SEMrush Review & Tutorial: How to Use it Like a PRO

semrush review

Table of Contents

In this SEMrush review and tutorial, I will show you everything you need to know about SEMrush.

Advanced strategies.

Cool features.

SEMrush FREE Trial for 14 Days [Worth $99.95].

And SEMrush alternatives that you can consider.

Keep reading…

SEMrush Review & Tutorial - Table of Contents

What is SEMrush?

SEMrush is a SAAS company founded by Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitry Melnikov in 3rd August 2008 in Boston.  SEMrush provides multiple online tool kits at a single place including keyword research tool, backlink audit, rank tracking, competitor analysis and more.

5,000,000 marketing professionals and over 1000 top media outlets worldwide trust on SEMrush data and insights.

SEMrush - Online Visibility Management Platform

In short: it has everything you need to run a successful SEO campaign.

And in this SEMrush tutorial, I will explore every important SEMrush features.

Moreover, later in this review, you’ll see SEMrush vs Ahrefs comparison to know which is the best seo tool.

But first…

Click here to claim your 7-day free trial for SEMrush Pro. This will make it easier for you to understand SEMrush’s research features.

Why Should You Use SEMRush?

If you have been in the SEO space for some time, you already know the importance of premium SEO tools.

In fact, to create a successful digital marketing campaign that brings you lots of sales and traffic, you need a robust toolset.

The problem is…

The more tools will cost you more money.

Let’s do simple math:

These are just a few tools. I haven’t included social media tool, PPC tool, etc.

If you consider them all it will be over $500/month and that’s huge, right?

So, what’s the solution?

SEMrush.

How?

This is what you will learn in this ultimate SEMrush tutorial.

But first…

Get your FREE SEMrush PRO account, so you can go with a step-by-step process and implement the same on your website or blog

How to Use SEMrush

Sign up for SEMrush using this unique link.

Sign Up SEMrush

After sign up, the first thing you will see is a SEMrush dashboard.

SEMrush-Home-Dashboard

Here you have to add a new project. To create a new project, simply enter your domain in the project bar and hit create button.

Dashboard Create a New Project

Otherwise, you can also add the project from the top. Hit the (+) and fill the details.

As soon as you create a project, it redirects to a page where you see recommend tools setup like Site Audit, Position Tracking, On Page SEO Checker, Backlink Audit, etc.

SEMrush Suggested Tools

You can also access some of the features from the dashboard.

SEMrush Dashboard Feature

As you can see that I already have set up position tracking for six projects. SEMrush rank position tracking will help you to make your content strategy better.

I will discuss about it later in this tutorial.

First…let’s see other tools that you can access from your dashboard.

SEMrush Dashboard Rest Tools

SEMrush Dashboard Shortcuts

Before we move ahead, let me tell you what these tools actually do:

Site Audit – Site Audit tool is a great way to start with SEMrush. It scans your website and provides the actionable suggestions to improve your website’s health.

On-Page SEO Checker – If you already have pages that are ranking in SERP, the “On-Page SEO Checker” can show you how to get them on top. It examines your pages for on-page ranking factors and collects SEO ideas that will help you maximize your organic traffic.

Social Media Tracker – SEMrush social media tracker is best for people who want to increase their social media presence. You can connect your social media accounts to track your follower growth, automatic social media posting, and to find new content ideas at a single place.

Notes – This is where you can see what’s new happening SEO world and how it is affecting your website ranking. SEMrush wants you to keep updated your SEO knowledge with notes.

SEMrush Sensor – You know Google often releases new updates – the SEMRush Sensor keep an eye on them. You can see the volatility score for the keyword sets that you have added in position tracking.

Backlink Audit – You already know the link building is one of the top three ranking factors that Google considers to rank a page.  Running an in-depth backlink audit will help you identify malicious links that can affect your website and organic traffic.

Organic Traffic Insights – It pulls out data from your Google Analytics account and shows metrics like bounce rate, average session, etc. The best part – it can also show you the “(not provided)” keywords which you can’t able to see in GA.

Display Advertising Tool – This is a great feature to spy your competitors’ paid campaign keywords. Additionally, you can see the images ads so you can replicate the same.

