Google Ending Chrome Updates for older Android devices – Nokiamob


Google Ending Chrome Updates for older Android versions. Time to upgrade. The company has officially announced it will stop providing Chrome updates for devices running Android 8.0 (Oreo) and Android 9.0 (Pie) in the coming weeks. According to the company’s support page, Chrome version 138 will be the final update compatible with these older Android versions. Users will need to upgrade to at least Android 10 to receive Chrome version 139, which is set for release on August 5.
Android Oreo and Pie versions primarily run on devices released in the mid-to-late 2010s. Recent Android distribution data reveals that approximately 9.8% of active Android phones still operate on these older versions. Notable models affected include early Google Pixel phones up to the Pixel 3XL, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, and the OnePlus 5 and 5T.
In contrast, Android 10 (Q), currently running on about 10.2% of Android phones, will continue to receive Chrome updates for the foreseeable future. Google emphasized that Chrome will remain functional on Android 8 and 9, though no further updates or security patches will be provided, potentially increasing vulnerability risks over time.
Google advises users of devices running these older Android versions to upgrade their systems to Android 10.0 or higher if feasible. Users can easily verify their Android version or check for updates by navigating to the device settings and selecting “About phone” or “System updates.”
With the recent rollout of Android 16, introducing new features like Material 3 Expressive, users are encouraged to consider upgrading to devices compatible with newer Android versions to ensure continued access to important Chrome updates and enhanced security.
Google



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8 Best Competitor Research Tools to Spy on Your Competition – 99signals

