If you are reading this, you are probably acquainted with SEO and its importance when it comes to managing your online presence. SEO’s history does not go so far back, but the changes that Google’s algorithm has gone through trying to populate its first pages with content of great quality, have made it imperative to a site’s success.
Because of the increasing need to utilize SEO techniques on the webpages a number of SEO tools have emerged on the market.
It is a truth universally acknowledged in the business world that any business decision based on personal opinion or belief might destroy all the efforts you have put into developing the business so far. In other words, you have to make sure that you always have all the facts you can possibly have, so you can make an informative and objective decision, and direct your efforts the right way. You don’t want to spend your time on something that will not yield any results, don’t you?
That is where SEO tools can come in handy. They can be either all-in-one tools or tools specialized in specific SEO tasks and utilize one of the three business pricing strategies: free, freemium or paid.
Although there are many tools available, some of them have attracted more attention than others. Such is the case with SEMrush which has built up quite the reputation for itself over the years, mainly due to the fact that it has taken competitor keyword research to a whole new level.
Those that are just starting out have at least heard the name, and those that have spent some time using SEO tools have surely used it, if not at the moment, then at some point of time.
In case you belong to the former, let’s start from the very beginning.
SEMrush is an SEO toolbox that analyzes different aspects of a website and its traffic. It shows your website’s ranking and provides you with recommendations and actionable advice that you can use to improve it and reach a wider audience. The best thing about it is that it allows you to make all of these analyses not only on your site but on your competitors’ sites as well, letting you walk on an already paved path to success. The software presents the data it gathers in an easy-to-understand manner, using charts and graphs, and urges you to dive into a pool of keywords that are generating traffic for your competitors – so you can use them yourself. Simply said, you can see what works for your competitors, and then you can ‘steal’ that approach to fuel your success.
This, in fact, has become SEMrush’s main selling point and has catapulted it into one of the favorite SEO tools among webmasters.
The reason for this is simple: knowing what works and attracts the attention of the audience present on the market will save you a lot of time, effort, and money – which is why it is more than worth it to invest in SEO tools and software.
Now, we know that all of the information presented above might seem too vague for you, so let’s break down and briefly explain all the things SEMrush can do for you.
SEMrush can help you by giving you a bunch of statistical data about:
You can get all of this information from the services that are part of the SEMrush toolbox.
SEMrush can help you gain data through various tools. Below we break down the most important ones, and explain what they can do for you and why they are of significance.
The first and the most important thing that SEMrush can provide you with is its extremely powerful keyword research tool. Using it, you can find the most high-ranking keywords and see the amount of organic and paid traffic that they produce. Moreover, you can find the search volume of each keyword and the top-ranking domains connected to it, as well as the long tail keywords that are ranking well, which can inspire your future content too.
When you use this tool, you can focus either on organic or advertising research.
If you do organic research, you can find out the top competitors’ most valuable keywords and use them to your advantage and compete for the top-ranking position. Furthermore, it is possible that you are not aware of some of the competitors present on the market, so by using this feature, you will discover all the competitors that you can compete with. You can also do organic research for your own site as well, getting insights on the keywords you use on your site and the traffic they bring you.
Advertising research on the other hand shows you the results of your competitors’ advertising campaigns: the amount of time their ads have been running, how they promote their services, whether longtail or high-volume keywords fuel their ranking, their keyword CPC estimations and the traffic that they receive – information that you can use to improve your advertising efficiency and decrease your budget while at the same time multiplying your results. The PPC Keyword tool analyzes your PPC campaigns and gives you recommendations for getting better results by showing you duplicate keywords, or keywords which cause your own ads to compete for ranking against eachother, so you can remove and change them.
Another thing you can access is the keyword difficulty which can give you a glimpse of your chances to rank for any given keyword. In other words, using this tool you can direct your efforts the right way by either targeting the keywords with low competition, or prepare in advance for competing for a difficult keyword.
Finally, SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool can help you find various keywords connected to a “seed” keyword, and thus branch out creating relevant content that appeals to your industry that can consequently help you achieve better results and rankings.
SEMrush gives you the option to summarize all the data you collect in a PDF report, which you can use to show your findings to all team members or clients. You can also customize your reports the way you want them to look, and schedule them on a regular basis.
SEMrush’s Analytics Reports show you data on your competitors regarding their organic and paid search, the display advertising, product listing ads and their link building.
SEMrush simplifies the data it collects by presenting it using graphs and charts, which are visual and easily understandable. These charts make it possible for users to compare the data that they collect on their competitors and continually monitor and analyze it. In other words, when using SEMrush, the information is so well packed, that you no longer need to contract an outside professional to make sense of the raw data.
With SEMrush you can do much more than just analyzing your competitors, which was mostly what we talked about above.
You can focus on your own site, and track your search engine position, with the Position Tracking Tool, which will show you how you are ranking for each keyword you use, so you know if you are producing the right type of content.
While we are on the subject of content, we need also to mention the Content Analyzer Tool which shows the output of each page on your site is creating. By output we mean duration of the visitor sessions, bounce rate and social media engagement and shares.
When it comes to social media, you can optimize your marketing efforts with the Social Media Tracker, which shows you the strategies behind your competitors’ most successful social media posts. This way you can see exactly what the audience likes and what it engages with, so you can create top performing posts yourself. Also, let’s not forget to mention that you can schedule your posts with the Social Media Poster.
Apart from keywords, backlinks are also playing a role in determining your ranking. That’s why you need a tool like the Backlink Audit Tool which shows you where your backlinks are coming from and make sure that they are from reputable sources. You might think that you cannot control which sites link back to you, but SEMrush allows you not only to see all the links but also remove the bad ones, and avoid being Penalized.
Furthermore, Site Audits help you check your SEO strategy and fix the mistakes that are keeping you from achieving the wanted ranking. You can use site audits to find and add missing tags, improve titles and meta descriptions, optimize both external and internal links, or fix your broken images. In the process of trying to fix your SEO strategy, you will actually be creating a more user-friendly site that will offer content of better quality and ultimately increase your traffic.
Finally, the On-Page SEO Checker will show you how you are doing regarding Google’s on and off-page SEO requirements, and give you recommendations on how to improve your SEO and increase your score.
Note that you will not get all of the tools above with just any SEMrush subscription – the package you get depends on your yearly payment.
Which takes us to…
As a SEMrush user you can choose one of the three pricing options:
Each of these plans offers a different variety of tools that you can use for growing your business, with the priciest Business option being the richest one, tools-wise.
Okay, so far we talked about what SEMrush can do, and we showed why it is one of the most powerful SEO tools on the market, but one question still remains: Is this tool what you need to grow your business?
SEMrush can give you a glimpse of the current situation on the market: both the offer and the demand. You can see the exact reasons that help your competitors to excel and you can follow them to the high-ranking position walking on a paved path, instead of struggling to find your way through the jungle of content. It is an immensely powerful tool that goes into detail on many aspects of your and your competitors’ businesses.
If we sum it up in a few words, we can come to the following conclusion:
On the Pros side, it is a toolbox that offers a variety of choices to optimize all aspects of your online presence.
On the Cons side, however, it is not particularly beginner-user-friendly.
In other words, SEMrush is a great tool only for those who know how to use all that it offers. For those that are starting out, on the other hand, it might not be the right cup of tea.
Whatever your final decision is, make sure to remember: having power and not using it is the same as not having any power at all.
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