How To Use SEMRush: The Essentials

SEMRush is a highly advanced tool. It’s also pretty expensive. As such, you want to ensure that you can make the most of it. This includes analysing both your own site and the sites of your competitors.

Let’s take a closer look at this leading digital marketing analysis tool and learn how it helps to analyse your marketing efforts online.

Read on to discover the essentials…

What is SEMRush?

SEMRush is a set of tools designed to help you with your digital marketing efforts. You can use these tools to analyse the competition, carry out keyword research or even manage your content.

SEMRush aims to be an all-in-one solution for your marketing analysis needs. Once you learn how to use SEMRush, you’ll be able to do various digital marketing related tasks like:

• SEO Audits
• Advertising Management
• Social Media Management
• Full-site Audits
• Content Management
• Reports & Analysis

Learning how to use SEMRush will not only allow you to research and identify the current position of your company, but it will also help you track the progress you’ve made and the impact of the implemented improvement via projects.

How Do You Do Keyword Research with SEMRush?

SEMRush offer many great tools to help your keyword research efforts. In order to properly understand how to use SEMRush, you should first be aware of what it can do for you.

Be sure to check this keyword research guide to learn more about conducting keyword research for your content.

Competition Keyword Analysis

You can utilise keyword research to find out what people are currently searching for. This allows you to create relevant content that attracts the interests of your potential audience. By conduction proper keyword research, you’ll be able to identify and predict trends, as well as address them appropriately for a significant boost in traffic.

You can use SEMRush’s topic research tool to help you come up with keywords to create content for. All you have to do is enter the topic you have in mind and SEMRush will suggest various ideas that you can create content for. These keywords are usually incredibly popular so you can expect to generate a lot of traffic off these posts. All you have to do is create high-quality content that engages the readers and they’ll surely come back for more.

Identify the Competition

If you’re running a blog, keyword research can be a great tool to come up with content ideas for your blog posts. It’s usually a good idea to identify some of your direct competition and identify some keywords that they have used.

Once you analyse your competitor’s keywords, you can identify some gaps where they did not fully cover a topic or if their posted content contains outdated information. This will be a great opportunity for your blog to grow by addressing those gaps which will also allow you to surpass your competition.

Identify Gaps in Content

When you have identified a competitor’s blog, you can search for their domain in the SEMRush organic search section. From there, you will be provided with an in-depth report containing all their posts and their rankings. You can even filter through these pages to look for a specific keyword that you’re interested in.

Once you have chosen a page, you can click on the number displayed next to it in the keywords column. This will display all the keywords that this page is ranking for. You can then identify the keywords that the page doesn’t properly address and fill in that gap with your content.

You can expect some of the traffic going to that page to eventually funnel towards your own as the readers will be interested to know more about the things that were not fully covered in the original post.

Pick Your Keywords

The number of keywords displayed might initially seem too much to handle. Thankfully, by understanding how to use SEMRush, you’ll be able to filter through them using their advanced filter options. You can filter keywords by ranking, volume or even percentage of traffic.

Target Audience Keyword Research

Alternatively, you can look for what your target audience is discussion as a keyword for your upcoming content. By using a website that you know your target audience frequents, you can find keywords that you can address fairly easily.

This time, you’ll be searching for that website that your audience frequents in SEMRush.

Ideally, if you are just starting out, you want to look for keywords with a large amount of traffic but with a low keyword difficulty. This will allow you to create content that is noticed by your potential audience which will ultimately lead to your growth. This can be a great way for you to establish your website’s authority by addressing these low difficulty keywords.

How Do I Find the Best Keywords for My Website?

The SEMRush keyword magic tool will provide you with thousands of variants for any keyword that you enter in. You can then sort these keywords by volume, difficulty or even sort them by country. This will allow you to identify primary and secondary keywords for your content.

Additionally, knowing the country that searches a keyword the most will allow you to further cater your content to that country in order to appeal to them. Readers will appreciate the fact that you address them specifically and you can expect them to remain a loyal reader of your content.

SEMRush has a great keyword gap tool that will allow you to analyse a domain and identify their content gaps in order to obtain the traffic that they are missing out on. This can be a great way for your brand to become more competitive and will help you establish yourself as a leader in the field. They will provide you with suggested keywords that you should target and you can expect a boost in traffic once you cover those topics.

