What is the Difference Between Broad Match, Phrase Match and Exact Match?
There can be a lot of confusion between the use of the three match types in various search or SEO functions.
Let me try to explain.
Now, there’s a big difference between using these things yourself in a Google search, and the traffic data you’ll see in Google AdWords Keyword Tool or other keyword research tools.
In Brief
- Broad match = Contains all the words, may be in any order, and may include other words
- Phrase match = Contains all the words, in order, and may include other words before or after the phrase
- Exact match = Contains only these words in this order
Searching Using Broad Match and Phrase Match
If you type the words – unusual christmas gifts – into a Google search, you’ll get a lot of results.
Here I got 3,560,000 results from google.com.
Broad Match
That’s a BROAD MATCH. I typed in the 3 words “unusual”, “christmas” & “gifts”.
What’s Google telling me here? It’s telling me there are 3.5 million pages that are about all of these words – but not necessarily about “unusual christmas gifts.” They just happen to have something about “unusual”, something about “christmas” and something about “gifts.”
For example, you could get a page that includes all those 3 words – anywhere on the page.
Phrase Match
If I put the phrase inside quote marks, I’m giving Google a request for PHRASE MATCH.
This is saying: Give me pages that are about “unusual christmas gifts”.
Usually, what that means is, you’ll pages that include that phrase – in that order. That cuts down the number of results – from 3.5 million to 198,000.
What About Exact Match?
(You can’t do an exact match search on Google.)
Now let’s look at the three match types in something like Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
Broad, Phrase and Exact Match in Search Stats
In the screenshot below, I have asked Google AdWords Keyword Tool for stats on “unusual christmas gifts” using all 3 match types: Broad, Phrase, and Exact.
It is showing the number of searches per month, both Globally, and Locally (UK, in this case).
But it’s giving 3 different numbers. Which is right?
It depends what you’re asking for.
- unusual christmas gifts (without punctuation) is showing the Broad match results, i.e. “how many people type in search queries that include all of these words, but not necessarily in that order, and possibly among other words too”
- “unusual christmas gifts” (inside quotes) is showing the Phrase match results, i.e. “how many people type in search queries that include those words in that exact order”
- [unusual christmas gifts] (inside square brackets) gives Exact match results, i.e. “how many people type in that exact phrase in that order, and no other words”
How to Understand the Differences
- You’ll always get more results for Broad match over Phrase and Exact, and you’ll always get more results for Phrase than you do for Exact. (Of course, if you type in a single-word query, the numbers for Broad and Phrase will be the same.)
- It’s possible for different pages to rank for a Phrase match than for a Broad match. Remember that most searches are Broad anyway. Most people don’t know you can put quotes round a phrase in Google. (But the Phrase-match results don’t mean that someone has used quote marks!)
- So what’s most useful when it comes to predicting traffic? For phrases of at least 2 words, I generally use Exact match type, which I find gives the best indication. I rarely do keyword research for single words these days, and if I do, I’ll use my judgement to estimate the likely search traffic from between the Broad and Exact match results.
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Thanks for this article Ben. I was about to post a topic about this on PWDA Forum, but it not necessary anymore
I am still confused about the phrase & exact search result. Suppose if I have a single word keyword lets say resume is my keyword and i found lots of searches in broad, and phrase and a few in exact so what does that means.
Please explain it would be a great help for me.
Exact would be only the word “resume.”
Broad and phrase-match are the same for a one-word phrase.
I am still confused
1. if phrase match needs to have ” around it then almost all searches on google are broad match searches and google will return broad macth results, I dont think anyone uses ” except people who know it.
2. broadmatch: if broad matches are searched more then why is everyone optimizing for phrases.
eg: I would think as long as you have your keywords on the page you are good, if we take unusual christmas gift as long as you have unusual in one line christmas in other and gift in third you have pretty much placed your keywords for broadmatch searches, since there is no one typing “unusual christmas gift” in quotes, google will always give broad match results. for google to give phrase match result you have to quote word search term….did I understand this right?
this is what I kind of understand from you explanation.
J
Hi J. Thanks for your question.
Yes, we rarely type phrases in quotes into Google, but that isn’t really the point.
Having the words on your page will only get you into the long list… The “2,800,000 results found” – or whatever.
But that won’t get you any traffic. If you have the phrase “unusual Christmas gifts” on your page, you’ll rank higher. If you have that phrase as your page’s title tag, that’s much better. If your page is called “unusual-christmas-gifts.html”, better still.
It’s all about what makes your page seem to be relevant to that phrase.
More people type in “unusual Christmas gifts” than “gifts Christmas unusual”, so you should probably optimise for that phrase.
thanks Ben for the clarification, makes sense so having it in that order is critical on the page.
I am aware that having the phrase in title and name of the page with hyphens does help as long as you site is indexed in google. thanks.
J
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[quote]So what’s most useful when it comes to predicting traffic? For phrases of at least 2 words, I generally use Phrase match type, which I find gives the best indication.[/quote]
Hi Ben,
why do you actually prefer phrase match than exact match in this case? I mean, if you are really interested in optimizing for “Christmas gifts”, apparently you would like to know how many times people search for these 2 words, not for for “the best Christmas gifts” for example.
Why do you think phrase match gives you the best indication?
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Greetz,
Robby
Hi Robby. Actually, I use exact match most of the time. I think that’s an error.
I analysed the clickthrough rates for various pages on my site at different positions on page 1, and I found that % of exact match gave the closest correlation to the general average click distribution data I use.
Thanks for spotting it.
You are welcome. I’m glad I could help.
By the way excellent explanation, the best I´ve found till now (even in comparison with the one from Google).
Greetz,
Robby
Hi great blog
For example my store most popular word is cheap gifts or cheap gift ideas
Would you put exact or phrase ?
I would always use exact in my keyword research process.
By the way, if we type in a single-word query, the numbers for Broad and Phrase won’t be the same. These are different results, since broad match is about synonyms too and phrase is not.
Good observation. This article actually gives an incorrect definition of broad match results in Google Keyword Tool.
As the tool itself indicates, broad match results also include related grammatical forms, synonyms and related words. Thus, performing a single keyword query will get different search volume stats for phrase and broad match.
Thanks for the great tip Michiel.
thankz Ben