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SEO SpyGlass Review: All You Need To Know About Its Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

SEO SpyGlass review by vaslou

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There are over 200 different factors Google uses to rank websites. However, backlinks are probably the most critical factor regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and managing them can be a hassle. Even getting a simple report can sometimes be a hassle.

Why is that? Nearly all backlink-monitoring services face the same problem when it comes to reporting. Most of the time, you get a report that contains all of the backlinks leading your site. However, when you start combing through the links, you find that some of them are missing or have different anchor details.

The main problem is that most platforms do not crawl the web often enough. Instead, they rely on outdated information stored in their indexes.

However, SEO SpyGlass is not one of these tools. It is designed to get you the most up-to-date backlink data from all the most important search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

In my SEO SpyGlass review, I will examine what makes it so great and why it is worth paying for.

What is SEO SpyGlass?

SEO SpyGlass review

SEO SpyGlass is a product of Link-Assistant.com, a European software provider that has been in the game for nearly 20 years. The tool is part of their SEO PowerSuite, consisting of SEO SpyGlass and three other SEO tools, including:

  • WebSite Auditor – Features site audit tools to help you fix technical issues, such as broken links, internal links, site structure, meta descriptions, page status, and more, making your website more Google-friendly. Read my WebSite Auditor review.
  • Rank Tracker – Features a rank tracker tool to help you track and monitor the keywords your website ranks for. Although it’s not a keyword research tool, it provides keyword difficulty metrics and offers a powerful keyword tracking solution. Read my Rank Tracker review.
  • LinkAssistant – It’s a link assistant perfect for finding link-building opportunities and engaging in email outreach. Read my LinkAssistant review.

SEO SpyGlass helps users manage their backlink portfolio, create SEO reports, keyword research ideas, and, as the name implies, “spy” on their competitors. It provides detailed information on every link, allowing users to make informed decisions.

As Link-Assistant explains, the tool has access to an index of over 2.7 trillion backlinks at any given moment. The company started working on its backlink index back in 2011, and it has been constantly updated since then.

A feature verifies backlinks gathered from your Google Search Console or imported manually. Another one checks if the backlink is dofollow or nofollow. Using these tools, you can quickly identify bad links and take the necessary steps to clean up your backlink portfolio.

Who is SEO SpyGlass For?

Basically, anyone who wants to have their website rank for any keyword—whether it is locally, nationally, or even internationally—needs to manage their backlinks.

The first five organic results in the search engine results pages (SERPs) account for more than two-thirds of all clicks. To make it to the top, you need backlinks. Lots of them. High-quality ones too. And to know if your backlinks are helping you, you need to monitor them.

Small businesses, SEO specialists, online-only stores, and local businesses all benefit from SEO SpyGlass. The SEO PowerSuite tool is also great for large enterprises with an aggressive SEO strategy.

Even if you own or work for a digital marketing agency, SEO SpyGlass would be a valuable tool to have in your arsenal to help with your SEO tasks. Here’s what it can do:

  • Identify competitor links – Quickly see how many backlinks other players in your industry have gotten over a certain period. Then, use this information to create a link-building plan of your own and outrank them.
  • Analyze link sources – Low-quality links often cost you more than just the person-hours you had to invest in acquiring them. They can cost you your rank. Avoid getting penalized by locating and removing any harmful links with SEO PowerSuite in a matter of minutes.
  • Receive up-to-minute reports – No matter if you want reports for your clients or your own website, you need to make sure that the information you have is updated. SEO SpyGlass allows you to have daily reports with up-to-minute data collected on command.

To sum up, professionals of all levels, industries, and niches could use the SEO SpyGlass software in their toolkit for in-depth link analysis and improve their SEO efforts.

It is estimated that more than 65% of all pages on the Internet do not have valuable backlinks. Moreover, creating good content and selling goods or services takes time. SpyGlass will award your efforts with instant credibility and traffic.

SEO SpyGlass Features

To properly examine your link profile, you cannot look at raw data. You need to analyze it and make sense of it to be able to make informed decisions. Luckily, SEO SpyGlass comes with handy features that help you examine your backlinks properly.

In this SEO Spyglass review, I’ll look closely at its top features.

Backlink Characteristics

When you create a new project in the SEO PowerSuite tool and select your backlink source, SEO SpyGlass will automatically scrap all links and load the data into the workspace. Depending on the source, the SEO PowerSuite tools will gather all the data you need to assess the quality of your site’s link profile.

