Sales is the turning point of every business. Online search is the first point in every customer’s buying process. To be able to sell, you need to be seen and make your business presence felt. Your website has to offer value to every customer that visits. Doing good business is your job; getting that business to you is what Semrush SEO will do for you.

What Is Semrush SEO? 

Semrush is the most popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool of 2023 that helps your website rocket its position in SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Using fair digital marketing practices helps a business sustain itself in the long term, and Semrush is a complete digital marketing solution package to handle all your digital marketing needs.

Semrush SEO offers tools such as keyword search and analysis, competitor analysis, performance reporting, ad optimization, tracking keyword rank, monitoring local listings, and many more. The results by Semrush are accurate and come with suggestive options. 

Who Needs Semrush SEO? 

It is 2023, and if you are not online, you are missing on the real business. An SEO tool is useful for every business; it only upscales your online positions and does no harm in any way whatsoever. Everyone today needs SEO, be it bloggers, startups, small, medium, or large businesses, professionals(at all levels and varied professions), educators, the service sector, the hospitality sector, food and beverages sector; each and everyone needs to grow their business online, and hence all of them need SEO for their audience to grow. 

The market is highly competitive; even for old, established businesses, it is essential to have an online presence for validation. The better the business, the more expectations on them. In a world where a baby gets social media recognition even before he/she starts walking, the future is widely online.

The SEO wave is not going to stop and is going to make the market even more intense. Merit and technique are the survival kits, and if you cannot keep up with the trending market trends, the market shall move ahead within no time, leaving you behind. This also is the best time for customers as they get data on all their questions about anything and everything within their reach. Privacy causes a hitch, and hence, being trustworthy counts in this online world.

How to use Semrush for free? 

Semrush comes with four packages, the base being a free plan. The free account gives very restricted access to the features of Semrush SEO. This is a fair opportunity for beginners to evaluate the software before investing in it. Apart from the free account, Semrush also offers a free trial of all its plans for seven days. A Semrush free trial differs from a permanent Semrush free account as the trial requires you to submit credit card details. The subscription can be canceled anytime if the user does not see potential in taking it further with the services. 

Have a look at the plan options available on Semrush here:

Creation of a free account on Semrush is very easy; here are the steps you need to follow when creating your Semrush account the first time:

STEP 1: ACCOUNT CREATION

When you first arrive on the homepage, the website offers a free trial of the Semrush tool kits. It takes you to the sign-up page where you can either log in through your Google account or email address. You receive an activation code on your entered email address. Once you enter the email ID, Semrush SEO tries to understand your needs with a few questions so as to provide you with the most customized flow. The digital marketing solutions are planned through questions like the time you have been around in the industry, the amount you plan on spending on SEO, and a description of your company status. After these questions, Semrush SEO offers the most suited plans and tools that you may like. If you select one of the plans and proceed with the trial, you will be prompted for further details, including the credit card data. This will begin your free 7-day trial before your selected plan gets operational. 

In case you want to use Semrush without credit card details or wanna work with a free account only, here are the steps:

Option 1:

In the above trial steps, when you click on skip the trial tab, right at the last step you are led to your free Semrush account dashboard. Semrush free account dashboard shows SEO, local SEO, Advertising, Social media, Content marketing, trends, agency solutions, and management.

For a deeper understanding, you can also request a demo from Semrush by filling in your details and purpose.

Option 2:

Directly click on start trial at the end of the home page, which shall direct you to the free sign-up page. As represented by the image below.

The main dashboard displays the competitor’s analysis and my projects. Here, you can create projects, segregate them, and start your research process on each project you use for digital marketing solutions.