Do you rely on competitor research to identify new content opportunities for your site? If you’d like to do it more efficiently, you need a trusted competitor research tool by your side.
As a blogger and agency owner who’s been doing SEO for the last several years, I can’t overstate the importance of competitor research in the SEO landscape. A robust competitive analysis plan can unpack a plethora of content opportunities and help you gain a strong foothold in your niche.
To that end, you need to invest in an SEO tool that has excellent competitive research capabilities. In this article, I’ll list down 8 of the best competitor research tools you should consider investing in.
Table of Contents
Semrush is one of the most revered SEO reporting tools on the market. While the tool has a plethora of useful SEO and content marketing features, it’s primarily known for its outstanding keyword research and competitor research capabilities.
The Semrush Competitive Research toolkit allows you to identify your main organic competitors, their best performing organic keywords, top pages, top paid keywords, traffic stats, and much more.
Let me briefly explain how to do competitor research in Semrush. If you’re not a Semrush user, I’d urge you to sign up for a 14-day free trial to implement some of the action items explained below.
Try Semrush Pro free for 2 weeks
To get started, click on “Competitive Research Toolkit” and go through this sequence:
SEO > Organic Research > Enter your competitor’s domain
You’ll get a top-level view of your competitor’s organic keywords, estimated monthly organic traffic, alongside other important SEO metrics.
The overview report will also highlight a few of your competitor’s top organic keywords:
And the top-ranking pages, along with their percentage share of organic traffic and the total number of organic keywords they currently rank for.
Super useful information because you’ll know exactly what keywords and pages are driving the highest search traffic to your competitor’s site.
Hit the “View all” button under each section to see the complete list of keywords that your competitor ranks for and the complete list of top-ranking pages.
Adjust the filters in the report to arrive at the most relevant data.
But that’s not all. Semrush also reveals your competitors’ advertising strategies in Google Ads and allows you to monitor their social media efforts.
Navigate to “Advertising Research” from the sidebar menu and if your competitor is running ads on Google, you’ll be able to view their paid keywords, URLs ranking in paid search results, and ad copies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Semrush‘s competitor research features. To really understand the depth of data you can gather on your top rivals, you’ll need to spend some time using the tool.
For that reason, I’d highly recommend that you sign up for a free trial of Semrush Pro to test some of these features out and see how it adds value to your overall marketing efforts.
The feature that sets Semrush apart from the other competitor analysis tools on this list is the Advertising suite. You can unpack a ton of advertising data that’s just not possible with other competitive analysis tools on the market.
In addition to being a robust SEO competitor analysis tool, Semrush is also one of the best social media competitor analysis tools on the market. With Semrush’s Social Media Tracker, you can monitor your competitors’ social media presence and gain insights on what content is trending in your industry.
Another noteworthy tool in the Semrush suite is the Traffic Analytics tool — a market intelligence and competitive research tool that provides accurate estimations of any website’s desktop and mobile traffic. It’s an add-on tool that costs $200/mo. It’s slightly on the expensive side, but the unique insights you can gain on your competitors make it a worthwhile investment.
To learn more about Semrush‘s Traffic Analytics, check out The Ultimate Guide to Semrush Traffic Analytics.
Semrush offers 3 plans:
If you’re an SEO beginner, it’s better to get started with Semrush’s Pro plan ($139.95/mo). You’ll get access to all the features and 40+ advanced tools, including Semrush‘s competitive research toolkit.
Since I run a digital marketing agency and manage multiple websites, I use Semrush’s Guru plan ($249.95/mo). If you manage an agency or SMB, it’s better to go with Semrush‘s Guru plan. You’ll have higher limits and get access to advanced features like historical data and branded reports.
At $499.95/month, Semrush’s Business plan is best suited for large agencies, e-commerce companies, and enterprises with complex SEO problems.
If you’ve never tried Semrush before and want to experiment with some of the features discussed above, I’d encourage you to sign up for a 30-day free trial of Semrush Pro. Click on the link below to activate your trial.
Try Semrush Pro free for 2 weeks
BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool that lets you discover content ideas in your niche, identify top influencers, and analyze competitor content.
If you’re ever in need of ideas for your next post, you can always bet on BuzzSumo to deliver. It’s packed with innovative features, but for the purpose of this post, let’s just focus on BuzzSumo’s competitive analysis capabilities.
With BuzzSumo, you can uncover your competitors’ top-performing posts, track all the key metrics around these posts, and find out which social networks perform the best.
Let’s take a deeper look at some of BuzzSumo’s competitor research features. You can sign up for a 1-week free trial of BuzzSumo by clicking here to implement the action items below.
To analyze your competitors on BuzzSumo, plug in your competitor’s domain in the search box:
You’ll see your competitor’s top-performing posts in terms of social shares.
By default, BuzzSumo shows the domain’s top-performing posts in the last 12 months.
So you may have to play around with the filters to get the most relevant data for your research. For instance, if you’d like to analyze your competitors’ recently produced content, just select the “Past Month” filter to see the engagement metrics for your competitor’s latest posts.
BuzzSumo also allows you to track your competitors’ backlinks. While you can view any site’s backlinks by simply entering their domain in the search box and find sites willing to link to content in your niche, the real value is in determining backlinks a specific URL has generated.
Why? Because if you have similar content on your blog, you can target these sites in your email outreach campaign and get high-quality backlinks.
To view backlinks of a specific URL, simply copy-paste the URL in the search box. Pay special attention to the engagement metrics of each site to determine the quality of the backlink.
But that’s not all: You can also use BuzzSumo as a YouTube competitor analysis tool. Just plug in your competitor’s channel name in the search bar and get access to engagement metrics for all their videos.
Armed with these insights, you’ll know exactly what kind of videos are resonating with your target audience on YouTube.
You can then replicate and improve upon some of these ideas to drive more engagement towards your YouTube channel.
In my opinion, BuzzSumo’s most unique feature is the monitoring feature. With this feature, you can track brand mentions of your competitors and always stay ahead of the curve.
BuzzSumo sends an email alert every time someone links to one of your competitors.
The other aspect that needs to be highlighted about BuzzSumo is the advanced filtering options available in Content Analyzer.
You can access advanced filtering options by hitting “+More Filters.”
You can get really granular in your competitor research efforts by selecting specific filters to obtain the most relevant data for your needs. For instance, if you’d like to see the infographics published by your competitor in the last few months, just select the “Infographic” option under Content Type.
Similarly, if you’d like to analyze your competitor’s long-form posts, select the “In-depth articles only” filter under Word Count.
In other words, BuzzSumo’s advanced filters do all the heavy lifting for you and you’ll be able to zero-in on the information you need in a quick and efficient manner.
As is the trend with other leading SEO and content marketing tools on the market, BuzzSumo’s pricing plans start at $199/month. Here’s the current pricing structure followed by BuzzSumo:
Most bloggers and content creators can go with the Content Creation plan which offers unlimited monthly searches and 2 alerts.
If you’re in a super competitive niche or run a digital agency, BuzzSumo’s PR & Comms plan ($299/mo) offers the best value. In addition to greater limits, you also get access to Question Analyzer, one of BuzzSumo’s best features.
Large companies and agencies can benefit from the amount of data that can be unpacked with BuzzSumo’s Suite plan ($499/mo). It’s also the ideal plan for YouTubers as you get access to BuzzSumo’s YouTube Analyzer.
If you need to add more users and would like access to BuzzSumo’s API, you can get in touch with BuzzSumo to get more details on BuzzSumo’s Enterprise plan ($499+/mo).
Regardless of the plan you choose, I’d highly recommend you try BuzzSumo free for 7 days to explore the features discussed above.
Sign up for BuzzSumo
Recommended reading: How to Use BuzzSumo: 18 Advanced Ways to Use BuzzSumo
Serpstat is a powerful platform for competitor research and analysis. It provides deep insights into your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies, allowing you to stay one step ahead.
The platform has a pretty large keyword database, which includes 230 Google regional databases, 7.2 billion search queries, 1.8 billion domains, 39.4 million ads, and 4.9 billion search suggestions.
In addition, Serpstat has its own backlink index which includes 386 million domains, 1 trillion links, 2.5 million domains crawled daily and 2 billion unique links crawled daily.
Serpstat offers more than 50 tools for keyword research, competitor research, rank tracking, site audit, backlink analysis, content analysis, and keyword clustering.
Let’s examine the competitor research features of Serpstat.
To find out who are your organic competitors are, you can visit:
Domain analysis > SEO research > Competitors
Enter your domain here and hit the “Search” button to generate a list of domains that rank for similar keywords as your domain.
(Side note: The same report is available in the PPC research section. You can use this report to identify your PPC competitors.)
In the report, you can click on any of the competing domains to generate a Domain Overview report.
This report will present a summary information on the selected domain: visibility, estimated traffic, number of keywords in SEO and PPC, ads, subdomains, graphs with dynamics, and a short preview of detailed reports.
To get deeper insights, open a “Tree view” report in the left menu to see the structure of your competitor’s website: every page, including the domain and subdomains, and keywords for which they rank in specific positions.
Next, you can analyze your competitor’s backlink profile with Serpstat’s “Backlink analysis” tool.
Navigate to Backlink analysis > Backlink dashboard
This report will show you key backlink metrics for the domain, including:
The “Link Intersect” tool is a great way to research your competitors. This tool lets you see which websites are linking to your competitors and gives you the ability to find new link building opportunities.
The tool allows you to compare the referring domains and backlinks of your site with those of 2 other competitors.
Using filters, you can see the backlink donors your site does not have, but your competitors do. Quite simply, it shows you potential backlink opportunities for your site.
Serpstat also offers other tools worth mentioning, for instance, the “Batch analysis” tools.
You can check a list of competitors and get information on metrics from Domain analysis and Backlink analysis. This will allow you to see weaknesses and strengths, and analyze the growth of your project in comparison to competitors. In the same way, you can analyze keywords in bulk to check search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty, and competition in PPC.
Speaking of keywords, it’s hard not to mention Serpstat’s “Keyword trends” tool — it shows the most popular queries by country, city, date, and language in real-time.
This is a real find for content creators to catch on a trending topic before your competitors set their eyes on the same.
Also worth mentioning are Serpstat’s AI Content analysis tools. These tools can really help you speed up the process of content creation thanks to AI. You can generate titles, descriptions, articles, ads, and FAQs.
In addition, you can check the text for plagiarism, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and more. The tools are still in their Alpha version, which means they are still in the development stage.
Serpstat offers 4 plans:
If you are a freelancer or run a small company, the Lite plan ($69/mo) will be a good choice for you. You get access to all 50 tools for SEO, PPC, and SEM, including competitor analysis.
Serpstat’s Standard plan ($149/mo) is ideal for in-house marketing teams and small marketing agencies. It includes the Lite plan features, plus the ability to create a team of 3 users and the option to create branded reports.
For large agencies and in-house teams of large online stores, it’s better to opt for Serpstat’s Advanced plan ($299/mo). You get features included in Lite and Standard plans, plus more credits and a team of 5 users.
The Enterprise plan ($499/mo) is a fit for niche leaders and large companies and eCommerce stores. It includes the features of Advanced plan, plus the White Label option (to create reports under your brand name), the maximum number of credits for all tools, and the option to create a team of 7 users.
If you’ve never tried Serpstat before, you can start with a 7-day free trial – this is a great opportunity to test not just the competitor research features outlined here, but all the other tools the platform offers.
Click the link below and get 7 days of free access to all the tools within the platform.
Sign up for Serpstat
Talking about competition, one tool that’s had to navigate the tough competitive landscape to create an identity for itself is SE Ranking. Launched in 2013 in an already crowded space of cloud-based SEO tools, SE Ranking has grown steadily over the years and is now used by over 400,000 users across the world.
SE Ranking features a set of tools for site audit, keyword research, backlink analysis, and PPC analysis. It also has formidable competitor research features, which is why it’s included in this list.
With SE Ranking, you can identify your competitors’ top organic keywords, top paid keywords, best-performing posts, most popular ads, and much more.
Let’s take a deeper look at some of these features. To implement the action items below, sign up for a 2-week free trial of SE Ranking by clicking here.
Click on the “Competitor Research” tab and enter your competitor’s domain in the search box. The overview report will provide a quick summary of your competitor’s organic traffic and paid traffic.
While you’re still in the overview report, scroll down to view your competitor’s top organic keywords and the distribution of organic keyword rankings. To view more organic keywords alongside critical keyword metrics, hit the “View Detailed Report” button below the column.
Scroll down further in the overview report to find your competitor’s best-performing pages. These are the pages generating the highest amount of search traffic to their site.
Hit “View Detailed Report” to see all the top pages in organic search. Pay special attention to the top 10 pages in the report and organic traffic share of each page.
Click on the number of keywords against each page to see the top organic keywords your competitor is currently ranking for.
These are the keywords you’d want to target while replicating the top organic pages and posts of your closest competitor. Just make sure your content is 10x better to increase its chances of ranking higher and attracting natural backlinks.
Return to the overview report to analyze your competitor’s PPC strategy. The “Paid keywords” column shows your competitor’s top 5 paid keywords. Hit the “View Detailed Report” button to open up the paid research report.