The Ultimate List of SEMrush SEO Toolkit

Like I said, in starting of this SEMrush tutorial, I will explain each important SEMrush tool and how you can use SEMrush to boost your digital marketing campaign.

Let’s get started:

Click here to activate your 14 Days SEMrush PRO Free trial.

SEMrush SEO Toolkit Review and Tutorial

The SEO Toolkit contains over 20 tools and reports which can be found here:

  • Competitive Research
  • Keyword Research
  • Link Building
  • Rank Tracking
  • On-Page SEO and Technical SEO
SEMrush SEO Tool Kit

Know Your Strength and Weakness

Here is the deal:

You must know how your website is performing on both organic and paid channels before you get into the SEO battle with competitors.

Here is how to it:

  1. Head over to the SEO Toolkit
  2. Click on the Domain Overview from the left side menu
  3. Enter the domain name you want to analyze and hit the search button.
Semrush dashboard overview

At the top you will see:

backlinko com — Domain Overview SEMrush

Authority Score – It is SEMrush metric to measure a website’s domain strength.

Organic Search Traffic – It shows how much organic traffic your site is getting as well as the number of ranking keywords.

Paid Search Traffic – It shows the paid search traffic for your domain if you are running any paid campaign.

Backlinks – It indicates the number of backlinks your website has as well as the referring domains.

Display Advertising – It shows the data about display advertising, including the number of ads and publishers.

WAIT that’s not all…

As you scroll down, you will see more details:

backlinko more details

You can export the data as a PDF for further analysis from the top.

Take Away – Use the data from Domain Overview to know where you are strong and which area you need to work on like organic traffic, backlinks, etc.

Sneak Peek into Competitors Analytics

Traffic analytics report will allow you to look into the competitor’s analytics. You can see data like unique visitors, bounce rate, avg. page duration, top pages, and more.

Let’s see how?

  • Click on Traffic Analytics.
  • Next, enter the competitor domain name and hit the Search button.

It will show your competitor’s data, including their top pages, traffic sources, etc.

backlinko traffic analytics

You can check more competitors’ data against each other to get collect more data.

Take Away – Traffic Analytics will help you understand your competitors’ top-performing marketing strategies that you can implement on your website.

Dig Deeper with Organic Research

This is SEMrush’s bread and butter feature.

Just enter your competitor’s domain…

Organic Research SEMrush Backlinko

…and get their top organic ranking keywords, pages, keyword positions and more.

backlinko com — Organic Research SEMrush

Keyword Positions

Now, this is important…

You want some magic keywords that you can easily rank.

Well, you got it.

Click to positions on Organic Research.

Apply Advanced features –> Include->Word Count->Greater than->5.

organic positions

Now you have the huge list of long tail keywords…

longtail keywords

…and you already know long tail keywords ranks fast.

The feature I love most is:

SERP Features

serp features backlinko

As you can see, there are lots of opportunities that Brian can utilize to increase his website’s organic traffic.

More than that, you can see the top performing pages of Backlinko.

Organic Research Top pages SEMrush

“How to Rank YouTube Videos” is the top performing page of Backlinko. It brings 53.86% of traffic as well as ranking for 1891 keywords.

That means creating content something similar to YouTube is a great idea.

Also, you can see the main organic competitors.

In Backlinko’s case, these are:

main organic competitors

Uncover Competitor’s Keyword with Keyword Gap Analysis

And now, this is important…

SEMrush Keyword Gap tool let you to analyze your keywords with keywords of your competitors.

Enter your competitor’s domain…

SEMrush Keyword Gap Tool

…and get a list of keywords that your competitors are ranking but you don’t.

Keyword Gap Tool Missing Keywords

To start your marketing campaign start targeting keywords that your competitor is ranking in the top 10.

Let’s apply an advanced filter to find competitor’s keywords which are ranking in the top 10.

Keyword Gap Tool Advanced Filter

…and here are the Google’s first page ranking keywords.

Keyword Gap Tool High SV Keywords

You see here are some high search volume keywords in top 10 that Policy Bazaar can target.

You Can Still Activate Your FREE SEMrush PRO Account for 7 Days.

