I do not mean competition in a whole sense (this, I can check using google tools). I'm talking about a specific website with is my competitor... TIA, parappa
Keywords Spy offers a service that can do this, there is a free trial on his site. http://www.keywordspy.com/ non affilate link
Lots of them. The cheapest, that I always use is spyfu.com. Pay just for 3 days. Others are keywordelite.com and keycompete.com. Remember, there is no guarantee that competitors' keywords converts well. Some competitors and giant companies had lot of budget that they will pay for whatever keywords that could be related to the industry. For beginners, spying is a good idea, since it will help you brainstorming and give you overall impression about what people in your market will type when searching for your products.
spyfu.com have claimed for months now that they are opening in the UK 'next month' .. now it's June they claim. I'll believe it when I see it.
Huge waste of time. Even when you find those "golden keywords" you still have to "nurture" them to get your ctr up to even be able to compete. So why bother, just skip the spying and do it right from day one.
You are kidding right? Business is business - if you can find out what your competitors are bidding on and find out words which you are missing out on - GO FOR IT! I'm sure I don't have 100% the only keywords that will work for me and I'm damn sure some of my competitors are using others which would work a dream for me. If you can spy and add more keywords to your account, I would definately do it, no questions asked. "So why bother, just skip the spying and do it right from day one. That reminds me of a guy a few years ago who thought he was so smart, he didn't need the likes of Dreamweaver - instead his reply was 'why not just write it out in code its easy' Yes, you can get away without spying and brainstorm yourself, like you could write a website out by hand in notepad in HTML, but if you have shortcuts, use them!
I'm not so sure that spyfu is the cheapest option, there was script called adspypro that you could buy and install on your hosting. That had a one time fee and could monitor keywords for as long as you liked.
Actually, PPC-Coach is right: they're a complete waste of time, effort and money. Even if you do snatch all of your competitor's profitable keywords, it doesn't mean that the keywords will be profitable for you. You still have to go through the entire process of running and evaluating the keywords, just like you would have done had you gathered the keywords yourself. Newbies fall for this rubbish and waste their money. Don't you do the same. Personally, I hate spying tools and have no respect for people that use them. It shows a lack of the ability to think for oneself.
I just spotted in my logs someone is using keywordspy.com to spy on my site. Is there any way of blocking it?
Spying on competition is a necessity for any businessman to do, unfortunately there is no tool that will automate this for you. spy tools are not 100% accurate and you cant rely on the information
Exactly. I just went through a few tools and used keywords for clients from a previous job (just switched), and the tools are telling me that to be in the first position, my clients are paying a CPC 2-5 times the amount they actually were paying, which would really affect budgeting and CPA if someone were to go by this recommendation.
just discovered keywordspy.com and it seems to solve the problem if you are using it to spy other clickbank affiliates.
I tried the free trial with this, and it was totally out of sync - it claims I'm only bidding on 29 keywords - where it's actually nearer 2000. It also showed me as bidding on keywords that I wasn't.
If you know your niche well enough and know what your customers want you will know the best keywords to bid on. You will find only a small percentage of your keywords are profitable anyway so start with those keywords your gut tells you to use, test, test, test and you will eventually come up with a winner. Also go with the long tail, rather than bidding on "vacation" bid on "watersports vacation miami" try and think like your prospective customers do.
You are joking, right? 600 posts here and you find no value in obtaining a list of keywords where your competitors ads appear. 1) You are indeed joking. 2) You are not serious about PPC 3) You make no money 4) You are misleading the forum. 5) {Fill In The Blank} BTW, I have no affiliation to ANY spy Co's. Just in here checking out opinions. Good luck all .
I agree. If I find some nice niches through spying, where only 2 or 3 advertisers are bidding, it could well increase my business. It's certainly worth a go. I'm just waiting for Spyfu UK to come ... unfortunately I think I might be waiting until 2015.
1) No, I am not joking 2) I am very serious about PPC 3) I make a great full-time living 4) No, I am not misleading the forum 5) You are a moron that knows nothing about the subject
Well each to their own I guess, but if you can find out what your competitors are doing, it's an absolute no brainer to do so in my humble opinion. You aren't under any obligation to do what they are doing, but if I was given the option 'do you want to know what your competitors are doing or not?' it's a very very obvious, 'yes!'. It's a bit like Manchester United having the option of knowing what Liverpool are going to do tactically in a big Premiership showdown and replying with 'no thanks'. Just to clarify Masterful, as I'm still scratching my head over this and I must have missed something ... are you saying if you could find out what keywords your competitors are using, you wouldn't bother?
We seem to be on different subjects. I said that you shouldn't expect your competitors' profitable keywords to automatically be profitable for you, while you seem to be talking about whether or not it's worth knowing which keywords your competitors are bidding on.
I still think there are bound to be keywords that competitors are using which will be profitable for you as well, so exploring all avenues is again, a no brainer. You are under no obligation to use them - but knowing what they are is a damn good start One thing I don't agree with and it's when you said: Personally, I hate spying tools and have no respect for people that use them. It shows a lack of the ability to think for oneself. There's a difference between 'thinking for oneself' and appreciating the fact that no matter how far you go, there will always be odd things here and there that you haven't thought of. If I got 100,000 keywords 'thinking for oneself' and I found one of my competitors only had 5,000 keywords, yet 100 of theirs I didn't actually have - to hell for someone not respecting me for using those 100 keywords, I'd do it. Even if only 10 of those 100 convert for me, it's 10 I didn't have beforehand and it's helping my business. As Robert says further up which I agree with: 'Spying on competition is a necessity for any businessman to do' Someone not using a spy method, because they feel it's showing a 'lack of ability' I strongly disagree with and needs to get past the ego. I'd actually say somebody not spying on competitors' doesn't have the vision to see the benefits of doing such a thing.