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Keyword research confusion

by mesmerist
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys, need your advice on keyword research.

My very first SEO lesson was the Niche Profit Classroom course by Adam Short. His way of doing keyword research is by using 'broad match'. Another guy in NPC prefers the 'phrase match' and his reason for that is it's a more conservative approach. Then I started to learn from a few other sources and there's one whose way of doing keyword research is to use 'exact match'.

I know the differences between the 3 matches although I'm not sure on the reason why some people prefer to use a broad or phrase match while another likes to use exact match.

Anyway, my question is, which one is the best to use in keyword research for an AdSense site, and why?
#confusion #keyword #research
  • Profile picture of the author Josh MacDonald
    Exact match - Is very important, and will tell you how much traffic you will get for that keyword
    Phrase match - Will tell you how much traffic you can get by using a few longtail keywords in your articles. For example, if your keyword is "cheap fridge stores", then a long-tail phrase example might be "cheap fridge stores in SW Florida"
    Broad match - Will tell you how much of a market there is, and answer the question: Is the site really scalable? If you get a high number, then you know there will be lots of competition, but there will also be lots of room to scale up and expand.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi mesmerist,

      The terms "exact match", "broad match" and "phrase match" are terms that refer to the keyword match type option used in AdWords advertising campaigns that determine which keywords will trigger the display of an ad on Google's Search Network.

      The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is designed generate keyword ideas for AdWords advertisers. It allows you to see the recent historical search volume of searches that will trigger an ad impression if you use that keyword match type in an ad group.

      The only match type that will show you search volume for a particular keyword is the exact match keyword type. This is the only match type that allows you to do research on search volume for an individual keyword. If you are doing keyword research, on a particular keyword, exact match is the only match type that should be used.

      The broad and phrase match types settings in the keyword tool will show you search volume from an unknown number of keywords contained within a group of terms that will trigger an ad impression. This data isn't suitable for keyword research on specific keywords.

      The broad match data is really only suitable for generating new keyword ideas, in my opinion. The problem with this data is that due to stemming, as well as the extended broad match feature, it will typically include data from many unrelated keyword terms.

      While the phrase match type data is not suitable for keyword research on specific keywords, it is useful for other purposes like finding new keyword ideas or in researching the relative size of a niche centered around a particular term.

      Ideal SEO research methods by match type:
      • Exact Match - Keyword search volume
      • Phrase Match - Niche search volume
      • Broad Match - Generating new ideas for keywords
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      • Profile picture of the author hashbury
        Originally Posted by dburk View Post

        The only match type that will show you search volume for a particular keyword is the exact match keyword type. This is the only match type that allows you to do research on search volume for an individual keyword. If you are doing keyword research, on a particular keyword, exact match is the only match type that should be used.

        This is the correct advise, make sure you follow this or you will be repeating the common mistakes a lot of new IMers make.
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  • Profile picture of the author John F Kennedy
    If your niche is very competitive it would be very difficult for you to reach page 1 of the search engines using 'broad match' keywords and you would be better targeting long tail 'exact match' keywords

    However if your niche is fairly exclusive in itself a 'broad match' keyword would be more suitable as there would be less search's in the first place.

    You don't want to try and rank for a 'broad match' if you're up against mountains of competition.

    Assuming your AdSense adds are based around your content then either will work, your decision on what is right should rest on how competitive your chosen keywords are.
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    • Profile picture of the author crismacana
      1. Broad match keywords

      Search engines search for the keyword(s) you're using and also similar phrases and relevant variations. Broad match will include misspellings, plurals and synonyms.

      Pros: You can drive significantly more traffic to your ads. You spend less time coming up with long-tail keywords.

      Cons: Your traffic is less targeted and less likely to convert. Your keyword may not be strongly correlated to your ad or landing page, and that can hurt your Google Quality Score.

      2. Phrase match keywords

      Search engines only trigger ads when keywords in your phrase are matched. To create phrase match keywords, surround your keyword phrases in quotes.

      Pros: Phrase match is more targeted than broad match, and more flexible than exact match.

      Cons: It won't drive the traffic that broad match does, but won't be as targeted as exact. It's a nice in-between way to use keywords.

      3. Exact match keywords

      Search engines only trigger ads when the exact phrase is matched. To create exact match keywords, surround your keyword phrases in brackets.

      Pros: Extremely targeted traffic that is more likely to convert.

      Cons: Will drive less traffic. To compensate, you'll need a very comprehensive list of keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author freakyjas
    start with broad match then after your campaign has been running for a few weeks you can use the See more keywords option in adwords to see what keywords have been sending you traffic - if theres some good ones you can add them as exact match and increase your bid price to catch more traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author mesmerist
    Thanks for all your suggestions everybody! After reading all your posts, I came to realized that the exact match phrase is the most conservative approach and if I rank my keywords based on exact match, I can also get traffic from phrase and broad matches, but the reverse is not true. Once again, thanks for all your helpful comments warriors!
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