Spyfu Review: Best SEO Competitive Analysis Tool

This is our review of Spyfu. 

With over 2 years of experience within the SEO community we know how important it is to monitor what your competitors are doing. Spyfu is a powerful SEO tool that enables its users to perform advanced SEO competitor analysis and boost their overall search engine results page (SERP) performance. 

The goal of this Spyfu review is to showcase the overall usefulness of the software and help potential users to determine if it  has the capabilities to meet their needs. From our analysis of the software, it’s more than capable. 

Who created spyfu?

Spyfu was created by Mike Roberts back in 2005 and he has since served successfully as the company’s president. Under his leadership, Spyfu has stood the test of time and has served as a pillar and inspiration for the SEO software community for over 15 years.

What does Spyfu do?

Spyfu is a comprehensive marketing research tool that provides users with detailed information on competitor websites and digital advertising campaigns. With it, users can spy on successful websites tracking their AdWords, keywords and organic rankings in order to reverse engineer their marketing strategies and replicate their successes.

Spyfu is great for both small and large businesses interested in improving their core Search Engine Optimization (SEO) metrics and monitoring competitor activity. The features and data presentation may be a bit too complex for SEO newbies, but the fairly easy-to-use interface makes it possible to learn quickly.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Offers comprehensive tools for keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks building and SERP analysis. 
• Gather data on competitor keywords and ad campaigns. 
• Provides PPC tools for Google Ads analysis and creating Ad templates. 
• It currently has a great limited time offer discount. 

Cons

• Limited data for specific niches. 
• Doesn’t have a SEO crawler. 

How to use Spyfu?

Using Spyfu is a simple process. All that’s required is for you to enter a competitor’s domain and it’s ready. The software will generate a series of reports containing data and charts about organic and paid keywords, competitors, SEO rankings, etc..

User Interface

Spyfu’s interface has 7 reports for generating specific SEO information, they include: 

• Overview
• SEO Research
• PPC Research 
• Keyword Research 
• Backlinks
• List Builder 
• Tracker 

The Overview report displays the monthly overview of the domain you entered. It shows the domain’s organic keywords, estimated monthly SEO clicks, organic and paid Google traffic, paid searches, organic and paid competitors, top keywords, and a lot more. 

The SEO Research report showcases the complete SEO details of the domain. The report has subcategories for Competitors, Kombat, SEO Keywords, Ranking History, Top Pages and Backlinks. 

The PPC Research report is for reviewing the domain’s paid keywords and paid traffic details. This report is also divided into subcategories for Competitors, Kombat, PPC Keywords, Ads History, Google Ads Advisor, and Google Ads Template. 

For the Keyword Research report, users can thoroughly analyze the keywords used by the domain. The report consists of subcategories for analyzing Related Keywords, Advertiser History, Ranking History, Backlinks, Bulk Upload, SERP Analysis, and Google Ads Advisor. 

The Backlink report is for discovering the most powerful backlinks that will help you rank for a keyword. By entering the keyword you’re interested in, Spyfu will find the best backlinking opportunity. Backlinks Outreach is a subcategory of the report and helps users connect to the right people for link building. 

The List Builder report displays top lists of domains and keywords for various categories. It can generate leads and contact for your business by using the Leads subcategory and entering a few criteria, such as a keyword, industry and location.  

As for the Tracker report, it is used for keyword management and monitoring the keyword’s overall performance overtime. 

Noteworthy Features

Competitor 

The Competitor feature allows you to search for top competitors within your niche or industry quickly by scanning for domains that rank for the same keywords or are using the same ads. After finding emerging competitors, it compares their performance against your own.

The SEO Research and PPC Research reports both possess the competitor tab and offer competitor detail on specific aspects. By entering your domain in the search bar, the program will load every likely competitor with the 5 closest matching ones being at the top. They compare the SEO performance by: 

• Number of keywords each domain ranks for.
• Estimated monthly clicks each domain gets from those rankings.
• Estimated monthly value from those clicks.

While the PPC performance is compared by: 

• Number of keywords each domain advertises on.
• Estimated monthly ad budget.
• Estimated monthly clicks each domain gets from those ads.

All the data generated is displayed as a graph. 

Kombat

Kombat is one of Spyfu’s most popular features. By selecting 2 competing domains or allowing the software to autogenerate your domain’s 2 closest competitors, it compares the keywords that all 3 domains rank for or bid on. It also displays the keywords that only the other domains rank for, and the keywords that only you rank for. 

Reviewing these shared and exclusive keywords will help you decide on which keywords are vital in the niche and which should be avoided. 

Ranking History

Ranking History is a feature that allows you to review the overall ranking of yours or your competitor’s domain. It’s available through the SEO and Keyword Research reports. 

