As an SEO content strategist, I use the Semrush One plan to grow my own website and help clients improve organic visibility.
I’ve been using Semrush consistently since 2019. I’ve tested most of its features and toolkits, and figured out what it does well and where it falls short.
So I wanted to share some honest thoughts you probably won’t find in typical “best SEO tool” blog posts. Especially after Semrush updated its toolkits in June 2025 and introduced the AI Visibility toolkit to track search visibility in AI search results.
In this post, I’ll share how Semrush compares to other popular SEO tools and what makes it different. I’ll start by comparing it to tools like Google Search Console and others I’ve personally tested, so you can see whether you can rely on Semrush’s metrics.
P.S. Some links are affiliate in this post. This means I’ll earn a small commission if you decide to go for Semrush. I’m sharing this because you deserve to know this info. Even if you don’t go for it, I’m happy to support Semrush, as I’ve been using it myself for years. 🙌
Is Semrush worth It in 2026? My take
If you need a reliable tool for traditional SEO work and you want to track your brand’s performance in AI search results, I think Semrush One is worth trying.
Semrush One combines Semrush’s traditional SEO toolkit with SEO features for keyword research, link building, and site audits with a new AI Visibility toolkit.
The primary goal of the Semrush Visibility toolkit is to help you assess how well your brand shows up in LLMs and AI Overviews, and then help you figure out ways to boost AI visibility with tools like Prompt Research.
I use Semrush One, and I can say that Semrush updates the AI Visibility score daily based on up to 50 prompts that I’m tracking.
For example, my site’s AI visibility improved a lot in February 2026. And that happened during Google’s algorithm updates and all the ranking volatility we’ve been seeing.
If you’re curious, you can check out Semrush One and test it for free for 14 days to see if it makes sense for your workflow.
There’s one more reason why I think Semrush is worth it — Semrush MCP.
With the Semrush MCP server, you can plug Semrush data into AI tools like Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini, and ChatGPT. In simple words, you’ll be getting answers powered by real Semrush data.
MCP access is now available for regular Semrush users, not just enterprise accounts like before. That means you can use all 50,000 API credits when working with LLMs.
I recently started testing the ChatGPT, Claude, and Semrush integration. I’m still exploring it, so I don’t have a full breakdown yet. But from what I see, you can ask pretty much anything, and LLMs pull insights directly from Semrush data to give you answers.
Lately, I’ve been using it to review my top-performing pages and look for ways to improve them.
Honestly, many suggestions were things I had already done, like adding a case study or implementing structured data. But I got a few solid ideas that I’ve already applied to improve the visibility of my AI SEO tools blog post.
Since I work on SEO content strategies for clients almost every day, I decided to test Claude + Semrush for strategy creation.
The Semrush connection lets you find and analyze keywords, check competitor performance and backlink profiles, and spot organic trends without even opening the platform. That alone is a great starting point.
Now with Claude, I can also connect Google Search Console, pull real performance data, upload client notes, and add my strategy drafts. I don’t have to keep all of that in my head anymore when building a custom strategy. AI handles all the work!
Below is an excerpt from a 13-page SEO content strategy for my own website, Self Made Millennials, that I generated with one request: how to grow my site from $40k to $100k by the end of 2026.
I gave Claude everything: My 2025 affiliate and partnership earnings, top-performing partners, revenue pages, my draft strategy, and more.
The result is a very detailed plan with a clear breakdown of how to hit my business goal. Honestly, I was impressed.
Semrush has also published a great video explaining what you can use Semrush MCP for:
My experience with Semrush
Back in 2019, Semrush was a go-to all-in-one marketing tool for online marketing teams.
I used it mainly for search engine optimization, while others on the team handled social media, competitive analysis, backlink analysis, and marketing campaigns, all within the same platform. It had something for everyone.
But things have changed since then…
Today, Semrush looks and feels quite different.
Nowadays, it is an AI-powered marketing tool with 55 different Semrush features for various marketing tasks.
