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SEMrush 2024 Review: Features, Pros, Cons & Verdict

Are you considering SEMrush for your business’s SEO needs?

There is no doubt that this is one of the most popular platforms for keyword research, competitor analysis, backlinking, and content management.

But, how does SEMrush stack up against its competitors? Does it deliver value for money?

We had the same questions and decided to do a full-on SEMrush test to see if it was worth all the buzz. We explored all the key features a business would need for its SEO and content marketing needs.

This SEMrush review will unveil the good and the not-so-good things we discovered about this popular digital marketing tool.

Let’s dive in!

Getting Started With SEMrush

Creating an account with SEMrush is fuss-free. All we needed was an email address and password. After answering a few questions such as the size of the company, niche, and the goals we want to accomplish, we had our free plan set up, all in under five minutes.

The navigation menu is straightforward with all the features and functionalities clearly laid out, so it was easy to locate each tool whether that’s SEO, content management, social media management, or advertising.

One of the very first features that stood out was the CoPilot AI, a one-stop shop for all the recommendations and action steps we needed to take to optimize our website.

For example, we found information such as backlinks our site has lost, keywords causing a drop in traffic, new keywords that could improve position ranking, and even technical issues on our site that need fixing.

The best part is that for each recommendation, SEMrush pointed us to the most suitable resources to help resolve the problem.

As the example above shows, Semrush found issues with broken pages that could not be crawled. It showed us the problematic pages, and recommended that we check out the Backlink Analytics tool for more insights on how to repair this problem and improve our SEO strategy.

We also like the fact that we could share all the recommendations with our team. However, there is only a Copy All option for sharing, which can be a bit cumbersome. The ability to generate a CSV file or share directly via email would have been more helpful.

All in all, SEMrush is generally easy to set up and navigate; we got the impression that it is a friendly digital marketing tool for new marketers or entrepreneurs.

Review of SEMrush Features

When we got started with SEMrush, one of the things we notice is the large number of tools and resources at our disposal. The functionalities can be summarized into the following:

  • SEO
  • Content Marketing
  • Advertising
  • Social Media
  • Back Link Analysis

After setting up a free account, we explored SEMrush’s key features. Here’s what our SEMrush review revealed about each tool:

A. SEMrush SEO Features

Domain Overview

Our first stop was the Domain Overview, a portal that shows everything you need to know about a website including the number of backlinks pointing to it, organic search traffic, best-performing organic keywords, the distribution of traffic by country and so much more.

We like the fact that we could see our main competitors and the keywords they are ranking for. This information was valuable for our SEO efforts as it effortlessly revealed all the keyword options we could target for our organic and paid search campaigns to realize maximum return on investment.

Another metric we found very helpful is the Keywords by intent, which reveals the intention behind our customers’ use of certain keywords when searching for our brand.

The keywords by intent are broken down into informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional so we can quickly tell the keyword categories bringing in the most and least traffic.

We didn’t just stop at the Domain Overview. We also explored other features such as Traffic Analytics to compare competitor traffic, as well as the Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap tool to compare our keyword and backlink profile with that of our competitors.

These tools were not only straightforward to use but they also saved us time in identifying opportunities to enhance our SEO strategy.

One downside we have to mention is that SEMrush only generates Google Search data. So, this tool didn’t help much when analyzing website metrics coming from secondary search engines such as Baidu, Yahoo, or Bing.

That said, data-based competitor analysis is an area SEMrush has invested in heavily and we found it to be an excellent tool for any small business looking to stay ahead in local cutthroat markets.

Keyword Overview

Data-backed keyword research is the difference between a so-so SEO campaign and one that delivers results so we are excited to test SEMrush's keyword research capabilities.

Right from the get-go, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of insights SEMrush generated for our target keyword.

We started with the Keyword Overview, where you can input up to 100 keywords and phrases for analysis. We like that the tool generates a host of helpful data about a keyword in just a few seconds.

We targeted our keywords by country and down to the state. This type of targeting is helpful for your localized SEO campaigns.

After we input our target keyword, we discovered key insights such as the number of times people searched for the keyword globally and per region, how difficult it would be to rank for it in relation to competitors, and the keyword’s return on investment in Google Ads.

A feature we particularly liked is the Search Intent, which can be very helpful in recommending the exact keywords to use in your content ads that will most likely lead to the specific action you want your customers to take whether that is to buy, explore the website, or advocate for your brand.

The only concern we have is that SEMrush generates lots of data-driven insights for you but offers no recommendations on what to do with this data to improve your strategy.

For example, if we wanted to overcome keyword difficulty and rank for our target keyword, our SEMrush review found no suggestions on how we could do this based on the insights provided.

All in all, with a powerful tool such as the Keyword Overview, you have no excuse not to build a dynamic SEO strategy that delivers results.

