Broad searches or exact matches on google adwords keywords tool?

[budeman]

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In regards to looking for a domain to buy should I be looking at the number of exact searches or broad searches on google?

Eg ‘mens cycles’ only get 170 exact matches a month but 8,100 broad searches – with something like cycles where people could search ‘bikes’ ‘cycles’ ‘bicycles’ do I need to look at exact searches? If so is there a specific number that I should be looking for?

[jwallace]

I've always been told to use exact, but I'm an ameteur to this sort of thing.

[Fitness Coupons]

Look for keyword exact matches and look at the local competition given as well.

[budeman]

Look for keyword exact matches and look at the local competition given as well.

If looking at exact matches is there a ball park figure you should be looking for - if it had high competition?

[Steve2009]

If looking at exact matches is there a ball park figure you should be looking for - if it had high competition?

You're lucky if you can find a Low Competition keyword/s with high number of exact matches now! Remember this is competition for Google AdWords, so use as a guide. If you find something with a high number of searches and it also has high competition..look to see what results top Google's first page with this keyword/s..and if you think you can do better (other than obviously the brand's website, if applicible) then go for it.

Also make sure you are using your countries Google search, as if I click on keyword in the tool it gives me US results as well, so this may confuse your results if you are just searching for UK traffic.

Steve

[budeman]

The more I learn about this the more questions I need to ask!! Many thanks for the replies though am learning a lot.

Ok to give an example

If I search for “Van Hire London” there are 8100 exact matches
If I search for “London Van Hire” there are only 720.

I understand that more people search for van hire in London using the first phrase but to me the website LondonVanHire/co/uk sounds better than VanHireLondon/co/uk (maybe just my opinion)

Anyway if you did register LondonVanHire/co/uk are you only picking up on the 720 google searches? Surely google ‘knows’ that although the words are in a different order those people are looking for the same thing and so you can combine the number of exact results together?

Forgive if I am being a complete donkey about this but getting the right domain name with a half decent number of searches seems a good place to start on the am journey. I am just trying to think of some good domain names for some ideas I have had.

Thanks,

Mark.

[opensesame]

Broad match is a term used with Adwords, if you set a keyword to broad match Google will show your ad for the keyword AND other terms Google thinks is relevant, for example:

If you set 'Christmas Gifts' to broad match your ad might also show for 'Christmas Presents', when you set the keyword to exact match your ad will only show for the term 'Christmas Gifts'.

The Google keyword tool is for researching keywords your interested in running for Adwords thats why they have the option of match types.

If you set the match type to exact match you will see just the search volume for that term.

If I was you when you find a keyword in Google Keyword Tool I would look at it in Google Insights as well to make sure the traffic is stable.

The data given in the Keyword Tool is a 12 month average.

[jezza101]

Traditionally people have found that sites seem to rank better for exact matches. In fact I see very poor competitor sites outranking well produced ones and it's hard to see why Google is favouring the poor one other on the basis of the exact match.

But I always argue that this is actually a massive weakness in Google's algorithm, and I believe they are working to reduce the impact of exact matching. I mean, it's just common sense isn't it? If Google are trying to give a user the best results clearly ranking a poor site just because it has the exact match is not good for their reputation.

So I hope that Google continues to work on this, they are only going to get better at picking out the best most relevant results and in this day and age, with all the good names already reserved, they are going to have to look way beyond the domain name. It makes no sense to discount an innovative site just because it is new and all the other domains where taken.

So whilst exact matches still seem to be a quick win today, I don't think we can get away with running a poor site behind it any more. So when you make the purchase, ensure it's a niche you can really add some value to. Give Google a reason to rank you other than finding an unregistered keyword.

[louisscd]

when doing keyword research my friend, you want to be using exact search result matches... because this shows you how many competing pages there are for the exact keyword term you are trying to rank for

hope that helps
kindest regards,
Louis Doughty

[WiganWebs]

It depends on your SEO strategy, you can make use of both really. I like making use of the broad match feature as I like to work with a bunch of variation keywords rather than just concentrating on one or two, such as:

london van hire
hire van london
van hire london
hire van in london
van hire in london
hire a van in london
van for hire london
hire a van london
van for hire in london
london hire van

Broad match helped me to find those in seconds as they all report the same overall total local searches of 49,500, then I copy/paste them using exact match to give me a general total of just those ten above variation keywords will bring me. I'd SEO those and then move onto other longer tail search terms of a relative nature, such as 'man and van in london', depending on your content and advertising plans - you could create a page for man and van london, SEO it and advertise it out if your good at selling - after all, you have already made a start on the three major keywords within those variations.

Exact match is good, for example, keyword domains or small SEO campaigns. If your campaign is over 100 keywords then look at broad match features of the top 100 keywords and group them together.

WW

[confuscius]

Exact match domains clearly seem to have an advantage BUT I NEVER use the keyword tool to find them! What I do know is that people are lazy and are prone to click the dropdown suggestions on Google search query, so just start typing your words and follow what comes up in the suggestions and you can find some nice stuff that people are ACTUALLY searching for.

A simple example - try 'hair jewellery' on google uk and you will see that the first alternative suggestion is 'hair jewellery for brides' then go and see that all domains are available - you can then check the keyword tool but the figures people quote do not seem to match reality. I would sooner take something cropping up as a suggestion than anything any so called 'research tool' gives me. Just my view!

Look at how many of the first page sites use the exact suggested phrase and start targetting. In the case of the van example, my method would suggest that 'london van hire open sunday', 'london van hire weekend', london van hire by the hour' and 'london van hire with driver' would be suitable niches to combine into a single london van hire site or 4 seperate sites!

[Steve2009]

Exact match domains clearly seem to have an advantage BUT I NEVER use the keyword tool to find them! What I do know is that people are lazy and are prone to click the dropdown suggestions on Google search query, so just start typing your words and follow what comes up in the suggestions and you can find some nice stuff that people are ACTUALLY searching for.

A simple example - try 'hair jewellery' on google uk and you will see that the first alternative suggestion is 'hair jewellery for brides' then go and see that all domains are available - you can then check the keyword tool but the figures people quote do not seem to match reality. I would sooner take something cropping up as a suggestion than anything any so called 'research tool' gives me. Just my view!

Look at how many of the first page sites use the exact suggested phrase and start targetting. In the case of the van example, my method would suggest that 'london van hire open sunday', 'london van hire weekend', london van hire by the hour' and 'london van hire with driver' would be suitable niches to combine into a single london van hire site or 4 seperate sites!

That's very very interesting to think about! tbh with all the Google Updates and the way the Affiliate Marketing and E-Commerce world have changed so much over the last few years it's worth always staying up to date with anything like this because there are always going to be changes as there is with most things so you can only benefit from this knowledge. Knowledge is power as they say!

This post has definately made me think anyway,
Steve