If you decide to go and use a keyword spy tool for your online market research, there are a number of things you should keep in mind when selecting what product or service to use. This article is going to briefly look at some of the things to look out for when choosing your spy tool!

It is important to keep in mind that you can purchase desktop software (software that you use on your computer) or you can purchase server-side services. In the latter case, the keyword spy tool is ran through a browser online, and the information is stored on the service’s hosting. I find these types of services much better when researching keywords and spying on competitors. I find the data to be more accurate and the service itself is generally speaking a lot easier to use than some desktop software options.

Another thing to bare in mind when selecting your keyword spy tool is to make sure that the data is collected and updated regularly. I have mentioned in some of my other posts that some keyword spy tools take some time collect data and in some cases the results you are getting maybe a month to two months old. When you need and want fast answers, you need a tool that is going to be both fast and relatively accurate.

On a related note, you need to look at whether you need to load the keyword spy tool with keywords and then monitor them over a period of time. Whilst this can produce reasonably accurate results I prefer to use services that allow me to look instantly at some keyword data. The former option just always means you are a fair few steps behind your competitors, and remember we are meant to be using this software to get a head start in our campaigns!

I hope this post has been helpful in assisting you in determining  what keyword spy tool you are going to use in your research and campaign planning and if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below this post, or get in touch with me directly using the contact page.