Find Competitors’ Unique Backlink with Backlink Gap Tool

Here’s is the interesting part…

Using Backlink Gap tool, you can find unique sites which are linking to your competitors’ website but not you.

Add your domain against competitor domain in backlink gap tool.

Backlink Gap Tool SEMrush

…and get a list of link prospects where you can build links to make your backlink profiling strong.

Backlink Gap High Authority Sites SEMrush

How to Do Keyword Research with SEMRush

You don’t want to miss this next part…

Use SEMrush keywords research tool to find out the best keywords for ranking in Google.

Keyword Research Tool runs a full analysis of your keyword and helps you to decide whether you should enter into competition for it.

Here is how?

Run a Quick Keyword Analysis with Keyword Overview

Before you target a keyword, you must know the potential of that keyword like search volume, keyword difficulty score, and other supporting keywords.

Keyword Overview SEMrush

The keyword “life insurance quotes” has only search volume 880 in India that I doubt because the original number should be more than that.

But one thing here I agree with is the keyword difficulty.

It won’t be easy to rank for this keyword because it’s a money making keyword and companies out there are doing their best be on the first page of Google.

They are burning thousands of dollars on paid ads for this keyword.

Find Easy to Rank Keywords with Keyword Magic Tool

This one is my favourite SEMrush keyword research tool feature.

Why?

Keyword magic tool will help you find easy to rank keywords.

Let me walk you through the exact process to find profitable and easy to rank keywords ideas for your seo campaign and PPC.

Similar to other keyword research tools, I will start using Keyword Magic tool with seed keyword.

First, I popped ‘Investment Plans’ in the SEMrush Keyword Magic tool search box.

Keyword Magic Tool Investment Plan SEMrush

And I see hundreds of keywords that I can target in my content.

investment plans keywords

Yup, that’s pretty cool.

You can sort keywords for specific metrics from headers to find keyword opportunities that match your requirement.

investment plans sort

Use Filters to Find Golden Nuggets

Sorting is helpful but using advanced filters can do magic.

To apply filters, click on the Advanced Filters form interface. You will have an option there to include or exclude keywords.

include and exclude keywords

You don’t need to set both limits to use these filters.

For example – you want long tail keywords with 5 words long.

Just set the 5 under the word count and the keyword list below will get updated:

investment plans filters

As a result, you got some great keyword that you can create content around it.

Before we move to the next step of this tutorial, I have some keyword research tips of you below.

Important Keyword Research Tips for SEO

  • Pay Attention to Keyword Difficulty – When you are starting a blog, or working a new website, make sure you don’t go far high keyword difficulty keywords. For a beginner, 60 or less are the ideal number to start with.
  • Don’t Fall for Search Volume – When searching keywords don’t only look for high search volume keywords only. In fact, try to find multiple low competition keywords that rank faster to give steady traffic.
  • Export Your Keyword – Make a master keyword sheet it will help you create your content strategy for each keyword. Additionally, it keeps your SEMrush online account clean.

Find Not-provided keywords in Google Analytics

Here is the bottom line…

You may have seen (not-provided) keywords in Google Analytics organic search report when doing keyword research.

Google Analytics

This is frustrating because not-provided keywords are the one which brings most of the organic traffic.

Google has some privacy policy not to show those keywords, and we can’t complain about that.

This is where the SEMrush Organic Traffic Insight Tool comes to help.

Organic-Traffic-Insights

You need to link your Google Analytics account to your SEMrush project to use this tool.

Click on ‘Connect Google Account’ and approve SEMrush access from your Google account.

Connect Your Google Account

Simply select the right Account->Property->View from the drop-down menus and click ‘Select database’ to proceed.

To complete the process of your GA setup, choose the primary location and the target device.

Connect-to-Google-Analytics-Complete

Amazing, isn’t it?

You can see all the keywords from your Google Analytics that driving traffic to your website.

Additionally, you can see other important metrics to improve your marketing strategies.

Organic Traffic Insights Important SEMrush

You can also link your Google Search Console account to see the organic keywords which bring traffic to your website.

Organic Traffic Insights search console

Build a Solid Backlink Plan with Backlink Analytics

Here’s you should pay attention…

You know Google considers backlinks as a vote that a website gets from other sites.

