New: Find the Contracts That Use Your Exact Words

ContractRadar’s search finds contracts that mean what you typed, even when the government worded it differently. That’s usually what you want. But sometimes you already know the exact words — a material, a product, a spec — and you only want the postings that actually say them. Now you can choose: beside the search box there are two options, Smart match and Exact words.

An example

Say you’re a roofer who specializes in standing seam metal roofs. Search “roofing” with Smart match and you get what you’d hope for: a long list of roof replacements, repairs, and re-roofs, closest matches first. The catch is that the few jobs that actually call for standing seam are scattered through that list — and some don’t make it at all, especially the ones that on paper aren’t roofing jobs: a building renovation, a dining hall, a Navy lab, with the standing seam roof mentioned a few paragraphs into the description. Read as a whole, they’re about something else, so a search that matches on meaning ranks them too far down to show.

Switch to Exact words and search “standing seam”. You get a short list: every open contract whose title or description contains that phrase, including the ones buried inside bigger projects.

When to use which

Smart match is still the default, and still the right choice when you’re describing the work you do. Government postings rarely agree on wording — “snow removal” is also “winter road maintenance” and “ice control services” — and Smart match finds all of them. Here’s why we built it that way.

Exact words is for when you’re quoting rather than describing: a specific material or product, a program or law name, or a term you’ve learned a particular agency always uses.

How it works

Exact words looks at a contract’s title and description — not the agency name or its tags — and ignores upper and lower case. It matches your words together, in the order you typed them, spelled exactly as typed — so “Davis-Bacon” and “Davis Bacon” are two different searches, and agencies use both. If a term has more than one common spelling, save a search for each. Your search needs at least three letters or digits in a row. Every word you add narrows the results, the opposite of Smart match, so a longer phrase is a more precise one.

One thing to watch: it matches what you typed wherever it appears, including inside longer words. “TPO” on its own also catches every posting that says “postpone”; “TPO roof” or “TPO membrane” doesn’t. If a search comes back suspiciously large, add a word. The search guide has the details.

Get alerts on exact words

This is where it gets useful. On Pro, you can save an Exact words search and switch on daily email alerts, just like any other. Your filters come along, and the alert sends you only new contracts that actually contain the phrase. Save “standing seam” filtered to the states you work in, and every day you’ll hear about the jobs that call for exactly what you install — including the ones hiding inside someone else’s building project.

Try it

Exact words search is free — it works on any account, free or Pro, and counts as a search like any other. Head to the search page, pick Exact words, and try a term from your trade. New here? Create a free account to get started.