How to Use SEMRush for SEO

You can also use SEMRush to audit and improve your website’s SEO. This will provide your website with a welcome boost in ranking on the results page which will definitely generate more traffic for your business. SEMRush will not only identify major SEO issues that need to be addressed, but it will also monitor and report on the progress you’ve made as well as the increase in traffic that your site received afterwards.

Top Organic Keywords

On the SEMRush landing page, you can enter your website in order to obtain various information about your website’s SEO. First of all, you can look at your website’s “top organic keywords”. These are the keywords that bring the most traffic to your website.

This will allow you to identify which content is bringing in the most traffic, which you can then allocate more time to optimising in order to achieve maximum benefits from them. Alternatively, you can identify keywords that are not generating enough traffic and update their content in order to properly utilise them.

Backlinks

Backlinks are a great way for your website to gain the trust of search engines. By having trustworthy sites link back to your website, you can expect to rank much higher on search engine results pages.

SEMRush will audit your backlinks and show your website’s authority score, referring domains and the total amount of backlinks. Additionally, their graphs will allow you to quickly identify the progress you are making towards increasing your backlinks.

Backlink Audit

Perhaps the most important backlink tool that you need to know about when learning how to use SEMRush is the backlink auditing tool. This tool will generate a comprehensive report telling you what changes need to be implemented in order to improve your website’s authority. Each backlink will be displayed along with a “toxic score” that shows you if a backlink is potentially negatively affecting your score.

You can then choose to “disavow” these links, by generating a text file that you can then send to Google’s disavow tool. This basically removes the association of your website with any other sites that might be lowering your score. Overall, this audit will give you an in-depth idea of how well your website’s authority score is doing as well as help you identify any immediate issues that need to be addressed.

Full Site Audits

You can use full site audits to identify any immediate problems with your website that are affecting your SEO score. These implementations will usually result in a significant boost in SEO score and should be handled immediately. SEMRush’s full site audit tool will crawl your website and produce an in-depth report showing you all the issues that they have identified.

Initially, you will be presented with a table that contains your various scores regarding your website. These include:

• Health
• Errors
• Crawlability
• Site Performance
• Internal Linking

These metrics are a great indicator of the overall quality of your website and you can click each score for a more in-depth report about that score. By addressing all the immediate issues present in this report, your website will receive a significant boost in it’s overall “health” which will ultimately lead to a better SEO score. This can be a great way to start working on optimizing your site as it gives you clear goals that you can work towards.

On-Page SEO

On-page audits focus on a single page in order to ensure that it is optimised for search engines. This can usually make a huge difference in the generated traffic. That is why you should always optimise your most popular content in order to ensure that you are getting the most benefit out of that content.

You can use this to complement high-quality content that you have created that you’d like everyone to see. Thankfully, by learning how to use SEMRush, you can even audit multiple pages at once using their advanced crawler. All you have to do is enter the desired pages and their corresponding keywords then just let SEMRush do all the work for you.

This saves you a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted on manually auditing these pages separately. Allowing you to allocate your valuable time to creating more high-quality content or managing your business. If you’d like to learn more about On-page SEO for your content, be sure to check our guide on how to use Yoast.

Social Media Management

In order to establish your online presence, you need to constantly be managing your social media account. This includes posting regularly, replying to users and removing and harmful content that might be negatively affecting your brand. As your social media presence grows, you might find it hard to keep up with all of that, that’s why the SEMRush social media management tools will save you valuable time and effort.

Posting to Social Media

The first feature of this tool will allow you to post to all your social media accounts from one place. By linking all your social media accounts to the SEMRush tool, you’ll be able to post your content to multiple websites at once with a single click of a button. You’ll also be able to schedule posts for the future so you don’t have to constantly go back and manually post them at a certain time.

You’ll also be able to save drafts, allowing you to safely store unfinished ideas until you’re ready to continue working on them. You can also set reminders to remind you to go back to a certainly saved draft that you’d like to get done before a deadline. You can also connect your own RSS feed to provide you with various content that you can share with your audience all within the SEMRush website.

