Having the right SEO tool at your disposal is always a good idea. A reliable tool should help reduce your workload so that you not only get better analyses and insights, but also receive them much faster.
In addition, a powerful SEO tool can provide far more data and insights than manual analysis ever could. Of course, efficiency and cost-effectiveness also play an important role.
The less time you need to spend on manual analysis, the better. The same applies to receiving more accurate and detailed results.
These insights can sometimes significantly accelerate the success of a project—or reveal why it may be stagnating.
In this review, I would like to share my SEMrush experience and what I have learned while working with this all-in-one SEO tool.
One thing is clear from the start: SEMrush can do much more than simply analyze online marketing campaigns in the area of search engine marketing (SEM).
It also includes features for video and display advertising, allows you to perform a full website audit, analyze social signals, carry out comprehensive keyword research, and much more.
Based on my many years of experience using SEMrush, I can say that the tool offers a wide range of powerful features. And that is exactly what we will take a closer look at in this detailed review.
You will also see several SEMrush screenshots, which will help you better understand how the tool works and what it can do.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
SEMrush Review: Organic Research Features
Anyone who wants to succeed online needs not only a great website but also visitors, and therefore an effective marketing strategy.
To attract visitors to your website, strong rankings in search engines are essential.
However, not all rankings are equal. To attract the right audience, your website must rank for relevant and valuable keywords in the organic search results.
This is where SEMrush offers powerful features through its Organic Research tool.
SEMrush analyzes the keywords your website ranks for and displays detailed information, including the ranking URL, CPC, search volume, estimated traffic, competition level, search results, and the keyword trend.
In a small chart, the tool also shows how many keywords are ranking, how much traffic they generate, and how much that traffic would cost if acquired through Google Ads.
Next to this, you will also see a graph that illustrates the development of your organic traffic over time. However, this applies mainly to keywords that are ranked within the Top 20 positions.
Under the Organic Research section, you can also identify position changes. If a keyword has improved or declined in ranking, you can view these changes under the “Position Changes” tab.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
If you want to know who your competitors are, you can view this information under the “Competitors” section.
There you will see which competitors you have, how many keywords you share, and how many keywords your competitors rank for overall to drive traffic to their websites.
The tool also displays the keywords used in paid ads.
If you want to see which pages or URLs are ranking and how much traffic they generate, you can check this within the corresponding section of the SEMrush SEO tool.
Here you can see which URL or page ranks for which keywords and how much traffic those rankings generate for your website.
SEMrush provides a large amount of data that can help you significantly with ranking analysis as well as competitor analysis.
It can also help you discover new keyword opportunities that you may still be able to rank for. In that sense, it can also serve as a useful topic research tool and highlight areas where your website can be improved for search engines.
This makes it easier to monitor the overall performance and condition of your website in a clear and objective way, all within your account dashboard.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
SEMrush Review: Backlink Analysis
Backlinks still play an important role as a positive ranking factor, even though there are many other Google ranking signals today.
For this reason, it is very useful to analyze the backlink profile of a website.
In SEMrush, you first receive a general overview that displays all the key data. From there, you can either continue the analysis directly or explore the details through the navigation menu.
The overview shows the total number of backlinks, the number of referring domains, and the number of referring IP addresses.
You can also see the ratio between dofollow and nofollow links, the type of backlink (such as image, text, frame, or form links), and the top-level domains (TLDs) from which the links originate.
If you want to examine the backlinks in more detail, SEMrush also shows which pages are linking to your website and which specific pages or subpages they link to.
You can also view the anchor text used, as well as the number of internal and external links on the referring page.
After all, you want to avoid backlinks from spam websites or link farms, as these could negatively affect the trust and quality of your own website.
The tool also clearly displays information about when a backlink was first detected and last seen.
From there, you can continue exploring the SEMrush features and analyze the different anchor texts used in your backlink profile.
The anchor texts are grouped so that each anchor text appears only once, along with the number of referring domains that use that specific anchor text.
By clicking on that number, you can access the detailed backlink information mentioned above.
