Original publication date: May, 2007

The Science of Matching Key Terms

At the bottom of every bid opportunity your clients see, matching keywords are listed. The keywords that caused the match are listed here and, in some circumstances, other related keywords are listed here as well. This has been the cause of some confusion so I thought I would once again devote a column to the science of matching keywords.

As shown in this very straightforward example, the search statement of select floppy is the cause of the bid match. “Floppy” is highlighted in blue within the text of the bid notice and anyone glancing at this bid opportunity can quickly determine the cause of the match.

But what happens when we qualify our search statement with a second keyword: select floppy<1u>drive?

This statement still searches for the keyword “floppy,” but only causes a match if the keyword “drive” is close by. Note how, in this illustration, the keyword “drive” is highlighted three times throughout the bid notice, but only one of these occurrences is within one word or less of “floppy.” This is the standard operating procedure for Softshare’s search engine: even though it is the combination of “floppy” and “drive” that cause the match, Softshare still highlights every individual occurrence of both keywords. At a glance, it may look like “drive” is responsible for the bid match, but upon closer inspection, you can see that “floppy” is present as well.

Things get a little trickier when we add another keyword onto our statement: select floppy<1u>(drive? or diskette?)

Take a look at the third illustration. “Diskette” is highlighted twice, but neither occurrence appears within one word or less of “floppy.” The keywords “floppy” and “drive” in combination are still the cause of the match; however, because the keyword “diskette” is part of the search statement, Softshare’s search engine also highlights its occurrences—even though “diskette” played no role in causing the match. In addition to highlighting keyword occurrences individually, Softshare also lists matching keywords individually—even when, like the previous two examples, it is a combination of keywords that caused the match: Matching Key Words: floppy; drive?; diskette?;

While it’s helpful to quickly see all relevant keywords in an article, it can be misleading to your clients who may be trying to figure out the exact cause of a match. For this reason, we recommend that you always provide your clients with copies of their profiles. Profiles are easily forwarded from client records.