Broad match Vs Exact match
-
This may sound a little basic, but i'm going to ask anyway.
On Googles keyword tool Ive always used broad match, knowing that they are never 100% accurate, and obviously inflated by other SEO's searching for their keywords, but used it all the same to get an idea of global monthly searches and potential targeted traffic.
I have seen recently, on SEOmoz, and a post fromJill Whalen not long back, that unless you change the match to "Exact" your data is useless?
Could somebody explain why this is the case?
My initial thoughts were, a search for SEO on broad shows 6,120,000 per month
Yet a search for the same keyword in exact match shows 673,000 per month.
I had presumed that the broad match would include "learn SEO" "What is SEO" etc etc, where as 673,000 just search exactly for SEO. Is this correct?
3 points go to Richard Q&A answering animal dude Getz if he gets this first!
Thanks in advance
-
-
For me using exact match is useful when managing expectations (yours and your clients') for that particular keyword / phrase only. On a broader research stage I may use phrase or broad. It's all useful in its own way.
-
Nice one Richard Take care Sean
-
LMAO!!
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100
This shows that your thinking was correct, so points to you also : )
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Which is more important - exact match on two pages with slightly similar content or completely unique content but no exact match?
I want to rank for two terms - one is the abbreviation and one is the actual phrase (think UX and user experience). Is it better to create two separate pages to benefit from the exact match keyword (given that the content is 51% unique) or should I work both the acronym and the phrase into one page? If I made the two pages, I could get in a lot more longtail keywords, however it's my belief that I should make one really robust page to ensure all possible link equity and user signals aren't split. Is this a valid argument or does the power of exact match keywords override the need for user signals?
Keyword Research | | DigitalMarketingSEO0 -
Exact match keyword phrases, are they still really important to search engines?
This has been bugging me for a while now and I'd like to know what you guys think. I often find what I can only described as 'oddities' in our rankings for certain search terms. For example, we might rank top 5 for 'A5 week view diary' and then second page for 'Week view diaries A5'. (Not an actual example, I just find stuff like this all the time across our various pages) They are basically the same query, so I don't understand why so often there is such a discrepancy. I can only put this down to exact match keyword phrase still being an important ranking factor. What do you guys think? Are exact match phrases still an important part of the SERP results? Thank you. Isaac.
Keyword Research | | isaac6630 -
Google Planner monthly keyword search vol. vs SEMRush
Hi, This is an example but if I enter 'architect This is an example but the same thing happens with most keywords - if I enter 'architect cornwall' into Google Planner it tells me there's 90 searches per month. If I enter this into SEMRUSH it tells me there's 320 searches per month. Can anyone explain the difference here - and is one more accurate than the other? Better still is there tool that's more accurate than either of these? I'm completely new to this by the way and the answer is probably obvious. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | CamperConnect140 -
Targeting Local Phrase vs National Phrase
Hi i was wondering options since it would be hard to compete/budget with large insurance companies such as Met Life and State Farm We are looking to rank for Life Insurance Policy which according to Adword is it searched 74,00 Monthly So was thinking Life Insurance Policy New Orleans which i think i can rank for but according to adwords it searched - times. So dont think we would get any new business. What would best option to try and get new life insurance policy customers
Keyword Research | | break_thru_pro0 -
Niche vs One massive site
In the past I've done fairly well building niche sites for automotive accessories. The problem is, it's hard paying attention to 50+ sites after a while, and the quality ends up going down. Because of this, I've decided to focus on one large site for trucks and their accessories. I have a site called truckprofile.com where people can create profile pages for their various trucks. It gets fair traffic for not doing much with it. I recently threw a blog on the site: truckprofile.com/blog. This will be my area for posting articles on niche, commonly searched, easy to rank for phrases. So my questions are: Is building one massive site better? If so, how should I structure the blog area so that each article ranks well? Would it be better if they were well categorized pages in wordpress instead of blog posts? By posting all the articles on a single site, does that mean it will be harder to rank for any single thing since the topic is so broad? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Keyword Research | | daenterpri0 -
Google keyword tool [exact match]
Hey there, I'm trying to work out what my next big course to run will be. I want to know if my technique is a good gauge of popularity. I'm using Google's keyword tool specifically for New Zealand. I'm typing in a course topic e.g Photoshop Courses and looking at the exact match results to see if there might be a market for that course. Broad match seems to offer up a lot more numbers but seem a bit vague. Am i right to think 'After Effects Training' wouldn't be a popular course as it returns a (<10) local monthly result while 'Photoshop Courses' might be ok as it has a (46)? **I'd appreciate any insight. ** Dan
Keyword Research | | danielfromnz
- the Adobe Trainer0 -
Niche Research: Broad Match V.S. Exact Match
Hey SeoMozzers, Do you guys use broad match or exact match to gauge whether or not there's enough volume to be worth your time? Take the freelancing niche for example. These are the results for broad match: <a class="aw-ti-resultsPanel-details">how to be a freelance writer [2,740,000]</a> how to freelance [165,000] In exact match however: <a class="aw-ti-resultsPanel-details">how to become a freelance writer [1,000]</a> how to freelance [480] In this niche in particular, there's not really any keyword that gets more than 20,000 exact match searches a month. However, the broad level keywords have more than 2 million searches. Here's my thinking: Instead of targeting highly specific terms to optimize for, I'm just going to optimize for broad terms and aim to capture the long tail. It seems there's a lot of people searching for things, but they're all spread out across different keywords. So my instinct is to go with the broad match results, assume there's enough traffic to support a profitable website and ignore the low exact match results. Your thoughts ... ?
Keyword Research | | DerekP0 -
Which is best for keywords; plurals vs singular
Hello! This is my first question so I hope it will be a good one and everyone finds it useful; I have found many conflicting views and need some clarification. Question: When it comes to optimising for specific keywords, which is best; plurals or singular? Example: Should I optimise for 'conveyor' with medium competition and a larger local [exact] traffic volume, or go for 'conveyors' with a higher competition and a slightly smaller local [exact] volume of traffic? Obviously this example is a bit of no brainer as I would tend to sway towards the lower competition with a good volume of traffic to be more competitive, but when the terms are so closely linked, would it be wise to cover both grounds now and go for 'conveyors'? What is general consensus out there? Thanks in advance! Richard
Keyword Research | | BlandyDoes0