This allows you to quickly gain a clear overview of your backlink profile without being overwhelmed by too many complex functions.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
The referring domains and IP addresses are also part of the SEMrush features. This allows you to identify from which countries the backlinks originate and check whether they come from potential spam websites.
Low-quality backlinks can negatively impact your website (see negative off-page ranking factors). In this section, you can also see the number of backlinks pointing to your website. Clicking on the number will take you back to the “Backlinks” overview.
If you want to know which pages of your website are indexed, you can view this information under “Indexed Pages.” This allows you to verify whether important pages of your website are properly indexed by search engines.
However, the main purpose of this overview is to show which domains and how many backlinks point to each specific page. This provides a useful backlink audit, whether you are analyzing your own website or that of your competitors.
It can also be very interesting to analyze the backlink profile of your competitors, especially if you are trying to discover new link opportunities or potential link sources.
Such an analysis can help you identify new backlink sources and potential link partners.
With SEMrush, you can compare up to five domains at the same time and analyze their backlink profiles. In the example shown in the image, Wikipedia and Facebook are compared.
Green indicates the winner, while red indicates the loser.
If you want to see which link sources, domains, or IP addresses are behind the numbers, you can simply click on the respective number to view the detailed information.
This means that both keyword analysis and backlink analysis are included within the functionality of the tool.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
SEMrush Review: Advertising Research (Google Ads)
If your website does not rank as well as expected for certain keywords, you can use search engine advertising to gain visibility. Although advertising can sometimes be expensive and click prices can be quite high, it ultimately comes down to supply and demand.
When running search engine ads, it is useful to understand how your ads are performing and which positions they hold. This is something you can also analyze with the SEMrush marketing tool.
The tool shows which keywords are used for ads, along with their positions, CPC, competition level, search volume, and estimated traffic.
This allows you to evaluate whether the keywords you have booked are actually relevant to your campaigns or whether you might be wasting your advertising budget. Of course, some of this data is also available in Google Ads, but SEMrush provides an additional perspective.
If you want to see how the performance of your advertising keywords has changed, you can check the “Position Changes” section.
Here you can quickly track changes related to your advertising keywords and see how their positions have evolved over time.
Knowing your competitors is always valuable. With SEMrush, you can also analyze your advertising competitors.
The tool shows which competitors are closest to you, how many keywords you share, and additional metrics such as estimated traffic.
This helps you identify other players in your market and determine whether larger or well-known competitors are also active in the same advertising space.
Under “Ad Copies,” you can see the different ads that are being used by a particular domain.
This allows you not only to review your own advertisements but also those of your competitors—which is often more interesting, since you usually already know your own campaigns.
By analyzing these ads, you can gain inspiration for your own campaigns. The tool displays not only the ad titles and descriptions but also the keywords that have been booked for the ads.
If you want to review the historical performance of ads, you can do so under “Ads History.” There you will see the various advertisements that have been run each month.
This feature provides valuable insights for Google Ads campaigns. Additionally, you can connect and analyze the data together with Google Data Studio, allowing you to create more comprehensive marketing reports.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
PLA Research
PLA stands for Product Listing Ads, which refers to advertising products and displaying them directly in search engines. This format is also commonly known as Google Shopping or Google Product Search.
These products are shown when users search for specific items by entering relevant search terms or keyword combinations. With SEMrush, you can access additional data related to these types of campaigns.
For example, the tool shows how much traffic you receive from organic search and how much comes from paid channels.
In the overview, you will see key information such as your main competitors, relevant keywords, the ratio of branded vs. non-branded traffic, and a preview of some of your ads.
Under “Positions,” you can see which keywords generate traffic and which positions they hold, separated into PLA Search and Paid Search.
The tool also shows which keyword was used, its current ranking position, the product price, the URL, the product title, and the associated search volume.
SEMrush provides a wide range of insights that can help you with website analysis and optimizing your Google advertising campaigns.
In the “Competitors” section, you can view your competitors and analyze their performance. This includes the competition level, shared keywords, and the PLA keywords you have in common.
The tool also displays how many paid keywords are being used.
