Semrush Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons
I’ve been using Semrush for years – it remains a top choice for digital marketers in 2024. With its extensive features and robust performance, it provides valuable insights and tools to enhance SEO strategies. However, it comes with its own set of pros and cons – so let’s review those before we do a deep dive into the software.
| Pros | Cons |
| Comprehensive toolset | Expensive for small businesses |
| Detailed keyword research | Potential learning curve |
| Effective backlink analysis | Limited features in lower plans |
| Excellent competitor analysis | Occasional data discrepancies |
| Great customer support | Potentially overwhelming interface |
Semrush – First Look
Semrush is a powerful all-in-one digital marketing tool used for keyword research, competitor analysis, SEO, PPC, and content marketing. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools that help businesses improve their online visibility and gain insights into their competitors’ strategies.
Semrush Reviews by Real People on Reddit
SEMRush and Ahrefs are both solid, but pricey. Given your situation, I’d say hold off until you’ve maxed out what you can do with free tools.
Yes – get SEMRush. Bootstrapped or not – SEMRush is one of the best sandbox tools for keyword research, kw tracking and backlinks.
Okay, so the top Reddit results want you to buy Semrush – but should you? Let’s take a look at all of the key features in this tool.
Semrush Key Features
Competitive Overview in Semrush
Semrush offers a comprehensive competitive analysis tool, allowing users to gain insights into their competitors’ online strategies. It includes features like domain overview, traffic analytics, and organic research.
Traffic Analytics
Traffic Analytics in Semrush provides detailed information about competitors’ website traffic. Users can see the number of visits, unique visitors, page views, and average visit duration.
Organic Research
Organic Research helps users identify top-performing keywords that competitors rank for, track changes in their rankings, and analyze their content strategies.
Keyword Gap
The Keyword Gap tool allows users to compare their keyword profiles with competitors, identifying keyword opportunities and gaps in their strategy. I’ve provided an example of the keyword gap between Semrush and Ahrefs.
Backlink Gap
Backlink Gap helps users compare their backlink profiles with competitors to identify potential link-building opportunities.
Keyword Research in Semrush
Keyword research is a critical component of any SEO strategy, and Semrush offers several tools to enhance this process – and let’s be real, it’s one of the main reasons people sign up for their software.
Keyword Overview
The Keyword Overview tool provides comprehensive data on search volume, keyword difficulty, competitive density, and SERP features.
Keyword Magic Tool
The Keyword Magic Tool is a powerful keyword research feature that generates thousands of keyword suggestions based on a seed keyword.
Keyword Strategy Builder
Keyword Strategy Builder allows users to organize and prioritize keywords into actionable strategies.
Position Tracking
Position Tracking helps users monitor their website’s ranking for target keywords and analyze their performance over time. Again in my opinion, this tool is one of the main reasons people sign for Semrush.
Organic Traffic Insights
Organic Traffic Insights combines data from Google Analytics and Semrush to provide a holistic view of organic traffic and keyword performance.
Link Building in Semrush
Link building is a key pillar of SEO, and Semrush provides several tools to support this process.
Backlink Analytics
Backlink Analytics offers detailed insights into a website’s backlink profile, including the number of backlinks, referring domains, and anchor text distribution.
Backlink Audit
The Backlink Audit tool helps users identify toxic backlinks that could harm their website’s ranking and provides recommendations for disavowing them. This is a feature I do not like – I do not recommend disavowing backlinks, Google’s gotten increasingly better at ignoring spammy backlinks.
Link Building Tool
The Link Building Tool assists users in finding and acquiring high-quality backlinks to improve their website’s authority and ranking.
Bulk Analysis
Bulk Analysis allows users to analyze the backlink profiles of multiple domains at once, saving time and providing a broader view of link-building opportunities.
On-Page & Tech SEO
Semrush offers a range of tools to help users optimize their on-page and technical SEO.
Site Audit
The Site Audit tool scans websites for technical SEO issues and provides recommendations for fixing them, helping to improve overall site health.
Listing Management
Listing Management helps users manage their local business listings across various directories, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
SEO Content Template
The SEO Content Template tool provides guidelines for creating SEO-friendly content based on the top-performing pages for a given keyword.
On-Page SEO Checker
The On-Page SEO Checker analyzes individual pages for SEO issues and provides recommendations for improvement.
Log File Analyzer
The Log File Analyzer helps users understand how search engines crawl their website by analyzing server log files.
Semrush Pricing & Plans (July 2024)
Semrush offers three main pricing plans, each with different features and pricing tiers. The prices are provided in USD, CAD, GBP, and AUD for convenience.
| Plan | USD | CAD | GBP | AUD |
| Pro Plan | $139.95 | $191 | £110 | A$208 |
| Guru Plan | $249.95 | $341 | £195 | A$371 |
| Business Plan | $499.95 | $682 | £391 | A$742 |
Pro Plan
The Pro Plan is designed for freelancers and startups. It includes features like 5 projects, 500 keywords to track, and 100,000 pages to crawl.
Guru Plan
The Guru Plan is ideal for SMBs and growing agencies. It offers 15 projects, 1,500 keywords to track, and 300,000 pages to crawl, along with access to content marketing tools.
Business Plan
The Business Plan is tailored for large agencies and enterprises. It includes 40 projects, 5,000 keywords to track, and 1,000,000 pages to crawl, as well as advanced features like API access and extended limits.
Semrush Competitors & Alternatives (July 2024)
A comparison of Semrush with its main competitors, Ahrefs and Moz, based on various functionalities.
| Functionality | Semrush | Ahrefs | Moz |
| Free Version | No | No | No |
| Starting Price | $139.95 | $129 | $49 |
| Free Trial | No | No | No |
| Keyword Research | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Keyword Position Tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Site Audit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advice to fix SEO issues | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Link Building Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Local SEO Listing Management | Yes | No | No |
| Customer Support | Phone, Chat, Email | Phone, Chat, Email | 24-Hour Online Support |