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Digital marketing is a highly competitive space, which is why it’s vital to have the right tools at your disposal. Semrush has established itself as a leading platform that offers a comprehensive suite of features tailored to meet the diverse needs of marketers.
What is Semrush?
Semrush is a software system designed to allow users to optimise their websites for search engines. Semrush features encompass a wide range of categories, ranging from creation aides to competitive research tools.
In this blog, we will explore the 17 key Semrush features at the category level, expanding on how they can elevate your digital marketing game and drive results. This should provide the baseline of Semrush support that you need to make the most of the platform.
1. Keyword Research
Semrush keyword research offers a range of subfeatures, fundamental to any successful digital marketing strategy. These are the tools required to populate content with relevant, search-friendly terms that will help it rank on search engines.
Core features:
Keyword Overview
This tool analyses the organic and paid performance of specific keywords, examining factors like search volume, intent, CPC, competition level, and SERP features. This feature helps you find the best keywords to supercharge your strategy.
Organic Research
Discover how your competitors are using keywords to rank on search engines. This tool allows you to take what’s working for other businesses in your space and find new ways to win SERPs relevant to your audience.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
Generate thousands of keyword combinations in various orders from a single seed keyword. This is a great starting point when looking for content ideas or strategies, offering vast toolbox of over 26 billion keywords.
Keyword Gap
See how your keywords match up against up to five competitors, identifying new opportunities for launching efficient campaigns.
Keyword Strategy Builder
Create a ready-made keyword strategy that includes pillar pages and subpages to structure your website. You can integrate your lists with other Semrush tools or export them for team sharing.
Organic Traffic Insights
Make use of Semrush’s integration with Google Analytics to uncover “not provided” keywords and cross-reference data on your website’s organic search performance.
Semrush features that focus on keywords are the backbone of the system, so don’t be surprised if you see some of them pop up again in other categories. This shows just how relevant they are across the feature selection.
2. Technical SEO Tools
Technical SEO Semrush features help to optimise your website for search engines, offering robust tools to diagnose and resolve technical issues.
Core features:
Site Audit
Quickly assess your site by identifying technical issues using a high-speed crawler, providing actionable solutions for improvement.
On-Page SEO Checker
Improve specific pages with an exhaustive list of optimization ideas, including tips on link building and SERP feature targeting.
Log File Analyser
Analyse your server logs to understand how search engine crawlers interact with your site, helping optimize your crawl budget and address structural issues.
These tools are perfect for enhancing your website both on the frontend and backend.
3. Website Competitor Analysis
Understanding your competition is crucial for refining your strategy. Semrush provides tools that offer invaluable insights into competitor performance and strategies.
Core features:
Traffic Analytics
Benchmark your website’s traffic against competitors with regular data, giving you a window into their top traffic sources.
Advertising Research
Analyse competitors’ ads to enhance your own paid search strategies.
Social Media Tracker
Monitor competitors’ social media activity to gain insights into audience preferences and engagement strategies.
Map Rank Tracker
Track your Google Maps rankings for your industry, customising your tracking experience with preferred keywords and reporting schedules.
Organic Research
This is the same organic research tool from the keyword research toolbox.
These competitor research Semrush features are vital for establishing the lay of the land.
4. Content Marketing Tools
Creating engaging content that resonates with your audience is essential for driving traffic – Semrush makes crafting this content easier and more data-driven.
Core features:
Topic Research
Discover popular ideas, headlines and questions to build a traffic-driving content plan.
SEO Content Template
Generate custom briefs for SEO-ready content that will drive organic traffic, based on detailed competitor research.
SEO Writing Assistant
Get some digital Semrush help in assessing your content’s SEO score, originality and readability, adjusting in real time across multiple platforms.
ContentShake AI
Create SEO-friendly articles, optimised content and add AI-generated images, all created swiftly and from scratch to maximise your content’s engagement.
Content is an essential part of digital marketing and Semrush makes the process smoother.
5. Local SEO Tools
For businesses targeting local customers, Semrush offers specialised tools to enhance area-specific SEO efforts.
Core features:
Listing Management
Quickly list your business on 150+ global directories, removing any duplicate listings to ensure accuracy and consistency for local SEO success.
Review Management
Centralise review monitoring, allowing you to review competitors and respond to reviews promptly with AI-generated suggestions.
Position Tracking
Track your search engine performance daily, monitoring keywords and local pack visibility down to a ZIP code level.
Social Media Toolkit
Posting and scheduling tools for a range of social media platforms, including your Google Business Profile.
On-Page SEO Checker
The same feature from the Technical SEO Toolkit.
Map Rank Tracker
The same feature from the Competitor Research toolkit.
6. SERP Tracking Tools
Semrush SERP features monitor search engine results to measure the effectiveness of your strategies.
Core features:
Sensor
Monitor volatility in SERP rankings, providing insights that could indicate algorithm updates and industry-specific changes.
Ranks
Research domains with the most organic visibility in various markets, helping you understand where your business stands in the broader landscape.
Position Tracking
Same feature as described before.
Map rank tracker
Same feature as described before.
This analytic features are vital to guaranteeing that your efforts are as effective as they can be.
7. Social Media Management
Social media is vital for brand engagement in the 2020s and Semrush offers tools to help streamline this process.
Core features:
Semrush Social
Manage accounts efficiently across various platforms, scheduling posts and analyzing performance to drive engagement.