Once it is determined what links are live and what are not, the tool evaluates the quality of live backlinks based on the following factors:

  • Backlink Analysis – It allows you to see the backlink page, the Domain InLink Rank and Page InLink Rank, and the first and last found dates.
  • Link Type – This section will tell you if the links are nofollow or dofollow, frames, redirects, etc.
  • Linked Page Info – Checking the HTTP Status code of the page that is linked to your website.
  • Domain Info – Domain IP, Domain Age, and country of origin are all checked.
  • Linked Site Authority – InLink Rank, Domain InLink Rank, and Moz DA/PA are checked to determine the authority of the domain linking to your website.
  • Linked Site Traffic – You get a report of how many referral sessions your website got through the backlink in the past 30 days. You just need to connect your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts to SEO PowerSuite.
  • Cache Dates – This will tell you when the link was first cached by different search engines and show how often it is updated.
  • Social Shares – Social signals have become increasingly important for SEO, and SEO SpyGlass allows you to measure the impact of social media on your link-building efforts.
  • Penalty Risk – There are many factors that can determine whether or not your website will be penalized by search engines. SEO SpyGlass can alert you of links that could put you in hot water with the search engine giant.

To make sure you are getting the latest information, all you need to do is select your chosen backlinks and hit the “Factors Update” button.

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass Update Factors button

A prompt will pop up, asking you what information you want to update. After you check the boxes next to the factors you want to update, SEO SpyGlass will re-scan your backlinks and present them to you.

Backlink Quality

Not all backlinks are born equal. High-authority, quality links can be worth nearly 7X more than low-quality ones. Knowing whether the links you have been able to secure so far are of high quality is, therefore, critical.

That knowledge will actually guide your link-building plans, allowing you to know whether you should make any changes or not. SEO SpyGlass has several different metrics that you can analyze to see the SEO value of your keyword rankings.

  • Two-way Checker – Sometimes, websites will link to you without notifying you about it. That is only natural—but it is still important to identify those links and analyze their value. SEO SpyGlass will do this for you, no matter how hidden the backlinks are.
  • Anchor Text Search – Backlinks almost always contain anchor text. Often, this text includes target keywords. The SEO PowerSuite tool will be able to tell you if the anchor texts of your backlinks are helping or harming your rankings.
  • Page Rank – If you want to track the rank of a single page URL according to its importance on a scale from 0 to 10, you can use this tool.
  • IP Address – By discovering the IP addresses of your competitors, you can evaluate the success of their link-building efforts and use this information to boost your campaign.

Domain Comparison

SEO SpyGlass features a Domain Comparison module where you can add any competitor website and analyze their backlink profiles. You can then see a summary of all factors from each website and a link intersection module to help you find domain gaps in your backlinks.

Summary

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass Domain Comparison

As the competition for building backlinks becomes stronger, it will become harder and more expensive to build quality links to your site.

With the Domain Comparison tool, you can look at the competitors in detail and discover their backlinks, anchor texts, and more. The SEO PowerSuite tool will compare multiple domains, examine their ranking factors, and identify the winning characteristics.

You can sort the results for Top Countries, Top TLDs, and Anchors. While your strategy evolves and your website grows, you will want to examine new competitors. You can always add or remove domains from the comparison list without starting from scratch.

Link Intersection

The link intersection feature is one of my favorites that I share in this SEO SpyGlass review.

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass Link Intersection

You can also check if your competitors engage in link exchange. If you manage to find these interconnections, you can use them for your own benefit.

With the Link Intersection feature, you can find websites that link intersect with you and potential new backlink opportunities. The SEO PowerSuite tool will sort the linking domains into the following categories:

  1. All Domains – With this filter, you can see the list of all domains you have added to the comparison list.
  2. Intersecting Domains – The filter lists all the domains that link to 2 or more websites you have added.
  3. Prospective Domains – It shows you domains with links to any websites you listed but not yours.

In the last category, one finds potential domains for link-building that they have possibly missed.

You can customize the workspace even further by adding columns that show Linking Domain Authority, Info, and other factors. You can use the Quick CSV Export option to send the reports to a colleague. Just to note, the export function only works in the Enterprise version of the tool.

Bulk Analysis

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass Bulk Analysis

Looking at individual websites has its perks. But sometimes, you want to look at more websites at once. With the Bulk Analysis tool, you can harvest and arrange the most important metrics and put them in a single list.

The SEO PowerSuite feature allows you to collect up to 200 different domains and examine your competitors/opportunities by using the following metrics:

  • The number of keywords the website ranks for.
  • Organic traffic received through these keywords.
  • InLink Rank of the website.
  • The number of linking domains.
  • Dofollow and Nofollow links.
  • And more.

The feature is available for all pricing plans. However, the number of websites you can check depends on your version. For instance, if you’re using the free version of SEO SpyGlass, you can only see the metrics for 5 domains.

SEO PowerSuite Key Metrics

InLink Rank

Google’s PageRank tool positions websites by importance, link popularity, and other factors determined by the quality of “InLinks.” That is how Google democratized the web, so to speak. Every backlink is like a vote. The more backlinks a website has, the higher its chance of getting an impressive PageRank.

Page InLink Rank for SEO PowerSuite is based on Google PageRank’s algorithm. The strength and number of incoming links to a single page are what determine the metric. Furthermore, SEO SpyGlass presents the metric as a score on a scale from 0 to 100.

In your SEO PowerSuite project, you can see the InLink Rank of any backlink page you want.