This report will show your competitor’s estimated paid traffic, the total number of paid keywords, and a complete list of paid keywords your competitor is targeting in Google ads.
You can also use SE Ranking to view your competitors’ backlinks in order to replicate their link building strategies.
Visit the “Backlink Checker” tab and enter your competitor’s domain in the search box.
The Backlink overview report will show you data on your competitors’ referring domains, backlinks, dofollow/nofollow ratio, alongside other key backlink metrics.
To view the complete list of sites linking to your competitor’s domain, click on the Referring Domains number.
You can adjust the filters in this report to identify the most authoritative backlinks your competitor has obtained over the years. These are the backlinks you’d want to replicate for your site to beat your competition in SERPs.
SE Ranking has a few features that deserve a special mention. The first feature I’d like to highlight is SE Ranking’s Report Builder, which allows you to create personalized reports and present critical SEO data points to your clients in a clear and concise manner.
If you run an agency, you’ll be mighty pleased with this feature.
The other feature that’s worth talking about is the “Competitor Comparison” feature, where you can compare the organic traffic and keywords of your domain with two of your main organic competitors.
Running this check will allow you to see what keywords your domain has in common with your competitors and what keywords are unique to your domain.
More importantly, you’ll discover missing keywords — these are the top keywords your competitors are ranking for that your site is not. If you ever run out of keyword ideas for your next piece of content, these are the keywords you need to consider.
SE Ranking is one of the most affordable SEO services on the market, with plans starting at $39 a month. You can further save 20% on any SE Ranking plan by opting for annual billing.
Here’s the pricing structure that SE Ranking currently follows:
The Essential plan ($55/mo) is ideal for solopreneurs, SMBs, and bloggers. You’ll get access to all features and you can add up to 10 projects/websites and monitor 750 keyword rankings.
If you run a digital marketing agency, then the Pro plan ($109/mo) is better suited for your needs as there’s no restriction on the number of projects you can add to your account. You also get to monitor 2000 keyword rankings and run site audits for 250,000 pages.
The Business plan, as the name suggests, is meant for large enterprises and big agencies as you’ll have greater limits and even get access to SE Ranking API.
Sign up for SE Ranking
Ahrefs is one of the leading SEO tools on the market. When it was launched in 2012, it was primarily used for backlink analysis. Since then, the tool has evolved into a full-fledged SEO software by integrating advanced keyword research and content marketing features.
Despite adding several useful features to their toolkit, backlink analysis continues to be Ahrefs’ biggest strength. And it’s this strength that you can leverage to uncover a ton of competitive intelligence data to boost your search rankings.
First off, you can use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to find out how your competitors are acquiring backlinks and replicate their link building strategies.
To do this, enter your competitor’s domain into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer:
A quick glance at key metrics like referring domains and backlinks in the overview report should give you an indication of how robust your competitor’s link building strategies are.
To get deeper insights into your competitor’s backlink profile, navigate to the “Referring domains” report.
Here you’ll be able to view all the websites that link to your competitor’s domain.
Click on the “Links to target” number against each website to view all the pages from that website that link to your competitor.
If you have similar pages on your website targeting the same keywords, you’d want to take note of these links for your future link building efforts.
You can also take a look at your competitor’s newly-acquired backlinks by navigating to Backlinks > New in the overview report. This will show all the backlinks acquired by your competitor in the last 3 months.
And finally, you can gain super actionable insights by finding your competitor’s best pages by backlinks. To access this data, navigate to Pages > Best by links in the overview report.
Here you’ll find your competitor’s top pages based on the number of incoming links.
This report contains a treasure trove of useful data as it shows you what kind of content attracts the highest number of backlinks in your industry. You can then aim towards creating similar (and better) content on your site and steal some of your competitor’s best backlinks.
Aside from identifying your competitors’ most linked-to pages, Ahrefs also helps you find your competitors’ most-shared content in the Top Content report.
This report is really useful for finding topics that resonate with your social media audience.
In addition to this, you also have Ahrefs SEO Toolbar, an SEO Chrome extension that provides you with instant analytics on any site or search result.
In my opinion, Ahrefs’ SEO extension is one of the best SEO Chrome extensions on the web. Its usefulness is only amplified when you combine it with a paid Ahrefs account.
You can use it to get an in-depth on-page report on any page you visit, alongside important SEO metrics and data points like domain rating, URL rating, total number of referring domain and backlinks, organic traffic, keywords, and much more.
Ahrefs offers 4 monthly pricing plans:
My biggest pet peeve with Ahrefs is that they don’t offer a free trial on any of their plans. You need to pay $7 for a 1-week trial of Ahrefs’ Lite or Standard plan. This structure is mainly followed to prevent trial abuse, but at a time when most of Ahrefs’ competitors are offering a free trial on their software, it wouldn’t hurt Ahrefs to do the same to help potential users try all the features before making their decision.
Like Ahrefs and BuzzSumo, Ahrefs’ basic plan costs $129/month and is ideal for bloggers, SMBs, and SEO beginners. The main difference between the four plans is the limits.
Ahrefs claims their Standard plan ($249/mo) is the most popular amongst users and because of the greater limits, it’s better suited for growth-stage startups and seasoned bloggers.
If you run an agency, you can go with the Advanced plan ($449/mo), or if you have a bigger budget, the Enterprise plan ($14990/year). With both these plans, you can add multiple users to your Ahrefs account.
If you opt for annual billing, you get 2 months free on any Ahrefs plan.
Sign up for Ahrefs
SimilarWeb is one of the most widely used competitor analysis tools on the market. It shows you an accurate picture of your competitors’ traffic, traffic sources, top organic keywords, top paid keywords, and other important data points.
The best part? You can access all this data for free and you can even export it to a PDF file for later reference.
To get started, enter your competitor’s domain in the search box.
SimilarWeb will generate an in-depth analytics report on your competitor’s site.
You can navigate to different sections of the report through the sidebar on the left.
You’ll get an overview of your competitor’s traffic:
And the different traffic sources:
You’ll also see your competitor’s top 5 organic keywords and paid keywords.
Alternately, if you’re unsure about the sites you’re competing against in search results, you can simply enter your own domain in the search box.
Once the report is generated, navigate to the “Competitors and Similar Sites” section of the report by clicking on the “Competitors” link in the sidebar.
SimilarWeb will display 10 of your top competitors on the basis of similarity and rank.
From here, you can click on any of your competitor websites to generate a detailed analytics report.
SimilarWeb doesn’t just provide you with data on websites, but also offers you insights on apps. You can track your app’s average monthly downloads, ratings, and even monitor its category rankings.
Even better, you can benchmark your app’s performance with that of your competitors.
To view the apps your app is competing against in the App Store, navigate to the “Similar Apps” section of the report.
SimilarWeb has just two plans — Free and Enterprise.
I’ve already mentioned the efficacy of the free plan above and how it helps you gain useful insights on your competitors. But like all free plans, there are major limitations and restrictions on your usage. But unlike other tools featured in this list, there’s a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the pricing structure of SimilarWeb.
In order to upgrade to the Enterprise plan, you need to get in touch with a SimilarWeb product expert.
Personally, I’ve just used the free version of SimilarWeb, but the competitive intelligence gathered from the free version warrants its inclusion in this list. That said, you can definitely gain more actionable insights with the Enterprise plan.
For instance, a large portion of data in App Analysis is available only for Enterprise users. This means you can only obtain surface-level data on your app’s performance like monthly downloads, ratings, and category rankings. Crucial metrics like engagement, retention, and usage patterns are accessible only when you upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
Try SimilarWeb for free
Recommended reading: Similarweb vs Semrush: Which SEO Tool is Better?
Mangools is a powerful SEO suite that includes tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and SERP analysis. It can also be used to collect a goldmine of data on your competitors.
You can use Mangools’ SiteProfiler to check essential SEO metrics and insights on your competitors.
To get started, select “SiteProfiler” from the Mangools dashboard and plug in your competitor’s domain in the search box.
The overview section of the report will show you important SEO metrics like the site’s domain authority, page authority, Alexa rank, etc.
Using the left navigation panel, you can move to different sections of the report and get valuable insights on your competitor’s backlink profile and top content.
Pay special attention to the Dofollow links ratio, link type distribution, and the top referring domains in the Backlinks section of the report.
You’ll also be able to view your competitor’s top content in terms of social shares and referring domains. Researching on your competitors’ top content can lead to a ton of proven content ideas for your blog.
One of SiteProfiler’s unique features is the way in which you can benchmark your website against your top rivals. To identify your main organic competitors, just enter your domain in the search box and navigate to the “Competitors” section of the report.
Here you’ll find 12 of your top organic competitors.
You’ll see the keywords you have in common, their Alexa Rank, and referring IPs. For a deeper analysis of each of your competitors, you can click the “Analyze” button and Mangools will open a SiteProfiler report for the selected domain.
Another thing I like about Mangools is the super-slick interface and the way in which the data is presented. Mangools is basically 5 tools packaged into one, so a user can get easily overwhelmed when there are so many features to explore. But the user-friendly nature of the tool, combined with the smooth UI, makes it easier to master the features and derive maximum value for your business.
Mangools’ basic pricing starts at $29/month when billed monthly. You can save 35% by opting for annual billing.
Here’s the current monthly pricing structure of Mangools:
You get access to all 5 tools within Mangools with each of these plans. The only difference between these plans is the limits. For instance, with Mangools Basic, you can track only 25 competitor keywords, while Mangools Premium and Agency allow you to track unlimited competitor keywords.
If you’re just starting out, it’s better to sign up for the free trial first and then upgrade to the Basic plan.
Sign up for Mangools
Related: Semrush vs Mangools: Which SEO Tool is Better?
Although it looks a bit dated, SpyFu is still one of the best competitive analysis tools on the market.
With SpyFu, you can identify your organic and paid competitors, assess their SEO performance, identify their top-ranking pages, monitor their backlinks, do competitor-based keyword research, and much more.
In fact, if you’re just starting out, SpyFu is the best competitor analysis tool you can go for because it’s one of the few SEO tools that has a solid free plan.
Let’s take a brief look at some of these features.
To get started, enter your competitor’s domain in SpyFu to get a quick summary of their top organic keywords, estimated SEO and PPC clicks, top pages, backlinks, and other useful data.
On the left side of the overview report, you’ll find links to different sections within the report. Pay special attention to the “Top Pages” section as these are your competitor’s top-ranking pages in organic search.
You can reverse-engineer these pages to find keyword ideas with traffic potential.
Similarly, you can click on any of your paid competitors’ sites to get a PPC overview report of that domain’s paid keywords, estimated monthly PPC clicks, monthly PPC budget, and other PPC metrics.
Click on “See all recommendations” at the bottom of the report or simply visit the “AdWords Advisor” tab to get a complete list of keyword recommendations. Use these recommendations to get the most out of your PPC campaigns.
Visit the “AdWords History” section of the report to browse your competitor’s complete Google Ads campaign history, including their most trusted keywords, estimated clicks/month for those keywords, and their cost/click.
Beside each ad copy, you’ll find keywords that trigger the specific ad.
Super helpful data if you’re planning on replicating your competitors’ ad strategies.
In my opinion, SpyFu is a better PPC analysis tool than an SEO tool. In other words, you’re more likely to gather actionable insights on your competitors’ PPC strategies than their SEO practices.
One of SpyFu’s best features is “Top AdWords Buy Recommendations” — these are the keyword recommendations based on an analysis of your competitor’s domain.
To access this section, navigate to the “AdWords Advisor” section in the overview report.
Here you’ll find the top 5 keywords used by your competitor in Google Ads and you can bid for the same keywords for your campaign to replicate their success.
The other useful feature is “AdWords Templates” — these are pre-written PPC ads handcrafted by advertising experts at SpyFu to get your PPC campaigns up and running.
This is a paid feature, so in order to access it, you’ll need to upgrade to SpyFu’s basic plan ($39/mo).
As mentioned before, SpyFu is one of the few SEO tools that offers a free plan that’s worth using. But like any free plan, there are restrictions and limits to your usage. To access more data points and premium features like AdWords templates, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Here are SpyFu’s 3 pricing plans:
You can save $69 on the basic plan and $249 on the professional plan by choosing annual billing.
Sign up for SpyFu
Related: Semrush vs SpyFu: Which Competitor Analysis Tool is Better?
So that wraps up my list of top competitor analysis tools.
I personally prefer Semrush and it’s my go-to competitor research tool to analyze my organic and paid competitors. Second would be BuzzSumo, followed closely by Ahrefs. All these tools cost close $100 a month, so if you have a smaller budget, you can go with SE Ranking, Mangools, or SpyFu.
And finally, if you’d like to use a free competitor research tool, you can trust SimilarWeb to deliver the competitive intelligence data you need.
Did I miss out on any of your favorite competitive analysis tools? Let me know in the comments section below.
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Editor’s Note: This article was first published on 30 September 2020 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance and comprehensiveness.
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Hi there.
Really interesting post. You just nailed it! I guess that if you use a SEMrush you do not need anything else! You find it all in there. All tha data you must know to improve your SEO.
Cheers
Damian
Knowing what your competitor is doing is a great start to know what you should be doing in order to overtake their rankings.




Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
I launched 99signals in 2016 as a side project to document all the strategies, tools, and tactics that I was using to grow my small agency. The goal was simple: to arm other entrepreneurs and bloggers with all the right information and tools they needed to launch a successful online business.
Since then, 99signals has grown significantly and generates over $10,000 in side income each month. Read More about “About Sandeep Mallya”

Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
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13 Best AI Marketing Agencies For 2025 – Influencer Marketing Hub

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Influencer Marketing Hub sets itself apart from conventional review platforms through the involvement of AI Marketing experts such as Werner Geyser, Djanan Kasumovic, Camille Kennedy, Dave Eagle, and other notable industry figures. This expert team brings a profound understanding of the AI Marketing landscape, assessing tools and platforms with an insider’s perspective on capabilities, experience, and industry acumen. Unlike user-generated review platforms, Influencer Marketing Hub’s evaluations are rooted in extensive firsthand experience and direct interactions with the tools and platforms in question. This ensures that the reviews are not only trustworthy but also deeply informed. High-caliber brands like SmartSites, Sellozo, and WEBITMD undergo rigorous monthly evaluations, highlighting the platform’s commitment to identifying and showcasing top-tier solutions in AI Marketing and beyond.
Influencer Marketing Hub has consistently been recognized by leading media outlets for our authoritative data, findings, and insights within the AI Marketing landscape. Our platform is frequently cited as a trusted source of information, demonstrating the value and impact of our work in shaping industry standards and practices.
Influencer Marketing Hub employs an expert-driven methodology to evaluate AI Marketing agencies, ensuring that our recommendations are both reliable and comprehensive. This approach is designed to help businesses and individuals find the best agencies to meet their specific AI Marketing needs. Here’s how we assess the various agencies like SmartSites, Sellozo, and WEBITMD:
Are we ready for a future where artificial intelligence knows your customers better than you do? The dawn of AI in marketing is not just near; it’s already here. It has garnered widespread attention and is foreseen to transform the way businesses and marketers approach marketing. The use of AI in marketing is forecasted to grow in the coming years and is estimated to become a $107.5 billion market by 2028.
TL;DR: Key Reasons You Need AI Marketing Agencies

Furthermore, 61.4% of marketers are actively using AI in marketing. Common applications of AI in marketing include helping businesses create more effective marketing campaigns and promotions, optimizing lead generation channels, scaling campaigns, and more.

SmartSites is one of the leading AI marketing agencies. Having worked with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies, the agency has an impressive portfolio of clients. 
Not only do they keep an open mind when it comes to business types, but also new technology. The co-founders, Alex and Michael Melen are regarded as thought leaders on how to use AI-powered SEO strategies
SmartSites success rate - Best AI Marketing Agencies
SmartSites success rate
They’re well-versed in the role that AI can play in SEO strategies and potential issues that marketing teams can encounter. Due to this expertise, the agency has repeatedly been featured in top publications like BusinessWeek, NPR, Bloomberg, and Forbes. 
In addition to SEO and PPC advertising, SmartSites also specialize in web design, email marketing, and social media management. When it comes to web design, the agency’s award-winning website design team creates custom websites that are responsive, safe, secure, fast-loading, and ready for conversions. 
In its years of service, SmartSites has launched over 900 websites and generated over $100 million in revenue for its clients. 
SmartSites web development - Best AI Marketing Agencies
SmartSites web development
All these services are supplemented with the company’s use of AI in different stages of service provision. Speaking to a gathering of industry experts and fellow marketers, Alex Melen, the co-founder of SmartSites said that his company of more than 400 employees incorporates generative AI to achieve “automation efficiencies.”
The agency ​​leverages ChatGPT to enhance their social media strategy by creating tailored content for specific platforms. ChatGPT helps generate platform-specific posts and research popular hashtags, ensuring content is relevant and engaging. For content creation, ChatGPT drafts initial pieces that human editors then review and refine. 
SmartSites also employs generative AI for brainstorming ideas and curating content for its clients. In fact, SmartSites’s director of social media Kymber Heinze talked about all the different ways the agency incorporates AI into its campaigns in SocialBee’s Webinar AI-Powered Strategies for Smarter Digital Marketing
Heinze discussed at length how SmartSites leverages AI for its content strategy, which often includes generating topics, hashtags, and captions for its campaigns. She also emphasized the importance of human editing and how all AI-generated content should be used as a base to which your content strategists can add. 
When asked about the agency’s quality of service, customers gave it a 97% quality rating in Dun & Bradstreet’s independent client satisfaction survey.
SmartSites performance 
SmartSites performance
SmartSites was also named in the list of Inc Fastest Growing Companies for four years in a row. More importantly, SmartSites has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which speaks to its trustworthiness and reliability. 
Because we know the co-founders of SmartSites are pioneers in AI SEO technologies, it’s best to examine the results the agency has achieved with SEO strategies. 
For example, US Framing, a wood framing company, worked with SmartSites to improve its organic search results. Even though the company had been around since the early 90s, its online presence was lacking due to a focus on traditional marketing methods. 
SmartSites conducted a technical SEO audit and a thorough SEO analysis to understand how the company’s current website is on Google. The agency then conducted updates to the website’s key elements and created a comprehensive content marketing strategy
US Framing case study results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
US Framing case study results
With SmartSites expertise at play, US Framing saw a 2,420% increase in organic traffic search. 
Arcarius Funding Also partnered with SmartSites to overcome the challenge of creating a user-friendly website from scratch that effectively displayed technical information. The plan involved designing a new WordPress site, launching a content-heavy SEO campaign, initiating a social media campaign, and integrating custom application forms. 
As a result, Arcarius saw a significant boost in conversions, reduced cost per click, and increased click-through rates, showcasing the effectiveness of SmartSites’ comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
Arcarius Funding case study results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Arcarius Funding case study results
Outsmart the competition with best-in-class digital marketing services. With over 1,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews online, SmartSites is America’s #1 rated digital marketing agency. Get more traffic. Acquire more customers. Sell more stuff. SmartSites w…
50+
New Jersey
Best for:
Small and Medium Size Businesses
Outsmart the competition with best-in-class digital marketing services. With over 1,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews online, SmartSites is America’s #1 rated digital marketing agency. Get more traffic. Acquire more customers. Sell more stuff. SmartSites w…
Sellozo is an innovative AI-powered platform specializing in Amazon advertising optimization. Designed to assist sellers in maximizing their advertising efficiency, Sellozo offers a suite of tools that automate and enhance various aspects of Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns.
At the heart of Sellozo’s offerings is its AI-driven bid automation system. This feature dynamically adjusts bids based on real-time performance data, ensuring that advertising budgets are utilized effectively. 
By analyzing vast amounts of data, the system optimizes bid amounts to improve ad placements, leading to increased visibility and sales. This automation not only saves time but also reduces the likelihood of human error, allowing sellers to focus on strategic aspects of their business. ​

 
A post shared by Sellozo (@sellozoofficial)

Complementing the bid automation is Sellozo’s advanced keyword discovery tool. Leveraging AI, the platform uncovers hidden opportunities by identifying high-performing keywords that may have been overlooked. This continuous keyword harvesting ensures that campaigns remain competitive and aligned with current market trends, contributing to sustained ad performance and sales growth. ​
Sellozo also introduces AI Dayparting, a feature that schedules ads to run during specific times of the day or week when they are most likely to yield positive results. By analyzing historical performance data, AI Dayparting optimizes ad scheduling, ensuring that ads reach the target audience during peak engagement periods. This strategic approach enhances ad effectiveness and contributes to improved return on investment. ​

 
A post shared by Sellozo (@sellozoofficial)

For agencies and businesses managing multiple campaigns, Sellozo’s Campaign Studio provides a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface to design and manage complex advertising strategies. This tool allows for the creation of custom workflows, making it easier to implement tailored strategies that align with specific business objectives. 
The ability to visualize and automate campaign structures enhances efficiency and scalability, catering to the diverse needs of sellers. ​
Financial transparency is a key feature of Sellozo’s platform. The comprehensive financial reporting tools offer detailed insights into ad spend, sales performance, and return on ad spend (ROAS). 
These reports enable sellers to make informed decisions, adjust budgets, and refine strategies to maximize profitability. The clarity provided by these reports ensures that advertising efforts are aligned with overall business goals. 
Sellozo’s impact is best demonstrated through the success stories of its clients. For instance, Commerce Canal, a New York-based agency managing over 50 brands, experienced remarkable improvements after integrating Sellozo’s tools. 
Sellozo Success Stories
The agency reported a 74% month-over-month profit increase and a 61% rise in total sales. The platform’s capabilities in automating bid adjustments and discovering new keywords played a pivotal role in these results, underscoring Sellozo’s effectiveness in driving sales and profitability.
BOOST YOUR AMAZON SALES: AI-driven automation platform with optional fully-managed services. All offered at flat-fee pricing without long-term contracts. Our team of highly skilled Amazon E-Commerce Experts is dedicated to helping you achieve …
10 – 50
Vancouver, WA
Best for:
Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
BOOST YOUR AMAZON SALES: AI-driven automation platform with optional fully-managed services. All offered at flat-fee pricing without long-term contracts. Our team of highly skilled Amazon E-Commerce Experts is dedicated to helping you achieve …
WEBITMD is an AI marketing and digital growth agency redefining the marketing landscape. The agency focuses on marketing, sales, and AI-driven tech solutions that directly impact revenue growth. 
What makes it unique is its commitment to tailor-made strategies, rejecting one-size-fits-all solutions. WEBITMD’s award-winning WEBITMD® Growth Stack combines marketing tactics, sales tech, and automation to deliver measurable business growth.
WEBITMD’s AI services shine through in its HubSpot onboarding assistance. The agency makes transitioning to HubSpot a breeze for its clients. With WEBITMD’s professional onboarding assistance, clients can ensure their HubSpot portal is not incorrectly configured or underutilized. 
WEBITMD showcases its familiarity with HubSpot’s AI tools in its offering. In a LinkedIn post, the agency discussed HubSpot’s new AI tools for sales enablement and marketing. The agency also has a detailed blog post on the subject. 
HubSpot’s AI features - Best AI Marketing Agencies
HubSpot’s AI features
Some HubSpot AI tools that WEBITMD assists clients in working with are the platform’s AI social caption generator, AI content writer, AI website generator, SEO recommendations, and AI summarization tool. 
But that’s not it. WEBITMD conducts portal audits and assessments of its clients’ existing HubSpot presence to identify processes to automate. The agency then creates an automation strategy and sends it to the client for approval. After approval, the agency implements the automation and also monitors it to ensure smooth operations. 
Marketing automation tasks Best AI Marketing Agencies
Marketing automation tasks
WEBITMD’s services are not limited to SEO or marketing automation. For brands that keep email marketing at the core of their digital marketing arsenal, WEBITMD offers strategy creation, copywriting, design, automation, and optimization. Many of these processes, such as email creation and data management are automated. 
Foresight Works, a startup project management software, had everything under control when it was set to launch. However, the company lacked the time and resources to implement its marketing strategy itself. 
WEBITMD stepped in as the startup’s outsourcing partner. The agency handled full-funnel marketing for Foresight Works, and that too wonderfully. 
Foresight Works case study results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Foresight Works case study results
In under a year, the agency was able to create a revenue engine for the startup. A combination of sales enablement, paid media, content marketing, and brand positioning led to a 4,000% increase in organic search traffic and 2,500% social organic traffic. 
WEBITMD also helped The Splash Lab migrate from Pipedrive to HubSpot so that the company can benefit from the AI features of the latter. In just three months, WEBITMD completed this data transfer. 
The Splash Lab results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
The Splash Lab results
The agency also restructured the company’s pipeline and optimized their HubSpot usage. WEBITMD also provided 15 team training sessions so that The Splash Lab’s marketing team could get the most out of HubSpot and its new AI features.
WEBITMD is digital growth agency focused on performance marketing & sales services tailored to drive growth for SMB’s around the world. We are both a HubSpot Platinum Partner and Klaviyo Partner Agency.
10 – 50
Los Angeles, Miami, London, Sydney
Best for:
Small and Medium-sized Businesses
WEBITMD is digital growth agency focused on performance marketing & sales services tailored to drive growth for SMB’s around the world. We are both a HubSpot Platinum Partner and Klaviyo Partner Agency.
Pearpop stands out as an AI-powered marketing agency that utilizes advanced technology to streamline creator marketing efforts. Part of their technology stack includes the PAIR platform, which utilizes dynamic matching algorithms to help creators and brands streamline influencer marketing efforts
A cornerstone of the PAIR platform is the assistance it gives customers when it comes to discovering influencer compatibility. Essentially, PAIR helps brands discover which influencer is best fit for their needs, backed by both first and third-party data.
And they’ve just recently launched PAIR. A LinkedIn post explains why PAIR is the next era of creator marketing. As Pearpop CEO, Cole Mason, puts it:
PAIR represents a pivotal shift in how brands will approach creator marketing moving forward—this is our industry’s ‘Moneyball’ moment.

Most recently, Pearpop took part in LA Tech Week hosted by a16z, showcasing their commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology into their creator marketing solutions and networking with leading tech visionaries to further enhance their AI offerings. 

