This advanced guide to Semrush will take you through the key features of one of the most powerful tools in digital marketing. Semrush is one of those few tools that enjoy widespread recognition among digital marketers. It is in the same ranks as Ahrefs, Moz, and the like. In a lot of ways, Semrush’s popularity is highly well-deserved. For one, it has 55 tools, and counting, all managed under one comprehensive system.
Thus, the best description for Semrush is that of a powerhouse, as it helps businesses boost their online visibility game and reach the right customers effectively. Applications of Semrush range across various channels: search engine optimization, content marketing, market research, advertising, social media, online reputation management, and so on.
The purpose of this advanced guide to Semrush is to explore its key features, particularly focusing on major functionalities that help businesses understand online trends and gather actionable insights in order to gain a better standing, visibility-wise.
Keyword Research and Semrush Copilot
You’d be surprised how many marketers simply wing keyword research, especially when they are not equipped with the tools to do it properly. However, Semrush changes that. Its primary keyword research tool, known as Keyword Magic, maintains a database of over 25 billion keywords, more than enough for marketers to discover valuable terms.
However, the real strength of the keyword magic tool is that it doesn’t just present raw data. It helps pinpoint keywords needed to elevate your strategy from average to exception. So, unlike basic keyword tools, Semrush does provide a deeper understanding. Marketers at large businesses, especially international ones, will appreciate its value.
In recent months and years, the internet and the entire world has been awash with the AI buzz. Semrush does not slack in this regard either, as its keyword research tool leverages AI to analyze keywords tailored to specific websites. So, for instance, rather than overwhelm users with data, it organizes related terms into coherent clusters.
In addition, the Semrush Copilot tool was introduced some months ago as a solution that uses AI to scan websites and identify new keyword opportunities right from the dashboard. Experienced marketers aiming to capitalize on emerging trends ahead of competitors will find this incredibly useful.
Competitor Analysis
Digital marketing is a highly competitive venture. And success here hinges on understanding the competition so you can outsmart them. Thankfully, Semrush offers a powerful advantage in this area by providing a suite of competitor analysis tools that act as a comprehensive intelligence network for your business.
By gaining visibility into your competitors’ winning keywords and most effective backlinks and pages, Semrush allows you to identify strategies driving your rivals’ online performance. This represents valuable intelligence that can be hugely decisive when battling for market share, particularly in competitive industries.
Again, clearly, knowledge empowers marketers, and Semrush provides the insights you need to identify your competitors’ strengths, and more importantly, their weaknesses. Note that this is not simply another defensive strategy. It’s about uncovering opportunities to create content that fills existing gaps.
Content Optimization Features
For content optimization, Semrush offers a content marketing toolkit designed to help users craft content that appeals to both readers and search engines. There’s also the free On-Page SEO Checker that provides specific recommendations to users to improve existing content and increase its chances of ranking higher than competitors.
It’s as simple as inputting an article’s URL and target keywords, then waiting a few seconds for the tool to generate tailored optimization suggestions.
However, if you are looking to delve deeper into content optimization, the Topic Research tool is your best bet to identify trending topics relevant to a specific audience and niche. It allows you to filter your search by location, difficulty, search volume, and even ‘topic efficiency’. Thus, it helps you make more informed decisions about what content to create.
Otherways by which Semrush streamlines optimization is with tools like the SEO Content Template and SEO Writing Assistant. The latter integrates directly into Google Docs and WordPress and provides real-time analysis and optimization suggestions as you write.
On the other hand, the SEO Content Template boosts the content creation process by suggestion semantically related terms and backlinks based on top-ranking results for a target keyword. This ensures that the content produced is comprehensive as well as authoritative.
Technical SEO
Semrush provides robust tools for tackling technical SEO aspects critical for website health and performance. The Site Audit tool, which is the primary technical SEO solution, acts as a powerful website crawler, analyzing over 140 on-page and technical SEO factors.
It provides insights into issues like duplicate content, broken links, HTTPS implementation, crawlability, and indexability. The tool also offers flexible settings, allowing you to crawl specific domains, subdomains, and subfolders, and even render JavaScript code to get a complete picture of your website’s technical health.
The Site Audit tool is also AI-assisted, meaning that, with support from Semrush Copilot, you are guided through the audit process with intelligent recommendations. This feature saves you time and effort by highlighting the most critical areas that need attention.
In addition, the platform’s Log File Analyzer helps pinpoint crawl budget issues, identify broken internal links, and uncover 404 errors. By addressing these technical issues, you can ensure that search engines can effectively crawl and index your website, leading to improved visibility and rankings.
Semrush App Center
Finally in our advanced guide to Semrush, the Semrush App Center extends the platform’s functionality with an even more diverse range of apps catering to specific needs. These apps go beyond the core Semrush offerings, providing specialized tools for various aspects of digital and growth marketing.
For instance, the ContentShake AI app leverages AI to streamline content creation, generating engaging content ideas and writing in your brand’s style. You can customize settings like audience location, target keywords, word count, brand voice, tone, and readability level to ensure the content aligns with your requirements.
The App Center also hosts tools for social media management, PPC advertising, and in-depth market research. This centralized hub allows users to expand their toolkit and address specific marketing challenges. The Local Listings Check app, for example, provides insights into your local SEO performance and offers recommendations for improvement.
Learn from the Best
At StartupGrowthGuide, our chief concern is empowering business leaders and entrepreneurs to achieve as much scale as possible. Using tools like Semrush is one of the strategic ways to achieve this. For more actionable insights and expert advice, follow StartupGrowthGuide to learn from the best.
Featured Image by Semrush
About The Author