The more high quality backlinks one website has the more chances to rank faster.

The trick is to…

Run A Deep Analysis with Backlink Analytics

Conduct an in-depth analysis with SEMrush Backlink Analytics Tool and identify all incoming links and linking domains.

Just enter the domain which backlinks you want to see…

Backlinks PolicyBazaar SEMrush

…and get the number of inbound links and referring domains.

policybazaar com – Backlinks analysis

As you scroll down, you will see the Top Anchors used for link building.

policybazaar top anchor

…and linking domains’ strength. You must try to get links from high authority sites.

referring domains by authority score

SEMrush Backlink Analytics tool also provides you with a chart where it shows the new, lost and total numbers of backlinks and referring domains.

So you can easily monitor your link building efforts and make a better link building strategy.

backlink chart

Improve Your Link Building Campaign with Backlink Audit Tool

SEMrush has a sneaky Backlink Audit tool.

Backlink Audit Tool SEMrush

What I like most about this backlink audit tool is you get info on your site’s overall backlink health.

links score

And the types of links your website have.

link types

You can export all the toxic links and send a request for Google to disavow spam links to avoid any manual penalty. Make sure you review links before removing them.

spammy links removal

Take Away – You should often run link audit to ensure that the links your websites are getting are quality links. High-authority backlinks will increase your website authority and improve your ranking.

Build High Quality Links with Link Building Tool

Stay creative with your link building campaign and content promotion using SEMrush Link Building Tool.

Just enter your domain name in the search bar…

Link Building Tool – SEMrush

Add keywords that you are targeting and looking for link prospects then click on Competitors below.

Link Building Tool Add Keywords

After adding keywords, next thing is adding competitors.

You can add up to 10 competitors’ domains to find link opportunities. Click on Start Link Building button after adding competitors in the list.

Link Building Tool Add Competitors Domain

SEMrush Link Building tool may take some time to collect the links prospects data.

A successful message will appear after the process is complete.

link prospect list

You will see a list of sites whom you can approach for link building.

You can also find the list of websites which mentioned you but didn’t link back to your site. You can reach them to ask for a link.

list of link building prospects

Moreover, you can create a specific outreach strategy for each link, whether you want to build links through guest posting or product review.

CB Link Building Tool SEMrush

You can also send a personalized email to the site owners and request them to link back to your site.

To send a customized email, click on Customize your outreach strategies and save the email template that you want to send prospect.

CB Link Building Tool Outreach Template

You can add up to 15 outreach strategies and save email template for them. These email template will be sent to prospects for link building request. Using this method, you can automate your link building process.

SEMrush link building tool will help you get some highest quality backlinks in your niche.

Boost Your Link Building Efforts with Bulk Analysis

The Bulk Backlink Analysis (formerly known as the Quick Batch) report is a simple and effective tool to use when looking for link building opportunities.

You can add up to 200 link prospects websites, and it will show the opportunities where you can get a link from.

Bulk Backlink Analysis SEMrush

Monitor Keywords Position with SEMrush Position Tracking Tool

People who succeed with SEO do two things better than others:

First, they create fantastic content.

Second, they track their keyword ranking positions.

The problem is…

Checking keyword positioning in search results manually is a time-consuming process when you have hundreds of keywords to monitor.

The solution?

SEMrush Position Tracking Tool.

SEMrush Position Tracking Tool will help you track thousands of keywords’ ranking positions in Google in just a few clicks.

You can monitor keywords ranking position for both desktop and mobile and export them in PDF and excel file.

Let’s see how to monitor keyword ranking position with SEMrush.

Head over to SEO Toolkit->Position Tracking and enter the domain which keywords you want to track.

Position Tracking SEMrush

You can also set up position tracking form Dashboard->Projects and click on position tracking…

SEMrush position tracking

…and a pop up will open where you will have to select the search engine (currently it support only Google and Baidu) and device types – desktop, mobile and tablet.

You can also select the location where you want to see your keyword rankings.

And in last enter the business name that you are using for local business listing or local SEO.

SEMrush-position-tracking-setup

After filling the information, click on Keywords from right side bottom.

