SEMrush Review: Keywords And Competitors Research Tool

SEMrush is one of the most sophisticated and leading SEO tools for SEO, PPC, SMM and Content Marketing professionals worldwide. It’s been around since 2008.

In this post, you will learn what SEMrush does, who it is for, how the data is collected, the plans & prices, the pros and cons and of course, I’ll introduce you to my favorite features!

Alright, let’s dig in.

What is SEMRUSH?

SEMrush is an advanced reporting tool for competitive and keyword research analysis.

It was mainly built to help you identify and analyze your competitors in the Google search results (and in BING U.S.). You can determine your competitors’ top search keywords that bring them traffic, their search ranking, the link building they use, the advertising methods they use, and more.

With this tool, you’ll be able to identify what improvements you can make to increase the visibility of your website in search and thus, outperform your competitors.

They also have great tools available that will help you track your website performance.

In other words, SEMrush has a perfect system to maximize your Internet marketing strategy and boost your business income online.

This SEO tool is for YOU, if…

• You work in the Internet marketing industry specifically in SEO/SEM/PPC.
• You want to improve your organic keyword rankings.
• You want to determine who your competitors are.
• You want to improve your link building.
• You want to learn about your competitors’ top keywords, exact page ranks for any given keywords, paid searches, and ranking in Google search.
• You’re planning to build a niche/affiliate site and you want to learn which keywords you should use to rank faster in the search engines.
• You want to find profitable keywords for your website.
• You want to overtake your competitors in Google search.
• You want to find low competition keywords.

 

How does it collect its data?

According to SEMrush, they are using Google and Bing U.S. search results for each researched keyword in their database.

They also use a Live Update algorithm to refresh its regional databases.

The update depends on the popularity and search volume, the more popular a search keyword is, the more often it’s updated.

They are updated daily, weekly, or monthly.

SEMrush’s is currently available to 26 regions: the U.S., Canada, Australia, Russia, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Mexico, Ireland, Singapore, Hongkong, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, and Norway.

SemRush Pros & Cons

Pros: What I love about it

• Shows your main competitors.
• Reports the top search keywords that brings traffic to a particular site.
• Analyzes backlinks such as referring domain’s authority, backlinks’ types, geolocation of referring domains and IPs.
• Spy on your competitors’ advertising methods.
• Shows new and top publishers and advertisers.
• Gathers related search keywords. Finds long-tail keywords (less competitive search queries).
• Conducts research for any keyword and check how profitable it is and how popular it is.
• Able to find organic search data of a certain website BY country.
• Able to export your data in Excel (XLS) or CSV (CSV) format.
• Some awesome tools included such as: position tracking, domain vs domain, keyword difficulty, site audit.

Cons: What kinda annoys me

• The search bar option runs slow sometimes. Needs to refresh to work properly when searching for specific keyword/URL.
• Pricey.

Available Plans

• Pro: $79.95 (1 month)
• Pro: $69.95/mo (Recurring)
• Guru: $149.95/mo (Recurring)
• Enterprise: $499/mo (Recurring)
• Click for more details

You can sign up for a free subscription with limited features. You only get to make 10 requests/reports per day. Also, keep in mind that they offer discounts on annual and six-month packages.

 

More About My Favorite Features

1. Displays Organic Search Data

See how I’m able to determine the keyword phrases my website ranks for? I love how I can see the search position, the average number of the search queries, the cost per click for each keyword, the URL displayed in the search results, traffic %, estimated price for a given keyword, the number of URLs displayed and even the time when the given keyword was last updated. Also, I like how I can sort the results by descending or ascending order or by keywords.

I love it mostly because I can easily find which posts rank well on Google, and check if those articles are up-to-date or see if I can do something to make those posts better.

2. Determine The Keywords Used for a Particular Post

Take a look at those search queries that brings traffic to this post: www.twelveskip.com/guide/blogging/987/create-successful-beauty-fashion-blog. I like how I can see my current position, the number of competition, the trends, etc.. This way I can check the post and see if it needs improvement to make it stay where it is or make it rank higher in search. OR if those keywords are worth the effort.

3. Shows New, Lost, Improved and Declined Keywords

I love how I can check the number of new, lost, improved, and declined keywords per day. I get to check which search terms and URLs are not working well so I get to analyze the problem and see how I can make those particular posts better. Whilst the new keywords give me signal to create more related content to those terms.

4. Compare Keywords Difficulty

See how I can check the difficulty of these keywords? I am able to estimate how it would be hard to seize my competitors’ positions in Google search with the keywords entered (1-100%).

5. Gather Lists of Related Keywords

When I search for “how to blog” term, SEMrush shows me those related keywords and phrases. It helps me figure out which keywords I should use to improve my ranking on Google. I usually target longer keywords (a.k.a. long-tail keywords) or those keywords with less competition.

7. Analyze Organic Competitors

When I search for Social Media Examiner’s competitors, that’s what I get. It lets me check the competition level and the common keywords they are using. This gives me an idea of who should I look up to and see how I can do better than them.

Bottom Line

No doubt, SemRush is an amazing SEO tool especially they’ve been adding a lot of new features lately. I just love them!

I’ve been building a lot of new websites and this tool actually keeps me on track. I mainly use it to find profitable keywords, long-tail keywords and analyze competitors. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to rank higher in Google’s search engine.

What about you? Have you tried it? What do you feel about SEMrush?