Like Page InLink Rank, SEO PowerSuite also displays the Domain InLink Rank as Domain Strength. It’s like domain rating (DR) on Ahrefs and domain authority (DA) on Moz.

You can verify Domain and InLink Rank in WebSite Auditor for pages, SEO SpyGlass for backlinks and linking sites, and LinkAssistant for prospects and backlinks.

Backlink Value

Here’s another metric calculated by an SEO PowerSuite unique formula.

Backlink Value estimates the overall SEO value a specific backlink has. The formula is based on several external factors on the backlink page. In simple terms, the metric shows you how much “link juice” you get from a single backlink.

SEO PowerSuite Domain InLink Rank

SEO SpyGlass helps you further by having color indicators for your backlinks. Links marked red don’t offer a lot of link juice, while those marked green are highly valuable. To keep your backlink portfolio organic, you should aim to get more green links.

Penalty Risk

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass penalty risk click to disavow backlink

With the Penalty Risk feature, you can monitor the number of poor backlinks your website is getting. Again, we have another original metric that has a formula based on the following:

  • Parameters like linking domains, incoming/outcoming links, domain InLink Rank, and many more.
  • Diversity of your backlink portfolio, how many links come from the same websites, and how many anchors are optimized for the same keywords, among others.

Once the SEO PowerSuite tool does its job, you will know what backlinks can potentially penalize your website.

You should immediately manually check backlinks with a Penalty Risk of over 70%. Most likely, you’re dealing with a link that will get you in trouble. If you find any harmful links, be prepared to use Google’s Disavow tool.

Conversely, backlinks with a value of below 30% present almost no danger to your website’s well-being. They’re safe and valuable for your backlink portfolio.

SEO SpyGlass Pricing

My SEO SpyGlass review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning its pricing plans.

SEO SpyGlass pricing

While most top-class SEO tools won’t even give you a free trial, SEO SpyGlass is different. All products from Link-Assistant.com have unlimited free versions. The pricing plans available are as follows:

  • Free: For no money at all, you can create an account on Link-Assistent.com, download the SEO Powersuite bundle, and use a limited version of SEO SpyGlass. With the free version, you can check the history of your backlinks, find up to 1,100 of them, and check an unlimited number of websites.
  • Professional ($99/year): In addition to keeping the history of your backlinks, the Professional edition will find as many backlink opportunities as you need and check an unlimited number of domains. It also enables exporting options.
  • Enterprise ($199/year): For $199 per year, you get all the features of Professional and some additional ones like saving and emailing reports, and you get all the help you need from their fantastic support team.

SEO SpyGlass Pros and Cons

As with everything, SEO SpyGlass has some advantages and disadvantages. Let’s look at them, so you can make an informed decision as to whether SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass is the right SEO tool for you.

Pros of SEO SpyGlass

  • Easy-to-use interface.
  • Comprehensive analysis of your backlinks.
  • Penalty Risk feature for webmasters who want to stay on the safe side.
  • Free version that gives a good sample of the tool.
  • Customer support that will help you maximize your backlinks’ potential.

Cons of SEO SpyGlass

  • Due to the steep learning curve, inexperienced users might have to spend some time getting used to the SEO PowerSuite tool.
  • Requires desktop installation to use, which may be inconvenient for some users.
  • Every time you open the application, the software looks for updates. If there are any, you must wait until it downloads the updated version. This is one disadvantage of not being a cloud-based software.

How to Install SEO SpyGlass

Before you can analyze your backlink profile, you need to install SEO SpyGlass on your computer. You can start by heading to the Link-Assistant website and downloading the SEO PowerSuite installation file to your computer.

Once you’re done downloading, open the file and follow the instructions on the installation wizard. It will take you a few minutes to complete the process.

Then, you need to create a project by launching SEO PowerSuite SpyGlass and entering the URL of your website. For precise results, you need to pick either Domain Only, Domain and Subdomains, or Exact URL to monitor.

SEO SpyGlass installation enter a website

Once you have chosen, click the “Finish” button, and the SEO PowerSuite tool will take a couple of minutes to gather all the backlinks from selected sources and load them up in the project. When that is done, you can begin analyzing and exploring your backlinks.

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass Review: Bottom Line

SEO PowerSuite SEO SpyGlass is a robust backlink monitoring and analysis tool that can help you uncover different aspects of your backlink profile. If you have ever been worried about getting penalties from Google, this is the tool that will help you calm your nerves.

It is also a fantastic tool for monitoring your competitors and finding out what works and doesn’t. Overall, SEO PowerSuite SpyGlass is an excellent choice for people who want to ensure their websites stay safe and their backlinks are of the highest quality.

So what are you waiting for? Download SEO PowerSuite SpyGlass for free and see where your website stands regarding backlink health.

Vaslou is a passionate digital creator and blogger who loves to explore unique paths to generate online income. He’s also a musician, always looking for exciting paths to articulate his inventive spirit in the musical realm. When he’s not at work on his online endeavors, Vasco loves to delve into spiritual realms to become a better version of himself.

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