Before we dive directly into the article if this is your first time I want to say WELCOME to The Online Genius, your one-stop-shop for everything relating to the online business world. Every week we publish articles reviewing the top tools and tips to help you take your business and mindset to the next level!
NOW TODAY I HAVE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR YOU! (I’m sorry for shouting but I genuinely can’t hide my excitement, keep reading to find out why!)
Do you run an online business?
Are you a digital marketing professional?
Are you looking for what may be one of the best ways to build your online presence and dominate your niche?
Are you looking for a unique way to do competitor research?
Are you interested in finding out what makes your competitors tick and why they are so successful?
What if I told you there was a tool that allows you to not only spy on your competitors but see exactly what they are doing to allow them to rank high in the search engines.
This tool is none other than Semrush, in this article, we will be reviewing Semrush and why it is a beast when it comes to competitor analysis.
Get ready for a value-packed article! OH YEAH! I almost forgot to mention, we will be going through the most recent updates that have no doubt made Semrush 10 times better!
So without further ado, Let’s hop straight into the goodies.
Table of Contents
What is Semrush?
We’re going to keep this extremely simple!
Semrush is an all-in-one marketing tool! BOOM, that’s it, roll the credits!
Semrush does an excellent job of combining SEO, Paid Traffic, Social Media , Content & PR and Market Research in order to produce the ultimate experience for not only marketing professionals but beginners as well.
Semrush was born over 10 years ago in 2008 with the simple mission in mind “to make online competition fair and transparent, with equal opportunities for everyone”.
After years of perfecting their skill set and providing an amazing quality of service they have grown to be the industry leader and the world’s leading competitive research service for online marketing.
Today Semrush has grown to over 650 specialists with locations in the USA, Russia, Czech Republic and the Republic of Cyprus. They have over 4 million users and over 580 million domains.
Here’s what Mario Rojas, a performance marketing specialist at Banco del Sol had to say about Semrush:
“Semrush is like a keyword research tool, Google Trends, Moz, Hootsuite and SimilarWeb in one.”
I have to say that Mr. Rojas described the marketing tool perfectly. Semrush knows that marketing online can be difficult but they believe that marketing tools should be easy to navigate and operate and that’s exactly what they did.
All in all, Semrush was created For Marketers By Marketers.
However, Semrush has evolved and has changed for the better over time, let’s take a brief look at the recent updates that happened at Semrush in 2020.
FUN FACT: Semrush has over 7 million users.
Click HERE To Try Semrush For Free!
What is new over at Semrush? (2020 Updates)
Last year Semrush had a HUGE update that left marketers with their jaws on the ground. Right, when you think Semrush can’t get any better they come and prove you wrong!
What changed at Semrush?
Well, they made a few changes across the five toolkits that are offered, SEO, Competitive Research Tools, Content Marketing, and Social media tools.
Semrush also made some changes relating to their branding, they even went the extra mile and completely changed their logo which I thought was pretty cool!
Semrush Branding Changes
Click here to take a deeper look into what the branding changes looked like at Semrush.
What are Semrush’s Best Features?
The update just didn’t affect the way Semrush brands themselves; it also brought some new and exciting changes to the products offered.
Let’s dive right into the features that make Semrush great and how the updates played a big part in their growth.
The 4 overarching features that we will be briefly covering are SEO Tools, Competitive Research Tools, Content Marketing Tools, and Social Media Tools.
So without further ado, let’s dive straight in.
SEO Tools
Ahhhhhh, I would like to get the ball rolling with the SEO Toolkit. Now I like to think of these tools as the bread and butter of Semrush since this is where the magic happens and you no doubt get the best bang for your buck!
Now the SEO Tools has over 15 tools that make up the mind-blowing platform. Now given the recent update a few critical features have been added that will make your jaw drop. These features include:
- The Keyword Overview Tool
- Keyword Gap Tool
- Domain Overview
- Backlinks Analytics
- Backlink Audit
- Position Tracking
- Site Audit
- Listing Management
WHEW, I know that seems like a lot but they are all great in their own unique ways, and don’t worry I will be giving you a sneak-peek into each one so keep reading!!
The Keyword Overview Tool is an elite report that provides valuable insight on any keyword/phrase in order to help you build a bulletproof data-driven keyword strategy. This tool also comes equipped with new features like the global volume metric, the SERP analysis, SERP Features and Questions, and bulk analysis.
All in all the Keyword Overview tool is equipped with everything you need in order to build an efficient and effective keyword strategy.
The Keyword Gap Tool helps you find new organic keyword opportunities that you may have missed in your original keyword research. It’s also been integrated with the Keyword Manager.
The Domain Overview provides a broad look at any website’s online presence ranging from the overall traffic to keyword profile overviews.
The BackLinks Analytics helps monitor and keep track of competitors’ backlinks.
The Backlink Audit takes a deeper look at your backlinks and pinpoints which ones are having a negative and positive impact on your website.
Position Tracking allows you to monitor your site’s daily rankings for a certain range of keywords.
The Site Audit analyzes the entire health of your website and offers a detailed list of improvements.
Listing Management automatically distributes basic business profile data to the most popular online directories, enabling SEO wins and voice search optimization.
All in all, the SEO Toolkit is a BEAST and it kind of resembles wine since it just gets better with time.
