Learn PPC and SEO Keyword Research | SpyFu Tutorials, Videos

Getting Started

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Step-By-Step Guides

Find the Keywords Most Important to Your Market

Part I: Where to Find New Ideas
Part II: Create Structure in Your Research
Part III: Build on the Ideas You Found

Move Yourself Up the Page for Specific Keywords

Part I: Research and Identify Your Target Keywords
Part II: Establish Your Baseline
Part III: Run a Technical Site Audit

Starting an AdWords Campaign From Scratch

Part I: The Basics That You Need to Begin
Part II: Choosing Your Keywords
Part III: Writing Ads and Landing Page Copy

Researching Your Competitor’s Marketing Strategy

Part I: Type your competitor’s domain into SpyFu.
Part II: Search your own domain in SpyFu.
Part III: Dig in Deeper

Planning a Content Marketing Campaign

Part I: Don't Shoot for Perfect
Part II: Really Understand and Set Your Goals
Part III: Find Your Baseline

Build a Keyword Tool into Your Research

Part I: Understand 3rd party tools vs Google's keyword tool
Part II: Learn how to use keyword tool for research
Part III: Review top keyword tools available

Selling SEO to your clients

Tips for new PPC campaigns

Improve my SEO campaign

Improve my AdWords campaign

Product Intros

Kombat

Compare up to 3 competitors to find winning keywords you've missed.

Backlinks

Uncover the best backlink opportunities to grow your rankings.

Ad History

See how competitors improved their ad copy over time.

Keyword Groupie

Automatically organize a domain's keywords into targeted groups.

Keyword SmartSearch

All the power of SpyFu in a search bar.

Recon Files

Discover opportunities and successes for your SEM campaigns.

Ranking History

Compare pages that rank on the same keyword or many keywords.

Leads

PItch the right businesses on sales or new partnerships

Quick Solutions

1Do I have to turn my AdWords login over to you?
Do I have to turn my AdWords login over to you?
You don’t have to share any of your AdWords account with us. All of our data is collected from Google, so we never ask anyone to give us access to their private information.
2The domains I am interested in are very small and/or local. How can SpyFu help me?
The domains I am interested in are very small and/or local. How can SpyFu help me?
Looking at the larger domains in the same industry can give you an idea of strong keywords and ad copy to use for SEM/SEO. You can also add keywords to SpyFu that we don’t already search. Longtail and niche-focused keyword can help us find smaller domains. Local phrases like “Sacramento weight management” can help us give you better answers in the future.
3Why is there a full month of data missing from a historically strong keyword?
Why is there a full month of data missing from a historically strong keyword?
If that happens it means that in those months, we didn’t see any ads displayed when we searched our keyword. This is different from not getting any data for that month. In fact, you can click on the cache page link next to the keyword (on the results page) to see the actual Google page we saw. In those cases, there will be no ads.
4I know that I rank on more/fewer words than what you have listed. What’s going on?
I know that I rank on more/fewer words than what you have listed. What’s going on?
More: If you know you rank on more, there could be more than one explanation. Any one of these could apply:
- Some of the terms that you rank on might not be in our list of the millions of search terms that we run each month. You can fix that easily. SpyFu subscribers can add new keywords to our database, and we’ll start searching them the following month.
- It is one of our terms, but your site didn’t show up any of the times we searched. This could have happened because the site did not rank high enough on that term (within the first 2 pages of ads) or, if it was late in the day, your ad budget could have been used up.
- The domain might have just started advertising this month, and we are still collecting the data.
Or if you think you rank on fewer keywords: If you think there is no way you rank on a certain term, consider this. We keep old ads in our system, so if you ranked on an ad last year we still have it. Let’s say that you didn’t expect to rank on “art supplies,” but we show that you do. Here is how you can see where we made the connection:
1. Click on that term (or just search for “art supplies” in SpyFu) to get to its page.
2. Verify that you see your domain in the list of advertisers on that term’s page (You might have to click on “view more.”)
3. Click on “View Cached Page” in the term stats to see the actual downloaded Google page for further verification.
Also, “broad match” could be the culprit. Read the article “Using SpyFu Kombat to Highlight Negative Keywords to Trim the Fat” for more on this occurrence.
5Why don’t you show any results for the domain I entered?
Why don’t you show any results for the domain I entered?
When we collect data, we start with a set of millions of keywords and collect the domains that appear on them–both paid results and natural/organic results. If we don’t have any results to show when you search a domain in SpyFu, it’s because that domain did not appear as a result at the time that we ran our keywords. These are the most likely explanations:
- The domain might not rank in the top 50 natural/organic results for any of the keywords in our database.
- The domain did not appear on the first 2 pages of paid results/ads.
It’s important to remember, the domain did not appear as a result at the time that we searched for a particular keyword. Read the next answer for a more detailed explanation.
6How accurate is SpyFu?
How accurate is SpyFu?
We think it’s the most accurate, best-in-class SEM data available without drilling right into your Adwords account.