Everything’s neatly organized into seven toolkits, so you can easily find what you need based on what you work on.
Here’s a quick overview of each Semrush toolkit:
- SEO Toolkit: This one combines all SEO-related features for keyword research, domain analysis, link building, and site auditing to help you create an SEO strategy and boost organic search rankings.
- Content Toolkit (former ContentShake AI): This toolkit can help you optimize your content production process, from content brief generation to content creation and optimization.
- AI Visibility Toolkit: This new toolkit helps you track your brand’s performance in AI search results
- Social Media Kit: It helps with social media management across different platforms.
- Advertising Toolkit: You can use this toolkit to research, plan, launch, and optimize online ad campaigns.
- Local Business Kit: This one will help you manage your Google Business Profile and online reviews.
- Traffic and Market: This one will help you with competitive intelligence to find what works for your competitors and how they grow.
- Semrush One puts two toolkits (SEO Toolkit + AI Visibility Toolkit) into one plan. It can help you track and grow your brand’s visibility across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other platforms where people discover content today.
The old Semrush pricing and the conventional pricing plans, Semrush Pro and Semrush Guru plan, are now applicable to the SEO Toolkit only!
You’ll have to upgrade to at least the Semrush Pro plan to use the SEO Toolkit. The Semrush Pro plan costs $139.95 monthly, while Semrush One, which combines SEO + AI Visibility toolkits, costs $199/month.
It’s also worth mentioning that Semrush’s customer support issues refunds within one day if your card was accidentally charged, as it happened to me once. You’ll only need to fill out the contact form to request a refund. The Semrush support team will respond to you via email to confirm the refund.
Before choosing any paid plan, I recommend signing up for the free trial. This way, you’ll test the software and decide whether it works for you.
Here’s a little perk: My partner links give you a 14-day free trial to Semrush Pro and a 14-day free trial to Semrush One instead of the usual 7 days. Just a small way to get more time to explore and see if it’s a good fit! 
You don’t have to pay for SEO tools if you don’t need them. Instead, you can choose a different toolkit that fits your goals and just upgrade to that plan.
For example, the AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99/month, while the Content Toolkit is only $60 and includes everything for content-focused SEO.
So, go with the one that makes the most sense for your marketing needs.
Is Semrush accurate?
Here’s my comparison of Semrush data to my actual website’s data from Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest (I picked these tools for comparison since I have access to all of them and can collect data for comparison).
Is Semrush legist and can you trust the data enough to make data-driven decisions? That’s the real question.
Here’s a quick look at my website’s SEO metrics from February 2026:
I’m only comparing organic traffic. Data from other channels isn’t part of this comparison.
| Category | Semrush | Ahrefs | Ubersuggest | GSC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | 19,100 | 32,800 | 2,562 | 2,340 |
| Number of keywords | 6,500 | 1,400 | 7,200 | |
| Referring domains | 810 | 588 | 582 | |
| Number of backlinks | 3,300 | 1,600 | 1,742 | |
| Top 3 pages based on organic traffic |
Ahrefs alternatives
AI SEO tools Semrush vs Ahrefs |
Ahrefs alternatives
AI SEO tools Semrush vs Ahrefs |
AI SEO tools
Side hustles for writers Ahrefs alternatives |
AI SEO tools
AI marketing tools Ahrefs alternatives |
Here’s a screenshot from my Google Search Console showing my website’sorganic traffic in January – February 2026.
Semrush estimated around 19k visits for my site in February 2026, but that’s slightly over what Google Search Console shows me.
So, if you rely on the “Organic Traffic” metric to assess your competitors’ performance, just remember that this is just an estimate.
Semrush’s set of data includes over 808 million domains, 27.2 billion keywords, click stream panel data from billions of events per week, over 43 trillion backlinks, over 10 billion URLs crawled per day on average, and a range of data aggregated from social media networks. That’s impressive numbers that not every SEO tool can offer.
At this point, Semrush is one of the best SEO tools out there, offering more backlink and keyword data than any other tool.
