You’ve probably seen our recent run-up on the best SEO tool and noted that Semrush beats Ahrefs in pretty much each and every instance.
So we’ve decided to do a more thorough coverage of Semrush, going through the ins and out of the entire platform so you have a better understanding of what you’re really getting if you sign up to join the Semrush community.
From the key features to a more detailed take on pricing, we’ll review the toolkit, focusing on its main features—because if we were to do a full review, well you’d have to spend at least a few hours reading, and we know no SEO or marketer has the time for that.
So let’s immerse into the Semrush universe and see how to reap the full benefits of the platform!
What is Semrush?
Semrush calls itself a full-cycle online visibility and content marketing management platform.
It has over 50 tools that equip you with all the necessary intel to manage and enhance your online presence, covering the key aspects of your online marketing strategy:
- SEO;
- Digital advertising;
- Market and competitive research;
- Content marketing; and
- Social media management.
How does it cover all of these exactly? It delivers data and insights that help you make more informed decisions regarding these areas of your online presence—from discovering new market niches and making successful product launches to managing day-to-day things like rank tracking and site audits.
A Comprehensive Review of Semrush’s Top Features
Just from this brief intro, it gets clear that Semrush is pretty big. So we’ll just run through some of the greatest features you won’t see across any other solution— either they are unique or absolutely top-notch.
Because of everything else you can think of, Semrush definitely covers.
Semrush Is Synonymous to True Keyword Intelligence
SEO pros have had great respect for Semrush’s keyword research and analysis capabilities ever since the toolkit saw the light of day. But each year, Semrush was ramping up its strengths and enhancing its all goes to deliver absolutely unique keyword intel.
So here we are:
- Semrush has the largest (and what’s more important most fresh) keyword database on the market.
Source: Semrush stats
But the size of the database shouldn’t be the most impressive feature here. Because when it comes to keyword data, what you want is quality, and Semrush has it:
- A recent study unveiled that Semrush has the most accurate search volume data than any other major solution. And what’s more important it’s very relevant to today’s searches—so if any topic is currently trending on the web, Semrush will be the first to report data on it.
“Big” and “accurate” are the two words you’d want to hear about a database. And Semrush wins in both aspects.
But the database is only as good as the insights you can gather. And Semrush is pretty great at turning raw data into real insights, meaning that you can leverage access to the following features:
- Both global and local search volume stats reflect how many people Google a given search term a month. Top this up with a comprehensive list of semantically related keywords, and you get a pretty comprehensive keyword research process.
- Semrush’s keyword difficulty metric—it shows how hard it is to rank for a certain keyword—factors in as many criteria as you can think of (competition, geo, backlinks, SERP features, etc.).
- Keyword intent is Semrush’s absolutely unique feature that helps you go along with Google’s growing emphasis on user intent. Essentially, Semrush reflects whether a keyword implies informational, transactional, or any other user intent, helping you to build a more spot-on content strategy.
Source: Keyword Overview tool
All these keyword riches are a part of an entire management ecosystem that allows you to conveniently work with your keyword lists, filtering everything by locations, languages, and any other criteria you can think of.
Smart and Automated Rank Tracking
All Semrush users have access to mobile data, which is crucial in our mobile-first era. This means that you can track your rankings on mobile as well as on desktop without having to purchase any additional add-ons. Most solutions don’t even offer mobile data at all.
This makes Semrush’s Position Tracking the it-tool for monitoring your performance in search. And, you can track your rankings daily—exactly what you need to spot any negative patterns early on.
Source: Position Tracking tool
But there’s more to rank tracking with Semrush:
- You can see your share of voice and get visibility benchmarks against the competition;
- You can monitor your ranks across devices and locations (down to the ZIP code);
- You have all-encompassing SERP feature coverage with unique monitoring of local 3-pack, along with coverage of a lot of languages (say, if you target multiple languages with your site);
- You can even get alerts on self-competing pages (pages that rank for the same keyword) within the Cannibalization report.
Full Audit of Your Site
Having a healthy website is the cornerstone of your online success. Any problem with page load speed or HTTPS can bring your efforts to naught.
This is where Semrush’s powerful site audit tool comes in. Its real power lies in the fact that it follows all industry trends and shifts, bringing you updates just after Google releases them. For instance, Semrush was the first to release a site audit for Core Web Vitals just after Google rolled out its Page Experience Update.
But the regular audit involves 140+ checks, which means that the tool evaluates pretty much every aspect of your site’s performance, detecting:
- Technical audit for crawlability, HTTPS, AMP, and other performance issues;
- On-page (text-to-HTML ratio, image optimization, etc.) and schema markup issues;
- Hreflang issues; and
- Internal linking issues.
Source: Site Audit tool
What’s helpful is that Site Audit always has explainers that give you short recommendations on how to fix issues detected by the tool.
