SpyFu Guide: How to Get the Most Out of This SEO Tool

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What Is SpyFu?

SpyFu is a popular SEO and PPC tool that uses web scraping technology to gather data.

Digital marketers mostly use it to improve their online search performance through paid ad competitor analysis and [keyword research](/content/keyword-research "Free Keyword Research Tool by Backlinko"/index.html).

It’s a super versatile tool that has many uses, including:

But its main purpose is to identify lucrative search terms used by your competitors in both paid and organic search campaigns. There are other SEO tools with comparable features. But SpyFu truly stands out when it comes to competitive analysis, or “spying” (hence the name).

SpyFu Setup Guide

SpyFu’s User Interface and User Experience

To be honest, there are a few things I hate more than an overly-complicated (or outdated) UI.

Thankfully, SpyFu’s dashboard and UI prioritize simplicity and a clean layout.

The dashboard has six tabs at the top for easy access to things like keyword research, SEO research, PPC research and AI tools. (All of which I’ll cover in this guide.)

Let’s now discuss how you can get the most out of SpyFu’s key features.

SEO Research

A major selling point of SpyFu is its range of competitor and PPC analysis tools.

SEO Overview

The SEO Overview page consists of different sections that allow you to have a quick glance at your important data. These sections include:

At the very top of the page, you can instantly view the total number of organic keywords associated with your site or your competitors.

Competitor Analysis

SpyFu also lets you identify your closest organic competitors and analyze their [SEO strategies](/content/seo-strategy "How to Create an Effective SEO Strategy"/index.html).

You do this through the Competitors tab.

Kombat for SEO

This tool is one of the most helpful features that you get with SpyFu.

It puts your domain up against your competitors in the form of a Venn diagram.

There are four keyword categories:

  1. Core Keywords
  2. All Keywords
  3. Questions
  4. Missing Keywords

Ranking History

Ranking History lets you track your and your competitors’ rankings over a specific period of time.

PPC Research

SpyFu is just as useful for PPC research as it is for SEO. If not, more so.

PPC Overview

The PPC Overview section provides a helpful overall view of your PPC campaigns. You can also use it to analyze your competitors’ campaigns.

PPC Competitors

The PPC Competitors tool works similarly to the SEO Competitors tool.

Kombat for PPC

The PPC Kombat tool gives you great insights into the keywords your competitors are bidding on.

PPC Keywords

The PPC Keywords tool lets you research your competitors in even more detail.

Ad History

SpyFu keeps a complete record of every ad that a domain has run, and the Ad History tool gives you access to this.

Keyword Research

Keyword Overview

The Keyword Overview tool gives you LOADS of valuable data on a wide range of keywords.

Related Keywords

This nifty tool does exactly what you’d expect it to. It finds related keywords and gives you important metrics about them.

Advertiser History

This is really good for tracking your competitors’ most successful ad copy for a specific keyword.

Ranking History

The Keyword Research Ranking History tool lets you track the organic ranking history of your competitors for your chosen keywords.

SpyFu Pricing

Basic

Professional

SpyFu Pros and Cons

Pros

Cons

Is SpyFu the Right SEO Tool for You?

There’s no doubt SpyFu is still one of the most impressive SEO tools on the market. However, it lacks some functionality compared to its biggest competitors.