Semrush Review: Key Features, Pricing Plans, Pros and Cons

Are you an entrepreneur considering improving your business’s online presence? Or are you a digital marketer looking to enhance your client’s website visibility with the Semrush SEO toolkit? Well, we’ve created this guide for you. We have been using the Semrush SEO marketing tool for a while, researching keywords for our company website and clients’ business sites. So, we will share our experience around Semrush’s key SEO features and pricing plans, plus Semrush pros and cons. Ultimately, you will decide whether this is the kind of SEO tool for your business.

Top 6 Key SEO Features in Semrush

Do you know why we use Semrush? It has a fascinating reputation in the digital marketing industry. In addition, it offers a variety of features capable of taking your business on an adventure. But here are some of the SEO features we find relevant for Content Creators, Keyword Researchers, and other business marketers:

1. Keyword Research Tool

Keyword research is a fundamental step in the process of search engine optimization. In fact, any SEO strategy without keyword research might fail. So, it leaves a question of what kind of tool you will use to find the most optimal keywords. The good news is that Semrush is an all-in-one, top-tier Keyword Research tool, and here are some of the features we use daily:

• Keyword overview: It will analyze your keyword for Keyword Difficulty and Search Volume. It also gives you an insight into which websites are ranking for that keyword on the search engine result page (SERP)
• Organic research: Analyze the performances of your website’s top competitors. This includes the keywords that give them traffic, SERP features they rank for, etc.
• Keyword magic tool: Assesses and provides validated data on an entire topic. So, if you want to get a series of keywords on a single topic, use the Keyword Magic tool.
• Keyword gap: Offers a side-by-side comparison between your website and its competitors to identify the existing keyword gap, which you can use as extra keyword ideas.
• Keyword manager: Organizes, tracks, and manages your researched keyword more effectively. It gives you a deep and detailed analysis of up to 2,000 keywords. 
• Organic traffic insight tool: Combines Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Semrush data into a single dashboard.

2. Competitor Analysis Tool

As a marketer, it’s beneficial for you to understand your competition. Monitor what they do online; also learn about their marketing campaigns. In other words, collecting those valuable insights would help give you a competitive advantage. But, of course, you need an effective tool to achieve all this. And that is what makes the Competitor Analysis tool in Semrush essential.

We usually rely on this SEO tool while reviewing our Competitors’ search landscape. This includes their most valuable keywords, content ideas, backlinks, and advertising strategies. Some of the features you will find in the Competitor Analysis tool include:

• Traffic analytics: Analyzes competitor’s website performance. For instance, their search volume and organic search clicks they receive in a month.
• The organic research tool: Helps you dig deeper into your competitors’ most valuable keywords that bring traffic to their websites.
• Social media tracker: This helps you to analyze the social media visibility and audience of your competitor.
• Advertising Research: Provides a report about your competitor’s paid Ads, the keywords they are bidding on, live campaign data, and other metrics.

3. Local SEO Tool

Most businesses need help to balance their physical and online visibility. Such enterprises include brick-and-mortar stores or service-based companies. Precisely, these are businesses that mostly rely on local customers, for instance, restaurants, cafes, Drug stores, Bridal shops, schools, etc.

Most of our clients are in these categories. So, we depend on the Local SEO tool while optimizing their businesses for local search rankings. As a result, more local customers can find and locate their products and services online, helping them compete effectively in their local markets. Here are the extra features you will find in Semrush’s Local SEO tool:

• Listing Management: Simplifies the management and optimization of local business listings across various online directories, review platforms, and local search engines.
• Local Position Tracking: This allows you to track your local search rankings and see how your SEO efforts are paying off. As a result, you will make data-driven decisions and refine your SEO strategy.
• On-Page SEO Recommendations: Provides on-page SEO recommendations, helping you optimize your website’s content and structure for better local search visibility.

4. Technical SEO Tool

Regarding the technical aspects of your website, Semrush has various SEO tools to support you. Is it about your website’s infrastructure, such as crawlability and indexation? Or is it HTTPS Implementation, XML Sitemaps, Structured Data Markup, or Canonicalization? The Technical SEO tool is all you need.