Competitive Research Tools
Semrush has an expert tool called Traffic Analytics which does an excellent job at providing a performance overview of any website, with a full breakdown of the site’s top traffic sources, traffic acquisition strategies, and user engagement metrics.
In other words, you will be given an incredible amount of data in order to make key data-driven marketing decisions within your business! Cool right? Well, it’s a bit more than just cool.
Semrush has been known for having a mean and lean system when it comes to incredible competitive research but the recent update brought along a few updated changes that are no doubt a force to be reckoned with. These changes include subdomain level analysis, the Audience Insights report, the Traffic Journey report, the growth quadrant, and the Benchmarking report.
Let’s take a quick peek at each of these individual features.
The Audience Insights Report allows you to effectively compare the various audiences of your competitor’s websites which means you can see how your competitors’ audiences overlap with yours.
The Traffic Journey Report gives you a birds-eye view of the traffic flow and shows exactly which sites users visit before and after they land on an analyzed domain.
The Growth Quadrant widget shows the top industry players that you need to pay close attention to as well as accurately reflect their market position as time goes by.
The Benchmarking report allows you to view up to 5 competitor’s domains so that you can easily compare their traffic, traffic sources, and key audience characteristics.
Click HERE To Try Semrush For Free!
Content Marketing Tools
I like to think of this tool as the cherry on top of the cake as it adds a nice overall touch that really speaks to the lengths that Semrush would go to in order to make sure it offers an incredible quality product.
This tool covers everything that is needed in order to build high-converting content that will help you in the overall growth of your brand not to mention your SEO game plan. It also goes a step further by helping you pin-point your website’s high-performing assets at every stage of the process and recommends ideas for the remainder of your content.
That being said, the Content Marketplace was already deemed the go-to for on-demand content and copywriting services, ranging from product descriptions to website copy.
Thanks to the new Semrush update, Semrush implemented monthly and annual subscription plans which come with their own benefits like media stock and shared workspaces.
Social Media ToolKits
Now, this isn’t the tool that Semrush is known for however, it does still pack a solid punch and definitely, no doubt is worth the mention.
In a nutshell, this tool basically allows you to launch, manage and run high converting ads through Facebook.
I know, you may be already proficient in using the Facebook ad manager but this is definitely still worth checking out for further insight. However, if your main goal is running Facebook ads I would definitely recommend sticking with the Facebook Ads Manager.
Semrush Plans and Pricing
When it comes to pricing, SEMRush keeps it simple and straightforward however since the update there has been an increase in pricing. Don’t worry! If you had any plan prior to the update you wouldn’t be affected.
However, the price changes are as follows:
Pro Package – starts at $119.95 per month
Guru Package – starts at $229.95 per month
Business Package – starts at $499.95 per month
P.S You save 16% if you purchase the plans on an annual basis.
Depending on the package you choose you will receive different features as it relates to the projects, reporting, user management, and content marketing platform.
The slight price change also meant a few updates to the features. For example, if you were on the pro package prior to the update you would have had access to 3 projects but now you will have access to 5.
Moreover, with the upgraded Guru package you will also get access to the Google Data Studio connector, the ability to create 15 projects, monitor over 1,500 keywords, and much more!
That being said, if you want a custom solution that specifically suits your needs and you don’t think the plans offer enough simply contact the Team at SEMRush and they will develop that solution that is perfect for you.
All in all, the price increase was a small price to pay considering all the value you can expect.
Click HERE To Try Semrush For Free!
Semrush Pros and Cons
Like every other marketing tool out there on the market, Semrush has its fair share of pros and cons. Here’s a brief list of the pros and cons of using Semrush.
Pros:
- Trusted by world-leading brands like Tesla, Quora, and Booking.com
- It’s an all in one marketing toolkit
- Great price for all the features
- Consistent valuable updates
Cons:
- Built for intermediate to advanced online entrepreneurs. If you have experience in running online ads and SEO that will give you a huge advantage.
BUT WAIT…There’s More
I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THIS!
I bet you probably thought that was all Semrush had to offer but I’m proud to say that they have a few more tricks up their sleeve.
Along with this update, Semrush also introduced the Agency Growth Kit that was built to help agency owners like myself attract and retain more clients.
The Agency Growth Kit equips marketers with the tools that they need to help take their agency to the next level ranging from unlimited Client Manager access which helps agencies automate their customer management routine to My Reports which opens the opportunity to white-label reports and branding!
The new update also introduced Sellerly by Semrush, a toolkit designed specifically for Amazon sellers to help them make the most out of every product listing and significantly grow their customer base.
Fun Fact: In 2020, Semrush acquired Prowly which is no doubt taking digital PR to new heights. Read more here.
Click HERE To Try Semrush For Free!
Is Semrush worth it?
Well, that completely depends.
I have to be 100000% honest with you, If you are now starting your journey in building your online business then Semrush may not be the best way to start.
However, if you have some experience when it comes to SEO, running ad campaigns on Facebook or Google or building websites then Semrush could be the right platform for you.
All in all, if you are a digital marketing professional you need to have this competitor research tool in your toolbox.
If you have had any experience with Semrush leave a comment below on your experience with the marketing platform.
P.S If you’re a marketer or blogger looking for a premium email marketing tool check out our article on the best email marketing tools of 2021.
