My Unbiased Semrush Review (2024): How I Use It to Boost My SEO Strategy

Almost ten years ago, when I first dipped my toes into the world of search engine optimization (SEO), I was intrigued and overwhelmed at the same time. There were so many tools available, each promising to change everything.

Fast forward to today, and the landscape has only become more crowded. But after years of trial and error, I’ve found a tool that genuinely stands out—Semrush. It isn’t just another SEO tool; it’s like having a Swiss Army knife for all things digital marketing.

So, are you looking to elevate your SEO game in 2024? In this Semrush review, I am going to explore why it’s the top choice for digital marketers.

Review of Semrush for 2024 [Key Takeaways]

• Semrush offers a variety of digital marketing tools that help with keyword research, competitive analysis, link building, content optimization, advertising, and more.
• Recent updates in 2024 include artificial intelligence (AI)-driven features, improved keyword research tools, and enhanced usability, proving that Semrush is a solid SEO choice.
• While Semrush is one of the tools with a steeper learning curve, it offers significant value, making it a worthwhile investment for businesses committed to improving their online presence.

What Is Semrush, and Why Does It Deserve Your Attention?

Semrush is an all-in-one digital marketing tool designed to enhance your SEO, content marketing, and competitive research strategies. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, Semrush offers something for everyone. And the best part? It keeps getting better.

With recent updates like AI-driven features and more intuitive keyword research tools, Semrush is proving that it’s not just keeping up with the times—it’s leading the charge. Yes, the learning curve can be a bit steep, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Overview of Semrush Features

The Semrush dashboard might feel like stepping into a digital candy store—so many tools, so little time. But don’t worry, I’m here to guide you through some of the most impactful features.

1. SEO

When people hear Semrush, they usually think of SEO. This is indicative of its high potential to streamline your workflow and yield excellent results.

As a specialist in SEO, I am confident that Semrush is worth your time. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Keyword research

Keyword research is where it all begins.

The Keyword Overview is where you need to start, getting the basics like search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click (CPC). It also breaks down keywords by search intent, which is super helpful for targeting the right audience.

Semrush provides another standout feature called the Keyword Magic Tool. With access to over 25 billion keywords across 142 geo-databases, you can narrow things down to the most relevant long-tail keywords and even find questions people are asking—perfect for creating content that really hits the mark.

Position Tracking is something that needs daily checking as well. It’s all about keeping tabs on how your site is ranking for specific keywords, with smart filters to sort out the ones that trigger special search results like FAQ sections or images. The ability to track rankings across different locations and devices is golden, especially with those alerts for significant ranking changes.

Finally, there’s Organic Traffic Insights, which combines data from Google Analytics and Semrush to give you a full picture of how your site performs in organic search. By looking at user behavior metrics like bounce rate and session duration, you can get a clear sense of how well your content engages visitors.

Competitive research

Semrush offers some fantastic tools for anyone looking to get a competitive edge online.

For example, the Domain Overview feature provides a quick snapshot of a competitor’s current state, covering both organic and paid traffic along with their top keywords. Semrush allows you to compare your site to theirs easily.

If you’re curious about where your competitors are getting their traffic from, the Traffic Analytics tool is a valuable resource. It breaks down their traffic sources, helping me spot trends and identify strategies that are working for them, which I can adapt to my own approach later.

The Organic Research functionality reveals the keywords that are performing well, offering valuable insights, while the Keyword Gap tool takes this further by identifying keywords my competitors rank for that I may have overlooked. The Backlink Gap tool works similarly; only that it’s for backlinks.

Link building

Building a strong backlink profile is essential for any SEO strategy, and Semrush excels in this area. The Backlink Analytics tool has become one of my go-to features. It allows me to compare my backlink profile with my competitors’, identifying potential opportunities and areas for improvement.

Another favorite feature of mine is the Backlink Audit tool. It provides a toxicity score for each backlink, helping me weed out harmful links that could negatively impact my site’s SEO.

And the Link Building Tool generates a list of potential link building prospects according to their relevance and authority. I can track my communication with potential link partners, ensuring I stay organized and on top of follow-ups.

On-page & tech SEO

Now, this is where the rubber meets the road. Semrush on-page SEO checker and technical SEO tools are all about making sure your website is fully optimized for search engines.

The Site Audit tool is something I run regularly to catch any technical issues that could be holding my site back. Whether it’s broken links or slow-loading pages, the Semrush Site Audit feature helps me nip problems in the bud before they become major headaches. I particularly appreciate the SEO health score it provides, which gives me a quick snapshot of how well my site is performing.

