Monitor Backlinks, as its name implies, allows users to be notified when websites gain or lose backlinks, and also to understand what links are good for SEO.
$20
per month
SpyFu
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
SpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…
Monitor Backlinks is perfect for any small business that has a website. Every website gets hit with spammy backlinks, and being able to identify and remove them is critical to online success, and in preventing the Google penalty. In addition, it helps SEOs locate good backlinks they might not know about, which can then be posted on social networks and social bookmarking sites to generate more referral traffic. I would not recommend Monitor Backlinks for a business that does not have a website, or for a business that only has a blog.
If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.
It is highly recommended if you have a high ranking website that is prone to competitors building spam. It makes the process if identifying, tracking and disavowing spam links fast and easy.
It is a good tool to track positive mentions of your site as well and does a good job monitoring the reputation of your site by picking up mentions of your website across the web.
It's affordable for what it does compared to its competitors and its also very easy to use. But their customer service is always there to help out in case you need it.
A great option would be to have the ability to create organic keyword ranks for keywords in specific categories, not just keywords for our entire website. Specifically, the ability to create custom lists for keyword groups. This would be a huge time-saver for SEOs whose websites have varied keyword groups.
Currently, I get email notifications from Monitor Backlinks once every week or so. These emails show new backlinks and any changes in existing backlink status. I log into the platform each morning to see what is going on, but a great addition would be real-time emails that alert you when a really low-quality backlink is uncovered.
Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.
They were fast, eager to help me out on my project and very knowledgeable on how to user their product and helping me to get up and running. This gave me the confidence to purchase the product and execute my projects knowing that I could ask for help whenever needed.
SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.
I used Ahrefs Site Explorer for two years, and it is a really good platform with lots of backlink tools. Ahrefs stacks up well against Monitor Backlinks, and it has slightly more features. I opted for Monitor Backlinks because it has a simple and streamlined dashboard and just the right amount of tools and features I need.
I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.
It's hard to gauge the effect of negative SEO attacks but they have the power to bring your whole site down, so having a tool like this setup is really priceless.
Their cost is also very affordable when compared to similar tools that do not have the same functionality or level of detail that they offer on their analysis so from that perspective is a savings right from the start.