Additionally, the platform offers robust tools to manage every phase of a campaign. From Creator Review and Content Draft Review to Real-Time Performance Monitoring, Pearpop’s AI-powered system simplifies campaign management while providing detailed insights and data at every step.
Pearpop campaigns
Pearpop campaigns
Their Affiliate Vetting & Activation Software, also powered by AI, enables brands to activate creators as affiliates, optimizing collaborations based on value alignment and brand safety. Integration with platforms like TikTok Seller Center further amplifies the power of creator-driven sales.
Pearpop creator review
Pearpop creator review
Pearpop is The Creator Collaboration Company. Trusted by the world’s best brands, Pearpop seamlessly blends full stack technology with a dedicated full-service team, Pearpop empowers brands to collaborate with the perfect creators, driving impactfu…
50+
Los Angeles, CA
Best for:

Pearpop is The Creator Collaboration Company. Trusted by the world’s best brands, Pearpop seamlessly blends full stack technology with a dedicated full-service team, Pearpop empowers brands to collaborate with the perfect creators, driving impactfu…
Interdependence™ is a groundbreaking AI marketing agency that seamlessly blends cutting-edge technology with creative storytelling to deliver unmatched results. At the core of their success lies Interviewed® AI, a proprietary predictive analytics platform that empowers their team to identify and act on emerging trends, breaking stories, and relevant content in real time. 
Unlike traditional agencies, Interdependence’s AI-driven approach allows them to craft highly targeted pitches that increase media conversion rates by 300–400%, ensuring that clients gain immediate visibility and long-term credibility in their respective industries.
The agency’s ability to pair technological precision with creative artistry sets them apart. By combining Interviewed® AI with their vast network of media relationships and influencers, Interdependence achieves consistent, high-impact press coverage starting in the very first month. 
Their campaigns are designed not only to elevate brands as thought leaders but also to drive measurable results such as increased web traffic, improved conversion rates, and enhanced ROI. From public relations to influencer marketing and experiential campaigns, Interdependence customizes its approach to resonate deeply with audiences, scale businesses, and change culture.
This combination of advanced AI and human expertise has earned the trust of industry leaders across verticals such as technology, healthcare, travel, and fashion. 
Testimonials from satisfied clients highlight the transformative impact of their services. Akshay Ahooja, CEO & Co-Founder of Trainiac, shared:
“Press validation by Interdependence drove sign-up rates by over 20%, as well as bringing in a steady stream of new customers. Partnering with them has been a game-changer for our growth.”
Interdependence partnered with a rising online travel booking service based in Chicago. The client sought to differentiate itself in a competitive market by emphasizing personalized customer care and VIP services, while also increasing engagement and conversions across their website and social media platforms.
Leveraging the power of Interviewed® AI, Interdependence developed a data-driven, multi-channel campaign that highlighted the client’s unique value proposition and innovative approach. 
By identifying timely, relevant media opportunities and crafting compelling narratives, the agency secured high-profile placements in Forbes, Fox Business, CNBC, and the Orlando Business Journal. These features emphasized the client’s leadership in the travel industry and their commitment to customer-centric excellence. Simultaneously, the team boosted the client’s social media presence, engaging influencers to amplify the campaign’s reach and impact.
The campaign was a resounding success, delivering over one million media impressions in just three months. Media coverage significantly enhanced the client’s brand awareness and credibility, while the strategy directly resulted in a 160% increase in bookings. The collaboration not only positioned the client as an industry leader but also demonstrated the power of AI-driven marketing to deliver tangible, bottom-line results.
Interdependence is a full-service digital PR firm which helps clients maximize consistnt media placements.
10 – 50
Los Angeles, New York, Chicago
Best for:
Enterprise, Midmarket and Small Business
Interdependence is a full-service digital PR firm which helps clients maximize consistnt media placements.
Operating as a global spearhead in the AI-driven influencer marketing domain, Viral Nation emerges as an expansive digital and social innovation alliance. 
Viral Nation’s diverse range of services encompasses not just influencer and social media marketing but also delves deep into talent management, branding, experiential events, and ambassador programs. The agency’s distinction is evident in its esteemed clientele, including industry leaders like Disney, Oculus, and Energizer.
Its distinctive offering is the incorporation of AI into its services. One of these services is Viral Nation Secure™, which is a proprietary solution that leverages cutting-edge AI technology to identify fake followers and detect influencer fraud. 
Viral Nation Secure - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Viral Nation Secure
Through Viral Nation Secure, brands can proactively navigate blindspots for stronger brand reputation management, eliminate the margin for human error in creator sourcing and vetting, and ensure better brand safety and fit for every social marketing effort. 
Building on its commitment to meticulous influencer vetting, Viral Nation Secure™ incorporates AI-driven detection of unpaid brand mentions and logos, past paid sponsorships, and even nuanced content analysis by topic, style, and age rating. The comprehensive vetting process ensures brands connect with creators whose values and content align seamlessly with their identity.
In 2024, the agency launched Secure 2.0 with AI powered by Google Cloud’s Gemini models, introducing brand safety scans and brand-creator fit analysis delivering unrivaled reputation protection for influencer marketing. These updates allow brands to make faster, data-driven decisions with improved creator intelligence, ensuring safe, scalable, and impactful influencer partnerships.
The second managed service is Viral Nation CreatorOS™, which powers every social marketing service offered by Viral Nation. With CreatorOS™, brands have access to unparalleled creator and business intelligence.  
Viral Nation attribution modeling - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Viral Nation attribution modeling
By integrating social listening and customer sentiment tools, it ensures brands can vet creators thoroughly for brand safety and align campaigns with audience expectations. With features like predictive attribution modeling and creator look-alike discovery, the platform simplifies talent scouting, maximizes campaign efficiency, and enhances brand reputation management.
Viral Nation CreatorOS™ consolidates campaign workflows, bringing together brands, creators, and managing teams under one intuitive system. Its advanced tools for tracking impact, ROI measurement, and deliverable management streamline processes while providing actionable insights. From uncovering global creators to maintaining oversight across campaigns, CreatorOS™ equips businesses to scale creator partnerships with unmatched precision.
Viral Nation Creator OS - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Viral Nation CreatorOS™
Viral Nation doesn’t merely rely on AI-assisted influencer marketing to make its clients’ campaigns a success. The agency uses campaign accelerators like social integration, experiential events, paid media, and creative repurposing to amplify the reach and impact of influencer campaigns
Leading up to the holiday season, ViewSonic wanted to grow brand awareness for its gaming monitors and projectors. Viral Nation partnered with 18 influencers to run a campaign for the company on Instagram and YouTube. 
The agency used its proprietary AI software to identify the best influencers for ViewSonic’s campaign. These included tech and gaming influencers like BunnyFuFuu, JayZTwoCents, Kevin the Tech Ninja, and Unwrap to ensure the word reaches the right audience. And it surely did, since the campaign generated 76k clicks and 3.8 million views. 
ViewSonic case study results
ViewSonic case study results
Energizer is another company that partnered with Viral Nation to bring more attention to its two products — Energizer Headlamps and TAC 700 Flashlights — close to the holiday season. 
Again, with its AI-assisted influencer search with extensive filters, Viral Nation identified six influencers to create content on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. These influencers were instructed to incorporate the brand’s products into their holiday content, such as POV reviews and unboxings. 
Energizer case study results
Energizer case study results
Energizer definitely had a merry holiday season as the campaign brought 832k interactions for the brand’s Amazon listings for these two products.
NeoReach is a global influencer platform that helps brands run original influencer campaigns. Aside from working with brands, it also helps influencers connect with some of the world’s biggest brands, such as NVIDIA and Netflix.
NeoReach services - Best AI Marketing Agencies
NeoReach services
The agency’s AI offering is its fraud detection technology that lets brands filter out unethical influencers that cheat companies with their engagement and audience size. NeoReach’s AI-assisted detection tool relies on innovative technology to detect bot farms, fake followers, fake engagement, and other fraudulent activities happening on influencer profiles.
To use NeoReach’s AI fraud detection system, clients simply have to provide the agency with the post URLs or social profiles they want to check. NeoReach scans these posts and profiles. The results are then emailed in a report to the client. 
What’s interesting about this service is that it’s not a part of NeoReach’s ongoing services. Businesses that are not even the agency’s clients can also access it. 
Fraud detection API - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Fraud detection API
There’s no monthly commitment involved. Brands can buy credits for the amount of data they want to analyze. Then, they can either scan an influencer’s profile to check for fake followers or check a post in an active campaign to catch post-campaign fraud reporting. 
NeoReach fraud detection - Best AI Marketing Agencies
NeoReach fraud detection
The agency also offers an API to streamline influencer marketing. Brands can use this API to get estimated costs for working with their selected influencers and analyze competitor spending. The API also tracks “rising star” influencers in the clients’ verticals. 
It also has the agency’s AI detection technology built in. Plus, it offers detailed audience matching and provides comprehensive market data, such as spending trends and sponsored content performance. 
NeoReach API capabilities - Best AI Marketing Agencies
NeoReach API capabilities
While most other agencies only assist clients in traditional industries, NeoReach also has experienced Web3 marketers in its teams. These experts can help brands launch new dApps, cryptocurrency exchanges, protocols, and NFT projects. 
NeoReach Web3 services - Best AI Marketing Agencies
NeoReach Web3 services
Going back to the basics, NeoReach’s main expertise lies in data-backed influencer marketing campaigns. And it’s their proprietary API that allows them to collect and analyze copious amounts of data to select the best influencers and strategies. 
The agency’s team manages the whole process, including contract negotiating, shipping of free gifts, payments, ongoing relationships, and campaign strategy. When needed, the agency also syndicates influencer campaigns with paid media and tested user acquisition strategies. 
Laifen, a company manufacturing hair dryers and electric toothbrushes, wanted to boost its exposure at the Consumers Electronics Show (CES) 2024. NeoReach identified eight influencers who would create impactful content for the brand from the CES showroom floor. 
Interestingly, NeoReach selected mid-macro tier influencers since their audiences are highly engaged. These influencers created content around the brand’s Wave products on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 
NeoReach Laifen case study results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
NeoReach Laifen case study results
What made the campaign such a stellar success was Neoreach’s ability to use its AI fraud-detection software to vet these influencers before onboarding. Once it was established that the influencers had authentic audiences and were actively engaged with their communities, Neoreach took care of the content and audience targeting.  
The results were astounding, bringing 12 million views to the campaign in just 43 social media posts. 
Perhaps the best example of what an AI marketing agency can do for you comes from NeoReach’s partnership with Netflix. The streaming giant needed help promoting Cobra Kai season three and wanted to launch their TikTok profile to be able to reach younger audiences. 
Neoreach not only used their own tools to find the most appropriate TikTok influencers for the job but also built an entire database of the fastest-growing TikTokers.The result is an astounding number of views on the hashtag created for the campaign (#CobraKaichop) – 4.6 billion, to be exact.  
Netflix case study results
Netflix case study results
What’s even more impressive is that these results were achieved by a roster of only 10 influencers. Neoreach emphasizes the importance of using the right tools, such as their AI fraud detection software, to make data-driven decisions about which influencers you partner with.
NeoReach creates world-class original influencer campaigns for leading brands and Global Fortune 500 companies. Founded in 2013 and managing over $250 million dollars in influencer spend to-date, their team is responsible for creating some of the mos…
50+
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo
Best for:
Large Companies
NeoReach creates world-class original influencer campaigns for leading brands and Global Fortune 500 companies. Founded in 2013 and managing over $250 million dollars in influencer spend to-date, their team is responsible for creating some of the mos…
Cloutboost has carved a niche in the AI marketing space, showcasing a profound understanding of leveraging AI to enhance influencer campaigns. 
Recognized for simplifying the intricate process of managing influencer relationships, Cloutboost offers an AI-powered platform that streamlines marketing efforts, enabling brands and agencies to operate with increased efficiency and control.
The agency caters to the gaming sector, providing influencer marketing services to game developers and publishers. Its AI-powered portal is where all the action happens. 
Clients can use the AI portal to select influencers based on a wide range of filters, such as subscriber or follower count, engagement score, average views, total reach, language, main game, gaming platform, gaming categories, and more. The portal also has dashboards where brands can see campaign-related reports. 
Cloutboost influencer marketing platform - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Cloutboost influencer marketing platform
Cloutboost’s tool even streamlines influencer outreach by compiling all the information into the same hub and offering real-time updates. Clients have an overview of which influencers have been contacted, who have accepted, and declined, and can even compare pricing before launching campaigns. 
Through a wide array of campaign management tools, it keeps brands on top of content schedules and production pipelines. Clients can review content, provide feedback, approve posts, and view engagement metrics on the same platform. 
​​The AI platform even offers automated reporting with minimal errors. Clients get practically real-time reports on different metrics of the campaign, including reach, performance of posts, engagement, audience demographics, and total costs. By offering all this information at a glance on their platform, Cloutboost ensures that their clients waste no time when reviewing reports. 
Such detailed analytics allow clients to easily compare the performance of different influencers by several metrics. They can also export this information and refer to it when setting up any future campaigns. 
Cloutboost campaign analytics - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Cloutboost campaign analytics  
Unlike some other agencies, Cloutboost gives clients somewhat of an idea of what they can expect for the budget they have. The ROI calculator from Cloutboost takes the client’s budget, social media channel, content formats, and lifetime value or average order value into account to estimate the potential ROI for a campaign.
Cloutboost ROI calculator - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Cloutboost ROI calculator
Ready for the best part? Cloutboost doesn’t only connect brands to gamers who play on the PC. The agency’s pool of influencers also includes mobile and console gamers. 
So, no matter what kind of game or gaming platform your brand is targeting, Cloutboost has got you covered. The agency also has an Insights section on its website where clients can access valuable data and statistics about the gaming industry
Owlcat Games, the name behind the Pathfinder series, released its new game, Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, with the help of Cloutboost. The company wanted to maximize the new title’s exposure and drive downloads across consoles and PCs. 
Cloutboost used its proprietary AI platform to find 8 Twitch streamers and 12 YouTube gamers for this campaign. All content created by these individuals was posted within seven days of the game’s release to create buzz and hype. 
With just 20 influencers on board, the campaign got 5.5 million impressions and more than 830k views. 
Owlcat Games case study results - Best AI Marketing Agencies
Owlcat Games case study results
Neople also recruited Cloutboost to rekindle the excitement around its already popular title Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) in 2023. The project’s goals were to introduce the game to new audiences and to make current players aware of the new Archer Update. 
Cloutboost’s AI-powered influencer database, featuring hundreds of thousands of curated gaming YouTubers and Twitch Streamers, was key for the campaign strategy. It enabled precise targeting based on video game-specific criteria like genre, platform, and past gaming preferences. 
In collaboration with the Neople team, they selected 6 YouTubers and 4 Twitch Streamers, ensuring they matched the MMORPG genre on PC, had recent activity in relevant games like Final Fantasy XVI and Genshin Impact, and demonstrated high engagement rates. The end result was 8+ million impressions and 500+ thousand views. 
Cloutboost is a leader in acquisition-focused influencer marketing tailored for video game brands. Led by seasoned veterans in the gaming industry, Cloutboost leverages cutting-edge AI technologies to optimize and scale influencer marketing strategie…
10 – 50
Dallas, San Francisco
Best for:
Medium-sized Companies
Cloutboost is a leader in acquisition-focused influencer marketing tailored for video game brands. Led by seasoned veterans in the gaming industry, Cloutboost leverages cutting-edge AI technologies to optimize and scale influencer marketing strategie…
GumGum offers contextual intelligence solutions designed to deliver strategically placed creative ad campaigns. These ad campaigns are intended to help businesses garner a better brand image, drive engagement, and promote brand recall.
GumGum uses a proprietary computer vision technology called Verity, which uses AI to scan text, images, and other forms of content across multiple platforms. It then uses the collected data to place contextually relevant ads in the right place at the right time. According to the GumGum website, Verity is designed to identify a “full suite of contextual signals”. The technology is also MRC content-level accredited, meaning it can consider all available signals, not just text signals.
Furthermore, with Verity for Video, brands can get more value from their video campaigns. This feature considers a comprehensive dataset, including title and description metadata and video frame analysis to drive KPIs like consumer mindset and favorability. Because it can target campaigns at the video level, brands can maximize their impressions and uncover more opportunities to scale their campaigns.
Quantcast uses AI to deliver real-time advertising and audience insights. It has an AI and machine learning engine called Ara, which is capable of querying a database of a trillion online signals, giving users interactive granular insights. Quantcast’s Ara can also score thousands of predictive models a million times every second, giving you real-time insights into consumer behavior. Moreover, it can update 10,000 variables every minute, allowing you to uncover the best possible outcomes for your campaigns.
Aside from Ara, Quantcast also developed Q, an audience behavior platform designed for publishers. With Q, publishers can identify granular audiences, get accurate and regularly updated data, and recognize patterns from over a hundred million web and mobile destinations daily. Aside from publishers, Quantcast also offers intelligent solutions for brands, industries, and agencies. For instance, other agencies can use the Quantcast platform to apply AI-driven first-party data to drive performance at scale.
Founded in Taipei, Taiwan, Appier is a SaaS company that specializes in providing AI-powered solutions to facilitate smarter full-funnel marketing initiatives. It offers a number of solutions for various industries, including eCommerce, retail, and gaming. Some of Appier’s AI-driven products include:
With an emphasis on the luxury, eCommerce, fashion, and retail industries, Heuritech offers AI-driven solutions to help brands gain market insights, discern consumer behaviors across different segments, and optimize their communication and marketing strategies. Launched in 2013, it uses AI to provide users with direct-from-consumer insights and analytics. It currently has two platforms:
Cognitiv is an AI marketing agency that focuses on advertising optimization. Using AI and deep learning for marketing, Cognitiv helps marketers predict consumer behavior, improve full-funnel marketing performance, and create more contextual and personalized experiences for their audience.
In addition to these features, Cognitiv has other solutions and products designed to help future-proof your business by letting you optimize media spend, leverage first-party data, uncover audience segments, influence your customers’ path to purchase, and more.
Its NeuralMind AI marketing platform lets you accurately measure ROI and improve data-driven decision-making processes. It’s also designed to predict consumer actions, drive conversions, and increase customer lifetime value using different datasets, including first-party data, contextual information, and user journey data.
AI tools have become indispensable for agencies seeking to deliver cutting-edge solutions to their clients. These tools not only enhance efficiency but also provide deeper insights and more personalized marketing strategies. Here’s an exploration of key AI marketing tools and their critical roles, supported by relevant case studies and industry trends:
AI marketing agency tools are not just enhancing the efficiency of digital marketing agencies but are also pivotal in driving innovation, personalization, and strategic decision-making. These tools are transforming the way agencies understand and engage with their audiences, leading to more successful and impactful marketing campaigns.
With 61.4% of marketers already using AI and 54.5% recognizing its potential to bolster marketing efforts, the integration of AI in marketing strategies is becoming increasingly essential for staying competitive in the digital landscape.
AI-powered automation streamlines repetitive tasks and assists in content creation, though it requires human oversight for creativity and personalization. Use AI tools to schedule posts, manage customer interactions through chatbots, and even generate social media content. A human moderator is necessary to ensure the AI content remains authentic and aligned with brand values. 
AI enables simultaneous A/B testing of multiple elements, speeding up the process of identifying effective strategies. This capability significantly reduces the time needed to determine the best-performing combinations of headlines, images, calls to action, and other elements.
By leveraging machine learning algorithms, AI can quickly identify patterns and predict outcomes, providing marketers with actionable insights to optimize their campaigns in real time. 
Combined with CRM, AI offers precise insights into customer behaviors and preferences, aiding in the development of targeted marketing strategies. AI-enhanced CRM systems can analyze customer data from various touchpoints, such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and social media interactions.
The data is transformed into a detailed customer profile, which allows businesses to segment their target audience and personalize their marketing efforts.
AI’s role in digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook allows for more relevant ad targeting and improved campaign results. AI algorithms can analyze user data to identify patterns and preferences, enabling advertisers to create highly targeted ads for specific audiences. 
In other words, AI helps them make sure that the ad is shown to precisely those users who are most likely to be interested in the product or service. AI tools can also analyze the performance of campaigns in real time, allowing for easy strategy adjustments on the go. 
AI marketing agency tools are not just enhancing the efficiency of digital marketing agencies but are also pivotal in driving innovation, personalization, and strategic decision-making. 
In fact, 85% of sales and marketing professionals say AI and automation make their prospecting efforts more successful. 
How automation helps salespeople - Best AI Marketing Agencies
On the whole, business leaders believe that AI improves the ROI of their marketing strategies. In a HubSpot survey, 44% of respondents said that the ROI of their AI and automation investment was somewhat positive, while 27% said it was very positive.
ROI of AI investments - Best AI Marketing Agencies
So, it’s a no-brainer that AI marketing agency tools are becoming increasingly popular for businesses. Why stay behind the competition then?
Businesses looking to grow their brand will benefit from working with marketing agencies because they offer their knowledge, resources, and experience. They bring to the table a level of expertise that allows them to help businesses better understand their customers, uncover emerging trends, leverage new techniques and technologies, and build more effective strategies.
Moreover, marketing agencies can create a marketing plan that’s tailored specifically to your needs. They’re capable of covering various aspects of marketing, from market research to public relations. With AI marketing agencies, you can access all these capabilities and more.
By leveraging AI, AI marketing companies can make the most of broader data sets. In turn, this allows you to identify your target audience better, gain a deeper understanding of their motivations, behaviors, and preferences, and, thus, create more effective campaigns that drive engagement and sales.
Furthermore, given that AI has automation capabilities, this can effectively reduce your workload, allowing you and your team to focus on other areas of your business. For instance, AI marketing agencies can use AI to automate lead outreach efforts, create tailored product ads, study behavior patterns in real time, identify relevant influencers for your business, and regularly update your customer databases.
Other notable benefits of working with an AI marketing agency include:
AI is already being viewed as disruptive. Its growing popularity and widespread adoption continue to change how businesses, brands, and marketers approach marketing, and it’s highly likely that AI will play a big role in reshaping the future marketing landscape.
McKinsey reports that generative AI could add $4.4 trillion to the global economy every year. The expanse of AI is such that 60 countries already have national AI strategies. 
Mark Esposito, an AI instructor at Harvard, also says that in marketing,
“with AI as part of the equation, it changes even more — interfacing with customers, profiling, the kinds of campaigns, and the algorithmic governance that we have.”
The influx of AI marketing agencies gives businesses an idea of what this technology can do to fuel their growth. By leveraging the capabilities of AI and its related technologies, marketing agencies can take your strategies, campaigns, content, and messaging to the next level.
Before hiring an AI marketing agency, you first need to identify your marketing objectives and how you’ll use their AI-powered capabilities for your business. You’ll then need to research AI marketing agencies, paying particular attention to their core services, specialties, core competencies, experience with AI, and track record. Additionally, you’ll need to check their pricing to see if it fits your budget.
AI marketing agencies use such technologies to uncover valuable customer insights that can be used to create more targeted and customized campaigns. They also take advantage of AI’s automation capabilities to automate repetitive tasks and optimize workflows. Aside from allowing them to take a more granular approach to personalization, AI also lets these agencies conduct predictive analytics to anticipate future outcomes and your customers’ needs and behavior.
With AI, you can optimize your business processes, scale your operations faster, leverage vast amounts of data to uncover trends and insights, deliver the right messaging, conduct more efficient competitive analysis, and automate decision-making processes using AI’s advanced features as automation and predictive analytics. Common applications of AI in many businesses today include:
AI in marketing will likely have the most impact on industries that rely heavily on data for processes like decision-making and customer engagement. These include retail, healthcare, marketing, finance, and pharmaceutical research.
These agencies excel in a variety of industries, including E-commerce, Technology & Software, Healthcare, Finance & Fintech, and Consumer Goods, among others. Explore the sections below for an overview of AI Marketing Agencies categorized by:
AI Marketing Agencies leverage artificial intelligence to optimize marketing strategies, automate tasks, and provide data-driven insights. These agencies use AI to enhance targeting, personalize customer experiences, predict trends, and improve campaign performance across various digital channels.
At the Cannes Lions Festival, Meta showcases Advantage+ AI branding and Video Generation…
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As Meta leans deeper into automation, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says AI agents will soon write…