Since PLA campaigns often operate on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, SEMrush also estimates the paid traffic and associated advertising costs. These costs are calculated in relation to Google Ads data and are typically estimated on a monthly basis.
Under “PLA Copies,” you can see the different advertisements used in the campaigns, exactly as they appear to users.
For each ad, you can also view the keywords associated with that specific advertisement.
Additionally, SEMrush provides detailed information about both PLA Search and Paid Search, including the number of keywords and ads used in PLA campaigns, as well as data about paid search keywords, traffic, and estimated traffic costs.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Video & Display Advertising Overview
In addition to text, image, and product advertising, there is also video advertising. However, video and display advertising are no longer part of the SEMrush suite.
Instead, you can use AdClarity to access these types of advertising insights. This is somewhat unfortunate, as it used to be a very useful feature within the platform.
Previously, it could help optimize various Google Ads campaigns, generate more leads, and improve your overall visibility in search engines.
Keyword Research: Finding the Right Keywords for Your SEO
To achieve strong rankings, it is essential to identify the right search terms and optimize your content accordingly.
Even though Google can often understand the topic of a page through Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), even when the exact keyword is not present, Latent Semantic Optimization (LSO) can further strengthen and improve the relevance of your content.
Within the keyword research features, SEMrush allows you to discover additional potential keywords that you can optimize for in order to improve your search visibility.
In the overview section, you will find information about related and similar keywords, trends, ads, product listing ads, and organic search results, as shown in the screenshot.
In the detailed sections for each category, you receive even more insights.
For example, under Phrase Match, you can see which keyword has which search volume, CPC, competition level, and the number of results found. This allows you to evaluate how important a specific keyword may be for your SEO strategy.
A similar feature exists under Related Keywords within the Keyword Magic Tool. The difference is that these are not similar phrases but related search terms, as illustrated in the example.
One particularly powerful feature is that the tool also displays the search intent. On the left side, you can see related keywords, and by expanding them you will receive additional detailed insights.
These metrics are extremely useful. They clearly demonstrate that SEMrush is a powerful SEO tool with a wide range of features. Compared to many other tools, SEMrush provides search intent data and presents the information in a clear and structured way.
This saves a significant amount of time when performing keyword research and organizing keyword data. For online marketers and SEO professionals, insights from tools like SEMrush are incredibly valuable.
You can also connect Google Analytics and Google Search Console to integrate additional data.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
SEMrush Review and Additional Tools
There are several interesting features available within the SEMrush SEO tool. Many of these functions can already be found under the SEO section, where they are divided into different categories.
A wide range of features is offered here. SEMrush also helps you identify keyword gaps.
This means that SEMrush allows you to find keyword opportunities and gaps between your own website and your competitors.
Once again, this gives you access to a large amount of valuable data that many other major tools do not provide in the same way. It is truly a very comprehensive SEO tool.
The Keyword Gap feature is not only useful for competitor and market analysis, but also gives you a clear overview of where you may still need to optimize in order to close these keyword gaps.
But that is not all. SEMrush offers even more features. I have already introduced the most important ones, but this additional function may also be very helpful for you.
This feature is called the Backlink Gap. It provides you with a detailed analysis of the backlink differences between your website and your competitors.
SEMrush therefore helps you gain more insights, giving you a better overview not only of your own off-page optimization, but also of your competitors’ backlink strategies.
As an online marketer working in SEO, I am genuinely impressed. That is why I believe SEMrush is one of the best SEO tools available.
SEMrush offers many powerful features and consistently helps you with competitive analysis and the optimization of your performance.
I personally enjoy working with SEMrush. It is an excellent all-in-one tool. But enough praise—here you can see an example of a Backlink Gap analysis.
With this information, you can try to acquire backlinks from the same websites as your competitors. The fact that the tool supports you with this process is another major advantage.
This can help you catch up with your competitors—or even outperform them—which makes it a very strong feature of this SEO tool.
With the Site Audit, you can check your website for possible errors and potential improvements.
Here, your website is analyzed in detail to determine whether any subpages return 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx status codes.
You can also see where a backlink may be broken, which links are nofollow or dofollow, and you receive an evaluation of your PageSpeed, as well as additional information about the images on your website.
