Exact match keyword phrases, are they still really important to search engines?

[isaac663]

This has been bugging me for a while now and I'd like to know what you guys think.

I often find what I can only described as 'oddities' in our rankings for certain search terms.  For example, we might rank top 5 for 'A5 week view diary' and then second page for 'Week view diaries A5'.  (Not an actual example, I just find stuff like this all the time across our various pages)

They are basically the same query, so I don't understand why so often there is such a discrepancy.  I can only put this down to exact match keyword phrase still being an important ranking factor.

What do you guys think? Are exact match phrases still an important part of the SERP results?

Thank you.

Isaac.

[Alick300]

Hi Isaac,

Keywords match types mainly for Paid campaign not for SEO. Yes I have seen in paid campaign by changing word order performance also changes.

IMO they are different query.

Thanks

[GastonRiera]

Hi Isaac,

Those are different queries.
And yes it does matter to Google the exact match keyword phrase. That said, it raises the question: How much leverage does google give it? Well, it depends and varies from site to site.

In the case that you are optimizing on-page, keep in mind to not over optimize for that phrase and add some variants (such as you've said, or adding some extra words to the phrase).
In the case that you are analyzing a link profile or willing to "do" backlinks, try to keep the exact match not over the 10%. Of course there is no magic number, its just to be safe.

Hope I've helped.
GR.