Performance Tracking

Once you start working on your social media presence, you’ll want to start tracking the performance of your accounts. Thankfully, SEMRush will allow you to connect and track all your social media accounts at once. This will allow you to know which sites are generating the most interest in your brand and which sites are falling behind.

Additionally, SEMRush will also analyse your audience to help you better understand the niche that you are targeting. This can be a great way for you to understand your target audience and adjust your content appropriately to maintain their interest in your brand. Once you identify your most popular content, you can start producing more of those in order to generate even more traffic to your business.

Competitor Analysis

SEMRush will also allow you to analyse the performance of your competition. This allows you to identify their marketing strategies and their growth relative to your own. Things such as their time of posting, the type of content they create and how much engagement they are getting can provide you with valuable knowledge regarding the content you should create for your own page.

SEO-Friendly Content Templates

SEMRush has a great tool that will generate SEO templates for your posts. All you have to do is enter your primary keyword and it will suggest some secondary keywords to include in your posts. Additionally, it will recommend some backlinks that you should include as well as a recommendation to the text length. SEMRush will also analyse the top 10 posts ranking in that keywords and give you their average readability score.

This will provide you with a general target that you should aim for and will allow you to create high-quality content that is both engaging for the reader and SEO friendly. SEMRush will also give you an example of how the competition is using that keyword in their posts to help you kickstart your next post. This is a great way for you to learn how to create SEO content for your website.

For your existing content, you can use the SEO writing assistant tool to analyse your content and show you any major problems with your content. This ensures that you create high-quality content that follows the SEO strategies to help ensure the maximum possible exposure.

Free vs. Paid Features in SEMrush: Understanding Your Options

Choosing the right SEMrush plan for your needs requires a clear understanding of the limitations and differences between the free and paid options. Here’s a detailed comparison to help you navigate your decision:

Feature	Free Plan	Pro	Guru	Business
Keyword Research:	10 searches/day, limited keyword data, basic volume & difficulty estimates	Unlimited searches, deep keyword insights (CPC, keyword intent, related keywords), competitor analysis	Same as Pro + historical data, keyword magic tool, keyword gap analysis	Same as Guru + keyword universe, keyword suggestions based on competitor data
Competition Analysis:	10 domains/day, limited backlink & traffic data, basic insights	Unlimited domains, detailed backlink profiles, organic traffic analysis, paid advertising analysis	Same as Pro + competitor keyword gap, competitor content gap, historical data	Same as Guru + advanced competitor research tools (market explorer, brand monitoring)
Backlink Profile Analysis:	100 backlinks/domain, limited referring domain data, basic link quality assessment	Unlimited backlinks, advanced referring domain insights (authority, traffic), toxic link detection, backlink outreach tools	Same as Pro + historical backlink data, competitor backlink gap analysis	Same as Guru + advanced backlink monitoring & alerts, comprehensive link building tools
Site Audit:	100 pages/crawl, limited on-page optimization recommendations, basic mobile-friendliness analysis	Unlimited pages/crawl, detailed on-page optimization suggestions, technical SEO insights, mobile-friendliness score & recommendations	Same as Pro + historical audit data, page speed analysis, Core Web Vitals optimization	Same as Guru + custom audit parameters, competitor audit comparison, in-depth SEO reports
Rank Tracking:	10 keywords, limited location & device tracking, basic rank fluctuation insights	Unlimited keywords, global & local rank tracking, competitor rank comparison, rank trend analysis	Same as Pro + historical rank data, rank alerts, SERP feature tracking	Same as Guru + white label reports, advanced competition tracking options
Content Marketing Tools:	Limited topic research, 10 content ideas/month, basic SEO writing assistant	Unlimited topic research, content gap analysis, content performance tracking, advanced SEO writing assistant	Same as Pro + competitor content analysis, content calendar tool, plagiarism checker	Same as Guru + content templates, brand monitoring for content ideas, AI-powered writing suggestions
Social Media Marketing Tools:	Limited post scheduling, basic performance tracking, competitor analysis	Unlimited post scheduling, detailed analytics & reports, competitor analysis & comparison, brand monitoring	Same as Pro + social media calendar & insights, automated publishing workflows	Same as Guru + social media listening tools, advanced competitor analysis & reporting
Paid Advertising Tools:	Limited keyword research, basic competitor analysis, campaign performance tracking	Unlimited keyword research, competitor ad analysis & insights, keyword gap analysis for PPC, landing page optimization suggestions	Same as Pro + historical PPC data, competitor bid landscape analysis, ad copy generation	Same as Guru + advanced PPC campaign management tools, automated bidding strategies, budget optimization
Cost:	Free	$119.95/month	$249.95/month	$499.95/month