Keyword Magic Tool

After validating our keywords in Keyword Overview, we hopped onto the Keyword Magic Tool.

The Keyword Magic Tools takes the hassle out of finding the best keywords for your content and ads.

We were pleased to discover how easy it is to access keywords that could make our copy shine and rank; you don’t even have to be a professional marketer to identify killer keywords that get results.

All we did was input a topic and this tool generated an exhaustive list of keyword suggestions by search volume, keyword difficulty, and even by cost per click.

We found the filters to be valuable too. Depending on your goals, you can leverage filters such as phrase match, exact match, and intent among others to generate the most relevant keywords for your campaign strategy.

Knowing that broad match keywords can be a game changer for any SEO campaign, we tried generating broad match keywords and the Keyword Magic Tool did not disappoint; the tool offered a whopping 2.9K keyword suggestions that we could use to optimize our content and CPC ads.

Many of the keyword generators we’ve tried were clunky and redundant but based on our SEMrush test, the Keyword Magic Tool is seamless, relevant, and user-friendly for anyone looking to take their SEO strategy to the next level.

Position Tracking

Another tool we were eager to try was Position Tracking.

SEMrush claims that this tool lets you go deeper with your keywords, so you can see whom you are competing with for the same keywords, the amount of traffic the keyword is generating, as well as its visibility and voice.

Getting started is straightforward—we simply input our domain and selected several keywords we wanted to track.

Since we only input three keywords, we expected the tracking would happen fast. To our surprise, we waited about five minutes for SEMrush’s Position Tracking tool to generate insights on our keyword position.

This made us wonder how long one would have to wait were you tracking a large number of keywords with the tool—the tracking would probably take up to 1 hour to complete if you inputted even just 20 keywords.

Another challenge we came across was interpreting the result generated by the Position Tracking tool. Unless you have an intermediary or advanced SEO knowledge, making sense of all this data can be difficult.

SEMrush competitor, Ahrefs, has a similar keyword position tracking tool but we’ve found that the Ahrefs one provides more context, making it easier to apply the keyword insights to real-world scenarios.

B. SEMrush Link Building Features

Good-quality backlinks are always a plus for your SEO strategy. They show the search engines that your website is trustworthy and authoritative, which greatly helps with ranking.

SEMrush claims to have the largest backlinks database in the world compared to competitors such as Ahrefs and Moz, so naturally we wanted to test how true this is.

Backlink Analytics

Our first stop was Backlink Analytics, a tool that’s supposed to tell you everything you need to know about your and your competitors' backlink profiles.

After adding our target domain to the Backlinks Analyzer, we were impressed by the amount of useful information SEMrush generated regarding the domain’s backlink profile.

In one glance, we were able to see the number of websites that have linked to ours, the number of links pointing to our website, and the number of backlinks pointing from our website to others.

One of our favorite features is the New, Active, and Lost filters, which we used to quickly discover new and existing backlinks.

We also realized that we had lost quite several backlinks, something we wouldn't have known or would have probably taken us a while to uncover without the SEMrush Backlink Analyzer.

Backlink Audit

Toxic backlinks can creep up on you and ruin your site’s authority score and if you are relying on a manual audit, you could easily miss these harmful links.

That’s why we were eager to test the Backlink Audit Tool to see how effective it is at identifying toxic links.

The first thing we noticed is that we had to wait several minutes for the tool to process and audit our domain, but that’s probably because we are dealing with a large site; the processing time might be shorter for a smaller site or one with fewer backlinks.

After the wait, we were pleasantly surprised by the large number of insights the tool provided about the health of our site’s backlink profile.

We were able to see exactly which sites were sending toxic backlinks, the type of anchors used to backlink to our site, and even the authority score of each referring domain.

Identifying toxic backlinks is one thing but what do you do about them? We were really impressed by how easy it is to remove and disavow harmful links from our site using the Backlink Audit Tool.

In one click we were able to send backlink removal requests to owners of toxic domains. Of course, not all domain owners honored our requests so we turned to the in-built Google Disavow Tool to blacklist harmful backlinks.

All this took less than fifteen minutes and we were impressed to see an improvement in our site’s average toxicity score.

Link Building Tool

Our SEMrush review of Link Building features could not be complete without testing the Link Building Tool. We must say this is one of the most practical link-building tools we have ever used.

In just three straightforward steps, we were able to discover 100+ backlinking opportunities. What’s more, the Link Building Tools didn’t just show us excellent domains to backlink to. It also provided us with the contact information for domain owners and recommendations on how to send personalized outreach messages that bring results.

Whether you are a pro or new to back-linking, you will definitely find this tool very useful to your SEO strategy. We recommend using the Backlink Analyzer and Link Building Tool together to elevate your site’s link profile.