STEP 2: ACCOUNT FEATURES

Semrush offers a vast range of features, and understanding each one of them all at once is difficult. Here is a brief description of all the features that Semrush offers to provide you with digital marketing solutions:

#1 SEO

On the SEO toolkit, the first step is to enter your domain address so that Semrush SEO can fetch all your available data for analysis. The SEO toolkit contains Domain Overview, Traffic Analytics, Organic Research, Keyword Gap, Backlink Gap, Keyword Overview, Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Manager, Position Tracking, Organic Traffic Insights, Backlink Analytics, Backlink Audit, Link Building Tool, Bulk Analysis, Site Audit, Listing Management, SEO Content Template, On-Page SEO Checker, and Log File Analyzer. Each feature does a special task and eventually leads your SEO profile to improve while giving you the best digital marketing solutions.

• Keyword Research: 

Semrush SEO provides a robust keyword research tool that helps you discover relevant keywords for your website. You can find keywords with high search volume, understand their competitiveness, and identify long-tail keywords that can drive targeted traffic.

• Competitor Analysis: 

Semrush SEO allows you to analyze your competitors’ websites to gain insights into their organic search strategies. You can discover their top-ranking keywords, backlinks, and traffic sources, which can help you identify opportunities and improve your own strategy.

• Site Audit: 

The site audit feature scans your website for technical issues, on-page SEO problems, and other issues that might affect your search engine rankings. It provides recommendations to improve your site’s health and performance.

• Backlink Analysis: 

Semrush SEO helps you analyze your backlink profile and those of your competitors. You can assess the quality of your backlinks, identify potentially harmful links, and discover new link-building opportunities.

• On-Page SEO: 

This feature provides suggestions for optimizing your website’s on-page elements, including meta tags, headings, content, and internal linking. It helps ensure that your pages are optimized for target keywords.

• Position Tracking: 

You can track your website’s rankings for specific keywords in search engine results over time. This feature helps you monitor your SEO progress and identify trends for digital marketing solutions.

• Content Audit: 

Semrush SEO helps you evaluate the performance of your content by analyzing factors such as traffic, backlinks, and social shares. You can identify high-performing content and areas for improvement.

• SEO Writing Assistant: 

This tool provides real-time recommendations as you write content, ensuring that your articles are optimized for SEO. It suggests improvements related to readability, target keywords, and overall content quality.

• Technical SEO Toolkit: 

Semrush SEO offers various tools to address technical SEO issues, including crawl errors, site speed optimization, mobile-friendliness, and structured data implementation.

• Local SEO Tools: 

Semrush SEO provides features to help businesses with local SEO efforts. You can manage your Google My Business profile, track local rankings, and optimize for location-specific keywords.

• Ranking Distribution: 

This feature helps you visualize how your website’s rankings are distributed across different search result positions. It can provide insights into your overall search visibility.

• Content Strategy: 

Semrush SEO offers tools to help you plan and execute your content strategy. You can identify content gaps, discover trending topics, and analyze the performance of your existing content.

• SERP Features Analysis: 

Semrush SEO lets you analyze search engine results pages (SERPs) to understand which features (such as featured snippets, knowledge panels, etc.) appear for your target keywords.

#2 Local SEO

Local SEO comes with Listing management, Review management, Position tracking, Site Audit, and on-page SEO checker. Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the practice of optimizing a website or online presence to improve its visibility in local search results on search engines like Google. The primary goal of local SEO tools is to make it easier for businesses to be found by people who are searching for products or services in a specific geographic area, such as a city or region. Local SEO tool is particularly important for businesses that have a physical storefront or operate in a specific location. 

• Local Keyword Research: 

Semrush SEO allows you to research and identify keywords that are relevant to your local business. You can discover keywords that local customers use to search for products or services in your area. This can help you tailor your content and optimization strategies to match local search intent and scale up your digital marketing solutions.

• Competitor Analysis: 

You can analyze the local SEO strategies of your competitors using Semrush SEO. This includes insights into their local keywords, backlinks, and rankings. Understanding your competitors’ approaches can help you identify areas for improvement and potential opportunities.

• Local Citation Audit and Management: 

Semrush SEO offers features to help you manage and audit your business citations across various online directories and platforms. Consistent and accurate citations are important for local SEO and a part of digital marketing solutions by Semrush.

