Last Updated on May 1, 2021 by Jay Clover
SpyFu is one of the best SEO tools that enables young and energetic bloggers to look insides of their competitor’s sites. It offers an extensive tool-set and a super-easy user interface (UI) that can help users transform small websites to midsize sites. However, its list of features doesn’t end here and includes PPC competitor monitoring, keyword spy tools, Adwords advisory, and many more. Here in this article, I’ll cover everything I have learned using this tool, including how to use spyfu?
SpyFu free trial??
I’m sorry to break it to you, but SpyFu doesn’t offer any trail program. However, its plans are super cheap compared to market leaders, and even a beginner can start his venture with a monthly plan of just $33. For Pro’s in the SEO game, SpyFu also offers Professional, and Team plans. If you are opting for its Annual program, you can get an additional discount varying from 7% to 33% per month depending on the plan. Currently, I’m using SpyFu Basic Annual, which cost me around $399.
For explaining all the features of SpyFu, I’m going to use “wikipedia.org” as an example.
SpyFu Analyze Competitors Website
SpyFu Monthly Domain Overview
From the SpyFu Analyze Competitors Website, you can see the monthly domain overview of your competition website. It also includes the no of organic keyword your competitor is ranking on, with its est monthly clicks, age of the site. If your competitor is running ads for some keywords, you can also see that from the dashboard.
All these data give quite near specifics of the websites and let you understand the keywords your competitor is ranking on.
From the SpyFu Monthly Domain Overview you can also look at the competition sites, shared keyword, Top keywords, Top AdWords Buy Recommendations, Adwords History, Organic Ranking History, Inbound Links (Backlinks).
SpyFu SEO Overview
The SpyFu dashboard is very user-friendly and smartly laid at your disposal. From the top navigation bar, you can access its functions like SEO Research, Top Organic Competitors, Shared Organic Keywords (Kombat), Keyword Grouping, SEO Keywords, Organic Ranking History, Backlinks, and SEO Reports
SpyFu PPC Research
SpyFu PPC Research is made for people involved in digital marketing. Its pretty similar to finding keywords and competition but in PPC. From the SpyFu PPC Research you can check the Monthly PPC Overview, Top Ad Competitors, Shared Paid Keywords (Kombat), Keyword Grouping, PAID KEYWORDS, MONTHLY PAID CLICKS MONTHLY ADWORDS BUDGET, and Most Profitable Ads and Keywords. Not only this, you will also get top Adwords to buy recommendations from SpyFu.
The SpyFu PPC not only provides the CPC for the keyword but also its daily and monthy cost breakdown. For a advertises, these data can have a significant impact on breaking down cost on advertisements. With the stats including the keyword in the past year, specific cost per day, daily search volume, difficulty score, and more.
SpyFu keyword Research and its Utilization
Now let talk about the most essential tool which you are going to use the SpyFu Keyword Overview.The SpyFu keyword tool is very organized and easy to understand even by a beginner in SEO. Unlike other SEO tools available online SpyFu only focuses on the vital data which really matters. SpyFu Keyword research can help you find and select the most valuable keywords which can really impact your business.
When you are looking to gain the best search engine results pages (SERP), you have to primarily focus on keyword research. I’m pretty sure if you learned how to do proper keyword research half of the battle you have already won. SpyFu keyword tool with its optimization strategy, keyword-driven investigation, and management capabilities makes it really easy to follow the right keyword strategy.
For writing this review, I’m using SpyFu for about six months now. Mostly my work is related to digital marketing, so I used keyword research tools for getting the difference between each of my competitors. What I found was very interesting. The results and structure of the SpuFy were way different than the likes of Semrush or Ahref. I will tell you what I found later in the article.
The SpyFu keyword research not only allows you to get the stats about a specific keyword but also let you break it into different specs. The Keyword Overview let you see the MONTHLY SEARCHES (LOCAL), MONTHLY SEARCHES (LOCAL), CLICK THROUGH RATE, RANKING DIFFICULTY, and COST PER CLICK of a specific keyword.
For every keyword, the SpyFu also provides its SERP analysis. The SERP breaks down each ranking sites from the search result page. Though Semrush and Ahref offer a much more detailed breakdown of a keyword like DA, PA, SEO difficulty. SpyFu primarily focuses on om the monthly cost. The SERP can be a bit overwhelming for a beginner SEO; however, for digital marketers and advertisers, it can be a dream come true.
SpyFu Keywords Management
Keywords management comes bundled within the SpyFu platform. Its three primary research tabs -SEO, PPC, and keywords are available in the drop-down menus. The details you will get with the SpyFu includes monthly search volume, CPC, difficulty score, and monthly cost. These are the essential features which you need before trying to rank any article.
The best part of the SpyFu Keywords Management includes its List Builder and Tracking tabs. It allows the SpyFu to make a deep connection between SEO and customer relationship management(CRM). From the list builder tab, you can also access its lists of domains and keywords. Moreover, you can also filter the list according to the most expensive keyword, state, industry, or by a specific web-based technology.
Recently, SpuFu also incorporated Adwords Templates as a part of thier Google Adword Campaign. Its comprises of previously written ads for the same niche of keywords. You can directly download the templates from your SpyFu account and use them in your Adword account. The templates contain prewritten ads from hundreds of industries.
SpyFu Verdict
SpyFu is one of the best and user-friendly SEO tools I have tested so far. It provides excellent value to beginners in the SEO industry, marketing, and any kind of online business. The tool is beautifully designed and very easy to navigate. Moreover, its price is what makes it one of the cheapest SEO tool available online.