None of the SEO tools gave me spot-on data about my top blog post’s performance, but Semrush came close enough.
That means you can probably rely on Semrush when checking your competitors’ top-performing pages. The numbers won’t be 100% accurate, but they’ll still show clear trends—whether a page or domain is growing or losing traction.
I hope you found these comparisons helpful!
If there’s anything else you’d like me to test for this Semrush review, drop your suggestions in the comments. I’ll run the experiment and update the post.
What you can do with Semrush
Here’s a quick look at what Semrush offers, and then I’ll break it down in more detail:
- Get an overview of a domain’s online presence
- Track a domain’s growth over time
- Find out which topics and keywords are driving organic and paid search traffic
- Compare up to five competitor domains in one report
- See key metrics like organic and paid search traffic, and backlinks, for specific countries or globally
- Track a domain’s progress for organic and paid traffic, and backlinks over any period (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.)
- Check out competitors’ top-performing pages based on traffic and keywords
- See how much organic traffic a search term is sending to your competitors
- Discover and analyze competitor traffic sources
- Spot keywords and URLs gaining or losing traffic
- Get updates about competitors’ activities, like when they publish new content
- Run an SEO audit to find technical issues
- Get daily or weekly email updates on major changes so you can stay ahead
- Monitor your site’s rankings and your competitors’ daily
- Get suggestions for improving every page on your site
- Generate optimized content in different languages with Semrush’s Content Toolkit
- Manage local listings with Semrush Local
- And more!
This is already a long list, and I’ve only covered the SEO features.
But Semrush is an all-in-one SEO toolkit that can be used by an entire online marketing team.
Beyond SEO, it also helps with social media campaigns, paid search ads, influencer marketing, outreach, market research, and much more.
While I was updating this Semrush review, I looked into how many features Semrush has.
While I was updating this Semrush review, I looked into how many features Semrush has.
Semrush offers 55 different features for all sorts of online marketing tasks. So, whatever you need, there’s probably a Semrush report or feature for it.
Since I mostly work with SEO and content writing, let me share some SEO tasks that Semrush can help you do.
1. Check and analyze any website
With the Semrush free plan or Semrush Pro, you get access to the Domain Overview Tool, which helps you quickly check out any website.
Here’s how it can be useful for you:
- See how your website’s current performance
- Track your website’s organic traffic and keyword trends (if they go up or down)
- Check out any website’s domain authority
- Figure out if a website is good for link building
- See if a website is growing or losing momentum
Most SEO tools have a similar report, but with fewer metrics included. What I like about Semrush is that it includes all essential information in one report to quickly assess any website’s current state.
SEO experts will find this report really helpful, but if you’re just starting out, it might feel a bit overwhelming with too much information.
2. Find keyword ideas based on your seed keyword
Unlike many other SEO tools, Semrush has a powerful Keyword Magic Tool that can help you find easy-to-rank keywords based on your seed keyword.
Considering that Semrush’s keyword database has over 26.4 billion keywords, I’m sure you’ll find keyword ideas for your website.
I recommend using Semrush when you:
- Want to find keyword ideas related to your niche
- Want to launch a new website and need to understand the niche potential
- Specifically looking for easy-to-rank keywords with business potential
Here is how you can use Semrush Keyword Magic Tools step-by-step.
1. Open Keyword Magic Tool and insert your seed keyword (my seed keyword is “SEO” in the example below).
2. Indicate your filtering parameters only to see relevant keywords, such as the following:
- Volume: 100+
- Keyword Difficulty: Easy
- Search Intent: Commercial
This way, you’ll quickly narrow down the search to relevant and easy-to-rank keywords for your website.
3. Check competitors’ top-performing pages
Whenever I need fresh keyword ideas for my website, I take a peek at my competitors’ top-performing pages. If something’s working for them, why not borrow a few smart strategies?
I’ve been doing this since 2015, and trust me, it works!
If you’re stuck on keyword research or your competitors keep outranking you, find out what works for them. It’s super simple with Semrush!