The Site Audit is a very comprehensive analysis that gives you deeper insights into your website.
What I especially like about SEMrush is that the available features provide very strong support and give you access to a large amount of useful data.
This is extremely helpful not only for competitive analysis, but also for optimizing your own website, making it much easier to create a strategy and define the next steps.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Ranks Features: Additional SEMrush Functions
Under Ranks, domains with the highest SEMrush Rank are listed and sorted in descending order. This means that domains with the highest rankings appear at the top of the list.
You can also see the ranking keywords for each domain along with the corresponding traffic. If a domain is running SEM campaigns, this information will also be displayed.
This feature becomes especially useful when a new Google update is rolled out. You can quickly observe which domains have gained or lost the most visibility.
Based on this data, you can conduct further analyses to better understand the reasons behind these ranking increases or drops.
With SEMrush, you can analyze a large number of domains in detail. These insights can be found in the “Winners and Losers” section.
Ranking Check: See How Your Keywords Rank
In addition to the Keyword Magic Tool, you can also add your keywords to the tracking system. This allows you to monitor the performance of your keywords over time.
Keyword ranking tracking is a fundamental feature of any SEO tool. After all, conducting keyword research is only the first step, you also want to know whether the content you created for those keywords is actually ranking.
And if it is ranking, the next question is: how well?
SEMrush provides exactly this functionality, similar to tools like Ahrefs.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Competitor Analysis: Discover What Your Competitors Are Doing
Competitor analysis is one of the most important disciplines in online marketing.
This is where SEMrush truly shines. The platform allows you to analyze your competitors in almost every area.
Whether it’s keywords, content, social media, or PPC campaigns, SEMrush provides insights into all of them.
Many people primarily use the tool for keyword research, but as you can see, it offers far more capabilities than that.
That’s why it’s worth taking full advantage of the many features the platform provides.
SEMrush Also Covers Content Marketing
SEMrush goes beyond simple keyword research and also supports content marketing strategies.
You can use the tool to discover new content ideas and plan your content more effectively.
New features are continuously being added. One example is the SEO Writing Assistant, which helps analyze your text, rewrite it, or even generate content using AI-powered writing tools.
While this feature is useful, many marketers still prefer specialized tools such as Jasper, Neuroflash, Frase, WriteSonic, SurferSEO, or ChatGPT for content creation.
These tools often produce stronger and more refined content.
However, SEMrush is particularly strong when it comes to analyzing and optimizing existing text, especially for English-language content.
You can also use the SEO Content Template and CI Add-On to further enhance the platform’s capabilities and speed up your content creation workflow.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Social Media Features
The social media features are not included for free in any package. This functionality is available as a paid add-on. With this feature, SEMrush allows you to perform quick and detailed social media analyses.
You can analyze both your own social media performance and that of your competitors who are relevant to your market.
It’s not surprising that this functionality exists within an SEO tool, because social media, brand monitoring, and related metrics are important factors in modern online marketing.
These elements are often referred to as social signals.
SEMrush provides tools for social media management and tracking, which have been added as newer features. Many users primarily rely on SEMrush for SEO and SEA, but because social media continues to grow in importance, the platform also supports analyzing and managing these channels to better reach your target audience.
You can test the SEO tool yourself and see how it works.
Traffic Analytics
Traffic Analytics is a feature integrated into several parts of the SEO tool. It allows you to easily monitor and analyze your competitors.
You can add up to five competitors and track their performance.
It’s important to note that the Traffic Analytics feature focuses primarily on organic traffic, meaning it is designed mainly for SEO analysis and not for other online marketing activities such as PPC advertising.
For social media insights, SEMrush provides separate tools within the social media section.
