TechRadar Verdict
Offering everything you expect in a robust SEO tool without sacrificing ease of use, SEMRush’s price points are perfectly honed to the needs for both small and large businesses.
Pros
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Flexible pricing with custom Enterprise plan
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Monitor keywords, competitors, backlinks, and more
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Social media and content marketing tools
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Available smartphone apps
Cons
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Mobile app contains limited functionality
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The cheapest subscription costs $120 per month
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Free trial only on lower tiers
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Limited smartphone app functionality
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Following its creation in 2008, SEMRush has been a platform for digital marketing and SEO tools designed for streamlining everything from competition research to web traffic analytics. Its website also contains a variety of additional resources such as informative ebooks, webinars, and even blog posts.
With its efficiency and feature set, SEMRush is currently one of the best options among SEO services, as it provides a variety of tools to assist in optimization of SEO strategies to push more traffic and sales.
SEMRush: Plans and pricing
SEMRush offers plans at three price points, along with a customizable Enterprise solution that is also available for larger businesses. As would be predicted, more expensive subscriptions unlock new features and have higher limits, such as the maximum number of projects, in comparison to the lower tiers.
Pro is the most affordable SEMRush subscription at $119.95 per month. Guru costs $229.95 per month, while Business jumps the price to $449.95. Enterprise pricing is more variable and depends on the needs of your organization. There is also the option for an annual subscription that is eligible for up to a 16% discount. There is a free trial on the two lower plans, and there is a seven-day money back guarantee available for all plans.
Intended for freelancers, startups, and other small businesses with small-scale marketing needs, the lowest tiered plan, Pro offers basic SEO, PPC, and SMM features along with competition research.
Guru adds tools including historical data, branded reports, and a content marketing platform. As previously mentioned, it also raises some limits to better serve the needs of larger organizations. For example, Guru subscribers can track, with daily updates, up to 1,500 keywords compared to only 500 for Pro users.
Business notches it up further with the addition of powerful features such as integration with Google Data Studio, API access, and white label reports. For those that need even more, contact SEMRush directly for a custom quote and more information about an Enterprise subscription.
SEMRush: Features
Supporting numerous SEO-related functions, SEMRush enables businesses of all sizes to take a more dynamic approach to keywords, backlinks, and more. Users obtain all the tools they need for the monthly subscription to run more effective campaigns and analyze past results. Below are some of the more salient features.
Keyword research
Both SEO and PPC campaigns depend on high-quality data, and SEMRush offers all the information necessary to optimize keyword strategies. Subscribers can view cost per click, volume, trends, and more for all search terms based on both organic and paid traffic.
Backlink analysis
A strong backlink profile is an important component for visibility. Via SEMRush, you can conduct deep link analyses for the identification of backlinks and anchor texts, measuring the authority of linking domains, and compare your backlink profile to competitors.
Competition Research
Furthermore, SEMRush has a robust feature set for competition research, to help you stay ahead of other businesses in your field. This enables you to monitor everything from keywords and copy, to ad budgets and GDN strategies, to the SEMRush Organic Competitors Report which lists all other domains in the top 20 on Google.
Digital Marketing
Taking it a step beyond its support for search engine optimization, SEMRush performs well as a digital marketing service for both social media and content marketing.
The ‘Set it and forget it’ social media tool makes it a snap for scheduling future posts, analyzing your performance, and more. You can use the content platform for the identification of topics, management of documents and deadlines, and even ordering content directly. These features contribute to making SEMRush significantly more flexible, over tools that focus on SEO only rather than other areas of digital marketing.
SEMRush: Interface and use
The SEMRush website divides the functions into five categories: domain analytics, keyword analytics, project, lead generation, and reports. While you can also access some of these tools through the mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android, unfortunately, many features are limited to the website only. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Google Play Store rates the SEMRush Android app at a low 3.4 out of 5 stars with around 50K downloads.
SEMRush: Support
We highlight that SEMRush provides free phone support to help users troubleshoot and get the most out of the service. A shortcoming is that it is only accessible on limited days and times: Monday through Friday from 10 AM until 6 PM EST. The other option to get in touch with the SEMRush support team is via email; we did not find a chat option.
Thankfully, users can access an extremely detailed knowledge base including videos, manuals, and other guides. This self help content covers everything from the first steps for newbies, to more sophisticated tactics for experienced users. Be sure to take advantage of the thorough FAQ and manual for each individual tool and report in SEMRush.
SEMRush: The competition
SEMRush is broadly aligned with competing SEO services in terms of both pricing and the feature set. For example, Moz Pro, one of its top competitors, has roughly comparable subscriptions (although a lower entry tier) at the price points of $99, $179, $249, and $599 per month, with each upgrade adding higher limits and new features.
Also keep in mind that some platforms have more affordable plans than either SEMRush or Moz Pro. For those that don’t need everything included in the Pro subscription, or if $120 per month is over your budget, then consider a service with a lower barrier to entry.
SEMRush: Final verdict
SEMRush offers an extremely powerful tool covering nearly every aspect of SEO, taking your SEO strategies to the next level. Furthermore, it comes with a robust set of marketing features to differentiate it from similar platforms. In summary, SEMRush is currently one of the best options for companies with a need to invest in an SEO.