Another feature in Semrush I’ve come to rely on is the SEO Content Template. This tool analyzes the top-ranking pages for my target keywords and gives me recommendations on how to optimize my content. It suggests the best keyword usage, readability scores, and even semantic keywords to include.

The Log File Analyzer lets me see how Google search engine bots interact with my site. By analyzing server log files, I can find out which pages are being crawled, how often, and whether there are any crawl errors.

2. Local

If you’re running a business with a physical location, Semrush local SEO tools are mandatory.

Start with the Listing Management tool. It keeps your business information—like your name, address, and phone number—consistent across the web.

The Local SEO Toolkit covers all the bases, from optimizing your Google Business Profile listing to tracking local rankings. It even helps you analyze local competitors and find keyword opportunities. The Review Management feature pulls together reviews from different platforms, so you can see what people are saying about your business in one place.

3. Advertising

Semrush isn’t just about SEO—it’s got some powerful tools for advertising too.

Want to know what your competitors are spending on ads? The Product Listing Ads (PLA) Research tool lets you dig into their ad strategies, so you can refine your own.

Semrush’s designated tool for pay-per-click campaigns—the PPC Keyword Tool—is all you need to optimize your paid campaigns. It helps you find and organize keywords based on search volume, competition, and suggested bids. Add AdCreative.ai to the mix, and you’ll have a winning combo. This feature makes creating ads a lot simpler with its AI-driven tools. It whips up customized ad creatives and text for different platforms quickly.

4. Social Media

Scheduling posts across multiple platforms from one place? Yes, please.

Semrush Social Poster saves you a ton of time and keeps your social media strategy on point. You’ll like tracking how your posts perform so you can keep delivering content that your audience loves.

Rolling out the Influencer Analytics feature, Semrush makes it clear that they know what they are doing. Influencer marketing isn’t just a trend that’s going away in a few months but a highly successful endeavor. And more and more companies are realizing that and investing in such campaigns.

Influencer Analytics is super handy for managing influencer marketing campaigns on platforms like YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. Find the right influencers by filtering them based on factors like their subscriber count and location. Plus, it gives you the lowdown on how influencers are performing, including their engagement rates and expected views.

5. Content Marketing

For content marketing, Semrush offers a suite of tools that have become indispensable. Whenever I’m stuck for content ideas, the Topic Research tool comes to the rescue. It helps me identify trending topics in my industry by analyzing search data, social media buzz, and competitor content. This gives me the inspiration I need to create relevant and engaging content. 

The Semrush SEO Writing Assistant is perfect for polishing your content. It works with Google Docs and WordPress. It’s also available as a Google add-on, offering real-time tips on keywords, readability, and tone.

6. Trends

Semrush is super helpful when it comes to getting a real understanding of your market and audience. Take the Market Explorer tool, for example. It’s like having a peek into the latest market trends and spotting new opportunities. It gives you a summary of the market size, growth rates, and how you stack up against your competition. With this information, you can make smarter choices about things like product development, marketing strategies, and even expanding your business.

Another cool tool is One2Target. It offers detailed insights into your audience’s demographics, interests, and behavior. This makes it easier to segment your audience and fine-tune your marketing strategies to really connect with them. Furthermore, it highlights the most popular devices and social media platforms your audience uses, helping you optimize your campaigns for better engagement and conversions.

7. Agency Solutions

Finally, it’s worth noting that Semrush also boasts tools made specifically for agencies.

The Lead Finder is perfect for agencies on the hunt for new clients, helping them zero in on businesses that could really use their services. With filters for industry, location, and online presence, it makes your outreach more precise and efficient, saving you time and effort by focusing on the leads most likely to convert.

Given the obvious fact of Semrush being so diverse, it’s not a surprise there’s even a Customer Relationship Management CRM feature. It’s designed to keep your client relationships running smoothly by organizing interactions, managing tasks, and storing all your client details in one place. This way, everything is easy to access and keeps your workflow organized.

Semrush Key Enhancements in 2024

In 2024, Semrush made some big upgrades, cementing its impeccable reputation as one of the best SEO and digital marketing tools of all time.

Want to dig deeper? Keep reading.