Advantages of SEMrush
SEMrush offers many benefits, including:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Comprehensive keyword research and keyword tracking, making it an excellent keyword research tool
- Ability to export large amounts of valuable data
- Integration with Google Analytics
- One of the most powerful SEO tools on the market
- Relatively few limitations compared to many other tools
- Includes features specifically designed for agencies
- Offers many additional online marketing tools within the platform
- Compared to other major tools, the interface remains clear and structured
Disadvantages of SEMrush
While SEMrush offers many powerful features, it also has some drawbacks:
- The tool is relatively expensive
- Social media features must be purchased separately
- The smallest plan only allows tracking of 500 keywords (higher plans or add-ons are required for more keywords)
- Content marketing features become truly useful only in the mid-tier packages
- Many additional features must be purchased separately, which can increase the total cost quickly
- Keyword research for the some markets sometimes requires careful evaluation, although this limitation exists with many SEO tools
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Agency Features
SEMrush also offers several agency-focused features that can be especially useful if you run an agency.
These include tools such as the Lead Finder, Bid Finder, and Bulk Lead Analysis, which help identify potential clients and analyze opportunities more efficiently.
You can also create a client portal, where important reports can be shared with your customers under your agency’s branding and logo. In addition, the platform includes a CRM system.
This allows you to track all customer-related activities in one place. For agencies operating in online marketing, having detailed tracking and documentation is essential.
If you work with partner agencies, you can also add each one individually under the “Agency Partners” section.
SEMrush Pricing: How Much Does the Software Cost?
The pricing for SEMrush is divided into three main plans:
- Pro – $129.95 per month
- Guru – $249.95 per month
- Business – $499.95 per month
The plans differ in terms of available features, the number of results per report, the maximum number of crawlable pages, the number of projects, and the number of keywords that can be tracked.
SEMrush offers both monthly and yearly billing options. If you choose annual billing, you can save up to 17%, regardless of which plan you select.
SEMrush also provides a free trial, allowing you to explore the tool and its features before committing to a subscription.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
Regardless of which package you choose, SEMrush offers a 7-day money-back guarantee. If the tool does not meet your expectations, you can request a refund within the first seven days.
Compared to many other SEO tools, SEMrush can seem more expensive. However, some competing tools offer fewer features at similar or even higher prices. In general, prices for SEO tools have increased across the market in recent years.
Who Is SEMrush Best Suited For?
The SEMrush SEO platform is suitable for anyone who wants to move beyond the limitations of simpler SEO tools and analyze their competitors in depth.
It is particularly well suited for users who want a professional all-in-one marketing platform with extensive capabilities for both on-page and off-page analysis and optimization.
Overall, SEMrush is a powerful SEO tool designed for marketers, agencies, and businesses that want detailed insights into their online performance.
You can try the platform yourself and gain your own SEMrush experience.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
SEMrush Review & Test Report: Final Verdict
Let’s wrap up this SEMrush review and test report with a final conclusion.
The SEMrush SEO tool is a powerful platform with many useful features. It allows you to analyze and evaluate a wide range of marketing data and performance metrics.
The main focus of this tool is not purely on traditional on-page and off-page SEO optimization, but rather on improving your overall marketing performance in search engines.
That said, it can still be used effectively for both on-page and off-page optimization tasks.
What makes SEMrush particularly interesting is the wide range of options it provides for analyzing different marketing campaigns and channels. This allows you to refine your advertising strategies and potentially improve your click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR), which can ultimately reduce marketing costs.
The price of SEMrush is somewhat higher compared to some other SEO tools. However, considering that there are virtually no limitations when it comes to analyzing different projects or websites, the pricing is still reasonable.
With its extensive feature set, SEMrush covers a large portion of what marketers need for SEO, competitive research, and campaign optimization.
The SEMrush SEO and marketing suite also includes an API, which allows you to automatically retrieve and process data.
Additionally, PDF reports can be generated automatically, which saves time—especially when recurring reports need to be created on a weekly basis.
Another advantage is that SEMrush provides data for multiple regions, including Google US, Germany, France, the UK, Russia, and many other countries.
Overall, SEMrush is a strong SEO tool for businesses of all sizes, thanks to the detailed data it provides not only about your own website but also about your competitors.
For this reason, SEMrush can be recommended for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as large companies and corporations.
In summary, it is a powerful all-in-one platform for SEO, marketing analysis, keyword tracking, and backlink monitoring.
Here you can test the tool yourself and see how good it fits into your workflow.
