Exact Match Keywords
What are exact-match keywords?
In SEO, exact-match keywords also refer to search results/content that perfectly match all of the keywords in the search query, exactly as entered. Historically, exact-match keywords are important for both organic and paid search, and are a frequent topic of SEO debates.
Exact-match keywords originated from the Google AdWords keyword match type that allows you to advertise on a specific exact-match search.
What are partial-match keywords?
Partial-match keywords or phrases are often mentioned in the same breath as exact-match. They simply refer to search results that match some part of the keywords in the search query, but not all of it (or in a different order).
What's the difference between exact match and partial match keywords?
An exact match keyword indicates that your target keyword exactly matches a search query, anchor text in a link, or domain name. A partial match means that your keyword is included amongst other words in those elements. Exact and partial match keywords are often used in SEO, link building, and PPC, and while one type is not better or worse than the other, generally speaking, you'll want to make sure you use the right match type to avoid Google penalties and astronomical AdWords costs.
Exact match keywords in Google AdWords
The phrase "exact match" is commonly used when targeting your ad to types of searches with Google AdWords. Exact match in AdWords means that you only want your ad to show up for a specific word or phrase. (Importantly, AdWords has recently updated how they treat keywords so that word order and "functional words" within a sentence—i.e. "and," "or," "but," "then," etc. — don't matter. The same keywords in different sequence, with or without functional words, may still represent an "exact match.")
Other types of Google AdWords match types are broad match, which means your ad might show up for similar terms that Google considers relevant, and phrase match, which means it may show up for searches with your target keyword nestled inside a longer phrase.
A common mistake for beginners is not targeting the right match type. If you've chosen the wrong match type, your ad may be displayed to the wrong audience. When this happens, you could end up paying through the nose for traffic that won't convert.
Exact or partial match for organic results
This type of fine-tuned control over how your content is dished up in AdWords doesn't exist for SEOs who are targeting organic search results. Organic rankings are determined solely by Google's algorithm and its ever-growing understanding of language and intent.
If you want to understand more about how exact and partial match work in the wild, you can force Google to give you exact match organic results by using the quotations marks search operator.
For example, when searching tiny dancing horse without quotation marks, Google dishes up an array of results—from a Moonwalking Dancing Shetland Pony to a Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse:
By searching "tiny dancing horse" (with quotation marks) I'm telling Google to only find results that include that exact phrase:
By performing some of these searches yourself, you can get a feel for how advanced Google's algorithm is and just how well it understands user intent and synonyms to deliver results that fulfill the needs of the searcher.
Because of the various different ways people search, and Google's ability to understand intent, your content can still rank well even if it only partially matches the query searched.
The best thing you can do to help your content rank for your keywords is use your target keyword in your title tag and other relevant places and create content that delves into the topic using synonyms, examples, and whatever else you need until you're satisfied that you have the best content on the block.
Exact match domain names
"Exact match" can also refer to domain names. If the searcher types in "tiny dancing horse" and you own tinydancinghorse.com, that is an exact match domain.
Your domain name is your brand—it's who you are when you're online. If you're thinking "should I have an exact match domain name?", think about whether this is the right brand for you and your business. If it just so happens that "tiny dancing horse" encapsulates everything you want to be about, then go for it. If not, it may be worth investigating other domain name options.
Whether your exact match domain will help push you up in the rankings for that search query is questionable, but it certainly isn't as powerful a ranking signal as it once was. In fact, an exact match domain may even be penalized by Google! An update to their algorithm in 2012 was aimed at weeding out exact match domains from spammy websites from their search results. While there are still good examples of exact match domains that rank well, using an exact match domain can be a bit of a risky bet if done with the intention of stuffing in as many keywords as possible. For example, a company named "Bob's Furniture" would certainly want to own the bobsfurniture.com domain, but probably shouldn't be buying buycheapfurnituregoodfurniture.com. While both domains are technically an exact match, only one would be treated well by search engine algorithms.
Partial or exact match anchor text?
If a website page's target keyword is "tiny dancing horse" and an external domain links to that page using "tiny dancing horse" as the clickable text, the external site has linked using exact match anchor text. If they link to the same page with "watch this dancing horse," "cute little horse boogies," or anything other than "tiny dancing horse," it's considered partial match anchor text.
As you work hard to inform Google of how relevant your content is to your topic, it might be tempting to request other sites link to you with your target keyword in the anchor text. And in fact, in days gone by, exact match keywords in anchor text was one way to make that page appear more relevant to search engines.
However, overuse of this tactic was one factor that led to the Google Penguin algorithm update. These days, having a machine-like exact match anchor text profile can result in penalties to your site. While partial match anchor text may be less targeted, it can actually contribute more to whether a page ranks well because it's more natural and a better representation of how humans actually speak (and search).
It's not uncommon for SEOs to check the backlink profile of a website to see if there are a lot of links with exact match anchor text that could be perceived to be gaming the results by Google and other search engines. You can check your anchor text in Link Explorer. If you've traditionally focused on exact match keywords and anchor text, there's no time like the present to consider partial matches instead. They could be to your advantage!
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