Noob question about SEO

I'm still learning the ins and outs of good SEO. Can someone explain to me why when doing good keyword research, we are advised (most of the time, depending on the guide) to use "exact match"

Here is an example: I'm starting to use MS and MNF together to find good keywords that I'm sure I can conquer. When using MNF I use exact match, when using MS I use exact match.

Now, when using MS the SEO competition tool seems to be showing results for "phrase match"

I guess my real question is: Why are we optimizing for "exact match" and trying to beat the "exact match" competition, when people do NOT use quotes when searching for a term.


Thanks!

Anyone have any advice or input?

Hi Brook.
From what have I gathered about the topic, I can say that
1) 20% people search a keyword with quotes.
2) Keeping in view the SEO factor and Title/domain etc, when you rank into SERPS for exact keyword, ranking for broad and phrase terms is easier and sometimes you rank well for them as well.

Thats my tiny-mind input.
Waiting for more inputs...

use - google adwords keywods tool

By searching the exact match phrase (with quotes), it will give you a good idea on how difficult it will be to rank for that specific keyword phrase.

If you have a targeted site, that is optimized for that ONE keyword phrase than exact match is very important. You might see hundreds of thousands of results for phrase match in google (because the phrase is found somewhere on the site, maybe even in bits and pieces, but not necessarily optimized for that site)... than when you do exact search you many find only hundreds of "exact match" phrases.

Now you have an idea of the REAL competition for that phrase. You have an idea of how many other people may really be targeting it. And of course, even a good percentage of them are not really targeting, they just happen to have the exact match the way they were writing.

So, if you have a good optimized site for a single keyword phrase... generally speaking, only the people who show up in "exact match" are really your competitors.

At least thats the way I see it...

There is some very common misunderstanding regarding this topic, I'll try to help out.

When somebody types in Google: keyword1 keyword2 - there a couple statistics that can be extracted from this query:

1 - this is an "exact match" for keyword1 keyword2, you can test it by verifying that typing into google keyword1 keyword2 and [keyword1 keyword2] returns identical results

2 - this is a "phrase match" for keyword1 only! A query: keyword2 keyword1 would be tracked as a "phrase match" for keyword2 only

3 - this is a broad match for both keyword1 and keyword2

So there ya go, when optimizing for "exact match" it doesn't mean that somebody needs to use [ ] in the search query... while they do have to use " " for phrase match, which is roughly 20% of all searches like somebody mentioned.

If you have a targeted site, that is optimized for that ONE keyword phrase than exact match is very important. You might see hundreds of thousands of results for phrase match in Google (because the phrase is found somewhere on the site, maybe even in bits and pieces, but not necessarily optimized for that site)... than when you do exact search you many find only hundreds of "exact match" phrases.

Thanks for everyone's input! I have a better understanding now.

BlueGlobeSeo said:

If you have a targeted site, that is optimized for that ONE keyword phrase than exact match is very important. You might see hundreds of thousands of results for phrase match in Google (because the phrase is found somewhere on the site, maybe even in bits and pieces, but not necessarily optimized for that site)... than when you do exact search you many find only hundreds of "exact match" phrases.

Click to expand...

THE fuck? you just copies part of someone elses answer above you... SPAMMER ALERT!

Yeah...... I thought that reply sounded familiar.
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