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Picking Keywords-- Broad vs. Exact?

by JLBrown
8 replies
I've been struggling with keyword research (I don't use PPC, just organic).

Specifically, in deciding keywords to rank for in my mini-sites I'm having a tough time deciding between the exact vs. broad keyword search results from the Google Keyword Tool.

I've seen that often times for awkward sounding searches (i.e. golf nets practice) the broad is much higher than the exact. In that example, the broad search is 1900/mo whereas the exact is 29 searches/mo. Wildly different.

My initial thoughts were that I should use the broad- was thinking that the broad would encompass variations of the the actual phrase; in the above example, 'golf nets practice' would bring in searchers typing 'golfing nets practice' 'golf practice nets' etc. Now however, I'm wondering whether that is correct- being that maybe I would only get 29 visitors to my page rather than the 1900.

The more I think about it, the more confused I get! Any help from some veterans much appreciated...thanks.

JL
#broad #exact #keywords #picking
  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    With SEO there's no reason why you would need to search for keywords in Google's keyword tool using [exact matches] or "phrase matches". Most people don't search in brackets and quotes!

    Doing keyword research for SEO is a little different than for PPC. With PPC you can use exact or phrase matches to avoid showing up for other variations of your keyword term that you don't want.

    In SEO the only time you need to search in quotes is to find out how much competition there is for your keyword in the search results.

    In your case if your trying to figure out which keyword phrase to optimize for "golf nets practice" or "golf practice nets" one way you can determine the popularity is to search for the keywords in Google (in quotes) and go with the one with more results. This happens to be golf practice nets because it's more natural sounding. Often times you can get ranked for the obscure variation as well without needing to do optimize for it. Just depends how much competition it has.

    Hope that clears things up a little...
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  • Profile picture of the author Alibaba
    JL,

    forget exact match as that is too specific.

    You should focus on 'phrase' match - broad is exactly that too broad.
    with phrase match you get the 'phrase' plus all other variations that have that phrase in the SAME order.
    example: 'golf practice nets'
    var: chicago area golf practice nets
    var: golf practice nets for kids

    you have the 'phrase' in the exact order - so that gives you a better idea on the volume to expect for the keyword you target for optimization.
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    • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
      Originally Posted by Alibaba View Post

      JL,

      forget exact match as that is too specific.

      You should focus on 'phrase' match - broad is exactly that too broad.
      with phrase match you get the 'phrase' plus all other variations that have that phrase in the SAME order.
      example: 'golf practice nets'
      var: chicago area golf practice nets
      var: golf practice nets for kids

      you have the 'phrase' in the exact order - so that gives you a better idea on the volume to expect for the keyword you target for optimization.
      Your talking about PPC dude. The OP was asking about SEO

      Although you are correct in what you said as far as PPC goes.

      Exact Match
      Phrase Match

      Do not apply to SEO because your average searcher doesn't search
      using brackets and quotes.

      Just thought I'd point that out to help clear any confusion.
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      • Profile picture of the author JLBrown
        Originally Posted by Aaron Moser View Post

        Your talking about PPC dude. The OP was asking about SEO

        Although you are correct in what you said as far as PPC goes.

        Exact Match
        Phrase Match

        Do not apply to SEO because your average searcher doesn't search
        using brackets and quotes.

        Just thought I'd point that out to help clear any confusion.
        Aaron, thanks for the info. So, as a rule of thumb, is it stupid to pick abnormal, awkward sounding phrases that are highly searched? For example, I have a French Language affiliate review site- one KW I was looking to use was 'French Language Learn' - 5400 broad searches/mo but what's alarming is it only has 29 exact searches.

        Competition is very low for that term and I'm pretty sure with a small number of back links I could rank well for it. Is it stupid to do that though, being that it's an awkward phrase and really not that well exactly searched? Or will I get a a lot of traffic?
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        • Profile picture of the author simpleonline1234
          Actually they are both correct in a weird sort of way. You do want to conduct keyword research before you dive into any niche area to avoid wasting time and efforts on keywords that get zero organic traffic.

          The reason most IM people use the PPC click is because you can get a sense of how popular a keyword currently is in the market place and because Google offers all the needed tools in one place rather than having to do any guess work.

          Think about this for a second. Why would Google want to steer people wrong when it comes to the PPC tool? That's "their" customers and in turn their profits so it would only benefit them to give "anyone" the most accurate information possible. Google is just the middle man in any Adsense transaction.

          Here's a quick run down on using the Keyword Tool to maximize the research:

          The Phrase option: This shows you the most popular phrases that are searched for using your keywords.

          Broad is pretty much how many times the keyword gets used in any combination.

          Exact: This is how many times your Exact keywords are typed into Google without any other word combinations.

          Of course you can use Google to determine the popular combinations but why would you want to do all that leg work when Google will do it all for you in the PPC tool? In a sense PPC & CPC people are the same. It really all comes down to what side of the transaction you are on. Either you pay for ads or you get paid for clicks. Both parties use the tool the exact same why to determine keyword information. For us PPC people we want the highest PPC and the lowest competition and the CPC want the lowest cost per click with the highest search traffic.

          When it comes to that crazy keyword combination you will be surprised how many times you get ranked for keyword combinations that you didn't even optimize for and see that your traffic hits that combination time and time again. Know one really knows why but it does happen from time to time. (Not often enough though).


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  • Profile picture of the author Alibaba
    1/3 of phrase match # is what I tell clients for the amount of traffic they can expect if they optimize for a 'keyword' and they rank # 1 on google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    IMO those awkward keywords like that are some kind of glitch in the system or something because humans just plain don't search like that. I would suspect that they don't get very much search traffic if any.

    When ever I see those kind of keywords I just dismiss them and choose something that makes more sense.

    By the way "learn french language" only has 52k results. That's a good one to go for! It wouldn't be too hard to rank for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmorris
    Go to Google.com and type in "google assessment" and read the article at the top
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