Just head over to the Top Pages and filter by traffic, and you’ve got a list of their best-performing pages.
Check out the screenshot below. These are my website’s top pages, according to Semrush.
In my case, software review posts perform the best. That’s part of my affiliate strategy. Most of them rank in the top 10 and bring in sales. 
4. Check competitors’ top-performing keywords
Just like in the example, you can use the Organic Research report to find out which keywords bring the most traffic to your competitors.
Go to Organic Rankings > Positions, and you’ll see their top keywords, along with search intent and featured snippets.
5. Find keywords your competitors rank, but you don’t
There is one more advanced strategy to conduct niche keyword research.
With Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool, you can see which keywords your competitors rank for, but you don’t.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Keyword Gap report.
- Add up to five competitor URLs.
- Click Compare and select Untapped.
If you use direct competitors’ URLs, you’ll get a solid list of keyword ideas.
I tried this myself and found 27.4k keywords, which is way too many to go through manually. Since there’s no filter in this report, you’ll have to sort through them yourself.
Want to narrow it down?
Try adding just one competitor’s URL instead of five.
6. Find competitors' top-traffic generation channels
There is one more way of using Semrush effectively.
The Traffic Overview report provides an in-depth overview of competitors’ top traffic generation channels, including the top sources!
In the example below, Semrush got my top traffic generation channel right — it’s organic search. The second top-performing channel is referral because I am an active Medium writer with over 21k subscribers.
I believe the Top Sources is one of the most valuable reports here, giving you answers to what websites send traffic to your competitors and whether you can replicate their strategy.
If you use Semrush Pro, you’ll only get a peek at the top three traffic sources. To see the full report, you’ll need to upgrade to Semrush Trends.
Semrush Trends gives you a quick snapshot of the market and competitor insights, helping businesses spot trends and find new growth opportunities.
Funny story, while writing this Semrush review, I accidentally bought Semrush Trends by clicking on a CTA inside my account. Since my credit card was already linked, the charge went through before I even realized it.
I wasn’t too worried, though. I had requested a refund from Semrush before, and they processed it within 24 hours. But after checking out the reports, I actually found them useful, so I decided to keep the subscription.
One of the reports I found interesting shows which pages are growing or losing traffic in a specific country. If these pages matter to your business, you might want to optimize them to keep their rankings steady.
7. Monitor your competitors’ latest activity
Semrush has a cool feature I haven’t seen in other tools. It’s called Semrush EyeOn, and it keeps an eye on your competitors 24/7.
You’ll get instant alerts whenever they publish a new blog post, launch a web page, run search ads, or post on social media.
As an SEO expert, I find this super useful because it shows me exactly what my competitors are doing and how often.
I’ve been keeping an eye on several websites using Semrush EyeOn. One time, I got a report saying a site had published 99 new pages in just a week.
Crazy, right?
Without Semrush, I would’ve never caught that!
8. Track your website rankings
Besides checking out your competitors, you can also use the Semrush SEO tool to keep an eye on your own website’s performance, especially your keyword rankings.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Position Tracking
- Select your website (or set up a new project)
- Click on Rankings Distribution > Keywords
After following these steps, you’ll be able to add keywords for tracking. I suggest focusing on the most important ones for your business, like transactional keywords that bring in revenue. Keeping those rankings high should be a priority.
Once you’ve added your keywords, click Save (or Update if you’re making changes).
Semrush will then generate five reports:
- Rankings Overview
- Top 3
- Top 10
- Top 20
- Top 100
I find these reports super useful.
Here’s how I use them:
- I work to maintain rankings for keywords in the Top 3 and Top 10 reports.
- I focus on improving rankings for keywords in the Top 20 report.
Plenty of SEO tools offer similar features, but I like how Semrush presents key data in a way that’s easy to understand.
Shoutout to Semrush for keeping me on top of my website rankings with those handy weekly reports!
Since January 2025, I’ve been running my site like a real business—refining my content and sharing exclusive SEO insights.