We often use Semrush’s Technical SEO tool to audit new website projects. That is when we want to identify and address issues affecting a site’s search engine visibility. We depend on the following features:

• Site Audit: Scans your website to identify technical issues that can impact SEO performance. These include broken links, duplicate content, missing Meta tags, page load speed, etc.
• On-page SEO Checker: Helps you optimize individual web pages for better rankings. It includes On-Page SEO Analysis, Semantic SEO Analysis, Backlink Analysis, etc.
• Log file analyzer: Analyzes and interprets your website’s server log files to help you gain valuable insights into how search engines and users interact with your website.

5. SERP Tracking Tool

Over time, while a website’s SEO matures, it will start ranking for different SERP features beyond the organic search results. These include featured snippets, knowledge panels, FAQs, and local map packs. SERP features are essential since they enhance the user’s search experience by offering quick answers, visual content, etc.

So, you will need the SERP Tracking Tool to monitor the rich snippets your website is ranking for. Thus, you are learning more about the impact of your SEO efforts on your website’s performance in search engines.

6. Link Building Tool 

Backlinks are essential while building an effective SEO strategy for business websites. It not only improves website visibility but also boosts domain authority. So, you cannot do away with the need for an effective Link building tool if you want results.

The Link-Building tool in Semrush is seamless and will ease the process of building high-quality and authoritative backlinks for your website. Some of the features you will find in this tool include:

• Backlink Analysis: Explores your website’s backlink profile and your competitors. You can access valuable information about the quality and quantity of backlinks, referring domains, anchor text distribution, etc.
• Link Gap Analysis: Highlight the gap between your backlink profile and your competitors. You will identify websites linking to your competitors rather than to yours and target them.
• Link Tracking and Monitoring: Track the status of your newly acquired backlinks. For instance, check for broken links and track harmful SEO activity.

Semrush Pros and Cons

With all those fantastic features, you will want to draw a line between the good and bad of the Semrush SEO tool. Well, from our experience as Semrush users, these are the pros and cons we so far find eye-wiggling.

Top 5 Semrush Pros

• Comprehensive Toolset: Semrush offers a wide array of digital marketing tools, making it a one-stop solution for many SEO and digital marketing tasks.
• User-Friendly Interface: Semrush offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it accessible to beginners and experienced digital marketers.
• Seamless Keyword Research: Semrush makes SEO keyword research intuitive and meaningful. It offers in-depth keyword research capabilities, helping users identify relevant keywords and discover new opportunities seamlessly.
• Accurate Site Audit: The Audit tool helps identify your website’s technical issues and provides accurate, actionable recommendations for improving site health.
• Data-based Competitor Analysis: The tool excels in competitor analysis, allowing users to compare their performance with competitors, uncover their strategies, and find areas for improvement.

Top 4 Semrush Cons

• Expensive Pricing: Semrush can be relatively expensive for small businesses and individuals, primarily if they only partially utilize all its features.
• Learning Curve: Semrush can be overwhelming for beginners due to the sheer number of tools and data available. It may take you some time to become proficient at using Semrush.
• Limited Free Plan: The free version of Semrush offers limited access to its features, and for full functionality, users need to subscribe to a paid plan.
• Limited location Data: There needs to be more data about specific keywords in some countries like Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, etc. 

Semrush Pricing plans

Semrush offers several pricing plans tailored to different needs and budgets. These include pricing plans for freelancers, agencies, and small businesses. It is up to you to choose which Semrush pricing plan suits your business.

1. Semrush Pro: This plan is ideal for individuals, freelancers, and small businesses. It includes keyword research, site audit, position tracking, and more features. Find more here.
2. Semrush Guru: For small to medium-sized businesses. This Pricing plan offers all the Pro plan features plus a content marketing platform, historical data, and branded reports. Visit the Semrush website for the updated prices.
3. Semrush Business: For larger businesses and agencies. This Pricing plan includes all the features of the Guru plan, along with API access, extended limits, and sharing options. Check out the monthly pricing plans here.

Should I consider using Semrush?

Overall, Semrush is a highly regarded and powerful SEO tool in the digital marketing space. It will transform your keyword research processes, enhance your content marketing strategies, and boost your digital marketing efforts. We use Semrush every day. And ever since we discovered its strengths in the digital marketing entity, we’ve never let go of it. You can also try Semrush today!