Are you looking to boost your digital marketing efforts, build brand recognition, and enhance your online presence?
Well, SEMrush might be exactly what you need.
SEMrush is a comprehensive digital marketing platform that offers various features and tools for pretty much everything related to digital marketing, from SEO and PPC advertising to content and social media marketing. With SEMrush, you can easily track the performance of your campaigns, identify areas for improvement, and stay ahead of the competition.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to SEMrush and explore some of the key features and benefits of using this powerful tool.
Without further ado, what is SEMrush? And should you start using it?
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is basically an all-in-one digital marketing platform that provides a suite of tools for SEO (search engine optimisation), PPC (pay-per-click), content marketing, and social media advertising.
The app (well, more of a toolset) is designed to help businesses, as well as digital marketers, improve their online presence and visibility on Google and other search engines. It also makes it easy to track the performance of their campaigns and identify areas for improvement.
Features of SEMrush
SEMrush offers a range of features for marketers, such as:
Keyword research features
SEMrush offers various tools for finding and analysing keywords. Here are some of the notable ones:
- Keyword Magic Tool, which allows you to enter a seed keyword and generate a list of related keywords, along with relevant metrics such as search volume, difficulty, and cost-per-click (CPC)
- Keyword Overview, which provides detailed information on a specific keyword, including search volume, competition level, and trends over time
- KD (Keyword Difficulty), which shows you how difficult it would be to rank for a specific keyword based on different factors, like backlink profile and authority of the top-ranking pages
- Keyword Gap, which compares the keywords that your website ranks for with those of your competitors, showing you which keywords you may be missing out on
Site audit and optimisation
The Site Audit tool helps you find technical issues within your site and provides recommendations for improving its performance.
Traffic analytics
SEMrush’s traffic analytics tools allow you to track the performance of your website and identify sources of traffic. Those sources include organic search, paid search, and referral traffic. That way, you can see which stream of traffic is generating the best results and focus more on it.
Backlink analysis tools
These tools can help you identify and analyse your website’s backlink profile. Using that data, you can improve the backlink profile and boost your search engine rankings.
Advertising research
SEMrush’s advertising research tools allow you to track the performance of your PPC campaigns, analyse the competition, and identify new opportunities for growth.
Social media tools
Besides SEO and PPC, SEMrush provides several features and tools for social media and content marketing, including the Social Media Tracker, which allows you to track the performance of your social media profiles and find new growth opportunities.
How much does SEMrush cost?
SEMrush has three plans that you can choose from:
- Pro, which costs 119.95 bucks per month
- Guru, which costs 229.95 bucks per month
- Business, which costs 449.95 bucks per month
There’s also a custom Business Solution plan if none of the aforementioned subscriptions is enough for you, but you’ll have to contact SEMrush to get a quote.
As you can see, SEMrush isn’t cheap. That’s why you should consider the pros and cons of the platform before committing to a plan, and that’s what we’re going to explore in the following sections, so keep reading!
Why you should use SEMrush (Pros)
There’s a reason why SEMrush is a favourite amongst digital marketers. In fact, there are several reasons, which we’ll be detailing below!
Feature-rich tools
As mentioned above, SEMrush provides a plethora of features and tools for SEO, PPC advertising, as well as social media and content marketing. All of that makes it a one-stop shop for all your digital marketing needs.
Ease of use
SEMrush has a user-friendly interface (not as user-friendly as that of Ahrefs, though). Moreover, it provides clear instructions and tutorials for using its different features. That’s why it’s to use easy for all users, even those just starting out in the digital marketing world.
Reliable data
SEMrush uses high-quality data sources to provide accurate insights into your website’s performance as well as the performance of your competitors.
Customisable reports
Using SEMrush, you can create custom reports using the data points you find relevant. Furthermore, you can schedule regular reports to be delivered to your inbox. All of that makes it easy to track the performance of your campaigns.
Decent customer support
SEMrush provides plenty of resources to help you get the most out of the toolset. Those resources include a comprehensive knowledge base, blog, and customer support team. If you get stuck during your journey, just fire up the support page. You’ll definitely find what you need within minutes.
Widely used and trusted
As mentioned, SEMrush is a popular and widely-used digital marketing tool. As of 2022, Backlinko reports that SEMrush has over 471,000 active users, including 67,000 paying customers). It also has a strong reputation in the industry. This can be a valuable factor when choosing a tool to use for your business. Moreover, it means that you’ll probably find all kinds of tutorials to achieve all kinds of stuff using SEMrush.
Why you shouldn’t use SEMrush (Cons)
Reading all of those advantages, you must be thinking, “wow, SEMrush is perfect, so why isn’t everyone using it?”
Well, although great, SEMrush is still far from perfect. The toolset does come with several drawbacks, which we’ll cover here.
It’s expensive
If you’re on a tight budget, SEMrush might not be the right tool for you. With the cheapest plan costing around $120 per month, SEMrush is kinda expensive. That can be bad news to those just starting out and unsure about whether they actually need it.
Thankfully, the app does offer a free version as well as a free trial that you can use to test the waters before committing. So, make sure to create a free account and take SEMrush for a test drive.
Steep learning curve
Yes, SEMrush does have a pretty, easy-to-understand interface. That said, the tool itself can be a bit complex and may require some time and effort to learn and fully take advantage of all of its features.
Dependence on third-party data
Just like any other marketing tool, SEMrush relies on data from third-party sources, which can sometimes be inaccurate or incomplete. Worry not, though, as the sources SEMrush uses are of high quality. In other words, you can rely on the data they provide most of the time.
Limited to certain industries
Some industries may not have sufficient data available through SEMrush, limiting its usefulness for such businesses.
Accessible to everyone and anyone
This is not a con per se, but since SEMrush is accessible to everyone, your competitors may have access to similar data and insights as you, which can level the playing field. That’s why you shouldn’t rely on SEMrush only when crafting your marketing strategies.
SEMrush alternatives
SEMrush might not be the right option for everyone. Thankfully, there are several other options to consider, including:
SEO-specific alternatives
- Ahrefs: just like SEMrush, Ahrefs is a digital marketing toolset that offers a variety of features for SEO, PPC, content marketing, and competitive research
- Moz: Moz is yet another digital marketing platform that provides tools for SEO, content marketing, and link building
- SE Ranking: SE Ranking hasn’t been around as long as SEMrush or Ahrefs, but it’s also considered one of the best all-in-one SEO solutions available today
Social media marketing alternatives
- Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a household name when it comes to social media management and marketing. It allows you to schedule and publish content, track the performance of your social media profiles, and collaborate with your team on different tasks
- BuzzSumo: BuzzSumo is a content marketing and influencer identification tool that allows you to identify trendy content and connect with influencers within your industry
- CoSchedule: As the name suggests, CoSchedule is a content marketing and project management tool that allows you to plan, organise, and execute your content marketing strategy
It’s important to choose the digital marketing tool that best meets the needs of your brand and business, especially since these tools aren’t cheap. That’s why you may want to consider trying out a few different options before making a decision.
Let us take care of your marketing needs
Tools like SEMrush can be both challenging and expensive to use, especially since there’s a lot of manual work involved. If you’d rather focus on running your business, you can let us manage your marketing efforts. Just book a discovery call with us today!
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