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Semrush vs SpyFu: The Ultimate Showdown of SEO Competitor Analysis Tools – 99signals

If you’re having trouble deciding between Semrush and SpyFu, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, I’ll put Semrush and SpyFu to the test and help you decide which SEO tool is better suited for competitor analysis.
If you’ve landed here, you’re probably already aware that Semrush and SpyFu are amongst the most popular competitor research tools on the market, alongside Ahrefs, Serpstat, and Mangools.
While Semrush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit with competitive intelligence capabilities, SpyFu focuses purely on competitor analysis.
So to maintain a level playing field for this comparison, I’ll focus solely on features related to competitor research when evaluating Semrush and SpyFu.
I’ll be taking the following four parameters into account:
Now without further delay, let’s compare Semrush and SpyFu, and find out which SEO tool is the best in terms of competitive analysis.
Note: To make the most of this comparison guide, I suggest creating accounts on both Semrush and SpyFu. You’ll find the links below to get started. Semrush offers a 14-day free trial for their Pro plan, while SpyFu provides a solid free plan with some limitations. Note that SpyFu doesn’t currently offer trials for their paid plans.
Before we pit Semrush and SpyFu against each other, let’s quickly unpack what makes each tool a heavyweight contender in the SEO arena.
Semrush started from humble beginnings. The company began as an SEO browser extension in 2007, launched by Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitry Melnikov under the name SEOquake. A year later, they rebranded as Semrush, and since then, the platform has grown into one of the leading cloud-based SEO services, serving over 5 million users worldwide.
The Semrush platform features a comprehensive set of tools for site audit, keyword research, position tracking, SEO and PPC competitor analysis, on-page SEO checker, backlink analytics, and much more.
Semrush currently manages over 25 billion keywords and 808 million domains in 142 geo databases.
SpyFu was founded by Mike Roberts in 2006 to help businesses craft their SEO and PPC strategies. Mike’s business philosophy is to turn your rivals into your best advisors and that philosophy is at the core of SpyFu.
As the name suggests, SpyFu lets you spy on your competitors’ online strategies and analytics. You can use it to gather insights on your organic as well as paid competitors.
SpyFu’s data is collected from Google search results in the US and UK. The tool won’t show you full results outside of these countries, which just might be SpyFu’s biggest drawback.
With that introduction of the two tools out of the way, it’s now time to put these tools to the test.
Let’s start by reviewing their competitor analysis features.
If you want to develop a fool-proof marketing strategy for your business, you need to run a competitor analysis. By analyzing your competitors’ marketing efforts, you can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, as well as identify gaps and opportunities for your brand in the market.
Both Semrush and SpyFu are capable of providing a comprehensive report of your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies. But which SEO platform is more feature-rich and gives the most accurate data? Let’s find out!
With Semrush’s Competitive Research Toolkit, you can identify your organic and paid competitors, and reverse-engineer their most successful SEO and PPC practices.
The Competitive Research Toolkit is divided into five different categories:
Traffic Analytics and Market Explorer are part of Semrush .Trends, Semrush‘s competitive intelligence add-on toolkit, that costs an additional $200/month. To learn more about Semrush .Trends, check out this in-depth post on how to use .Trends for competitor analysis.
To keep things simple, we’ll just be examining the main tools in the first four categories in the Semrush Competitive Research Toolkit.
To get started with competitor analysis on Semrush, navigate to the “Competitive Research” section from the left-side menu.
Next, click on “Organic Research” and enter your competitor’s domain in the search box.
Alternatively, if you’d like Semrush to identify your organic competitors for you, you can type your own domain in the search box.
The Organic Research overview report provides a top-level view of your website’s organic keywords, organic traffic, top pages, and main organic competitors.
Visit the “Competitors” tab to see a list of all the sites that are competing with your site in search results for the same keywords.
Click on any of the organic competitors to get a detailed report on that domain’s top organic keywords, top-ranking pages, position changes, and so on.
To view your competitor’s top organic keywords, visit the “Top Organic Keywords” section in the report and click on the “View all organic keywords” button.
The list of keywords will probably be too long, so feel free to play with the filters until you get the most relevant data.
Click on any of the keywords in the report to get data on important keyword metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, competition level, and more.
You can use this data to fine-tune your content strategy.
Next, click on “Backlink Analytics” to get an overview report of your competitor’s backlinks.
Visit the “Referring Domains” tab to get a complete picture of your competitor’s backlink profile. Leverage this data in your link building outreach efforts.
Similarly, you can unravel your paid competitors’ data by navigating to:
Competitive Research > Advertising Research > Enter your competitor’s domain
The Advertising Research overview report provides details on the domain’s paid keywords, average monthly paid traffic, and traffic cost.
To view your competitors’ PPC ad copies, visit the “Ad Copies” tab.
If your competitor invests a lot in advertising, then you may find ad copies in this report too imposing. Make sure you use the advanced filters to get the most relevant information for your PPC campaigns.
In addition to the aforementioned SEO and PPC tools, Semrush also has specific competitor analysis tools for content marketing and social media marketing.
The Brand Monitoring tool is especially useful for tracking online mentions of your brand, your competitors’ brands, or any word or phrase that you wish to monitor.
To set up brand monitoring on Semrush, go to:
Competitive Research > Content and PR > Brand Monitoring > Project > Set up
You can include up to three competitor brands here and up to five keyword terms. Select the country and hit the “Start Tracking” button.
You’ll now be able to track the online brand mentions of your competitors and the main keywords in your niche.
And finally, you have the Social Media Tracker, which lets you track the social media pages of your competitors and monitor their growth and engagement levels.
To set up social media tracking, go to:
Competitive Research > Social Media > Project > Set up > Social Media Tracker > Add competitor
On the next page, enter your competitor’s brand name or domain in the search box and hit “Find Profiles.” Semrush will automatically find your competitor’s social media pages for you.
If you’ve enabled social media posting on Semrush, your social media pages will be automatically included in the Social Media Tracker. If you haven’t enabled it, you can type your domain in the search box and click “Set as your company” next to your brand name.
You can add up to 20 competitor brands and track performance of up to 100 social media pages.
Once you’ve added your competitors’ social media pages, hit the “Start tracking companies” button to get an overview report of your competitions’ social media analytics, including social audience, posts, engagement, and top content.
Scroll down to see the comparison of your social media performance against your competitors.
In addition to tracking audience growth, activity, and engagement, Semrush‘s Social Media Tracker is an invaluable tool to identify content trends and the different types of content that resonate the most with your target audience.
Sign up for Semrush
To get started with competitor analysis on SpyFu, enter your competitor’s domain in the search box and hit the search icon.
You’ll get a quick summary of the domain’s top organic keywords, estimated monthly SEO clicks, top paid keywords, estimated monthly PPC clicks, backlinks, top pages, and so on.
If you’d like SpyFu to identify your competitors, enter your domain and navigate to the “Competition” section of the report to view your organic and paid competitors.
Click on any of your organic competitors’ domains to generate an SEO overview report of that domain, containing data on that site’s organic keywords, estimated monthly SEO clicks, page 1 keywords, inbound links, and so on.
On the left side of the overview report, you’ll find links to different sections within the report. Pay special attention to the “Top Pages” section as these are your competitor’s top-ranking pages in organic search.
You can reverse-engineer these pages to find keyword ideas with traffic potential.
Similarly, you can click on any of your paid competitors’ sites to get a PPC overview report of that domain’s paid keywords, estimated monthly PPC clicks, monthly PPC budget, and other PPC metrics.
Navigate to the “AdWords Advisor” section of the report to view “Top AdWords Buy Recommendations” for your competitor’s domain.
Click on “See all recommendations” at the bottom of the report or simply visit the “AdWords Advisor” tab to get a complete list of keyword recommendations. Use these recommendations to get the most out of your PPC campaigns.
Visit the “AdWords History” section of the report to browse your competitor’s complete Google Ads campaign history, including their most trusted keywords, estimated clicks/month for those keywords, and their cost/click.
Beside each ad copy, you’ll find keywords that trigger the specific ad.
Super helpful data if you’re planning on replicating your competitors’ ad strategies.
Sign up for SpyFu
SpyFu is undeniably a great competitor analysis tool. But Semrush is better.
For starters, SpyFu lacks brand monitoring and social media tracking features which are vital components of competitor research. Your competitive analysis would have a blind spot if you didn’t analyze your competitors’ social media presence and didn’t monitor their online brand mentions.
Besides that, I also found the competitor research reports in Semrush to be much more accurate and helpful than SpyFu.
Bottom line: SpyFu’s competitive data pales in comparison to the sheer volume and depth of competitive data that you can unveil on Semrush.
Winner: Semrush
Despite countless Google algorithm updates over the years, the importance of keyword research has remained constant. While outdated keyword research practices get penalized by Google, a more nuanced approach to keyword research is often rewarded with higher Google rankings.
As a result, keyword research is at the core of any SEO or PPC campaign. It helps you get a deeper understanding of your target audience and what they are searching for online.
Both Semrush and SpyFu uncover a ton of keyword data to help you in your quest to craft the kind of content that satisfies both users and search engines.
Read on to find out which of these tools is more effective in terms of keyword research.
Semrush is predominantly known for its keyword research capabilities.
Let’s quickly examine some of its main keyword research features.
To get started with keyword research on Semrush, just type your target keyword(s) in the search box.
This will open up the Keyword Overview report, which will provide a quick summary of all major keyword metrics, including monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, and competition, along with relevant keyword variations and related keywords.
Note: You can change the geo database in your Keyword Overview report and see results and keyword variations for your target keywords in your location.
For in-depth keyword analysis and to find semantically-related long-tail keyword ideas in your niche, you need to try the Keyword Magic Tool.
To use the Keyword Magic tool, head over to:
Keyword Research > Keyword Magic Tool
Enter your seed keywords in the search bar and hit the “Search” button. From your seed keywords, the tool will generate a list of keyword suggestions.
You can then sort the keywords by using keyword groups located on the left side of the table. You can either sort the groups by volume or by the number of keywords. You can even exclude a group of keywords by clicking on the eye icon next to the group.
You can also use the match modifiers on top of the table to narrow down the list of keywords.
Also pay attention to the “Questions” filter to generate a list of question-based keywords that contain your seed keywords.
Once you’ve identified all the keywords you’d like to use in your SEO or PPC campaigns, save your findings by adding the keywords to Keyword Manager.
In addition to saving your work, the Keyword Manager will gather real-time metrics for your target keywords, so that you have fresh insights when you revisit the tool.
Besides traditional keyword research tools, you can also use the Topic Research tool in Semrush’s Content Marketing toolkit. With the Topic Research tool, you can generate relevant topics, subtopics, questions, and headlines to include in your content.
To use this tool, navigate to:
Content Marketing Toolkit > Topic Research
Type in your target keywords, select your location, and hit “Get Content Ideas.”
You’ll then be presented with a list of subtopics for your target keywords.
You can switch the view from Cards to Explorer (tables), Overview (condensed version), or MindMap (visual presentation). I prefer the Overview report as it lists down the top 10 headlines by backlinks and top 10 interesting questions surrounding your target keywords.
Add any of these headlines and questions to your list of “Favorite Ideas” and use them to create new blog posts or optimize existing posts.
Sign up for Semrush
SpyFu’s strength lies in competitor-based keyword research.
That’s not to say SpyFu doesn’t have good traditional keyword research options. It’s just that you’re much more likely to find the data that’s important to you by performing competitor-based keyword research.
To perform competitor-based keyword research on SpyFu, simply type in your competitor’s domain in the search box, and once you get the overview report, navigate to the “Top Keywords” section of the report and click on “View all organic keywords” at the bottom of the table.
Play with the filters on top of the table to get the most relevant competitive keyword data for your campaign.
To get started with traditional keyword research on SpyFu, visit the “Keyword Research” tab and enter your seed keyword(s).
You’ll get a quick summary of all major keyword metrics (monthly volume, estimated clicks, etc.) and a list of similar keywords and question-based keywords.
Below this data, you’ll find a wealth of PPC keyword data in the “Top AdWords Buy Recommendations” and “Most Successful Advertisers and Their Best Ads” sections.
To see the full list of SEO or PPC keywords, you can either click on the “View all” button under each section or visit the “Related Keywords” tab and select the right filters to get the most relevant data.
And finally, you have the AdWords Templates, which are pre-written PPC ads handcrafted by the SpyFu team to get your Google Ads campaigns up and running.
To access these templates, head over to:
PPC Research > AdWords Templates > Select Industry from the drop-down list > Continue to download
This will start the download of all ad templates for that specific industry. You can then import these templates to your Google Ads account.
Note: To access AdWords Templates, you need to upgrade to SpyFu’s basic plan ($39/mo).
Sign up for SpyFu
In terms of keyword research, Semrush absolutely crushes it. The Keyword Magic tool helps you find the most relevant keywords in your niche and provides in-depth analytics for a wide range of keyword ideas, including semantically-related long-tail keywords.
The Topic Research tool helps you identify topics and subtopics that resonate the most with your target audience, which you can then use in your blog posts, product pages, or PPC ads to increase their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).
On the other hand, SpyFu is great for discovering surface-level data for keywords, but if you’re an advanced SEO user, you’ll be disappointed with the lack of depth in SpyFu’s keyword reports.
The biggest downside of SpyFu is that its keyword data is restricted to the US and UK. If your business or target audience is based outside these countries, then SpyFu may not fetch you the most accurate keyword data.
Winner: Semrush
Related: How to Use Semrush for Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide
The user interface (UI) is more than just a pretty face for software; it’s the backbone of user engagement. Consider why some users lean towards WhatsApp instead of Facebook Messenger, or why Headspace often gets the nod over other meditation apps like Calm and Buddhify. It boils down to how intuitive and user-friendly the interface is.
Similarly, some users may prefer one SEO tool over the other because of how comfortable they are with their UI. I’m not saying UI is the only factor, but it’s certainly a key factor in getting us hooked to spend more time with the tool.
When it comes to Semrush and SpyFu, each has its own UI ups and downs. Despite undergoing various redesigns over time, both have stayed true to their original color schemes, showcasing a blend of consistency and evolution in their user experience.
I’ve grown quite fond of Semrush‘s UI, finding it more organized and user-friendly, likely due to my daily interactions with it since early 2015. However, for those new to SEO, the vast array of features might seem daunting at first, possibly making navigation through the tool a bit of a challenge.
On the other hand, SpyFu’s interface strikes me as straightforward yet somewhat lackluster and dated. Its simplicity does lend itself well to ease of use, especially for beginners venturing into the world of SEO tools. However, after exploring its various features and settings for a while, there’s a lingering feeling that the tool hasn’t quite kept pace with the times, as if it’s a relic from an earlier era of SEO tools.
Sections such as “AdWords Advisor” and “AdWords Templates” simply reinforce the feeling that you’re using a product that’s not been updated in quite a while (Google retired the AdWords brand in 2018.)
Winner: Semrush
Now it’s time to examine the pricing plans offered by each tool.
Let’s start with Semrush.
Semrush’s pricing plans start at $139.95/month. You can save up to 17% by switching to annual billing.
Here’s the current pricing structure:
Semrush’s Pro plan includes access to all 45+ tools and features within the platform, except historical data (included in Guru) and product listing ads (included in Business).
I personally use Semrush’s Guru plan ($249.95/mo) because of the higher limits.
If you’re just starting out or have a blog-based business, it’s better to get started with Semrush’s Pro plan ($139.95/mo) and then upgrade to a higher level.
If you run a marketing agency or simply have more projects and data to manage, it’s better to go with Semrush‘s Guru plan.
Try Semrush Pro for 2 weeks
Recommended reading: Semrush Pricing Explained: A Breakdown of Semrush Pricing Plans
Unlike most major SEO tools on the market, SpyFu has a free plan and it’s actually quite good. The best part about the free plan is that you can perform unlimited searches.
Here are SpyFu’s monthly pricing plans:
If you switch to annual billing, you can save $69 on the basic plan and save $249 on the professional plan.
Sign up for SpyFu
I’ve been using both tools since 2015. As mentioned above, I’ve been on Semrush‘s Guru plan ($249.95/mo) since early 2016. I’ve upgraded to SpyFu’s paid plan only twice in all those years.
At the start of the post, I made a point about how this comparison is not a battle among equals. Semrush is an all-purpose SEO tool while SpyFu is more focused on competitor analysis.
But based on my analysis, even from a competitive intelligence perspective, Semrush is a far superior tool. As highlighted above, your competitive analysis would be incomplete without tracking your competition’s performance on social media. And that’s something SpyFu currently lacks.
The other major drawback with SpyFu is that it has just two geo databases (US and UK), as compared to Semrush‘s 142 geo databases. If you’d like to stave off your local competition and rank higher in the local SERPs, you’re better off going with Semrush.
That said, if you’re on a shoestring budget, but still need to use a decent competitive intelligence tool for your business or blog, then SpyFu is perhaps your best bet. The free plan offered by SpyFu is the best in the industry.
If your need of the hour is competitor analysis, then sign up for SpyFu’s free plan. If the data is insufficient for your needs, upgrade to the Basic plan ($39/mo).
Otherwise, Semrush is the best solution for all your SEO and PPC problems.
To summarize, here’s a visual breakdown of how Semrush compares with SpyFu on key parameters:
Here are the links to help you get started with both these tools:
The main difference lies in their core functionalities: Semrush offers a broader all-in-one marketing toolkit covering SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing, whereas Spyfu focuses specifically on competitor analysis for SEO and PPC.
Yes, both Semrush and Spyfu are designed to track and analyze competitors’ keyword strategies, providing insights into organic and paid search performance.
For comprehensive SEO analysis, including keyword research, site audit, and backlink analysis, Semrush tends to be more robust. Spyfu is highly effective for detailed competitor keyword and PPC strategy analysis.
Yes, both tools offer features that can benefit small businesses. Spyfu, with its competitive pricing and focused features, can be particularly appealing for small businesses on a tight budget.
Both Semrush and Spyfu are known for providing reliable and accurate data. However, Semrush‘s larger database and frequent updates may offer a slight edge in data accuracy, especially on a global scale.
Semrush offers a 14-day free trial for new users to experience its Pro version. Spyfu offers a free version with limited features and unlimited searches, but no free trial for its paid plans.
Semrush is often preferred for its comprehensive Keyword Magic Tool and extensive database, making it highly valuable for in-depth keyword research and strategy planning.
Spyfu provides a free plan with basic features and unlimited searches. Semrush offers a free plan with limited features, but also lets you sign up for a 14-day free trial of the Pro plan.
Both tools have user-friendly interfaces, but SpyFu’s simpler design and focused features might be slightly more accessible for beginners compared to Semrush‘s extensive and feature-rich platform.
Both tools offer PPC analysis, with Semrush providing detailed ad strategy insights across various channels and Spyfu specializing in in-depth competitor PPC strategy tracking and analysis.
SpyFu is known for delivering accurate data on SEO and PPC, making it a credible tool for marketing professionals. While it offers valuable insights, it’s important to note that the precision and comprehensiveness of its data may not quite match that of top-tier tools like Semrush or Ahrefs. Nonetheless, SpyFu remains a reliable choice for those looking to inform their digital marketing strategies.
Semrush acquires its data through a multifaceted approach that includes its own massive web crawlers, which scan the internet to collect information directly from websites and search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, Semrush integrates data from third-party providers and uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and expand its datasets.
The combination of proprietary technology and external data sources ensures that Semrush can provide users with extensive and up-to-date information for SEO, PPC, content marketing, and social media analytics.
SpyFu sources its data through a combination of public web searches, its own proprietary web crawlers, and various data partnerships. It meticulously analyzes search engine results pages (SERPs) to gather insights on keywords, PPC campaigns, and SEO strategies employed by websites. This approach allows SpyFu to compile a comprehensive database of digital marketing insights, including historical data, competitor analysis, and keyword research findings.
If you liked this article, please share it on Twitter using the link below:
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on June 29, 2020 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance, freshness, and comprehensiveness. 
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Honestly, these are both great tools to have. Can’t go wrong with either one.
Thank you for this research, Sandeep. Very helpful!
I personally prefer SEMrush because it has other functionalities beyond keyword research.
The best side-by-side comparison ever. Thank you.
Great review. Thanks
[…] tailored to your specific target audience. Additionally, you can leverage third-party tools like SEMrush and SpyFu to gain more insight into what keywords your competitors are targeting in their […]




Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
I launched 99signals in 2016 as a side project to document all the strategies, tools, and tactics that I was using to grow my small agency. The goal was simple: to arm other entrepreneurs and bloggers with all the right information and tools they needed to launch a successful online business.
Since then, 99signals has grown significantly and generates over $10,000 in side income each month. Read More about “About Sandeep Mallya”

Hi there, I’m Sandeep Mallya!
I’m an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant from Bangalore, India. I founded my own digital agency, Startup Cafe Digital, in 2015 to help SMBs leverage SEO, social media, and content marketing to grow their traffic and generate qualified leads for their business.
I launched 99signals in 2016 as a side project to document all the strategies, tools, and tactics that I was using to grow my small agency. The goal was simple: to arm other entrepreneurs and bloggers with all the right information and tools they needed to launch a successful online business.
Since then, 99signals has grown significantly and generates over $10,000 in side income each month. Read More about “About Sandeep Mallya”
A few links on this blog are affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service through one of these affiliate links, I’ll receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Rest assured, I recommend only those tools that I personally use and genuinely trust. In most cases, you’ll find in-depth reviews, tutorials, and how-to guides of these tools on my blog to help you make informed decisions.