C. SEMrush Content Management Features

If you have ever tried creating content that clicks with your audience, you know it’s not a walk in the park. Many businesses struggle to get ROI on their content efforts mostly because they lack a data-backed strategy.

SEMrush claims that its AI-driven Content Marketing Tool can help turn content into clicks and clicks into money. We set out to test how effective this tool is.

Naturally, we started with the Topic Research feature, which generates trending topic ideas to help you create amazing content.

The tool does a generally good job of recommending the top headlines and question prompts for quick content generation. But, this is also something a quick Google search can do for you.

That said, the Topic Research tool seemed to work best when we refined our topic. For example, instead of inputting a single word such as ‘’books’’ we got more focused results when we input a topic like ‘’cheap books’’.

Our SEMrush test also evaluated the SEO Content Template. While we expected an exhaustive template full of recommendations on how best to organize and optimize content based on our target keyword, the tool only delivered basic, not-so-useful insights. We've had far better results with content templates and outline builders such as SurferSEO.

SEMrush Pricing

Right off the bat, we will tell you that SEMrush is one of the most expensive SEO tools on the market.

To be sure, if you just want to try out SEMrush before investing in a plan, you can make use of the free version. But, beware that the free plan is only limited to 10 queries a day after which SEMrush prompts you to sign up for a paid plan.

It is worth noting though that there are some features we could not sample on the free plan. For example, when we tried testing the Social Media Management Features during our SEMrush review, we were instantly prompted to try the 7-day free trial but on the condition that we provide our credit card details after which you would pay $29.99 a month at the end of the free trial. The same applies to the Content Management Tools.

There’s also an App Center and an Extra Tools section that’s packed with mostly new, shiny AI tools. While these can be nice features to explore, you’d have to pay extra to access them.

The Pro Plan worth $129 per month is the cheapest SEMrush offers, yet Competitors such as Moz offer slightly cheaper entry-level plans.

The upside is that unsubscribing from any of the plans is straightforward and you will get a refund if you cancel within the first 7 days of signing up.

You do get access to a lot of data even on SEMrush's entry-level plan but many small or micro-businesses probably won’t need or use all the features offered on there.

Something else we found to be a real setback is that only one user per account is allowed on each plan. If you are a team of even just two or more, the cost of using SEMrush would add up fast.

All in all, SEMrush will give you value for money if you make use of most of the functionalities it offers.

SEMrush Pros

  • SEMrush is extremely generous with the amount of data each feature generates; the number of insight tools such as Traffic Analytics and Keyword Magic really impressed us. SEMrush is genuinely geared toward supporting your business’s success.
  • The interface is relatively minimalistic. It was generally easy to use even without technical or advanced SEO knowledge.
  • The free plan has a limit of up to 10 queries a day, which is generous compared to competitors such as Ahrefs which limits this to just 5 queries. We still got some work done on SEMrush’s free plan.
  • Aside from its comprehensive SEO functionalities, SEMrush does an excellent job with its robust Content Management, Social Media Management, and PPC tools that are built to elevate your entire marketing strategy.
  • Despite not being new to SEO and digital marketing, we still found some of SEMrush’s features to have a steep learning curve. The wide array of functionalities can feel overwhelming at first, so you need to be clear about the goals you want to accomplish with this tool.
  • Compared to many of its competitors SEMrush is pretty expensive. Even the entry-level plan can feel out of reach for a small business.
  • Plans are limited to only one user per account, including the business and enterprise plans targeted to organizations with larger teams. Purchasing several accounts for users can be extremely prohibitive.
  • Not all data generated by SEMrush is 100% accurate. For example, based on our SEMrush test, some backlinks that were labeled as toxic were good. SEMrush does however caution that its data is based on estimates, leaving room for slight errors.

SEMrush Cons

Verdict

Our SEMrush test reveals that this is one of the best SEO management and digital marketing suites in the market.

It isn’t just a data generation tool—many of its features offer recommendations and tips on how and what to improve to elevate your site’s ranking, boost content marketing ROI, and enhance PPC revenue.

Despite being an advanced SaaS tool, our SEMrush review found this to be a generally accessible tool even for non-tech users.

It was impressive that we didn’t need advanced know-how to leverage some of the most helpful features such as the Domain Overview, Keyword Magic Tool, Link Building, or Site Audit.

The biggest downside we noticed is SEMrush's expensive pricing plans. The free plan worked just fine but had a lot of limitations.

You do get a large amount of data in exchange for a hefty monthly fee, but if you are a small business owner you will probably not use all the features. A more affordable, entry-level plan would have been a plus, especially for smaller teams.

All in all, we would recommend SEMrush if you are looking for an all-in-one digital marketing tool to take your SEO and content marketing campaigns to the next level.