• Local Rank Tracking: 

You can track your business’s local search rankings for specific keywords and locations. This helps you monitor your progress over time and understand how well your local SEO efforts are performing.

• Local Backlink Analysis: 

Backlinks from local websites and directories can positively impact your local SEO. Semrush provides insights into your local backlink profile and helps you identify potential sources for local backlinks.

• On-Page SEO Optimization: 

Semrush’s tools offer on-page optimization recommendations specific to local SEO. This could include optimizing your website’s content, meta tags, and headings with local keywords.

• Local Content Ideas: 

Semrush SEO suggests content ideas that are relevant to your local audience. Creating content that addresses local topics and interests can help you connect with your community and provide digital marketing solutions.

• Review Management: 

Managing online reviews is crucial for local businesses. Semrush’s tools help you monitor and respond to reviews across different platforms.

#3 Advertising

The advertising dashboard gives market analysis in the form of domain overview, advertising research, display advertising, and PLA research. Keyword research for keyword gaps, keyword magic tools, keyword managers, PPC keyword tools, ADS history, and position tracking for ad tracking are also a part of Semrush digital marketing solutions. 

In Semrush, advertising-related features primarily focus on PPC advertising and competitive analysis. Here’s how advertising works within the Semrush software:

• PPC Advertising Research and Analysis: 

Semrush provides tools to help you research and analyze your competitors’ PPC (pay per click) campaigns, keywords, ad copies, and more. You can gain insights into which keywords your competitors are bidding on, the ad copies they use, and even estimate their ad budgets and performance metrics.

• Keyword Research for Ads: 

Semrush SEO allows you to perform keyword research specific to your PPC campaigns. You can identify high-performing keywords, discover new keyword ideas, and analyze search volume, competition, and cost-per-click (CPC) data to make informed decisions about your ad targeting and digital marketing solutions.

• Ad Copy Analysis: 

You can analyze the ad copies of your competitors to understand their messaging strategies. This provides digital marketing solutions and it can help you create more effective and engaging ad copies for your own campaigns.

• Ad Position Tracking: 

Semrush can help you track your ad positions and monitor your competitors’ positions in search engine results for specific keywords. This information can help you assess the effectiveness of your campaigns and make necessary adjustments for digital marketing solutions.

• Competitor Analysis: 

Semrush enables you to analyze your competitors’ advertising strategies, such as their top-performing keywords, ad budgets, and ad performance metrics. This information can help you identify opportunities to improve your own campaigns and accordingly devise digital marketing solutions.

• Display Advertising Insights: 

Semrush provides insights into display advertising, including information about publishers, ad placements, and ad formats. This can be useful for businesses that are involved in display advertising campaigns.

• PPC Campaign Management: 

While Semrush primarily focuses on providing insights and analysis, it also offers some features to help manage your PPC campaigns. These include tools for creating and optimizing ads, managing bids, tracking performance and providing typical digital marketing solutions.

• Ad Budget Estimation: 

Semrush SEO offers estimations of competitors’ monthly ad budgets and expenditures based on their ad performance data.

#4 Social Media

The social media dashboard offers Social posters, social trackers, social analytics, social inboxes, and influencer analytics. With Semrush, you can create, schedule, and manage social media posts across various platforms from a single dashboard. This can help streamline your social media content publishing process.

• Social Media Analytics: 

Semrush’s social media analytics tools can provide insights into the performance of your digital marketing solutions, social media posts, and profiles. You can track metrics such as engagement, likes, shares, comments, and follower growth.

• Competitor Analysis: 

You can analyze the social media strategies of your competitors using Semrush. This includes insights into their top-performing content, posting frequency, engagement metrics, and follower demographics.

• Social Trackers: 

This feature helps you monitor social media conversations and mentions related to your brand, products, or industry. Monitoring social mentions can provide valuable insights into customer sentiment and trends. Social trackers are a fair part of digital marketing solutions.

