Compare / SerpDad vs spreadsheets
SerpDad vs spreadsheets: when the sheet is enough, and when it breaks.
SerpDad vs spreadsheets is the comparison most teams are really making. The sheet is free, everyone can open it, and it holds whatever you type into it. That last part is the problem. Here is when a spreadsheet is the right tool, when it stops working, and what the hours cost.
No competitor claims on this page. Just our own numbers and some arithmetic you can check.
Be honest. Keep the spreadsheet if:
The site fits in your head
Under about 30 pages earning impressions, one person publishing, and you remember what each page is for. A sheet with keyword, URL and status columns is plenty.
The list is short
A few hundred keywords on a new site, where almost every keyword needs a new page anyway. You can check the top 10 by hand for the close ones.
Nobody asks why
If no client, boss or finance team will question the page list, you do not need receipts. Save the money.
If that is you, start with our free keyword mapping template. It is built from the real serpdad.com plan, and it is a good sheet.
Where it breaks. Five signs the sheet has stopped working.
More than one person publishes
Two writers each own a tab. Both write a page for the same search. Nobody notices until both pages drop.
The archive outgrew your memory
The sheet says what you planned, not what you own. Old posts that still rank never made it into a row.
The SERP moved and the sheet did not
A keyword was grouped a year ago. The top 10 changed since. Nothing in a cell tells you.
Output is steady, traffic is flat
You keep publishing and the totals do not move. One common cause is your own pages competing for the same searches, and a sheet cannot check for it.
Someone asks why this page
The answer is in a person's head, or in a tab nobody can find. A receipt links to the URLs that decided it.
Side by side. SerpDad vs a spreadsheet, row by row.
| SerpDad | Spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 a month per workspace, locked for life, plus provider fees. Free up to 1,000 keywords | Free |
| Groups keywords by | Shared top 10 URLs: 3 or more in common means one page | Whatever the person filling it decides |
| Knows the pages you own | Yes. Every keyword gets New page, Optimize #N, Ranks #N or Pages compete | Only if someone types them in and keeps them current |
| Catches pages that compete | Checked on every run. Our run: 0 compete | Only by eye |
| Shows why | Every decision links to its evidence | A notes column, if someone filled it |
| Close calls | Go to a review queue with both sides | Go to whoever has edit access |
| Briefs | From each page's own top 10, with sourced facts | A separate doc, written by hand |
| Good for budgets, owners and deadlines | Not its job | Yes. Keep the sheet for that |
The cost of time. What 1,797 keywords take by hand.
To group keywords honestly, you compare their top 10 results. Our list had 1,797 keywords. That is 1,797 searches to read and paste, and 1,613,706 possible pairs to compare. Nobody does all the pairs, so in practice a person guesses from the words.
Say reading one SERP and pasting its top 10 takes you one minute. That is about 30 hours before any grouping starts. Your rate may differ: put your own minute in and do the sum.
SerpDad did the whole run in 1 hour 22 minutes, and the provider fees were $13.10. The estimate before we ran was $4.32 to $14.77. A person still settled the real ties, but there were 295 of those, not 1.6 million.
Our Run 2, in numbers
Use both. Keep the sheet. Stop asking it to plan.
A spreadsheet is a fine place for owners, budgets and due dates. It is a poor place to decide which page owns a keyword.
Start from the sheet you have
Import your keyword column from Google Sheets, or paste it.
Let the SERP decide the groups
SerpDad reads today's top 10 for each keyword and checks the result against the pages you own.
Settle the real ties
Only close calls reach you, each with the URLs on both sides.
Track the work wherever you like
Keep owners and deadlines in your sheet, or have a workflow send jobs to Slack, Linear, Asana or Trello.
Checking a pair of keywords by hand? The SERP overlap checker compares two top 10s for you. Docs: import keywords, read the plan.
Questions and answers.
Can't find the answer? Email us.
Is a spreadsheet good enough for keyword mapping?
Often, yes. If one person publishes, the site has fewer than about 30 pages earning impressions, and nobody asks you to justify the page list, a spreadsheet works well. Our free keyword mapping template is a good starting point.
When should I move from a spreadsheet to SerpDad?
When more than one person publishes, when the archive is bigger than anyone remembers, when traffic stays flat while output stays steady, or when someone asks why a page exists and the answer is in a person's head.
How long does grouping keywords by hand take?
It depends on your speed. Our 1,797 keywords meant 1,797 searches to read and over 1.6 million possible pairs to compare. At one minute per search, reading alone is about 30 hours. SerpDad ran the whole list in 1 hour 22 minutes for $13.10 in provider fees.
Can I keep using my spreadsheet with SerpDad?
Yes. Import keywords from Google Sheets or paste them, and keep owners, budgets and deadlines in the sheet. SerpDad decides which page owns each keyword.
What does SerpDad cost compared with a free spreadsheet?
Your first plan is free up to 1,000 keywords, with briefs for the top 5 pages, and no card. After that it is $15 a month for the first 30 paying workspaces, locked for life, plus provider fees you pay directly.
Outgrown the sheet?
Run your first 1,000 keywords free.
Your first plan is free up to 1,000 keywords, with briefs for the top 5 pages. No card needed.