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AI SEO: How To Use AI for Search Engine Optimization (2025) – Shopify

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AI has always been a part of search engine optimization (SEO). Google uses AI to inform its algorithms. Marketers use AI to analyze, optimize, and create their content. Today, as AI rapidly improves, it’s a bigger part of SEO than ever. Here’s what you need to know about using AI for your business’s SEO.
AI SEO, or artificial intelligence search engine optimization, is the use of AI to improve web page ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). AI can support SEO strategies with technologies such as machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLMs).
When SEO tools leverage AI to create new outputs such as text or images, the tools are referred to as generative AI—which can be a useful starting point for creating new SEO content.
AI has a variety of applications in SEO. For example, search engine algorithms use a version of AI to determine search engine rankings. Generative AI tools can help summarize research, suggest edits, and draft copy.

You can use AI for several SEO purposes:
Search engines such as Google and Bing use machine learning AI to determine page rankings. Every time someone performs a search, algorithms analyze a vast number of factors to determine which websites are shown and in what order. The ranking factors in Google’s algorithm include the relevance, quality, and usability of a page’s content.
Marketers can’t directly influence these algorithms, but by understanding how they work, they can create better-informed SEO strategies.
AI tools can analyze a website’s content and compare it to top-ranked sites. They can then use this information to provide recommendations on how to improve your website’s performance.
Some tools, like Surfer SEO, focus on content opportunities, such as phrases to include in copy or content ideas to write about. Other tools, like Screpy, use AI to recommend technical upgrades to your site, such as improvements to help your website load faster.
In SEO, keyword research is the practice of identifying search terms your website could rank for and then prioritizing them for your site based on their search volume, difficulty to rank, and fit for your business. Typically, this is a manual process that involves looking up keywords one by one (or in bulk searches) in a keyword tool like Ahrefs.
AI can simplify this task. For example, ask a generative AI tool like ChatGPT to “recommend the best SEO-relevant keywords for my website and tell me why you think they’re best.”
Of course, an AI tool will never know your business as well as you do, so be sure to vet the AI’s recommendations to see if they make sense for your target audience and your brand.
Part of SEO’s job is to write helpful, comprehensive content that answers your target audience’s questions. The best content for SEO is well-researched and written by a subject matter expert. But even a subject matter expert won’t know everything about a topic.
Generative AI tools can help speed up an expert’s research by taking in prompts like “summarize the latest research on what caused the US financial crisis” and condensing many research papers down to a few bullet points or paragraphs.
However, when using AI for research, it’s important to understand its limitations. Most models are trained up to a certain cut-off date, meaning they won’t know about topics beyond that date. AI tools can also “hallucinate,” meaning they can misrepresent a fact or statement or make things up entirely. Just like if you were working with a real research assistant, you can ask AI tools to cite their sources and verify them.
Content generation has become one of the most popular use cases for generative AI tools like ChatGPT because they can write hundreds of words in a matter of seconds, drastically reducing the time writers need to create a first draft of an article, product description, meta title/meta description, or website copy.
That said, be aware of Google’s policy on AI-generated content. Google does not ban AI-generated or AI-assisted content, instead favoring “high quality content, however it’s produced.” But it considers content created entirely by AI with the intention to “manipulate ranking in search results” to be a violation of its spam policies. This can result in a loss of organic traffic for your site. In general, it’s usually best to avoid writing SEO content entirely with AI, and instead use AI tools for research and first drafts.
Additionally, mass-market generative AI tools are trained on public internet content, so if you have a new or niche brand, the tool likely won’t have a strong understanding of your industry or product. New, more focused generative AI tools, such as Shopify Magic, can help remedy this shortcoming and create product descriptions, images, and emails that fit your store.
AI SEO tools are best understood by their overall use cases:
ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is one of the most accessible AI tools on the market. It positions itself as a place to find creative answers and inspiration. With its simple text entry interface, it works like a powerful virtual assistant.
Copilot is Microsoft’s latest iteration of its general-purpose AI assistant, originally branded Bing AI. It has similar functionality to ChatGPT, and in the future, Microsoft has said it will integrate directly into Microsoft tools like Word and Excel for advanced functionality.
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Shopify Magic is the AI assistant for Shopify stores. It is built by Shopify and integrated directly into the Shopify interface. It provides support for product image background editing, product description drafting, FAQ generation, email planning, and live chat.
Jasper, launched in 2021, was one of the first tools to offer AI-based copywriting. Today, Jasper offers a variety of marketing-specific AI generation tools, including blog writing, headline copy, SEO strategy, and more. Although it has affordable entry points, its focus is on large, enterprise businesses.
Ink is an AI-based content marketing tool. It offers AI-generated content with a focus on precise SEO optimization and guardrails against having content perceived as violating Google’s spam rules.
Surfer SEO uses natural language processing (NLP) to make content optimization recommendations. The company uses a proprietary Surfer Score to evaluate your content and provides a roadmap to improving your score. Recently, it has expanded its offering to include AI-supported writing and keyword research.
Alli AI offers a suite of AI-based SEO features with a focus on bulk on-page optimization. It can write content and deploy technical edits, such as automatically implementing canonical tags across the site.

Yes, there is a wide range of AI use cases in SEO, including content creation, research, and optimization.
Google does not explicitly block content generated with AI. However, it aims to block content that is entirely generated by AI with the express purpose of ranking in Google, a small but important distinction.
There are a variety of tools for writing SEO content with AI, including ChatGPT, Jasper, and Shopify Magic.
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How much should you spend on SEO? – The Drum

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August 24, 2022 | 8 min read
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) often has a reputation for being a cheap marketing strategy, but high-value work can require substantial investment. Dave Colgate of agency Vertical Leap looks at how to invest properly.
Vertical Leap on how marketers can improve their SEO capability. Image: Souvik Banerjee/Unsplash
Unsure how much you need to spend on search engine optimization (SEO)? Let’s look at how to set the right budget, considering how much other companies are spending; the factors you need to budget for; and the minimum recommended spend for small businesses just starting out with SEO.
Marketing budgets suffered from Covid-19, but industry reports show companies are on their way to returning to pre-pandemic levels. According to Oracle’s top marketing trends report, 64% of companies planned to increase their budgets in 2022.
Meanwhile, Gartner’s State of Marketing Budget and Strategy 2022 shows companies are spending 9.5% of revenue on marketing this year, up from 6.4% in 2021.
The same study shows companies are spending 8.5% of their marketing budgets on SEO, topping the list of “unpaid channels”.
Gartner’s insights are largely backed up by The Marketing Budgets Report 2022 from StrategiQ, which finds companies spending 10% of total revenue on marketing in 2022. It also finds companies are spending 10.5% of their marketing budgets on SEO, up from Gartner’s 8.5%.
StrategiQ’s report found that small companies dedicate a greater percentage of revenue to marketing.
StrategiciQ includes fewer channels in its report than Gartner. This is an important point because the fewer channels you spread your marketing across, the greater percentage you’ll spend on SEO. So, if you’re not spending any marketing budget on live events, digital audio advertising, or other channels, you could spend far more than 10.5% of your marketing spend on SEO.
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When you’re setting an SEO budget, it’s important to understand how your spend will be spread across key activities:
Analytics: The insights that inform every part of your SEO strategy and reveal your biggest opportunities.
Content production: Every piece of content you create and optimize to rank in search engines.
On-page SEO: Optimizing your web pages and content to maximize search visibility.
Off-page SEO: Optimizing off-page signals with link building, content placements (eg: guest blogging), reviews and other factors outside of your website.
Technical SEO: Optimizing and maintaining the technical performance of your website (loading times, link profiles, URLs, etc).
SEO tech stack: The tools you use at every stage of your SEO strategy: analytics, competitive research, content planning, content production, etc.
Agency/consultancy fees: SEO services you require from agencies or consultants.
Outsourcing: Tasks you outsource to freelancers or external talent, such as content creation, copywriting, web design, etc.
That Oracle report found something else: 82% of companies were planning to change their marketing tech stack in 2022.
In today’s data-driven marketing environment, this is one of the most important aspects of your SEO budget. With the right tech stack, you can drastically increase the ROI of your SEO spend by improving the quality of insights, automating tasks and seizing opportunities before your competitors.
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If you don’t have the budget or resources to build a competitive SEO tech stack, it’s worth looking at agencies that have already developed their own. By partnering with the right agency, you can tap into class-leading SEO technology at a fraction of the price.
In 2019, Backlinko published a survey asking US business owners about their experiences with SEO services. The survey revealed that companies spending a minimum of $500/month were 53.3% more likely to be “extremely satisfied” with the results.
As a rule, we advise smaller companies that it’s difficult to gain meaningful SEO traction for anything less than £800/month (about $1000). This doesn’t stretch too far when you consider all of the expenses we looked at in the previous section (analytics, content production, SEO tools, etc.).
Obviously, larger companies should expect to spend significantly more but it’s not simply a question of spending more for better results.
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Spending wisely is just as important as setting the right budget. Every business can maximize ROI with a high-impact SEO strategy using data science to identify and prioritize opportunities.
If you want to increase your visibility online, we can run a free analysis of your current SEO status and provide a quote. Click here for more information.
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15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO – Search Engine Journal