And… insert the keywords you want to track. To import the keywords list, click on import file tab.

Furthermore, you can link your Analytics to fetch keywords directly from Google Analytics.

SEMrush start tracking

SEMrush Position Tracking tool will take some time to fetch the keyword ranking positions.

After completing the process, you will see the dashboard like this:

Ziploan Blog English Position Tracking SEMrush

When scrolling down further, you will see the SERP features chart that will show how your keywords are performing in search result pages.

Ziploan Blog English - Position Tracking serp feature

Additionally, you can see your top pages which ranking improved or declined with average traffic they can bring.

Ziploan Blog English - Position Tracking Top Pages

The feature I love most is you can check your keywords position against your competitors.

Ziploan Blog English - Position Tracking against competitor

You can compare keywords ranking positions of two websites by top positions, SERP features, and search volume.

Ziploan Blog English Position Tracking Filters

For Example – I want to compare the top ranking positions of blog.ziplon.in and bajajfinserv.in for top 50 keywords.

keyword position comparison

…see, who is performing better. You can add up to 4 competitors to check your keywords position against them.

SEMrush keyword position tracking tool is a powerful feature that makes it unique than its rivals like Aherfs and Moz.

To scale your SEO campaign further regularly monitor keyword ranking positions in SEMrush. You can also set up to receive a weekly update of search queries update.

SEMrush Sensor

SEMrush Sensor measures volatility in search results, tracking down 20+ categories on mobile and desktop and highlighting possible Google Updates.

SEMrush Sensor

What is SERP volatility?

SERP volatility indicates significant changes in Google SERP positions that happen because of Google algorithm updates. SERP volatility index shows day-by-day changes and its impact.

serp volatility for 30 days

It is a great tool to know if any changes happen to the search engine algorithms.

Keep Your Site Healthy with Site Audit Tool

SEMrush has the best website audit tool to find technical issues. If you want to go a long way, you must keep your site technical error-free and ready for search engines.

How can you do that?

Use SEMRush Site Audit Tool.

Add the website you want to audit in the SEMrush site audit tool.

Site Audit SEMrush

You can also access the site audit tool from Dashboard->Project->Site Audit.

SEMrush site audit setup

After adding the site for audit you will see the health report of your website that looks like:

Ziploan Blog English Site Audit SEMrush

Click on the Issues tab to view the technical issues of your site, such as:

  • Missing Title Tags
  • 404 Not Found Pages
  • Duplicate Title Tags
  • Duplicate Content Issues
  • Incorrect Hreflang Links
  • …and lots more.

SEMrush Site Audit tool is a great way to keep your website ahead of your competitors by resolving all technical issues.

However, there are other website audit tools from Ahrefs, Moz, and Raven also do a pretty good job to find technical problems. 

But I found SEMrush is quite handy to understand the issues and find the solutions.

You should often run a website audit to uncover technical errors that holding your site back.

Write On-Page Optimized Post with SEO Content Template

I love this quote:

“Good Copy is Not Written. It is Always Assembled.”

SEO Content Template tool helps in the same way. It analyzes your competitors’ pages and gives you the best ideas to write a high-quality SEO optimized content.

Just enter your target keyword…

SEO Content Template SEMrush

…and here you go with your SEO recommendations for your content.

SEO Content Template

SEMrush provides this recommendation after analysing Google top 10 pages.

You can also check your content in real in real-time.

Simply paste your content and see the suggestions in real-time.

SEO Content Template Paste Content

SEO Content Template is a great way to check your content if it is on-page optimized.

Get Actionable Insights from On Page SEO Checker

SEMrush On-Page SEO checker tool runs a full analysis of your website and lets you prepare for organic search competitions.

With On Page SEO checker tool, you can check your website and see if your website is meeting all on-page and off-page elements or not.

It analyzes your website for Google ranking factors that affect your website’s performance.

You get suggestions for content quality and relevancy, backlink trustworthiness, page title, heading tags, and Meta description suggestions.

You know that manually on-page optimization is time-consuming while you can do the same work in few clicks with SEMrush On Page SEO Checker.

However, there are plenty of on-page optimization tools which can provide you with suggestions to optimize your page.

