Exact Match

Most commonly, Exact Match refers to the Internet Marketing term for a precise method of finding keywords on the world wide web (such as Google Adwords' Exact Match). Exact Match can be useful for finding a specific product or attracting a specific audience, but it limits search results significantly.

With Exact Match, a person has to type in the exact phrase a website has specified for their website to come up in the search listings. This can be useful if a company is paying to post ads to a specific audience, and they don't want to have to pay for unnecessary impressions.

Usually, Exact Match won't match plural words (such as "red wine" with red wines"), and is case sensitive (so "Red Wine" wouldn't match up with "red wine").

For example, if you type in "PTT Business Cell phone plans + Atlanta", you may not get listings for "Push To Talk Business Cell Phone Plans + Atlanta" or " PTT Business Cell phone plans + Georgia." If these results are filtered using exact match, only websites who have listed the specific phrase you typed in will be listed, and others may not be listed at all.

Other types of keyword matching include Broad Match, Phrase Match, and Negative Match.