Every point about ranking or advertising that you see on SpyFu — every ad, every organic rank — can be traced back to a specific Search Engine Result Page *(SERP)* that we saw on Google. We keep a screenshot of every single one going back over 9 years to when we first started collecting data. It helps us back up what we say.

The figures like costs, search volume and number of clicks are estimates that come from other sources. This video gives better details about how we get that data.

1I added new keywords. What happens next?
I added new keywords. What happens next?
Your added keywords appear across the SpyFu site and in Recon Files reports. If you add them in the first half of the month, we can start searching for them with enough time to roll them out in the following month’s results. For example, add them by January 12, and we should have them in to roll out the first week of February. Add them January 17 for example, and you will see those keywords and their results at the beginning of March.
2Can you manage my SEO/PPC campaign for me?
Can you manage my SEO/PPC campaign for me?
Sorry, no. We support the SEO and PPC pros who make those campaigns happen. Our expertise is behind the scenes: uncovering competitive insights that will help you make the right call so your campaign is successful.

We do know some more experienced professionals we can recommend.
3Do you track any other search engines, or only Google?
Do you track any other search engines, or only Google?
We added Bing/Yahoo results to the weekly tracking updates. This special feature rounds up Bing and Google rankings on SEO keywords that you select in the Recon Keyword Ranking Reports or the PPC or SEO keywords that you choose in the Weekly Tracking feature.

The massive keyword database that we use to pull data into the site’s features like domain overview, keyword overviews, Kombat, Ad History and special domain reports comes from Google only.
4Can I use SpyFu for data in Australia? Canada? Any other country?
Can I use SpyFu for data in Australia? Canada? Any other country?
Since we show data for Google.com and Google.co.uk, we tend to capture some domains from other countries when they rank high enough in the results we show. However, we don’t have full results for any countries outside of US and UK.

What we get is national data for the US and national data for the UK. These are not geo-targeted or broken down by specific areas.
5How did you get your information and how often do you update it?
How did you get your information and how often do you update it?
We get our information from Google, showing data from Google.com for US results and Google.co.uk for UK results. We do not collect data from Bing or Yahoo.

We update our data on SpyFu.com and SpyFu Recon Files once per month.

The most recent month is collected and given a name (everything that happened throughout March is called 03/01), and it rolls out to the site the following month. This usually happens in the first week. March results would appear toward the beginning of April.
6Why is the daily ad spending for my company so different than it actually is?
Why is the daily ad spending for my company so different than it actually is?
The daily spend that we show is an estimate of a domain’s AdWords spending. It doesn’t include their budget for display ads or search ads that run on other sites. Estimated budgets help size up a competitor or potential client and give you a good baseline for comparing domains.

In this video, we give a pretty detailed explanation of how we work with that data and what happens when we’re wrong.

What about an ad budget without keywords?

There is a rare case where you might find a domain with an ad budget, but when you click through to find recent keywords, there are none.

This is due to a safety net we put into place with our ad budget calculations here at SpyFu. We don’t want to rush to conclusions about a domain when we don’t find any keywords for it. While a domain can suddenly turn off all ad spend at any time, that might blink off of our radar for a second but then come back strong next month. We trend a domain’s ad budget to zero over a 4 month period. Our intention is to smooth out the data to account for any hiccups.