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Brands need SEO to efficiently and cost-effectively connect with customers at key points throughout their user journeys. And the sooner they do it, the better off they’ll be.
The need for quality SEO keeps increasing.
Brands that execute an organic strategy the right way are standing out early and often – and it’s more important now than ever, thanks to the emergence of AI and other technological innovations.
Blend those emerging technologies with the tumultuous few years that made up the COVID pandemic – where millions of consumers were pushed online to do their business, make purchases, and stay entertained – and you can begin to scratch the surface of SEO’s importance in marketing’s modern-day ecosystem.
SEO is the most viable, sustainable, and cost-effective way to both understand and reach your customers in key moments that matter.
Doing so not only helps build trust while educating the masses – it also establishes an organic footprint that transcends multiple marketing channels with measurable impact.
But while it will certainly improve a website’s overall searchability and visibility, what other real value does SEO offer for brands willing to commit to legitimate recurring or project-based SEO engagements?
And why does SEO continue to grow into a necessity rather than a luxury?
Here are 15 reasons why businesses need SEO to take their brand to the next level – regardless of the industry or business size.
Organic search is a massive part of most businesses’ website performance and a critical component of the buyer funnel, ultimately getting users to complete a conversion or engagement.
Google owns a significantly larger portion of the search market than competitors like Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and many others.
That’s not to say that all search engines don’t contribute to a brand’s visibility – they do. It’s just that Google owns a considerable portion of the overall search market. Thus, its guidelines are important to follow.
But the remaining part of the market owned by other engines is valuable to brands, too. This is especially true for brands in niche verticals where voice, visual, and vertical search engines play an essential role.
Google, being the most visited website in the world (and specifically in the United States), also happens to be one of the most popular email providers in the world.
YouTube is the second most-used search engine, with at least 2.5 billion people accessing it at least once a month, or 122 million people daily.
We know that a clear majority of the world with access to the internet is visiting Google at least once a day to get information.
Being highly visible as a trusted resource by Google and other search engines will always work in a brand’s favor. Quality SEO and a high-quality website take brands there.
The problem for many brands is that building trust and credibility overnight is impossible – just like in real life. Authority is earned and built over time.
And, with the AI revolution we’ve experienced over the last year showing no signs of slowing down, building real credibility has become even harder to achieve – and even more critical.
Following Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines is vital to ensure successful results when creating content for your audience.
The goal of any experienced SEO professional is to establish a strong foundation of trust and credibility for a client. It helps to have a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that represents a quality brand with a loyal customer base – or at least the potential for one.
A brand of this nature would be easily discoverable in search with the right SEO strategy. The more channels you’re comfortable publishing on and partnering with, the more discoverable you will be.
This can also be attributed to being a respected brand offering quality goods or services to customers, being honest and forthcoming with the public, and earning the trust and credibility among peers, competitors, and other stakeholders.
This becomes a lot easier to succeed with when the brand already has trust signals tied to it and its digital properties.
So many varying elements contribute to establishing that authority with search engines like Google. It starts with building that credibility with humans.
In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accrued over time as a result of aspects like:
But now, in the age of AI, establishing that authority continues to become even more complicated and difficult to do.
Yet still, doing so the right way will do more for a brand than most other digital campaigns or optimizations.
Establishing a brand as an authority takes patience, effort, and commitment that relies on offering a valuable, quality product or service that allows customers to trust a brand.
Since what seemed like the overnight emergence of AI going mainstream and becoming available at every person’s fingertips, search engine results pages (SERPs) are now more competitive than ever.
Organic real estate keeps shrinking.
Bots, scrapers, and other AI-led technologies are stealing content and regurgitating things they learn along the way, which are often inaccurate or confusing, all while clouding the competitive market with duplicated or plain awful content.
Real SEO – including thorough keyword research, industry analysis, and competitive benchmarking to create high-value content for your customers and loyalists – allows brands to stand apart from the lowly regurgitated spam that floods our SERPs daily.
The challenge of optimizing websites and content for search engines that are relying more on their own AI technologies to enhance the user experience within their platforms than they ever have before is just another layer of complication exemplified by the emergence of AI.
It’s no secret Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) hasn’t exactly been the magic touch to take search to the next level. And, in some instances – up to this point – SGE has even taken Google backward in terms of user experience and information retrieval on a boatload of varying topics and queries.
SEO will undoubtedly help brands navigate and distill – and stand out among – the search engine noise that is littered with D-list content and AI-generated mediocrity.
User experience has become every marketer’s number one priority.
Everyone wants better organic rankings and maximum visibility. However, few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.
Google has learned how to interpret a good or unfavorable user experience, and a positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.
Google’s Page Experience Update is something that marketers in all industries will need to adhere to and is part of their longstanding focus on the customer experience.
Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, there will be a problem with that website holding up against the competition, which will inevitably surpass it by offering the same, or better, content with a better user experience.
We know how much Google values user experience. We see the search engine getting closer to delivering answers to search queries directly on the SERP every day, and it’s been doing it – and expanding its integration – for years.
The intention is to quickly and easily offer users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks.
Quality SEO incorporates a positive user experience, leveraging it to work in a brand’s favor.
It also understands the importance of leveraging Google’s updated on-the-SERP-delivery tactics for high-value content that has garnered significant traffic and engagement for sites in the past, but is now losing significant portions of it to the SERPs themselves.
The mobile-first mindset of humans and search engines has shaped local search into a critical fundamental for most small- and medium-sized businesses.
Local SEO aims to optimize digital properties for a specific vicinity so people can find a business quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.
Local optimizations focus on specific neighborhoods, towns, cities, regions, and even states to establish a meaningful medium for a brand’s messaging on a local level.
SEO pros do this by optimizing the brand’s website and its content, including local citations and backlinks, in addition to regional listings relevant to the location and business sector to which a brand belongs.
To promote engagement locally, SEO pros should optimize a brand’s Knowledge Graph panel, its Google Business Profile, and its social media profiles as a start.
There should also be a strong emphasis on user reviews on Google and other third-party sites like Yelp, Home Advisor, and Angie’s List (among others), depending on the industry.
I recommend following the local SEO tips on SEJ here.
Research is becoming a critical element of SEO, and the importance of real-time research is growing.
Using SEO tactics to relay your messaging for good deals, ground-breaking products and services, and the importance and dependability of what you offer customers will be a game-changer.
It will also undoubtedly positively impact the buying cycle when done right.
Brands must be visible where people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers and the businesses providing those answers.
It’s great to have SEO tactics implemented on a brand’s website and across its digital properties.
Still, if it’s a short-term engagement (budget constraints, etc.) and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will reach a threshold where it can no longer improve because of other hindrances.
Or, it will require such lift that brands will end up spending far more than expected to reach a place they could have otherwise obtained naturally over time through marketing efforts that included SEO.
How the search world evolves (basically at the discretion of Google) requires constant monitoring for changes to stay ahead of the competition and, hopefully, on Page 1.
Being proactive and monitoring for significant algorithm changes will always benefit the brands doing so.
We know Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. Fall too far behind, and it will be tough to come back. SEO pros help to ensure this is avoided.
With the always-changing environment that is the World Wide Web, it can be challenging to stay on top of the changes as they occur.
But staying on top of SEO includes being in the loop for the major changes taking place for search.
The AI renaissance has been a clear indication of that.
Knowing the environment of the web, including tactics being used by other local, comparable businesses and competitors, will always be beneficial for those brands.
Observing and measuring what works and what doesn’t only strengthens your brand further as well.
Knowing the search ecosystem will be beneficial 10 out of 10 times.
Sure, it costs money. But all the best things do, right?
SEO is relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be considerable in terms of a brand’s benefit to the bottom line.
This isn’t a marketing cost; this is an actual business investment.
Exemplary SEO implementation will hold its own for years to come. And, like most things in life, it will only be better with the more attention (and investment) it gets.
Not only is it cost-effective, but it’s scaleable, measurable, and rarely loses value over time.
SEO can (and hopefully does) have a noticeable impact within the first year of taking action – and many of those actions will have a lasting effect.
As the market evolves, it’s best to follow the trends and changes closely.
But even a site that hasn’t had a boatload of intense SEO recommendations implemented will improve from basic SEO best practices being employed on an honest website with a decent user experience.
And the more SEO time, effort, and budget committed to it, the better and longer a website stands to be a worthy contender in its market.
The grass is green where you water it.
While SEO doesn’t offer the same easy-to-calculate return on investment (ROI) as paid search, you can measure almost anything with proper tracking and analytics.
The big problem is connecting the dots on the back end since there is no definitive way to understand the correlation between all actions.
Tracking and attribution technology will continue to improve, which will only help SEO pros and their efforts.
Still, it is worth understanding how specific actions are supposed to affect performance and growth – and hopefully, they do.
Any good SEO pro will aim at those improvements, so connecting the dots should not be a challenge.
Brands also want to know and understand where they were, where they are, and where they’re going in terms of digital performance – especially for SEO when they have a person/company being paid to execute on its behalf.
There’s no better way to show the success of SEO, either.
And we all know the data never lies.
SEO helps build long-term equity for your brand. A good ranking and a favorable placement help elevate your brand’s profile.
People search for news and related items, and having a good SEO and PR strategy means your brand will be seen and likely remembered for something positive.
Providing a good user experience on your website means your messages will be heard, and your products or services will sell.
SEO is no longer a siloed channel, so integrating with content and PR helps with brand reach and awareness alongside other worthwhile results.
High-quality SEO will always find a means of discovering and leveraging new opportunities for brands not just to be discovered but to shine.
And that becomes a lot easier when experienced SEO pros can help distill the millions and millions of websites competing – and flooding – the SERPs daily.
This goes beyond keyword research and website audits.
SEO is also extremely helpful for understanding the voice of your consumers.
From understanding macro market shifts to understanding consumer intent in granular detail, SEO tells us what customers want and need through the data it generates.
SEO data and formats – spoken or word – give us clear signals of intent and user behavior.
It does this in many ways:
Hiring an SEO professional is not always an easy task either. It requires money, time, vision, communication, more time, and some other things that will undoubtedly need to be fixed over the course of time.
Executive SEO on behalf of brands means immersing an SEO team in everything that makes that brand what it is. It’s the only way to truly market something with the passion and understanding that its stakeholders have for it: becoming a stakeholder.
The better a brand is understood, the more opportunities will arise to help it thrive. The same can be said about SEO.
New opportunities with SEO today can come in many ways – from content, digital, and social opportunities to helping with sales, product, and customer service strategies.
SEO is becoming a zero-sum game as zero-click SERPs show the answer directly at the top of a Google search result.
This has only intensified with AI, SGE, Gemini, and more sure-to-come technologies that continue to shape our industry.
Early data showed about 56% of queries in a testing sample triggered SGE automatically directly on the SERP as part of an answer to a specific query in 2023, largely based on the semantics and intent of the query.
SGE results are also still incredibly volatile; sometimes they show up automatically, other times not at all, and other times there’s even an option to use SGE for results or not.
Regardless of that or any speculation on the future, there’s one thing for sure: Zero-click results in searches are winning.
If you’re not on Page 1, you need to be.
There are still too many instances when a user types a search query and can’t find exactly what it’s looking for. And sadly, SGE hasn’t been great at changing that until now.
Consumers will always want products and services online, and brands will always look for the most cost-effective way to connect them with each other.
While the role of SEO may shift and strategies will surely change, new avenues are constantly opening up through different entry points such as voice, apps, wearables, and the Internet of Things (IoT) AI is another prime example, and we can already see its impact greatly.
Outdated SEO tactics aren’t going to work much longer. New organic search opportunities will always arise. SEO helps find the best ways to capitalize on them.
The role of SEO has expanded significantly over the last few years, and it’s only becoming more challenging and expansive in the face of AI.
New technologies are constantly creating new processes and even shortcuts and workarounds that are changing the game, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
One thing is certain, though: Without giving SEO efforts some significant attention through a brand’s fiscal year, you are doing your business a disservice. Try it and see. Analyze the results. Test some more. Try new things.
Stay up to date with changes and guidelines, and make sure you’re offering unique content that is valuable. And if it’s not originally yours, include proper citation and linking.
SEO will continue to help consumers when in need.
Implementing robust, quality SEO updates on a brand’s website and digital properties will benefit them and their marketing efforts in measurable ways, and the impact will be felt.
There will be challenges, but when done right, there can also be success.
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Sam Hollingsworth is a native New Yorker currently helping lead SEO efforts for 829 Studios, as well as a seasoned …
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5 examples of e-commerce content marketing strategies – TechTarget

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Good content conveys information about a product or brand, cultivates interest and builds long-term connections with customers. Content has many aspects to consider, including its relevance to consumers, the keywords it uses and its overall effect.
Sharing meaningful and relevant stories can help build organic traffic. Additionally, good infographics can summarize important topics, and customers are more likely to share them across social media. On the back end, content marketing teams must also consider where to focus their e-commerce content strategy. They might also want to experiment with new media, such as video or user-generated content.
Below, explore five examples of e-commerce content marketing strategies to consider.
Many independent e-commerce players have shifted from conversion-focused dropshipping sites to direct-to-consumer (D2C) websites, said Elaine Hu, head of business development for global business at Baidu, a technology, internet search and internet services company. D2C websites aim to tell brand stories that resonate with customers and create experiences that deepen relationships.
“Hosting and building a personalized blog tailored to your users’ interests can help set you apart from competing services in many ways,” Hu said. The benefits of personalized blogs include the following:
Ian Televik, former vice president of marketing and CX at Fabric, an on-demand retail platform, found it helpful to publish thorough, relevant research reports that tackle topics audiences care about. His team researched target customer personas and content relevant to them. This research helped guide efforts to create specific, long-form reports on those subjects.
“If we’re thoughtful about it, we’ll find unique key takeaways that are valuable to our audience and will pique their interest enough to engage more with our brand,” Televik said.
Televik said his team also had to be creative in how they distributed content. They had success in transforming a report into smaller nuggets distributed through email, social media, press releases and outbound sales communications. They often reached the same audience multiple times with different pieces, which increased the likelihood that people might want the entire report.
Organizations should make their websites inviting across the entire site, not just the homepage, said Diane Burley, senior director of content and communications at Coveo, an enterprise search platform provider.
Marketing teams sometimes forget that most traffic comes from organic search that links to a specific page rather than the organization’s homepage. Websites should clearly indicate on each page what you expect them to do with calls to action, like the following:
To increase organic traffic from search engines, marketing teams might need to jump through hoops to optimize the site. Tools like Ubersuggest or Semrush can help reveal potential missed opportunities, Burley said.
Marketing teams should also consider and address digital accessibility guidelines, like adding alt text to images, supporting screen reader technology and using high-contrast colors to design for color blindness. Design teams should look at pages in grayscale to reveal if they offer enough contrast.
Content marketing teams always have new types of content and distribution media to consider, like videos, podcasts, animation, explainers, surveys, white papers and the metaverse. However, they should focus their efforts to see what really works rather than what looks cool.
“Organizations are always ‘chasing the shiny,’ resulting in pressure to try out new content formats,” Burley said.
Organizations likely can’t experiment with more than one new content type or medium without a good sized staff and agency budget. Burley recommended tackling one format with no fewer than five assets. If the marketing team can only make one asset, they won’t get enough data to learn the differences between how audiences respond to the asset type and the content itself.
Why version control is necessary in digital asset management
Part of: Develop your unique e-commerce marketing strategy
Marketers have myriad tools in their belts — from SEO to influencers to technology and tools. These strategies can improve anyone’s e-commerce marketing plan.
Building a database, nurturing existing customers and using an email service provider are some e-commerce email marketing strategies to help businesses increase revenue.
Content marketing strategies with personalization, thought leadership research, SEO and diverse content types can help e-commerce companies reach and engage more customers.
An e-commerce marketing strategy is no longer optional. Organizations need a marketing platform that meets their e-commerce teams’ needs, can customize websites and is affordable.
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Canva integrates with ChatGPT to enable real-time design access – bestmediainfo.com

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New Delhi: Canva has launched a new integration with ChatGPT, introducing a design-focused connector and Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server. 
The developments are intended to streamline how users interact with AI tools during creative workflows, enabling content generation and collaboration directly within AI assistants.
The new features allow users to access Canva’s design suite, including Docs, Presentations and templates, without leaving the AI conversation. Users can retrieve, analyse, and build on their past work while working with OpenAI’s latest model. 
Canva also launched the MCP Server, which allows AI assistants to access a user’s Canva account and incorporate real-time design data and brand assets into content creation.
“AI agents and assistants have become indispensable creative partners, yet current workflows require users to manually add context or references, creating complexity,” said Anwar Haneef, GM and Head of Ecosystem at Canva. “We’re embedding Canva directly into the AI tools people use every day so they can brainstorm, create, and publish content faster. This is a major step in our vision to make the complex simple and build an all-in-one AI workflow that’s secure and accessible to all.”
The connector is designed for use across a range of roles. Marketers can summarise campaign reports or reference launch plans, while sales professionals can generate proposals using past customer feedback and pricing slides. Educators can use the tool to draw from previous lesson plans and curriculum content.
Nate Gonzalez, Head of Business Products at OpenAI, said, “Launching the Canva deep research connector means businesses and their employees get faster, better insights because ChatGPT has more context. We’re thrilled to work together to bring powerful AI to many of today’s most important workflows.”
The MCP Server, now live, allows Canva’s capabilities to be embedded in other platforms such as Salesforce’s Agentforce. Users can prompt assistants to generate branded visuals, autofill charts with AI insights, and export contextualised templates without switching platforms.
Privacy and security are managed under Canva Shield, which governs the handling of user data within AI-powered environments.

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