And it’s paying off.
My AI SEO Tools page is crushing the rankings, even outranking some industry giants! It brought in 6,259 visits in January (per Google Analytics).
I’ve also revamped about 30% of my Content Writing Tools for SEO post. It’s still a work in progress, but the rankings are already climbing.
Plus, I dropped an updated Semrush review on Feb 7—no fluff like “What is Semrush?” Just straight-up insights and real comparisons with other SEO tools I actually use.
All these updates (and more) show up in the weekly ranking report Semrush sends straight to my inbox.
Here’s what Akshay Negi, a brand marketing expert, says about using Semrush’s Position Tracking tool to boost his online business:
9. Track your website’s health
With Semrush Site Audit, you can check the current state of your website or your competitors.
I use this feature to track whether any technical issues occur on my website, such as the following:
- 404 errors
- No-indexed pages
- Wrong canonicals
- Wrong redirects or redirect loops
- Duplicate content
- Broken internal and external links
- And more.
It’s worth mentioning that many websites have technical errors and rank in the top positions on Google.
For example, my website has issues with the Core Web Vitals, a set of specific factors that Google considers important for user experience on a website.
Nevertheless, 74.3% of all pages on my website generate organic search traffic.
10. Get on-page SEO recommendations
Semrush’s on-page SEO checker scans your web pages for technical issues and SEO mistakes that might hurt your rankings.
It points out areas where you can improve your content, page structure, and metadata to boost your chances of showing up higher in search results.
To get these recommendations, you’ll need to set up a project in Semrush and add your website.
When I tried it, Semrush gave me 33 suggestions for 8 pages on my site.
In my case, I’ve reviewed all the Semrush recommendations for my Gumroad review article and implemented some of them.
In particular, I
- Updated roughly 30% of the content
- Improved metadata
- Improved the content structure
- Added some of the recommended semantically related keywords
Semrush has also listed a few websites I could use to build backlinks. However, I did not build any since I didn’t have time for it.
Nevertheless, the impressions and traffic to the Gumroad review page increased. Therefore, I suggest updating content on your top-performing pages from time to time to maintain rankings.
Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
There is one more tool I want to talk about in this Semrush review.
When I first tried Semrush SEO Writing Assistant, there were no tools like Koala Writer AI, Frase.io, Writesonic, or ChatGPT to help with on-page SEO.
I connected Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to Google Docs to get instant tips on improving my content for SEO. It made things easy because, by the time I finished writing, my post was already optimized and ready to publish.
If you want to use it, just enter your target keyword in the sidebar and start writing. The tool will give you real-time feedback on:
- Keyword use – It checks how often you use your keyword and if it’s in the right places.
- Readability – It shows how easy your content is to read and suggests ways to improve it.
- SEO score – It gives your content a score based on keyword use, readability, and SEO best practices.
To wrap up
You’ve made it to the end—nice job!
I kept this article long on purpose so I could dive deep into all of Semrush’s features and share my experience using it for all SEO professionals and website owners.
Semrush isn’t the most affordable tool, but I use the Pro plan for my own projects, client keyword research, and competitor analysis.
If you’re in SEO or run an online business, having a solid SEO platform can make a big difference by giving you reliable, up-to-date data for smarter decisions.
If interested, join the 14-day free and extended trial (normally 7 days) to understand how the platform works and whether it suits your needs. Give it a try and see whether it works for you.
FAQ
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I saved all the basics for the end. So, let’s go over some common questions you might have!
What does Semrush do?
Semrush can help you understand how your website performs in search results and how to boost its visibility.
You can do keyword research, analyze competitors, track rankings, and find content gaps.
What I personally like is that it also shows AI visibility insights, so you can see how your content performs in AI Overviews and other LLMs.
Is Semrush data reliable?
Compared to other SEO tools, Semrush’s data looks reliable.
Semrush claims they obtain their data through a mix of proprietary and third-party data sources, including clickstream, web crawling of third-party websites, and the different data Semrush’s customers grant them access to, which includes our customers’ website and social media data.