At the time this article is being written (August 2016) we are also making major improvements to our data collection, which should improve data quality, reduce hiccups, and possibly eliminate or reduce the need for stat smoothing.

1When do my monthly Recon reports recur?
When do my monthly Recon reports recur?
They are started automatically once we roll out new data to the Recon site. This is usually the first week of the month.
2How long does it take to run a Recon report?
How long does it take to run a Recon report?
This can be a few hours or a few days. Usually, the size of the domain itself (how many keywords it has) determines the time it takes to create the report.
3How do I cancel?
How do I cancel?
Let us know via email at support@spyfu.com, live chat, Twitter (@SpyFu) or phone if you’d like to cancel. We can end your subscription right there and confirm the cancelation for you. You can also use the “subscription” link in your account drop down menu.
4How can I upgrade my subscription?
How can I upgrade my subscription?
Look for the upgrade button in the upper right of your home page dashboard just below your user name. You don’t have to wait for the end of your subscription cycle, either. Drop us a line in live chat for help, and we can prorate your current month’s payment toward your new plan.
5How much money will I need to spend to compete in my market?
How much money will I need to spend to compete in my market?
Determine your closest competitors, and open their domain page. Here, we show you their estimated daily ad spending.

You will also want to determine if their strategy is similar to the strategy that you can afford to use. You can be a small competitor and still thrive alongside a behemoth advertiser, but you would never be expected to duplicate their budget.

Review a domain’s Ad Percentile, Average Ad Position and Average Ad Competitors to highlight their track record in ranking. You will be able to spot advertisers with tight, disciplined strategies vs. those that are winging it. That helps you determine how responsible they are with their budget which in turn shows how flexible you can (or should) be in emulating them.
6How many domains and keywords can I search with SpyFu?
How many domains and keywords can I search with SpyFu?
You can search as many domains or keywords as you’d like on SpyFu, as often as you’d like, for as long as you’d like. (No timed trial that runs out.) When you search with a premium membership, you can also export the full list of results without restrictions.

In-Depth Tutorials

Keyword Research 101

What is keyword research? | How to find Ranking History | Negative keywords | Long-Tail keywords

Find Valuable Inbound Links

Change the way you find backlink leads | Zero in on the king makers | Get your competitors' shared backlinks that you're missing | Find the best backlinks for specific keywords | Avoid junk links in your backlinks search | Forums or .GOV links? Different page types change your pitch

A Beginner's Look at AdWords

Write successful ad copy | PPC on a budget | Identify your PPC competitors | Find the keywords your competitors agree on

Take the Next Step in PPC

Create 100 ad variations in 5 minutes | Ads that worked for your competitors | Winning keyword+ad combinations | Simplify ad+keyword groups

Customize and Brand Your Reports

What is white-labeling? | Add your own logos | Write your own commentary | Change the report designa and template | Hide report sections | Filter keywords

Get New Keyword Ideas

Better keyword suggestions than Google's tool | Locate Keyword Niches | Advanced research operators | Targeted keyword lists

Put Keyword Groups to Work

Why keyword groups are crucial | Easily update your AdWords campaign | Content creation plans

Competitive Intelligence

Competitor AdWords Ad Copy | Track your competitor's rankings | Avoid your competitor's past mistakes

B2B Lead Gen and Outreach

Cut past the fluff to learn exactly what this company does | The tech they use tells you how to approach any company | Social media erases that "cold-call" | Search B2B leads by keyword | Combine filters to reach your ideal prospects

Stretch Your AdWords Budget

Reduce wasteful spending | Lower your cost per click (CPC) | Find more-profitable keywords | Improve your AdWords quality score

A Beginner's Look at SEO

Prioritize your SEO objectives | Track your keyword rankings | Measure & report your progress

Selling SEO via Recon Reports

What are Recon Reports? | What's the difference between the two reports? | Land new SEO clients | Sell to prospects with poor SERP presence | Prove the value of SEO to clients | Expand your SEO business | Convince clients to spend more on SEO | Manage client reporting

Write Stronger Ad Copy

Ad copy by keyword | Ad copy by domain | Get competitor's ad copy | Write better ad copy | Successful keyword / ad copy combinations