06 Sep 2010 
Support Center » Knowledgebase » Why should I put so much emphasis on Exact Match numbers? Wouldn't real world results dictate broad phrase match? The average person searching online wouldn't use quotes around his search.
 Why should I put so much emphasis on Exact Match numbers? Wouldn't real world results dictate broad phrase match? The average person searching online wouldn't use quotes around his search.
Article Issue: Why should I put so much emphasis on Exact Match numbers? Wouldn't real world results dictate broad phrase match? The average person searching online wouldn't use quotes around hissearch.

Solution: The Exact Match Paradox! (By the way, we get asked this question at least once a day!)

Consider the following paragraph…

“I was walking to the bus stop yesterday and a big black dog was following me. So I took off my shoes and threw them at him to scare him away. ”

With broad match, that paragraph would show up in a search for: black walking shoes... even though it has nothing to do with black walking shoes.

Now consider a website that has this paragraph:

“We have many different styles of black walking shoes.”

That matches the broad match of keywords black and walking and shoes, but it also matches the exact phrase of black walking shoes.

Everything else being equal, Google will rank the page with the exact match to be more relevant for that particular search and therefore it will be higher in the results list WITHOUT the searcher enclosing the phrase in quotes.

You probably already know how obsessed Google is with showing relevant results. (And it should be! That’s what keeps searchers coming back to Google for their search needs.) Knowing that, which of the following is more relevant to a search for: black walking shoes (no quotes)

1) I was walking to the bus stop yesterday and a big black dog was following me. So I took off my shoes and threw them at him to scare him away.

2) We have many different styles of black walking shoes.

Obviously #2 is more relevant and will get higher priority in the search engine ranking (all else being equal).

Showing Exact Match Counts in Micro Niche Finder is simply an easy way to show how much REAL competition there is for a specific term. It has nothing to do with the searcher using quotes around the phrase.

Tags: exact match, google, micro niche finder, SEO



Article Details
Article ID: 10
Created On: 01 Apr 2009 11:17 AM

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 User Comments Add a Comment
Posted By: Raymond Berg (omegafactor10@gmail.com) On: 17 Jun 2009 10:43 PM
I was just about ready to be the next in line to ask this very question. Thanks for the clarity.
Posted By: Paul Slater (chaplainpaul@change-career-with-purpose.com) On: 04 Jan 2010 9:17 AM
Thanks so much for clarifying this for me, after years of not quite getting it. I think the challenge for many of us is to realize the need to narrow the search so as to understand the competition factor.
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