Spyfu makes uses of graphs to showcase estimations of: 

• The number of organic clicks
• The number of organic Keywords
• The domain’s average SERP Position 

It also displays the original rank position, current or end rank position, and SEO clicks for the keywords of a domain. The feature allows users to filter the historical search based on different time periods and keyword criteria. 

Backlinks

The Backlink report feature sets itself apart from other backlinking tools by looking for backlinking opportunities that are connected to high-value keywords instead of focusing on backlinks to competitors. This, in addition to the Backlinks Outreach tab of the report, which helps users connect to the right people for link building, gives Spyfu a competitive edge over other SEO tools.

Spyfu Price and Plans 

Spyfu offers a limited free version making it one of the best free SEO tools available. It also has two pricing options which are the basic and professional plans. 

Basic Plan: 

This is ideal for personal use and costs $49 per month or $499 for an annual subscription. This plan will provide 10 thousand rows of search results and data exports, 100 domain overviews, 6 months of historical data, and 5 thousand tracked keyword ranking per week. 

Professional Plan: 

For $79 per month or $696 annually, this plan offers unlimited search results, data exports and domain overviews, 10+ years of historical data, access to an API, and 15 thousand tracked keyword ranking per week. 

Limited Time Offer Discount: Spyfu currently offers a limited time discount on both plans. Everything from the Basic plan will now cost $9 per month, and everything from the Pro plan will cost $49 per month. If you’re interested in using the software now is the best time.

Spyfu Alternatives

Ubersuggest 

Ubersuggest is a great SEO tool that makes it easier for small businesses to maintain their presence in search engines. With the ability to do keyword research, check website rankings, and run SEO audits; Ubersuggest helps you understand how you are performing on the search engine front.

Key Features: 

• Offers a chrome extension to enhance the software’s versatility. 
• Powerful keyword research tools that help with content ideas. 
• Offers tools to monitor website traffic and performs rank tracking. 
• Backlink features to help with finding great link building opportunities. 
• It has a new Labs feature that offers an AI Writer and Keyword Visualization tool. 

Pricing:

• It has a 7 day free trial. 
• The Individual plan costs $12 per month for a monthly subscription and $120 for the lifetime purchase. 
• The Business plan is for $20 per month for a monthly subscription and $200 for the lifetime subscription. 
• The Enterprise or Agency plan costs $40 per month and $400 for a lifetime subscription.

GrowthBar

GrowthBar is a SEO tool that can be used as a Chrome extension and stand-alone app. It helps users generate traffic, improve search rankings, perform backlink analysis and keyword research, while also generating blog post outlines using GPT-3 AI technology. 

Features Offered: 

• Provides the growth bar that is versatile and able to integrate with multiple platforms. 
• Comprehensive keyword research tools that offer keyword suggestions, keyword difficulty and keyword tracking. 
• Offers a backlink checker for backlink analysis and opportunities. 
• Powerful content generation tools

Pricing: 

• It offers a 5 day’s free trial. 
• The Standard plan for $64 per month or $24 per month for the annual subscription ($348 total).
• The Pro plan costs $129 per month or $79 per month for an annual subscription ($948 total). 
• The Agency plan for $299 when billed monthly or $199 per month when billed annually ($2388 total).

Mangools

Mangools is a very cost-effective SEO software as it combines 5 interlinked apps to improve your website’s overall SEO metrics. 

Features Offered: 

• KWfinder is a robust tool great for keyword research. 
• SERPWatcher is ideal for advanced rank tracking. 
• Advanced backlink research with the help of the LinkMiner app. 
• SERPChecker app for performing in-depth analysis of the SERP for particular keywords. 
• SiteProfiler performs comprehensive SEO breakdowns of websites based on their backlink strengths and social popularity. 
• Free and versatile chrome extension.

Pricing: 

• It offers a 10 day’s free trial. 
• Mangools Basic monthly subscription costs $49 per month, while the annual plan is for $358.80.
• Mangools Premium will have a monthly cost of $69 and a yearly cost of $478.80. 
• Mangools Agency costs $129 per month for the monthly subscription and $958.80 for the annual plan.

FAQs

How accurate is Spyfu?

Spyfu’s results are accurate 90% of the time. Over the years, their accuracy has significantly improved. 

How can I spy on competitors for free?

By using Spyfu’s free version, you can access the Competitors’ feature and spy on your competitors’ website, getting information on their keywords and marketing strategies. 

Which is better, SEMRush Vs Spyfu?

Spyfu has superior features for competitive analysis, while SEMrush is well rounded and helps with the full SEO process. Based on our experience, SERrush is a better tool. 

Our Verdict 

We recommend using Spyfu. 

Spyfu features allow users to perform comprehensive competitor analysis and backlinking research that is unmatched by any other SEO software. It does lack some useful features like a crawler that could perform SEO audits of your site to determine weaknesses with your domain or on page SEO. Despite that, it has the potential to add tremendous value to your online business.