• Influencer Marketing: 

Semrush offers tools to identify and analyze influencers in your industry or niche. This can help you identify potential collaborations and partnerships.

• Content Performance Analysis: 

You can analyze the performance of your social media content, including which types of posts are generating the most engagement, the best times to post, and the platforms that are driving the most traffic. Content performance is a very valuable digital marketing tool.

• Customizable Reports: 

Semrush’s social media tools can create customized reports showcasing your performance metrics. These reports can be useful for tracking progress and sharing insights with stakeholders. The reports highlight the key issues and help build greater digital marketing solutions.

• Social Media Advertising Insights: 

Semrush SEO provides insights into social media advertising campaigns, including ad performance metrics, audience demographics, and competitor ad analysis.

• Hashtag Analysis: 

Semrush’s tools could help you analyze the popularity and usage of hashtags in your industry or related to specific topics.

• Social Media Audit: 

You can conduct an audit of your social media profiles to identify areas for improvement and optimization.

• Social Media Trends and Monitoring: 

Social media monitoring plays a big part in coming up with the latest digital marketing solutions. Semrush provides insights into social media trends and monitoring of relevant topics, allowing you to stay informed about conversations and developments in your industry.

#5 Content Marketing

Content marketing offers Topic Research, SEO Content Template, SEO Writing Assistant, Brand Monitoring, ContentShake, AI Post Tracking, and Content Audit. 

• Content Ideas and Research: 

Semrush’s content marketing tools provide insights into trending topics, relevant keywords, and content ideas within your industry. You can discover what topics resonate with your target audience, identify gaps in your content strategy, and come to promising digital marketing solutions.

• SEO Content Template: 

Semrush SEO content template feature helps you create SEO-friendly content by recommending and optimizing your content for target keywords. It offers suggestions for headings, subheadings, keyword usage, etc. It is a part of full digital marketing solutions.

• Content Audit: 

Semrush’s content audit tools assist you in evaluating the performance of your existing content. You can identify which pieces of content are driving traffic, engagement, and conversions and which might need improvement or updates.

• Topic Research: 

This tool helps you explore a topic in-depth by providing a comprehensive overview of subtopics, related keywords, and questions your target audience asks.

• Content Calendar and Scheduling: 

Semrush’s content marketing tools include a content calendar that allows you to plan, schedule, and manage your content publishing strategy. This can help you maintain consistency in your content efforts.

• Content Performance Analytics: 

Track the performance of your content, including metrics such as pageviews, time on page, social shares, and engagement with Semrush SEO. This data helps you assess which content resonates with your audience and drives results and digital marketing solutions.

• Content Optimization: 

Semrush SEO offers tools that help you optimize your content for both search engines and readers. This could include recommendations for improving readability, adding relevant images, and ensuring proper formatting.

• Content Gap Analysis: 

You can identify gaps in your content strategy by comparing your content to that of your competitors. This can help you identify opportunities to create content that addresses topics not covered by your competitors.

#6 Trends

Semrush Trends comes with traffic analytics, market explorer, eye on, one2target, and traffic analytics API. Semrush SEO Trends is a competitive intelligence solution that provides businesses with digital marketing solution insights to identify new market realities and emerging trends to discover growth opportunities. It is available with paid Semrush subscriptions. It includes four tools and over a dozen reports that allow you to analyze any market, identify emerging trends, uncover competitor traffic stats, benchmark against the competition, conduct audience research, compare audience overlaps, automate competitive tracking, and more.

The key features of Semrush.Trends include:

• Traffic Analytics: 

This tool gives you a full overview of any company’s online performance.

• Market Explorer: 

This tool allows you to analyze both industry-based and organic competitors.

• EyeOn: 

This tool provides real-time insights into your competitors’ online activities.