What makes SEMrush On Page SEO Checker different is?

It offers a complete and structured list of actionable tips you can apply to improve your rankings for specific pages of your website.

Also Read: SEMrush FREE Trial: Grab SEMrush PRO FREE for 14 Days!

How to use SEMrush On Page SEO checker

To use it head over to the SEO Toolkit->On Page SEO Checker and enter the domain you want to get suggestions for.

On Page Seo Checker SEMrush

You can also setup the On Page SEO Checker tool from Dashboard->Projects->On Page Checker.

On page checker

After completing the setup, you redirected to the On Page SEO Checker dashboard where you will get:

  • Backlinks Ideas
  • Technical SEO Ideas
  • User Experience Ideas
  • Content Ideas
  • And a lot more.
On Page SEO Checker Dashboard

SEMrush vs Ahrefs – Which Tool is Right for SEO?

And now, you probably have two questions in your mind.

  1. Is there any SEMrush Alternatives?
  2. How much does SEMruch cost?

I’ll answer both.

Let’s first start with SEMrush Alternative.

SEMrush has excellent features but…

…it is not only SEO tool in the market that do keyword research, backlink audit, rank tracking, competitor analysis, etc.

One of the SEMrush close competitors is Ahrefs.

Ahrefs is primarily known as a backlink analysis tool. And was only focused on link building.

But, in the last few years, they have loaded it with lots of new features

…and this is why it does make sense to do Ahrefs vs SEMrush comparison.

And we are going to compare SEMrush vs Ahrefs in terms of:

  • Dashboard Overview
  • Keyword Research features
  • Backlink analysis
  • Technical Analysis
  • Keyword Position Checking
  • Pricing Plan and Value

Let’s get started.

Dashboard Overview of SEMrush and Ahrefs

In the red corner, we have SEMrush:

Semrush dashboard overview

As you see, SEMrush presents you everything at a single dashboard including domain authority, organic search traffic, ranking keywords, backlinks and more.

Click here to Claim your SEMrush FREE Trial.

And in the blue corner we have Ahrefs:

Ahrefs-interface

You’ll notice, Ahrefs has a clean interface even a beginner can use it. Whereas, SEMrush takes some times for newbies to get used to it.

Which Tool is Best For Keyword Research SEMrush vs Ahrefs?

You know keyword research is the foundation of a successful SEO campaign.

And?

You’ll need the best keyword research tool.

Let’s see which one is the best keyword research tool for finding new keyword ideas SEMrush or Ahrefs.

SEMrush

Keyword Overview SEMrush

If you are like me who wants to check multiple terms before finalizing keywords, then you will love this feature.

Additionally, it provides you with a list of keyword variations based on what you searched.

Keyword Variations

And some additional questions queries that you can include in your content.

Question Keywords

What makes SEMrush’s keyword research feature unique is you also get data from Google PPC.

PPC Keyword

So, if you are an in-house SEO or running a digital marketing agency, you probably running some SEO and Google Ads campaign together.

Having a keyword research tool that provides both SEO and PPC data can be useful.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs has two main keyword research features:

  1. Keyword explorer
  2. Organic keywords

Let’s see them in action.

Keyword explorer works the same as other keyword research tools.

Type a seed keyword and get a list of relevant keyword ideas.

Ahrefs Keyword explorer

What makes Ahrefs unique is it doesn’t only show the search volume…

ahrefs-keto-diet-search-volume-640x283

…but also the number of CLICKS you will get if ranked for that keyword.

Why should you care about it?

You know Google has added several features in SERP that gives enough reason to searchers to walk away without clicking on the organic results.

lady gaga age

Do you think people would click on the organic results?

HELL No.

Because they are getting the answer to their question right away.

This is where Keyword explorer is super helpful.

Another Keyword explorer cool feature is you can expand results to get other thousands of keyword ideas.

Ahrefs basically shows you search volume, CPC and competition.

But SEMrush shows you more data for each keyword, like the CPC, keyword trend, and the number of results.

ahrefs-vs-semrush-organic-keywords

I’d be honest here, but SEMrush is the winner here.

Ahrefs has some cool features, but SEMrush gives you more insightful data for both SEO and PPC that make it an all-rounder keyword research tool.

Which Tool is Best for Backlink Analysis? `

Now we want to see which tool SEMrush vs Ahrefs has the best backlink checker feature.

Recently, Backlinko compared the link index of four popular SEO tools, and the fight between SEMrush and Ahrefs were pretty close.

Ahrefs vs SEMrush backlink check

He checked the backlinks of his own domain in both tools.

Where Ahrefs found a total of 17,463 referring domain links. And SEMrush found 19,114.

Ahrefs vs SEMrush Backlink Tool Comparison

On the other hand, if we talk about total backlink numbers, then Ahrefs registered 54,444 and SEMrush 714477.

Ahrefs vs SEMrush Backlink Numbers

As you can tell that SEMrush has a more significant link index than Ahrefs.

It means SEMrush is better than Ahrefs.

Right?

Waiiiit…hold your horses.

Link index is one thing there are other features you need to look when choosing the best backlink checker tool.

The thing matter most is UI and how well it represents data to its users.

If you can find everything within few clicks that’s great. Because link building is a tedious task, and you don’t want to spend a lot of time because your backlink tool is not convenient to use.

Ahrefs shows the anchor text above each link that makes for you easy to find the link.

Ahrefs backlink

However, it doesn’t mean that Ahrefs is better than SEMrush. But yes, in this feature it Ahrefs gives a tough fight to SEMrush. I personally, use both, but for backlinks, I prefer Ahrefs more because of its UI.

Which Tool has the Best Website Audit Feature?

The next feature I would like to check is the technical site audit.

So let’s start with:

Ahrefs

Ahrefs has a beautiful dashboard where it shows the website audit data and site’s health score.

Ahrefs vs SEMrush technical audit

And recently they have added a new feature ‘Site Structure’.

Basically, it scans your site structure and provides suggestions based on that.

Ahrefs site structure feature

Ahrefs site audit tool has added lots of other features, but I can’t cover all of them in this review and tutorial.

SEMrush

SEOrush has a robust SEO audit tool.

You can see, your web site’s overall health score to know how SEO friendly your website is.

semrush audit tool

Additionally, is shows issues like:

  • Crawling errors
  • HTTPs
  • Robots.txt
  • Missing Internal Linking

And a list of errors that you should resolve on priority.

SEMrush top errors

When you drill down further, you’ll see the number of issues a specific page has.

number of issues

When it comes to SEO audit feature SEMrush is the WINNER here.

It provides you with in-depth technical analysis that you should resolve first.

Which Tool is Best for Tracking Ranking Position?

SEMrush and Ahrefs both have keyword ranking checker feature.

Let’s find out which one has got the more muscles here.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs regularly updates and check the ranking positions for the keyword that you have set up.

Keyword Rank Checker By Ahrefs

After checking the keyword positions manually, I didn’t find much difference. So, there is nothing to complain about.

SEMrush

SEMrush also has pretty cool keyword position checking tool.

Ziploan-Blog-English-Position-Tracking-SEMrush

SEMrush keyword position tracking tool has got more feature than Ahrefs. For example – it quickly shows you how many keywords are in Google top 10 positions.

top keywords position

And keywords which ranking improved and decreased. So, you can work on keywords which ranking is down.

keyword ranking impact

This feature is super helpful when you don’t want your keywords to lose the top positions in SERP.

In terms of ranking tracking, SEMrush is again ahead of Ahrefs. Both are doing a pretty good job in monitoring keyword positions. But SEMrush has taken it to the new level with additional features.

Which Tool is Worth to Buy SEMrush or Ahrefs?

I know what is running in your mind…

…which tool can provide me with the best value of my money?

Well, that depends on your requirement.

If you spend most of your time on link building, then you’ll love the feature that Ahrefs has got.

On the other hand, if you are involved in both SEO and PPC, then SEMrush might be the right choice.

The one thing that you need to check out here is pricing plans of both tools.

Ahrefs pricing plan starts at $99/month to $999/month.

Plans Pricing - Ahrefs

With $99/M plan you get all of its all-important features like (Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Content Explorer, Keyword Explorer, and other extra tools.)