Access to Tools That Are Absolutely Unique (On-Page SEO Checker and Backlink Audit)
Semrush has two tools you won;e come across in any other solution — On-Page SEO Checker and Backlink Audit. And you should absolutely experience the true power of both.
The tool allows you to go targeted in your optimization and enhance select pages for ultimate performance based on the best practices for your target keyword.
OPSC offers actionable page and copy improvement ideas that come from competitors. It covers everything from technical SEO and SERP features to UX and semantics—essentially, everything that affects your rankings.
Source: On Page SEO Checker
And as a cherry on top, OPSC prioritizes recommendations by impact and ease of implementation so you get to see more substantial results in a shorter timespan.
- Backlink tools
Semrush’s backlink database is as good as its keyword one. It’s the biggest and fastest backlink database on the market.
This implies that you have access to the strongest solution that helps you unwrap competitors’ backlink strategies and find ideas for expanding your own backlink portfolio.
And once you’ve built enough backlinks, you can use Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool which has unique toxicity assessment formula to pinpoint links that might be negatively affecting your performance.
With Semrush, Your Content Marketing Is Fully Covered
Like no one else, Semrush understands that your site enhancements, link-building efforts, and everything else aren’t worth much without investment in high-quality content creation.
That’s why they offer an entire Content Marketing Platform that’s power-packed with tools that cover pretty much the entire workflow.
- You can manage all your content efforts using a range of Semrush tools: Topic Research will arm you with data-driven content ideas. Based on your target keyword and location, the tool pinpoints the most trendy and appealing topics you can use for your future posts and articles.
Source: Topic Research tool
- SEO Content Template will help you out if you are outsourcing your content creation, building a copy brief that mentions everything from SEO elements (keywords, semantics, etc,), target readability and text length, and even backlink suggestions for future outreach efforts.
- SEO Writing Assitant is an add-on that you can use in Google Docs and WordPress (you can copy/paste your text into the tool as well). It ensures that your copy is well-optimized for both the search engines and humans taking optimization ideas from the top-ranking content for your target keyword and location.
- Content Audit keeps track of your content’s performance, which helps you pinpoint underperforming assets that need some smart improvement recommendations from a tool like On-Page SEO Checker.
Exclusive Access to Third-Party Marketing Apps
There’s one new addition to the Semrush family I cannot share with you. Semrush recently rolled out an entire Semrush App Center—a single spot where you can find top-notch tools for all things marketing.
Semrush App Center features various third-party apps that deal with all thinkable aspects of a marketer’s job:
- Banner creation for social media
- All-round insights into competitors’ ad strategies
- Website testing that ensures your site operates correctly across browsers, devices, and locations
- Influencer discovery
- E-commerce keyword analytics tool that reflects major retailers’ top keywords
- Product research for Shopify and AliExpress
- YouTube rank tracker
Well, it’s hard to name all the tools that are already partnering with the platform. And what’s great is that every time you check the App Center, you’ll likely see a new app joining its ranks.
But it’s not just about a simple directory of tools. Semrush App Center has truly valuable and handy features that help you facilitate your job and keep your budget intact:
- Semrush hand-picks the apps, meaning you don’t have to waste time and resources checking out various solutions.
- The platform features exclusive pricing so it can be cheaper to use the apps through Semrush App Center.
- All the tools are integrated into Semrush’s UX so you don’t have to go through an entirely new learning curve. Also, there is a single sign in, which means no extra logins and passwords.
As a paid Semrush user, you have full access to all the apps listed within the platform.
Semrush Pricing
With all of this overwhelming description, you might be dreading the part where we get to pricing.
But you really shouldn’t. Semrush has pretty modest pricing compared to many other solutions that have a somewhat comparable range of intel and tools (although there is none really).
This is what Semrush’s pricing looks like:
Source: Semrush pricing page
It’s pretty impressive to see such prices considering what you get in return. Also, if you are ready to all in and get an annual subscription, the costs go down below $100 a month.
In return, you get everything you need for building a smart and integrated marketing strategy:
- 50+ tools that cover all thinkable aspects of your online visibility.
- Integrated data that flows from one report to another.
- Bump-free management and smooth tracking/reporting process.
We’ve partnered with Semrush to provide you with a free 14-day trial. Use this link to access this exclusive offer.
Over to You
Alas, we can’t go on forever about the full range of Semrush’s coverage and capabilities. But you should know that we haven’t even mentioned anything about the platform’s market research, competitive analysis, advertising, social media management, reporting, and other features that turn it into a platform that has it all.
Yet we hope that even this somewhat superficial view has given you an idea of the platform’s power. And as you can tell, Semrush takes quality very seriously, meaning that you will always have access to the most accurate and freshest insights on all things online.
And this is exactly what can streamline your digital efforts and help you achieve everything you want—higher rankings, more traffic, and any wins that translate into business success.
So if you want to take a sneak peek into the toolkit and see the toolkit’s power for yourself, catch a unique free Semrush trial that’s only available to our readers!