Key Takeaways:

• The free plan offers a limited taste of SEMrush’s capabilities, but its restrictions can quickly hinder your SEO efforts.
• Paid plans unlock extensive data, advanced features, and unlimited usage, empowering you to conduct deeper analysis and implement comprehensive SEO strategies.
• Pro and Guru plans cater to different needs and budgets, offering a good balance of features for most businesses.
• Business plan provides the most powerful tools and insights, ideal for large agencies and enterprises dealing with complex SEO campaigns.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your individual needs, budget, and SEO goals. Carefully consider your requirements and explore the limitations and strengths of each plan before making your decision.

Case Studies and Examples: Witnessing SEMrush in Action

Seeing is believing, so let’s explore real-world examples of how SEMrush empowers businesses to achieve phenomenal SEO success:

Case Study 1: E-commerce Startup Doubles Organic Traffic with Keyword Gap Analysis

• Challenge: A young e-commerce store struggled to compete against established rivals.
• Solution: They utilized SEMrush’s Keyword Gap Analysis to identify lucrative keywords their competitors were ranking for but they weren’t.
• Results: By optimizing content and product pages for these newfound keywords, their organic traffic doubled within 6 months, leading to a significant increase in sales.

Case Study 2: Local Bakery Boosts Local Visibility with On-Page Optimization

• Challenge: A charming local bakery lacked online presence and struggled to attract new customers.
• Solution: They used SEMrush’s Site Audit to identify on-page optimization issues and implemented the recommended improvements.
• Results: Improved page titles, meta descriptions, and local SEO optimization led to a 30% increase in local search visibility, resulting in more foot traffic and loyal customers.

Case Study 3: B2B Agency Dominates Niche with Backlink Building Techniques

• Challenge: A B2B agency needed to increase brand awareness and attract higher-value clients.
• Solution: They employed SEMrush’s Backlink Profile Analysis and outreach tools to strategically build backlinks from influential industry websites.
• Results: Within a year, their domain authority skyrocketed, leading to improved organic ranking, increased referral traffic, and securing partnerships with high-profile clients.

Case Study 4: Global Brand Optimizes Content Strategy with Topic Research and Content Gap Analysis

• Challenge: A global brand desired to create more engaging and relevant content for its diverse audience.
• Solution: They leveraged SEMrush’s Topic Research and Content Gap Analysis to identify trending topics their audience was interested in and uncover content gaps their competitors were neglecting.
• Results: By developing content around these insights, they saw a 25% increase in audience engagement and website dwell time, ultimately strengthening brand loyalty and driving higher conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is SEMrush free to use?

A: Yes, SEMrush offers a free plan with limited features. Paid plans unlock extensive data, advanced tools, and unlimited usage.

Q: Which plan is right for me?

A: It depends on your needs and budget. Consider your SEO goals, website size, and competitive landscape to choose the best plan. The table in this article helps compare features and pricing.

Q: How long does it take to see results with SEMrush?

A: SEO is an ongoing process, but you can start seeing improvements within weeks or months depending on your implementation and website health. Consistency and proper execution are key to long-term success.

Q: Can I learn how to use SEMrush efficiently?

A: Absolutely! SEMrush offers extensive learning resources like webinars, tutorials, and an active community forum. This article also provides a solid foundation.

Q: Is there an alternative to SEMrush?

A: Yes, several SEO tools exist, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Research and compare features to find the one that best fits your needs and budget.

Summary: Why Learn to Use SEMRush?

Mastering SEMRush can be a great way for you to complement your digital marketing efforts. Whether you are looking to improve your online presence through social media or boost your authority through backlinking, SEMRush has the tools to help you achieve that.

If you’re looking to boost your search engine ranking, using the SEMRush SEO tools will provide you with great strategies that will produce noticeable results.