The only thing is limits like how many people can access it. And how much data you can see.

So, if you are just starting, the $99 plan is the best start with.

They also provide $7 Trial for 7 days, that pretty good deal to use its all feature and get to know about it before you upgrade.

SEMrush pricing plan is almost the same as Ahrefs.

Plans Pricing SEMrush

With the SEMrush $99 plan, you can use most of its important features. However, that’s kind of limited.

But if we talk about the value of your money, then SEMrush is the WINNER here.

Because you get a complete SEO software along with a robust PPC tool with the same monthly price.

Let me help you if you are still in confusion to choose the right SEMrush plan.

semrush logo
A Complete SEO Software

Take your SEO campaign to a new height

SEMrush Pricing Plan

SEMrush offer four pricing plans with monthly and yearly payment options.

You should pay annually when you want to use SEMrush for a long time.

Of course, it is lots of money, but at the end of the year, you will be saving 16% money.

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Let’s see how each plan fit into a different structure.

SEMrush PRO Plan

SEMrush PRO plan is the basic plan that allows you to use SEMrush most essential features, including SEO, PPC, and 40+ other tools.

It is the best package for a freelancer, in-house marketer or company with limited websites.

If you are a blogger and want to start a blog or doing seo research, then you should go with this plan.

The PRO plan will cost you $99 per month, but you can use it for free using the below link.

Try SEMrush PRO for FREE.

SEMrush Guru Plan

This is the best plan for small business owners or small digital marketing agencies who handle less than 15 projects.

With this plan, you get all PRO features including (Content Marketing Platform, Historical Data, Branded Reports, etc.)

You can deliver the best results to clients and gain their trust.

I think this is the best plan for startups who wants to get more clients by delivering quality works.

The SEMrush Guru Plan costs 199 dollars per month.

SEMrush Business & Enterprises Plan

This is recommended plan for large-scale companies, agencies, and e-commerce sites which have an extensive presence online.

If you are an agency owner who has over 20 projects to optimize, then the business plan is the best for you.

You can also contact SEMrush to make you customize Enterprises Plan for your particular requirement.

The SEMrush Business Plan will cost you $399 per month.

Till then, if you want you can try SEMrush for free.

How to Activate SEMrush FREE Trial for 14 Days [Worth $99.95]?

I’ve good news for you.

We have partnered with SEMrush and they have agreed to provide a special deal of FREE 14 days SEMrush PRO trail to Curious Blogger audience.

Here is the step-by-step process on how to get 14 days free SEMrush trial.

Step 1. Click on this unique discount link, and you will redirect to Curious Blogger partner page.

Curious Blogger SEMrush

Step 2 – Here, you’ll have to click on the Start you free 14 days trial now! green Button. And you’ll see this page:

Sign Up SEMrush 1

Step 3 – Now create an account with your email and password.

Step 4 – On the next page, you will have to enter the account information (credit card details, name, address, etc.) to grab your SEMrush PRO account which is worth $99.95 and completely free for 14 days. SEMrush promo code will be already applied, and you won’t have to pay a dime.

SEMrush Signup Form

Once you fill the information, click on the ‘Place The Order’ button, and your free account will be activated instantly.

Congratulations! Enjoy the SEMrush PRO account for 14 days and do whatever you want to do. Maybe you want to do keyword research, keyword position tracking, or website audit.

Pros and Cons SEMrush SEO Software

Every product have some pros and cons, so has SEMrush. 

Let’s check them out.

Pros

Cons

SEMrush Review and Tutorial – FAQs

Final Thought!

So, those are my best tips, strategies, and comparison with SEMrush alternatives like Ahrefs.

Now, I would like to hear from you about this SEMrush review and tutorials.

Which SEMrush features you are going to try first?

Are you going to use SEO Content Template to write SEO optimized blog post?

Or, maybe you want to try the Keyword Research Tool to find some easy to rank long tail keywords for your new blog.

Anyway, whatever you’re doing first let me know by leaving a comment below.

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Umesh Singh
Umesh Singh
Umesh is blogger by heart and digital marketer by profession. He helps small companies to grow their revenue as well as online presence.

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