In July I did a review of a SpyFu, a keyword analysis tool, and ever since I’ve included some SpyFu suggestions as part of my regular SEO Advice series. One issue I’ve noticed is that some of the websites that I reviewed had no data showing up for them on SpyFu.
Sidra Condron from SpyFu also noticed and took the time to write to me:
“Hi, Evan
I just wanted to check in and see how your SpyFu trial was working for you.
It’s great that you’ve incorporated SpyFu into giving a many entrepreneurs insight into their site’s performance or position. I’ve noticed that a few have come up as SpyFu not showing any data on their site. Just in case there is a question about that, this is generally the rule:
SpyFu searches over 2 million terms in Google. We capture data on the domains that rank in the Top 50 for each one of those terms. If a domain is not recognized, it was not in the Top 50 for any of those terms, or, we didn’t find any ads that domain hosted.
I hope all is going well.
Best regards,
Sidra Condron”
I didn’t realize that their algorithms looked at the top 50 sites ranking for 2 million different terms. What it means is that if you don’t rank in the top 50 for any of their keywords then your site won’t be listed in SpyFu. I wrote back to Sidra asking for some advice on what valuable advice I could offer through SpyFu for those websites that do not rank quite yet.
She gave an interesting response:
“Hi, Evan
I was ready to point out that SpyFu can reveal where the action is when it comes to your readers’ industries. However, it looks like you have a good grasp of that considering your advice regarding Sounds Of Rock. Comparing keywords where he/she could improve is exactly where I was going.
But since you asked, here’s where I would take it a step further. Google the terms that he would like to be associated with, (I went with “guitar lessons”) and pick out a handful of domains that rank well there.
Enter those domains into SpyFu. (I went with the top-ranked guitartricks.com)
Take a cue from those sites and collect not only their organic keywords, but also their paid ads.
With guitartricks.com’s results, there are dozens of paths to take for further research:
First, the organic results spotlight new terms that Brenn might never had considered. “7 string guitar lessons” anyone?
Onto the paid ads section, I can generate new keyword ideas like with the organic results. What’s more, I clicked on the pie icon to see a chart of its ad position distribution. There seems to be a varying spread of guitartricks.com’s keywords’ effectiveness when it comes to ad positions. Let’s say I want to exploit areas where they do not show up as strong in ad results. I can download this list of keywords to Excel, sort by ad position, and focus on mid-range positioned words. Or, maybe I use the sort function to rank by cost-per-click and/or clicks per day to help me understand where I might want to focus a campaign that I can best afford.
Those steps are basic, and many sharp SpyFu users find gold in the tiniest details revealed to them Much like Tribbles, the information offered seems to replicate into more. One search opens up to dozens of new ideas that lead to yet another search. We open the door to a wealth of information, and it’s what subscribers do with it that sets them apart.”
Thank you Sidra for takign the time to write and provide me with new ways of using SpyFu. I’ll try to implement some of these strategies for future SEO Advice posts.
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