Broad or Exact?!

When you are searching for keywords then there are 2 choices how you want the aprox. traffic to be shown - Broad and Exact.

Which of those results shows the REAL(most accurate) result in terms of real traffic what can be gained if you have website ranked at no1 place?
I know the clicks to your site won't be as much as the searches done- But at which one I should look at when deciding whatever the keyword have enough traffic or not?

So Broad or Exact?

You should take into consideration both of course.

Some people search using an exact term, others use the keyword within a string...both of them are searches that have relevancy.

Whats more important is how you use them for targetting your offer and what offer. If its say an 'item' then both broad and exact have lots of possible value. Hence ... xyz259 machine price, and xyz259 machine or review xyz259 machine. All three have great value so point is 'xyz259 machine' being the keyword is the key point.

Just use the traffic numbers for both ok...its the competition and price and cost of click that's going to make the most important impact not other numbers so much.

Hope that some help for you...still lots more info to look at though ok.

Yes, like madeezy said this just gives you an idea. Once you start ranking you may find that certain long tails are of more importance, and you can push harder for them. Like, for example "free dog food" would not do anywhere as well as "buy dog food". The first choice is someone who doesn't even want to spend money, but the latter is someone looking to buy now.

Matt

It's simple...

A broad keyword is like swimming in a beach
A Exact keyword is like enjoying in your own pool...

I always like enjoying both.....

to answer ur question, exact keywords are always more profitable than broad keywords. u can test this urself using PPC before doing your seo on that particular keyword

I check exact as when your targeting a specific keyword with SEO, that's where your going to get most of your traffic from.

I had this same issue and it pissed me off, specially with horrible answers like above so lets quickly look at difference:
keyword = CHOCOLATE SUNDAE 50,000 searches
Broad = i hate CHOCOLATE on my SUNDAE 100 searches
exact = CHOCOLATE SUNDAE 49,900 searches

Ok the above was made up to make a point, you have to check if the broad could CHANGE what the exact is getting at. I try and make sure that the broad and the phrase are nearly identical so I know my keywords are used together, then i check if the exact is less then half of the phrase if it is then it could mean something else, or my keyterm will easily overriden, i hope this helps someone.

Jimi if your not going for both and watching whats what, your missing massive potential plain and simple mate.

People move along a process the 'sale' is the end result not just the initial result your after. Broad often 70% + moves along to exact! Crazy not to see that and work on that basis.
Oh...You may find helpful answers horrible but please...using your logic I would hope your never working on any of my staff teams!