According to the Semrush 2023 annual report, as of December 31, 2022, and 2021, Semrush had over 803,000 and 537,000 active free customers, respectively, and over 95,000 and 82,000 paying customers, respectively, in over 157 and 145 countries.
What are Semrush alternatives?
If you’re reading this Semrush review and thinking it might not be the right fit for you, no worries. Here are a few solid alternatives you can check out:
- Search Atlas (I also have a full comparison post: Semrush vs. Search Atlas)
- Ahrefs (Take a look at my detailed comparison of Semrush vs. Ahrefs if you are interested in learning which one is worth using. )
- Ubersuggest (For a breakdown of Ubersuggest vs. Semrush, check out my comparison post.)
Each one has its own strengths, so it really depends on what you’re looking for!
Is Semrush good for beginners?
If you’re new to SEO, Semrush might feel a bit overwhelming at first. There are so many tools, reports, and features packed into the dashboard that it can be tricky to know where to start. A better approach might be to begin with something simpler, like Ubersuggest, and then gradually work your way up to a full SEO tool like Semrush.
From what I’ve seen, Semrush is widely used by SEO agencies, B2B companies, and SaaS businesses that focus on online marketing.
If you want to give Semrush One a try, start with a 14-day free trial!
How accurate is Semrush’s traffic and keyword data compared to Google Search Console or Ahrefs?
Semrush’s traffic and keyword numbers are estimates based on a massive third-party and proprietary dataset.
While it often comes close to Google Search Console, expect some discrepancies—especially for smaller or newer sites. For best results, use Semrush to spot growth trends and compare competitors, but always cross-check with your own analytics for exact figures.
What’s the best way to get value from Semrush’s free trial?
To maximize your free trial, set up a project for your site and connect Google Analytics and Search Console.
Explore the Domain Overview, run a site audit, and use the Keyword Magic Tool to find new opportunities.
Test the Position Tracking and AI Visibility features to see how your site performs in both traditional and AI-driven search. Take notes on features that directly impact your goals to decide if Semrush fits your workflow.
Is Semrush suitable for freelancers, agencies, or in-house marketing teams?
Semrush is flexible enough for all user types.
Freelancers can use it for client research and content planning, while agencies benefit from its multi-project management and reporting features.
In-house teams will find value in its collaboration tools and integrations with analytics platforms. The learning curve can be steep for beginners, but Semrush’s tutorials and support resources help users of all levels get up to speed quickly.
Can I automate reports or connect Semrush with other tools?
Yes, Semrush offers automation and integration options.
You can schedule automated reports, integrate with Google Analytics, and use the API or the MCP server to connect Semrush data to platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. This lets you pull insights or trigger actions in other apps without manual data entry, which is ideal for agencies and advanced users who want to save time and boost productivity.
What are common mistakes new Semrush users make, and how can I avoid them?
Many new users try to use every feature at once, which can be overwhelming.
I suggest focusing on a few core tools, like site audits, keyword research, and position tracking. Avoid relying solely on traffic estimates for decision-making. Instead, use Semrush to identify trends and opportunities. Take advantage of the platform’s onboarding guides and tutorials to build confidence and avoid analysis paralysis.
How does Semrush protect my data and privacy when I connect accounts?
Semrush uses industry-standard encryption and privacy protocols to safeguard your data.
When you connect Google Analytics or Search Console, access is limited to the features you authorize. Semrush does not share your private data with third parties.
You can revoke access at any time within your account settings. For extra peace of mind, review Semrush’s privacy policy and security documentation before connecting external accounts.
How can I use Semrush’s AI features to improve my SEO strategy?
Semrush’s AI Visibility toolkit can help you track your brand’s presence in AI-powered search results and large language models (LLMs).
You can identify content gaps and optimize for both traditional search and emerging AI-driven platforms. Integrating Semrush with LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude allows you to analyze, plan, and refine your SEO strategy more efficiently using real Semrush data.
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