• Keyword Strategy Builder: Previously called Keyword Manager, this updated tool lets you create page structures with main topics and subpages, making your content strategy easier to develop.
• Enhanced Keyword Research: With new metrics like Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and Topical Authority, you get a better understanding of how competitive keywords are and how relevant they are to your domain.
• AI Marketing Strategy: This feature simplifies your marketing workflow with AI tools that generate content and graphics. It also uses ChatGPT-3.5 Turbo and ChatGPT-4 to help you plan and execute more effectively.
• AI Narratives for Google Analytics 4: Get personalized insights and scheduled reports, making it easier to make data-driven decisions.
• Ecommerce Booster: Tailored for Shopify, this tool includes an AI-powered product description generator and a top-tier audit feature to optimize your product pages.
• AI Copilot: Your personal assistant that gives you SEO recommendations based on data from various Semrush tools, making SEO management straightforward.
• AI Writing Assistant: It helps you whip up quality AI-generated content quickly for websites, ads, and social media, featuring 75 different AI content generation tools.
• ContentShake AI: This is another AI tool to streamline your content creation process. Released as a plugin for WordPress, it requires a Semrush account and is available as an add-on, allowing for seamless integration and direct publishing to blogs.
• Video Marketing Automator: Create and manage video content with smooth integration across different platforms for distribution.
• Integration with Google’s Disavow Tool: The tool integrates seamlessly with Google’s Disavow Tool, facilitating bad link management.

Semrush Pricing and Plans

There are three Semrush subscriptions: Pro, Guru, and Business. Each has its own benefits, ideal for different sizes of SEO adventures.

Subscription	Cost per month (with annual billing)	Features	Ideal for
Semrush Pro Plan	$117.33	10,000 results per report for domain and keyword analytics, track 500 keywords, and crawl up to 100,000 web pages for audits	SEO experts starting out or managing small projects
Semrush Guru Plan	$208.33	30,000 results per report, track 1,500 keywords, and crawl up to 300,000 web pages	Handling multiple clients’ SEO strategies
Semrush Business Plan	$416.66	50,000 results per report, track 5,000 keywords, and crawl up to 1,000,000 web pages	SEO experts needing advanced features and team management

Semrush offers a free trial for the Pro and Guru plans.

If you want an AI marketing tool that analyzes your content and helps boost its impact across buyer journey stages, opt for Semrush ImpactHero. You can add it to any Semrush plan for an extra $200, with the total cost depending on how many campaigns you run.

When it comes to the Semrush Local, Semrush .Trends, Semrush Social, and the Agency Growth Kit, they’re all available for a small additional fee.

User Experience: My Day-to-Day With Semrush

Using Semrush is straightforward and efficient. The setup was quick, with easy access to tools like keyword research and link building, though there were occasional prompts to upgrade. Once you pass the initial confusion, working with it becomes second nature. As an SEO expert, who has explored many SEO tools, I find Semrush’s dashboard convenient for daily use and offering valuable insights.

Being a Semrush user myself, I’m going to highlight that Semrush customer support has always been superb—even on the free plan, I had access to live chat for basic queries. With a paid plan, onboarding assistance made it easy to dive into all the features. Whenever I needed help, the support team was knowledgeable and quick to resolve issues, making the experience smooth.

Pros and Cons of Semrush

This is my summary of Semrush’s pros and cons.

Semrush Reviews

I’ve gathered insights from three industry experts who have used Semrush for years. Take a look at what they said about their experience with Semrush.

“For keyword research, I use the Keyword Magic Tool. It helps me find keywords that are relevant and have good search volume but aren’t too competitive. For example, when we were launching a new feature, I used Semrush to find specific long-tail keywords that potential users might be searching for. This helped us create targeted content that ranked well and attracted the right audience.” — Umair Hussain, Digital Marketing Manager, Cloudways (DigitalOcean)

“When it comes to link building, we’ve leveraged the Semrush Backlink Analytics tool to identify authoritative sites in the finance industry, particularly those with a strong focus on cash management and accounts payable. The tool’s updated features allow us to monitor our competitors’ backlinks and discover new opportunities for guest posting and partnerships, helping us build a stronger backlink profile that enhances our domain authority and search rankings.” — Aimie Ye, Director of Inbound Marketing, Centime

“We use the Semrush Writing Assistant for content optimization. It ensures our content is SEO-friendly and tailored to our target audience. The tool’s real-time feedback on readability and SEO factors helps us create high-quality, optimized content consistently. Using this tool, our blog posts now rank higher on search engines, leading to a 15% increase in lead generation.” — Shawn Plummer, CEO, The Annuity Expert

Final Thoughts: Semrush Tool Review

I love how Semrush brings powerful tools to the table. Starting at $117.33 per month, it fits many budgets. I looked at the Pro, Guru, and Business plans, each designed for different levels of need.

Semrush unique tools, like the SEO Writing Assistant, make content optimization simpler. With updates in 2024, such as the increasing incorporation of AI, it keeps getting better.

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