I’m going to say something very obvious here… but if you have a website, a blog, or a channel, what is the one thing we ALL want?

More visitors!

No matter what your business is, you know that without traffic, you can’t achieve much.

So, how do you get more visitors and increase your traffic? Well, I’ve got a tool that has been a game-changer for me when it comes to all my SEO tasks. It’s called Semrush.

If you’re serious about SEO and want to see real results, Semrush is the tool for you.

In this review, I’ll cover:

  • Semrush Quick Verdict & Pros and Cons;
  • How Semrush Works;
  • Semrush Features (+ my favorite ones);
  • Semrush Pricing;
  • Semrush Alternatives

Is Semrush worth it?

Semrush Homepage

Semrush Review: The Quick Verdict

Semrush is one of the best all-in-one seo tools out there.

It is 100% worth the money.

It covers both on-page and off-page SEO with a wide range of tools to level up your online business.

This tool is for you if: 

  • you’re serious about SEO
  • You want to compete with the top websites in your niche
  • You want an accurate, data-driven tool

Here is what you can do with Semrush website:

  • Extensive keyword research, keyword gap, keyword clustering, and management
  • Comprehensive link-building tool, prospect finder, backlink analysis, and backlink gap
  • Competitive analysis
  • Site Audit + tips and suggestions to fix errors
  • Local SEO management
  • Advertising analysis
  • Social media management and content creation

Pro & Cons

Pro
  • Free Plan Forever
  • Easy to use
  • 7-day free trial
  • 7-day money-back guarantee
  • Great Customer Support
Cons
  • A bit expensive
  • No Extensions
  • It only Analyses Google Data

What is Semrush and How does it work?

Are you looking for an all-in-one SEO tool? Then Semrush is the one for you.

What can you do with Semrush?

  • Help you rank on Google Search Results and Youtube
  • Search for your competitors based on some of the keywords you might be competing for
  • Do keyword research to see if there are any opportunities to compete for a keyword
  • Analyze your competitors’ backlinks to see where their traffic is coming from

Basically, It has everything you need for keyword research, competitive analysis, link building, and on-page and technical SEO. Plus, you can even use it for advertising, social media, and content marketing.

The best part? Its data are incredibly accurate and reliable.

Like search engines, Semrush keeps crawling and indexing the web to get the most up-to-date data.

Semrush Features

The best thing about this tool? It offers a massive range of features!

With Semrush, you get everything you need for:

  1. SEO
  2. Local SEO
  3. Advertising
  4. Social Media
  5. Content Marketing

And each one of these features has its own dedicated tools.

Semrush Dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. On the Left side, you can find over 40 tools at your disposal.

Semrush Dashboard

Let’s dive into the most popular tools that Semrush has to offer:

Competitive Research

Here, you can “spy” on your competitors’ activities and discover what’s working for them.

With Semrush, you can perform an in-depth competitor analysis by checking:

  • Competitor’s domain
  • Keyword gap
  • Backlink gap

Domain Overview

Get a full overview of a domain and its online visibility.

Semrush Domain overview showing Autority Score, Organic Traffic,Paid search and baclinks of domain

Find out valuable information about a domain, including the authority scoreOrganic search trafficpaid keywords, and backlinks of a domain.

You can even compare domains and get a unique graph with all the info on your competitors’ domains.

Switching to the organic research section allows you to get an overview of your competitors’ organic research exclusively.

Here, you can target top organic keywords, search intent, and how much traffic they’re getting.

Semrush Organic Research showing organic keywords, traffic of a domain

One cool feature is the “Add to keyword list” button.

Here’s how it works: you can browse through your competitors’ organic keywords, and whenever you come across an interesting one, just click the button to add it to your personal list.

No need to switch to a different Google sheet or leave your Semrush account.

Semrush "add to keyword list" button

Last but not least, you can also filter keywords by position, volume, Keyword Difficulty, and intent to only get a targeted list of results you can immediately export or save for later.

Plus, you can even narrow down the list further by focusing on specific pages or subdomains.

Keyword Gap Tool

The keyword Gap Tool lets you compare your keyword profile with your competitors.

Here, you can spot new keyword suggestions and ideas.

Semrush Keyword Gap page

In the keyword gap tool, you can input up to 5 domains, subdomains, folders, or exact URLs to compare.

In return, you’ll receive a comprehensive list of all the keywords they have in common and that are unique to each.

Want to narrow down the list? No problem! Filter the keywords by organic, paid search, or PLA.

Backlink Gap Tool

Discover new backlink opportunities and analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles with the backlink gap tool.

Semrush Backlink Gap page

Here’s how it works: insert your competitor websites’ domains and receive a target list of domains that can possibly become new prospects for your link-building campaigns.

By using this method, you can easily find websites you already know that are likely to accept a guest post.

This helps avoid reaching out to online businesses that don’t want outsider writers.

