match" data from the AdWords keyword tool is a term used to describe a set of data for a group of keywords. There is no "phrase match" search (there is type of search known as a "phrase search", but that is irrelevant to this discussion).

          I do agree with the strategy of targeting many individual keywords by building a large web of pages, each targeting a single or small group of individual keywords.

          Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

          By making a site that talks about more than just "internet marketing" itself.
          Search engines index and rank individual pages, not websites. Your "site" topic has little to do with where your individual pages are ranked in search engines. It is your page content, along with web link structure and use of anchor text within your web link structure that matters.

          Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

          Case in point the warrior forum, look at all of the threads here, is the warrior forum settled for just "internet marketing" they would only get of 11,000 searches which is half of the 22,000 exact searches a month vs ranking for a bunch of broad terms/phrase matches for plenty of different keywords related to "internet marketing".

          You can't predict what a broad/phrase search will be, like you can a exact match, but by using post titles that are long tail phrase you can start to tap into the phrase/broad search count is what I'm saying.
          I agree "you can't predict what a broad/phrase search will be". The reason being there is no such search.

          Nearly all search engine traffic is from regular searches, and there is only one kind of regular search, and that is a regular search. There is no such thing as a "broad match", "phrase match", or exact match" search. There are simply regular or specialized searches and nearly all searches are regular searches.


          Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

          Like I said Fraser's universe today is a prime example, if he show us his google analytic it would probably be filled with a bunch of very long phrases like:



          What happens to parallel universe theory if a universe is created where parallel universes dont exist?

          How come the universe growth is accelerating when it should be asymptote to zero?

          What is the meaning of the space and time and the universe?

          What distinguishes the observable Universe from the Universe as a whole?

          What is Universe, an accidental creation an intelligent creation or something else?

          How is it possible for the universe to be expanding faster than the speed of light?

          How did scientists realize that the universe is expanding?

          All these phrases are from yahoo answers, all would probably be considered phrase/broad. Since Fraser's site has 16,000 pages on the subject I'm guessing he'll rank for plenty of these searches resulting in his 100,000 visits a day vs is he settled for just making a small site on about the universe.
          While those keywords you point out are indeed long phrases, they are not "considered phrase/broad". They are just regular searches.

          Fraser's site does rank for a lot of individual keywords, that is simply due to the fact that the site has more than 20,000 pages of content.

          Again, I agree with the idea of creating lots of great content. I just wanted to clear up some apparently mistaken notions about keyword data and keyword search types.
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  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

    I just did a search for "internet marketing" here are the results.


    exact -22,000

    broad-368,000

    phrase-301,000

    Now I've had people tell me I'm leaving money on the table by focusing on long tail keywords and not going after short 2 word phrases. But why would I go after "internet marketing" with a 5 page mfa site and settle for 22,000 searches a month, when I could build a massive site that will tap into that broad and phrase count which is much higher.
    If you are creating micro-sites (I certainly wouldn't recommend that), then using the exact match figure is essential.

    Having said that, even a mini-site will pick up unintentional long tail traffic. Obviously the larger the site, the more long tail traffic you'll pick up.



    That's when it dawned on me that they probably include these searches into phrase and broad. So if that's the case why do we go after exact and settle for the least amount of traffic instead of trying to tap into broad and phrase.


    exact-22,000

    phrase +broad =669,000
    Broad match will contain a large percentage of phrase match searches, so you can't just add them together.



    I think this is why Fraser's universe today site get's a hundred thousand visits a day.

    stats for "universe"


    exact-33,100

    broad-4,090,000

    phrase-3,350,000

    Now if he settled for exact match he would only get 22,000 a month, wait as a matter a fact he wouldn't even have gotten that, because first place only gets around 50% of the search the rest being divided among the 2nd and 3rd place results.


    The only way "universe today" could possibly get 100,000 visits a day would be if he tap into that broad and phrase count, so I ask why are you making 5 page mfa sites?
    A lot of large sites will target a few main keywords. The very nature of being a large site is that you will have a lot of content related to the main keywords and that will automatically (ie: without deliberately targeting) pick up a lot of the long tail and phrase/broad searches.



    Rule of thumb every keyword has a larger broad/phrase count, than exact.
    That much is correct, but if you look at just the broad match figures, you can be setting yourself up for disappointment when you don't get much traffic.

    Reason being is that a lot of broad match results can be on very different topics that it is impossible to target them all. Even if you created a massive site, there are a lot of keywords you wouldn't even be denting the surface of all the possible broad match combinations.


    So why not make a large authority site and get more traffic.
    That much I do agree with. Micro/Mini sites are not a long term prospect and very susceptible to ranking fluctuations, which is particularly important if you rely completely on SEO for your traffic.
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