To get started with Semrush .Trends, you can begin with the Market Explorer tool, which allows you to analyze any industry, market, or niche. You can define your market in three ways: by domain, by keyword, or by industry. Once you have defined your market, you can use the tool to analyze your competitors, identify emerging trends, and benchmark against the competition. You can also set up automated email reports using the Email Report Settings button in the upper right-hand corner of the tool.

Overall, Semrush .Trends provide businesses with a comprehensive set of tools to conduct in-depth market research and competitor analysis.

#7 Agency Solutions

Agency solutions include lead generation through agency partners, lead finder, and bid finder, optimization, and automation through client portal, CRM, and My reports.

• Multiple Projects Management: 

Semrush agency solutions are designed to help digital marketing agencies manage campaigns for multiple clients from a single dashboard. This includes the ability to track the performance of various clients’ websites and digital marketing activities.

• Client Reporting: 

The agency solutions offer customizable reporting features that allow you to create branded reports for your clients. These reports can showcase key performance metrics, rankings, backlinks, traffic, and other relevant data in a clear and professional format.

• Collaboration Tools: 

Agencies often work with multiple team members or external collaborators. The solutions offer collaboration features to manage team members’ roles, permissions, and tasks related to different client projects.

• Client Onboarding and Training: 

Semrush’s agency solutions include resources and tools to help agencies onboard new clients smoothly and provide training for client teams who need to use the platform.

• SEO and PPC Analysis: 

The agency solutions provide comprehensive SEO and PPC analysis tools to help agencies identify areas for improvement, track keyword rankings, analyze competitors, and optimize campaigns.

• Content Marketing Tools: 

Semrush’s content marketing tools can be integrated into the agency solutions, allowing agencies to plan, create, and optimize content strategies for their clients.

• Customer Support: 

The agency solutions include dedicated customer support to address agencies’ specific needs and provide assistance when setting up and managing campaigns.

• Training and Resources: 

Semrush offers training sessions, webinars, and resources to help agencies make the most of the platform and enhance their digital marketing efforts.

Step 3: Using The Account

Once you log in, understanding all the features at once could be overwhelming.  It generally takes some time for a new user to understand how it works. All kinds of tutorials and databases are available for Semrush that help get your domain progress. Utilizing each feature gradually proves to be the most useful digital marketing solution, and using Semrush gets fast with time. It is a time-saving device that gives results or long-term benefits. The plans of Semrush can be upgradable anytime as per needs.

Limitations:

A free account has restrictions, and all the features are not available for use. A user can perform only upto ten actions for a keyword search every day.  Also, the project has a single project limitation for most features, such as that of site audit.

PROS AND CONS:

Pros:

1. Semrush free account is available for an unrestricted time period.
2. Semrush SEO is highly accurate in its search results and provides specific, latest data.
3. Semrush offers a suite of tools that cover various aspects of digital marketing, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media, and more. This makes it a versatile solution for managing different aspects of your online presence.
4. Semrush helps you grow your business by providing support and handling all the digital marketing tools.
5. The tools provided by Semrush SEO are highly effective and latest.
6. Semrush SEO has the best features and is a complete package satisfying all digital marketing needs from a single point.

Cons:

1. Semrush’s pricing might be a bit high for smaller businesses or individual users. The different tiers can vary significantly in terms of features and capabilities.
2. Due to its comprehensive nature, Semrush can have a learning curve, especially for users who are new to digital marketing. It might take some time to fully grasp all the features and how to use them effectively.
3. Depending on your subscription tier, there might be limitations on the amount of data you can access or the number of projects you can manage.
4. Analyzing so much data takes time; the results of Semrush are slower as compared to Google.

When your website gets recognition, and you start ranking for the desired keywords on a search engine, you will attract 70% of the web traffic as potential customers. After this point, the ball is in the court of the sales team to determine how well they break the deal and how well they handle the customers. Try Semrush for 7 days and testify the changes in your sales.

(To hire the best team, check out our blog on the Recruitment software that connects you to the world’s best workforce.) 

To witness the magic of Semrush, click the button below: