"SpyFu - Home of Unreliable Data"

SpyFu basically sold a dream that you could accurately find out what your competitors were up to as well as give you blueprint for creating a Google AdWords campaign with keyword suggestions. None of this is true. Their info on who is buying AdWords is extremely unreliable. I was actually with a client showing them my SpyFu report on their competitors. SpyFu basically said their competitors were not using AdWords. Then the client showed me the competitors' AdWords campaign popping up in their browser. This is was a very concrete example of bad data, but I've had a feeling that their data was bad before this. I would find discrepancies here and there between what SpyFu was reporting to me and what I was seeing in the real world, but it was difficult to really pin down if there was just a lag in the SpyFu data collection or something else going on. But I now feel that I have proof that their data cannot be trusted to match what is happening in the real world.

Additionally, their keyword suggestions fluctuate wildly from what Google presents as it own keyword data. I asked a SpyFu rep about the discrepancy between the Google keyword suggestions and SpyFu's suggestions and the rep admitted that Google is going to be the more accurate source.

Another feature that I found unreliable was their "backlink tool" that would show you other sites linking to the site you're investigating. How it works is, I'm researching Site A. I investigate the backlinks. SpyFu says that Site A has backlinks at Site B, C, and D. But here's the problem, go to B, C, and D and you likely will find no links to Site A. What's the point of showing backlinks that don't seem to link at all? If this happened only occasionally, that would be one thing, but it happens more often than not. Whether this is caused by out of date data or whatever, it still renders the tool useless.

As a final note, when I cancelled SpyFu, I was given a retention offer to keep the service at half price for life. Just throwing that out there. If you, for whatever reason, want to use this junk, make sure your at least not paying full price for it.

"I was able to cancel WITHOUT any hassle"

I only needed SpyFu for a short period of time (6 months) and then no longer needed it. When I signed up, they said I would be able to cancel at any time with NO questions asked. And they were TRUE to their word. I cancelled with NO hassles or anything. A very HONEST company. When I have a need in the future, I will sign up with them in the future.

And also, it's a great product!

"Excellent insights"

I know I have just scratched the surface of the information I can access with Spyfu but already I'm using the data to improve our AdWords campaigns.

"SpyFu as a company offer great customer service"

SpyFu customer service is great, and they are willing to help and respond to queries quite quickly. The software is great for US searches but find it not as accurate for UK local searches, would be one of the best if they had other countries in Europe and the world for local searches. as I love the other features, like the PPC tools, uncovering KW's competitors are not ranking for, and the many other features it has. Price is quite affordable to if you pay upfront in a year, make a huge saving if you can afford it.

Michael
Danzy Design and Marketing Consultancy
www danzydma co uk

"Honest opinion"

I found spyfu very useful for keyword researching and coming up with better ppc campaign structure , from finding hot keywords yoiur competition uses to uncovering their SEO strategy by checking their backlings and their ppc adgroups . Easy to use , fairly accurate and has most features you probably need to hava a succesful campaign . I discovered spyfu tru SEARCH TALK LIVE PODCAST and i suggest everyone listen to it cheers guys

"great info"

i'm not a computer whiz...but, SpyFu gives great info...i would only suggest more info on how to implement information given.

"Great tool for gaining organic searches to your website!"

We started over a year ago to use the spyfu tool and it has helped us increase our first page keywords and organic searches.

It has also helped us understand our primary competitors use of keywords and backlinks. All of this information combined helped us double our value of clicks in the last year.

"Data vs. Usability"

The data is great but the service is not optimised. Tutorage on reading the data as well as impact tracking is minimal but an experienced data reader should find valuable insights.

"Spyfu has a clear interface"

Love the video tutorials.
Love the features.
I use it as a second opinion to Semrush's results every day.
Couldn't afford to miss this tool in my job.

"No Limits Keyword Research. A+++"

The best part: There are no limits, plus the data provided is valuable.
The good part: Site can be slightly faster, sometimes its slow to load.
The not so good part: Costs $79 a month!