Social Content AI
Automate your content production process with AI-generated copywriting, design, and visual templates ready for editing and posting.
Influencer Analytics
Manage your influencer marketing campaigns from start to finish, analyzing results effectively.
These Semrush features are great for navigating an increasingly vital segment of the digital marketing landscape.
8. Backlink Analysis Tools
Building a strong backlink profile is essential for improving your site’s authority, with Semrush offering various tools for analysis and management.
Core features:
Backlink Analytics
Discover and track inbound links from a huge, fast database, identifying outreach opportunities based on competitors’ profiles.
Backlink Audit Tool
Monitor your backlink profile to ensure quality and avoid potential search engine penalties.
Backlink Gap
Analyse competitors’ backlinks to identify prospecting and outreach opportunities.
Bulk Backlink Analysis
Scale up your analysis of link-building prospects by creating a huge list from a wide range of competitors.
Link Building Tool
Run automated outreach campaigns to acquire high-quality, reputable backlinks.
Listing management
Same feature as described in Local SEO Tools.
These core tools are vital in building a trustworthy, well-regarded site.
9. SEO Competitive Analysis Tools
Understanding your competition’s SEO strategies is crucial for strengthening your own. Semrush offers tools to analyse competitors effectively.
Core features:
My Reports
This automated tool creates extensive reports based on consolidated competitor analysis.
Other tools in competitive SEO research are present in other Semrush feature sets, including:
- Organic Research
- Keyword Gap
- Keyword Overview
- Backlink Analytics
- Backlink Gap
- Position tracking
- Map rank tracker
These Semrush features may be present in multiple toolkits but they can be applied in a highly SEO-specific manner.
10. Content Creation and Distribution Tools
Efficient content creation and distribution are key to driving traffic and engagement, which is why Semrush includes tools to make it fast and easy.
Core features:
Social Media Poster
Schedule and analyse your social media posts, enhancing engagement with visual content such as gifs, emojis and more.
Topic Research
Same feature as described before.
ContentShake AI
Same feature as described before.
Using Semrush features is a great way to make your content strategy as efficient and effective as possible.
11. Content Optimisation Tools
Optimising your content for search engines across multiple channels is crucial for visibility and engagement, which is core to Semrush’s features.
Core features:
The core features of content optimisation have been described above, including:
- SEO Content Template
- SEO Writing Assistant
- ContentShake AI
By leveraging these features in a content-specific way, Semrush can aid with blogs, social media and web pages alike.
12. Market Analysis Tools
Semrush offers tools for interpreting market dynamics – vital for positioning your brand effectively within the broader landscape of your industry.
Core features:
Market Explorer
Discover market size, potential, and key players to establish your position and stake your claim with more effective traffic generation tactics.
Traffic Analytics
Same feature as described in Website Competitor Analysis.
Doing extensive market analysis with Semrush features is the perfect way to determine methods for differentiation.
13. Paid Marketing Tools
Semrush offers a range of specialised tools to maximize your return on investment in paid advertising.
Core features:
PLA Advertising
Monitor competitors’ Google Shopping ads and strategies, identifying the search queries that help them to perform.
Keyword Magic Tools
Same feature as descried before.
Advertising Research
Same feature as described before.
These tools are super helpful when it comes to maximising your advertising budget.
14. Competitor PR Monitoring
Certain Semrush features (included in previous categories) aid businesses in getting ahead by analysing competitors’ social media and PR activities.
Core feature:
Social Media Tracker
As before.
It’s impressive how much detail can be gleaned from Semrush’s social media analytics.
15. PPC Keyword Research Tools
Semrush offers a range of tools that can be used to streamline your PPC strategies with in-depth keyword research.
Core features:
PPC Keyword Tool
This tool organises keywords for your campaigns and ad groups while tracking local volume and CPC data, perfect for building a master list.
The other tools have been present in previous categories.
- Keyword Magic Tool
- Keyword Strategy Builder
- Keyword Gap
PPC is a pillar in modern marketing and Semrush can make it work for you.
16. Website Monetisation
Tools from previous categories can be used for the purpose of monetising your website effectively can boost your revenue streams.
Core features:
- On-Page SEO Checker
- SEO Writing Assistant
Making money directly from your website is super efficient, which is why monetisation needs to be approached with the finesse of Semrush features.
17. Paid Ads Management
Semrush offers you a system to efficiently manage the full cycle of existing or brand new Google Ads campaigns.
Core feature:
Ads Launch Assistant
Set up campaigns specifically for Google Ads easily with advanced AI suggestions guiding you at every step.
This assistance is just another way that Semrush helps businesses to master their marketing budget.
Bonus: Enterprise Features
For larger organisations, Semrush offers tailored enterprise solutions that provide in-depth tools and support for complex marketing needs. This includes access to specialised staff and consultants.
Conclusion
Semrush is a powerful platform designed to meet the diverse needs of digital marketers. However, knowing the features and how to use Semrush are very different things. Also, Semrush pricing can be a lot to take on as a smaller business. If you’re eager to leverage these features without having to massively enhance your digital literacy, it’s useful to work with an experienced digital marketing team.
For more insights into the world of digital audience outreach, check out our blog today.
A Health Check For Your Website
Get a comprehensive SEO audit from the experts at Digital Next today.
