I Spy with My Eye Something that is Sneaky.
In a dog-eat-dog world, you have to do what you have to do to survive, right? When it comes to marketing your business, you’re digging into the down and dirty. Spyfu is a keyword competition tool that allows you to gain the upper hand in online marketing.
You’re creating (or outsourcing!) amazing content to draw your readers in. You’re branding your images, linking to other content within your blog, popping out videos, and you’re tying it in to keyword research for search engine optimization.
What about your competition? What tactics help them become and stay successful? What makes other agents a threat to your business? Wouldn’t it be nice to be a fly on the wall so you could eye-spy what your competitors are doing?
Spyfu is the keyword competition tool to use when you want to sneak-a-peek into your competitor’s keywords. You may be using Google’s Keyword Planner to seek out promising and profitable keywords. But are they the right keywords? Do they pack a punch with their pull? How do your keywords stack up against the agent next door who is also always strategizing to get ahead? Here’s the deal:
Gain ranking in the Search Engines by Using Spyfu
That’s right. It sounds sneaky, but it’s totally on the up-and-up. Spyfu is one of few SEO tools that allows you to check in on a specific person or business. You type in your competitor’s website, and Spyfu provides you with a list of the top 50 keywords used by that source, and a report of how well those keywords are performing. Spyfu helps you find competitors’ keywords. But that’s not all.
You can use Spyfu’s keyword competition tool for a variety of services relating to organic Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, also known as pay-per-click advertising. You can actually see, plain as day, what your competitors are paying for, and how those ads are panning out.
You can also measure backlinks. Measure your own backlinks or the backlinks of others.
Yes. Spyfu empowers you to be that fly on the wall. But there’s more.
Gather Information about Your Keywords and Marketing
Spying on your competitor’s keywords has its benefits and rewards. But more rewarding is learning to use the Spyfu SEO tools to understand your own tactics better. Here is an opportunity for reflection.
What’s working for you, and what do you need to improve?
With Spyfu, you can track keywords that you already rank for, and keywords that you want to rank for. Spyfu gathers YOUR keywords that rank in the top 50.
This is less about nudging out the other guys, and more about locating your own opportunities. When you can see clearly through Sypfu’s keyword competition tool that someone else is doing well in your market, you know there’s potential there for you to succeed, too. If someone else is doing it, that means it’s possible.
You May Also Enjoy: What is SEO?
How can You Actually Use this?
The Spyfu SEO tools for keyword competition are not free, but most things of genuine value aren’t. There are three tiers of membership, so you’ll need to determine which one works best for you.
Here’s How it Works
Once your account is established, here’s what you do:
- Go to Projects
- Create a new project
- Enter your domain name
- Add your own keywords
Using real estate for an example: (fictitious site) BallenMiami.com
Go to Google and type in “Miami homes for sale”. The focus at this phase in on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keywords, not on SEM or Search Engine Marketing. Skip the paid ads for now and start scrolling the competition for that search query.
Although you can use this with the big boys like Zillow and Trulia, it’s more beneficial for you to see the agents who are ranking. Seek out the independent agent or broker.
Open a Google spreadsheet and enter the following as your categories:
- Competitor
- Total Keywords
- SEO Clicks
- SEO Value
Start with your own results.
What you’re actually doing here is measuring your own market, and how you stand up against the competition.
When you type your competitor’s URL into the address bar of Spyfu, here’s what you get:
- The number of their organic keywords
- Estimated monthly SEO clicks
- Organic results vs. paid results
- Paid Search (AdWords)
- Estimated monthly clicks
For example, when searching Zillow for Miami, Florida, the information Spyfu provided is that Zillow ranks for two thousand organic keywords. From those two thousand keywords, Zillow gains 13.3 thousand clicks, for an estimated value of $11,800. 100 percent of those clicks are organic, and none are paid. What that means is if Zillow (or a competitor) were to buy those 13 thousand clicks, they would have to spend over $11,000 in paid advertising.
When you scroll down further, you get a list of which keywords Zillow is ranking for in that market. You can also see how many clicks they get from each organic keyword.
This is where you go back to your tracking sheet, or your spreadsheet. Under the competitor field, you’d type in Zillow. in the Total keywords, you’d enter 2,000. SEO clicks would be 13.3. Estimated value is $11,800.
You can now clearly see where you stand as opposed to where Zillow stands for ranking in your market.
The number of keywords is not as relevant as the number of clicks. You may rank for 5,000 keywords, but if those keywords aren’t being searched by viewers, you’re not going to get clicks. They can’t see you.
Repeat this process for a multitude of competitors in your market.
Also Selected for You: Find Exact Keywords Visitors Use to Find Your Real Estate Website
Going to Combat
Combat is the word Spyfu uses when comparing your website to your competitors. Here’s what you do:
- Click the Combat tab.
- Enter your website into the first of three competing websites.
- Enter two other competitors into the remaining spots.
- Click “Fight”.
Okay, it sounds vicious. But remember, you’re not looking for a TKO. You’re looking for your own weaknesses, your own opportunities. When you get the results for your competitor’s keywords, you’ll see overlapping circles of various sizes. Highest ranking has the biggest circle. Click on “Weakness”.
Weakness in Spyfu terms indicates keywords that the two competing websites already rank for whereas you do not. You just found your opportunity. This is where the keyword competition tool comes in extremely handy.
When you’ve obtained your list of all the keywords, select to view all rows so you can see them all. Then sort search volume from highest to lowest.
Find a keyword phrase in the list that you’d like to track. Click “Add”. That keyword is then saved in your projects box so you can track results for that keyword. When your same keyword ranks at 50 or higher, you’ll see competing numbers – where your competition ranks for that keyword phrase, and where you rank for that same phrase.
You May Also Enjoy: Utilizing Keywords with SEMrush
Using Google Keyword Planner as Your Partner in Crime
Having a partner in crime is always more fun when taking care of important business. Okay, it’s not really a crime. But it’s good to have another resource to use in conjunction with Spyfu.
Take one of the competing keywords and enter it into Google’s Keyword Planner, then search out ideas. You then have an entire list of keywords you may choose to go to combat with.
Take the top 100 searches in the United States only with low competition, then click “download”. This saves those keywords to Google Drive. Open Google Drive and copy those keywords. Then go back to Spyfu, click import, and paste that list of keywords. Those keywords are then added to your project and you can begin to build those for ranking.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
You don’t want to jump in the ring with your biggest, fiercest competitor. Start small. When you have your spreadsheet with your competitors’ keywords, find the two that rank just above you. Use those two as your competing websites.
You may benefit from a visit to those sites. What do their pages look like? Do they have IDX? Killer content? Maps? Whatever they’re doing is working. Don’t copy them, but emulate their style. Use an IDX, create stellar content, and include a map on your page. You are now set up to succeed.
Conclusion
This is not a catfight. You’re not aiming to bump and bruise your peers in the industry. By using Spyfu‘s keyword competition tool to compare your success to the success of others, you’re able to identify your strengths, your weaknesses, and begin to exercise those muscles. It’s not about beating the other guys. It’s about improving yourself.
Now go out there and Spyfu!