If you are new in SEO game and just searching for some profitable keywords, SpyFu features can be overwhelming. Its importance on keywords monetary scale and detail keywords breakdown can be hard to understand at once. However, for a business that has some experience and wants to expand its business to the next level with advertising and sales, SpyFu can be your tool. SpyFu provides a comprehensive suite of traditional SEO tools, including deeper crawling capabilities.
Spyfu vs Semrush
SEMrush is undoubtedly one of the earliest and most successful SEO tools out there. Under a single roof, you can find a plethora of valuable data, including backlinks, keywords, website traffic, ad campaigns, SEO, social media, and much more. This data enables you to focus on your website while keeping a check on your competitor and make the decisions accordingly.
In this article, I’m not going to focus much on SEMrush, but I’ll tell how its different from SpyFu.
SEMrush: Features & Services
As I have already mentioned, SEMrush is a full-fledged SEO tool and features a bunch of services. Being an all in one-SEO tool, not all features are meant for everyone. Depending on your business goal and objectives, there will be a tool in SEMrush, which can help you expand your business further.
SEMrush’s Analytics Reports
SEMrush’s Analytics Reports present you with the insides of your competitor’s websites. You will get all the report including the display advertising, organic and paid search or their link building.
SEMrush organic search
With the SEMrush organic search, you can boost your SERP by targeting those keywords on which competitor is ranking to grab the first position. When you know the keywords your competitor is ranking on, you get the exact idea which keyword you should target. Also, you will find other profitable keywords to go after.
If you are a digital marketer and wondering whether SEMrush can you help in any way, It can. With its advertising research, you can have a look at insides of your competition advertising campaigns and improve yours. When you can see your competitor PPC investments, you get to analyze their keywords, view traffic, and volume. This is an excellent method for smart digital marketers as with the help of Semrush, you can improve your PPC bidding system and efficiency and reduce your advertising budget.
SEMrush’s Backlinks
With the advanced SEMrush’s Backlink Took you can get the information regarding the rank, authority, and geolocations of your competitor backlinks. Backlinks are one of the most important parameters of any site and being in this industry, you probably know about it. With this, you’ll be able to check all the incoming links including URL, domain or root domain, domain authority, geolocation, and anchor texts. With the SEMrush backlink checker, you can improve your link building strategy and also easily find relevant sites to create backlink for your website.
Keyword Research
You all already know about the importance of keyword research. Its the most vital information in Digital Marketing. If you get keyword research right, you will already win half the battle. All this makes it super clear that SEMrush can provide best high-volume and long-tail keywords for your content and website. With its keyword research tool, you can effortlessly search for long-tail keywords with high volume search. Moreover, for every keyword, you will also get additional information including its CPC, volume, number of results, ad copies and more.
Pros & Cons of SEMrush
PROS:
- SEMrush comprised of a wide range of tool which can help you hone your SEO game and see the insides of your and competition website.
- If you want to scale your online presence, boost your reach, engagement, traffic, and audience, SEMrush can help you drive the change.
CONS:
- Not all the information, suggestion, and result that SEMrush provides are precisely correct.
- SEMrush is not a particularly beginner-friendly tool, and it would be better if you start your wok with some easy to use SEO tool. As the information provided by SEMrush can be overwhelming for beginners.
Spyfu vs Ahref
Ahref dates back to 2011, the earlier times of SEO. Since then the tool has seen some serious updates on both services and UI. Right now, Ahref is undoubtedly one of the world’s best backlink analysis tools. However, this is not it, and Ahref comprises of Software(SaaS) tools, that help in analyzing how well your web page is ranking on search engines.
Ahref: Features & Services
Ahref offers full package SEO toolset with the most trusted and reliable database feature set. Here I’m going to discuss for what purpose I’m using Ahref:
Ahref Huge Backling Database:
Having experience in the market has apparent advantages, and its evident from the Ahfref most significant crawling setup. It helps Afref finding most of the backlinks which are associated with any website. This is the primary reason Ahref is a leading SEO tool available in the online business.
Keyword Explorer:
Ahref has a regular updating database of more than 3 Billion keywords, which provides a lot of keyword ideas relates to any topic. Ahref access database of more than 100 countries before showing any result to you. If you are a beginner looking for a keyword research tool, I’ll suggest you to go for SpyFu as its more straightforward and easy to understand
Ahref Alerts:
When you become a member of Ahref Couuminty, you can also track how well your website is performing. You can also set notification which will alert you whenever your website gains or lose backlinks. This feature helps when you are trying to surpass your competitor’s websites :).
Ahref Rank Tracker:
As I have already mentioned, you can link your website with Ahref and track its search engine ranking for any keyword for mobile and desktop both in real-time. If you are also providing SEO services, you can download progress report daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Moreover, you can also track the ranking of your targeted keyword for any location.
Ahref SEO Toolbar:
After buying the Ahref, you can download its SEO metrics plugin for your web browser and start utilizing all its features. Currently, Ahref plugin supports two leading web browser Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. If you want to know about SEO matrices and backlink count for your site, Ahref is for you. Ahref provides the following metrics
- Ahrefs Rank (AR)
- Domain Rating (DR)
- Ahrefs URL Rating (UR)
- Number of Backlinks
- Number of referring domains
Pros & Cons of Ahref
Pros
- Straightforward link review with disavow documents and finds historic links feature.
- I like most of the features that Ahfre provides, however, I primarily use it for searching backlinks.
- Its a feature-rich SEO tool and includes everything you are ever going to need.
Cons
- Some times it takes time to load Ahref.
- Their monthly pricing can be a bit expensive.