Keyword Research

Here, you can find the best keywords for your marketing strategy.

With Semrush’s keyword research tool, you can dive deep into the world of organic and paid keywords. Here’s what you can do:

  • Discover precise keyword analytics
  • Generate unique keyword combinations
  • Discover related keywords
  • Gather keyword clusters for your on-page optimization
  • Monitor your site’s position based on target keywords
  • Get up-to-date traffic analytics

But here’s the best part: is Semrush accurate?

Semrush relies on trusted third-party data providers to collect actual search results pages from Google across 543 million popular keywords.

They study organic and paid search results, providing a complete picture of any website’s visibility on Google.

Keyword Overview

Search any keyword you have in mind based on location using the keyword overview tool.

Semrush keyword overview page

Here, you can get keyword difficulty score, keyword search volume, intent, and trend information.

Keyword overview page

The tool also shows you keyword suggestions and in-depth SERP features.

The “View SERP” button is a go-to for me.

I use it to check out the search results page on Google itself.

You see, it’s not just about the keyword metrics for me; I also pay attention to the People Also Ask section and related searches.

This handy “View SERP” button lets me see Google results faster (that’s it.)

"View Serp" button

In the SERP analysis section, you’ll also find metrics related to the Autority score, Referring Domains, Backlinks, and search traffic for each result.

Keyword Magic Tool

With the keyword Magic tool, you can identify keywords related to your target or keywords that are an exact match for your target.

Keyword Magic Tool page

This tool is perfect for finding long-tail keywords or filtering keywords based on search volume, KD, search intent, and more.

Keyword Manager

One of the best things about this keyword research tool is that you can manage all your keywords directly inside Semrush’s tool.

The tool automatically groups your keywords for you, saving you loads of time.

And guess what? These keyword clusters are prioritized by volume and difficulty, all automatically!

All you have to do is choose the topic you want to research and describe it with a few seed keywords, and the tool will automatically collect keyword clusters for you.

From there, you can create targeted pages on your site for each cluster.

No need to rely on multiple tools for research, optimization, and technical aspects of your SEO (Finally!)

Link Building

Let’s face it: link prospecting can be tough, but it’s also the most crucial part when growing an online business.

Building the right links is what truly boosts your online presence.

Here is what you can do with Semrush Link building tool:

  • Evaluate and compare link profiles in-depth
  • Monitor your backlink profile
  • Discover new link-building opportunities
  • Gather contact information for target websites
  • Reach out to them and follow up without any confusion
  • NO more wasting time on prospects that lead nowhere.

Related: Best Link-Building Tools

Backlink Analytics

Here, you can insert a domain and do an in-depth backlink analysis.

Semrush backlink analytics tool shows you all the backlinks a domain has, referring domains, total monthly visits, organic traffic, and more.

Backlink analytics page

Backlink Audit

The backlink audit tool allows you to:

  • Gather data on new, lost, and broken backlinks.
  • Crawl through your backlink profile whenever you want.
  • Gain actionable insights.
  • Investigate the quality of your backlinks.

What is great about this tool is that it provides suggestions to “fix” your issues, saving you from going crazy trying to find solutions.

When it comes to backlink quality, Semrush allows you to monitor your backlinks from various perspectives:

  • Filter them with over 50 parameters.
  • Group them by metrics like link type.
  • Group them based on authority score.
  • Check the distribution of anchors.

By Performing a Backlink audit, you can also check out the toxicity score of your backlinks to detect harmful links that may negatively impact your site.

Essentially, this metric provides insights into the number of toxic links linking to your website, enabling you to avoid any Google penalties.

Graph with toxicity score, ref domains and analyzed backlinks

Link Building Tool

The Semrush Link building tool lets you discover backlink prospects, execute campaigns, and monitor new links.

Get detailed information about your target website, including contact information and social web info.

Plus, with a built-in outreach module, you can send personalized, relationship-based messages and easily mark acquired backlinks as “Done.”

(And say goodbye to the days of relying on messy Google spreadsheets.)

On-Page SEO Checker & Technical SEO

Check your site’s health, analyze crawlability and issues, and gain insights to boost specific page rankings.

In short, here’s what you can do:

  • Audit your site to uncover errors and receive actionable tips for fixes.
  • Plan your audit effectively.
  • Access templates and tips for creating SEO-friendly content.

Site Audit Tool

Get actionable solutions to fix your website’s issues by processing your pages in minutes with our high-speed crawler.

(Scan any website for over 140 technical site health and SEO mistakes)

Site audit page showing the number of error, warning and notices found

You can also prioritize the issues you want to fix on your website.

Semrush categorizes all the issues found into three groups: errors, warnings, and notices. Based on severity and frequency, we’ll highlight what needs immediate attention.

The audit reports cover:

  • Crawlability
  • Site performance
  • Internal linking

And the best part? You have full control over the audit frequency.

Simply set it up (I suggest once a week), and the tool will automatically audit your site, sending you a detailed report via email.

SEO Content Template

With this feature, you can generate actionable briefs to create SEO-friendly content.

Simply input your target keywords (up to 30 at once!) and get tailored, easy-to-understand SEO recommendations for your copy.

Seo content template

These recommendations are generated by analyzing your top 10 competitors, and they cover various areas such as page titles, meta descriptions, H1 tags, lists of relevant keywords, or suggestions on text length and readability to make your content stand out.

Local SEO

With Semrush, you can also optimize your site for local searches. Here is the set of tools it offers:

  • Google Listing Manager
  • Position tracking tool
  • It gives you tips and actionable insight to improve your rankings
  • Social media tools to create, schedule, and publish social media content

Keep in mind that Semrush’s local SEO tools require an additional payment:

  • Basic Plan: +$20/mo
  • Premium Plan: +$40/mo

Related: Best Local Seo Tools

Advertising

With the advertising feature, you have the power to:

  • Analyze your competitors’ AD strategies
  • See your competitors’ keywords and content strategy
  • Analyze the performance of other Google Shopping advertisers
  • Discover the search queries that trigger their PLAs (product listing Ads) and their positioning

The Advertising tools are available for the Guru and Business Accounts.

Social Media

With the social media tool, you can manage multiple social media accounts with just one subscription. Here’s what you can do:

  • Track and analyze any brand’s social strategy
  • Create and share engaging content on all your social profiles
  • Centralize your community management (all your messages, mentions, and tag alerts into one simple inbox)

This feature is not included in Semrush plans, but it’s an add-on that requires a separate payment ($19.75/m).

Content Marketing

Create and execute a powerful data-informed content strategy based on your audience’s needs.

Here’s what you’ll get:

– Topic Research to discover trending content topics in your industry and run a content gap analysis.

– SEO Content Template to create effective content briefs and receive targeted recommendations to outrank your competitors.

– SEO Writing Assistant to optimize your content based on your target SERPs.

Here, you can create and execute a powerful data-informed content strategy based on your audience’s needs.

Semrush Pricing

Free Semrush Account: $0
Features: The maximum number of requests is limited to 10. You can create and manage only one Project and track 10 keywords in Position Tracking

Pro Plan: $129.95/month
Features: 5 projects, 500 keywords to track & 10,000 results per report. 
SEO, PPC, and research tools: Competitor analysis, keyword research, website audit, backlink analysis, advertising tools

Guru Plan: $249.95/month
Features: 15 projects, 1,500 keywords to track & 30,000 results per report
All Pro features plus: Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, Looker Studio integration

Business Plan: $499.95/month
Features: 40 projects, 5,000 keywords to track, 50,000 results per report
All Guru features plus: Share of Voice, extended limits, API access, PLA analytics, free migration from third-party tools

Semrush Free Trial: 7-DAY Free Trial for Pro Account here

Pricing plans: Pro $129.95/month  Guru $249.95/month  Business $499.95/month

Semrush Alternatives

If you feel that Semrush is not the right tool for your needs, here are 4 Semrush alternatives:

Ahrefs

Price: $99 – $999/m
Features:

  • Keyword research tool
  • Keyword tracking
  • Rank tracking
  • Site Audit
  • Competitor Analysis 
  • Link building tool

Related: Ahrefs Full Review

Moz

Price: $99 – $599/m
Features:

  • Free trial
  • Keyword research tool
  • Keyword tracking
  • Rank tracking
  • Site Audit
  • Competitor Analysis 
  • Link building tool
  • Listing Management

Spyfu

Price: $39 – $79/m
Features:

  • Keyword research tool
  • Keyword tracking
  • Rank tracking
  • Site Audit
  • Competitor Analysis 
  • Link building tool

SE Ranking

Price: $49 – $190/m
Features:

  • Free trial
  • Keyword research tool
  • Keyword tracking
  • Rank tracking
  • Site Audit
  • Competitor Analysis 
  • Link building tool
  • Listing Management

Semrush FAQ

Semrush Refund Policy

Semrush offers a 7-day money-back guarantee you can request if you’re not satisfied with the product.

Speaking from personal experience, their customer service was exceptional when I was testing various SEO tools. They promptly responded and refunded the full amount within a couple of days.

This feature is also great if you’re curious about what Guru or Business plans offer but are not sure if they’re worth the investment. Take advantage of this opportunity to try them out and decide for yourself. And if they don’t meet your needs, simply ask for a refund.

Is Semrush Accurate?

Semrush is highly accurate when it comes to the data it provides.

They collect Google’s actual search results pages for the 543 million most popular keywords using third-party data providers.

With their internal algorithms, machine learning approach, and strong partnerships, Semrush ensures that the data is always up-to-date and relevant.

Categorized in:

SEO, SEO Tools,

Last Update: July 22, 2024