Is Semrush Worth It in 2021? | Tool For SEO Content Writer

Every SEO content writer and marketer understands the importance of SEO and what it takes to research and tons of quality content. If the content marketer does the first one incorrectly, then the second one will not land irrespective of the quality. Research brings the eyeballs to your content and thus is the foundation of gaining visibility online. And one tool that’s used for SEO in content writing worldwide is Semrush. So, if you are unsure if Semrush is worth it for content writing SEO, we have discussed in depth: –

Let’s start this review about Semrush.

What is Semrush?

Semrush is an online tool that helps marketers and SEO specialists to help their websites rank better on search engines. It was established on 3rd August 2008 and currently has its headquarters are in Massachusetts, United States. The company results from IT and SEO specialists coming together and making the competition for visibility online a fair one.

Who potentially uses Semrush?

SEO, as discussed above, is the foundation for online visibility. A company that is not visible online loses out on unimaginable conversions. Primarily due to the pandemic, businesses are rapidly moving online and establishing their social presence. Thus, businesses with an internal SEO and marketing team are potential users of this SEO and content writing tool.

Speaking of content writing, SEO content writers are also potential users of this tool. Since most SE) content writers and marketers use content to communicate with audiences online, content writers need a tool to bring eyeballs onto their blogs and articles. Thus, another potential user is an SEO content writer.

Small businesses cannot afford a full-time team. Thus they hire either content marketing agencies or freelance marketers to help them out. Therefore, agencies and freelancers are potential users of Semrush too.

If so many people can use the tool, what does Semrush offer them in terms of features? 

And is there a free version of the tool? 

Features in the free version

Unlike Grammarly (that we reviewed previously), Semrush offers a free version of its tool as well as a 7-days trial. Semrush launched the 7-days trial for people who are indecisive about which premium version of the tool (discussed in the next section) suits you. The tool’s free version gives you access to the tool’s features but within the following limits.

1. Domain and keywords: 10 searches per day (10 results for each search)
2. Keyword Magic Tool: 10 per day 
3. Number of projects: 1 project per free user
4. Site Audit: 100 crawled pages per month
5. Position tracking: 10 keywords in 1 project
6. On-page SEO checker: 10 keywords
7. Social Media Toolkit: You can track ten social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are the supported channel for free users). You can manage only two social profiles; (each Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profile is treated as a separate profile).
8. Content Marketing Platform: Free users cannot access it
9. SEO Idea unit: 10 units
10. PPC Keyword: No CPC and Volume data for free users
11. Scheduled PDF report: 1
12. Product Listing Ads Research: 10 rows of results

Price of each premium version

Apart from the free version, Semrush offers three premium versions:

• Pro: $119.95 per month
• Guru: $229.95 per month
• Business: $449.95 per month

The pro version is for small in-house teams and marketers who have just started their journey.

The Guru version is for SMEs and small agencies.

The business version is for big corporates and marketing agencies.

If you purchase the plan per annum instead of monthly, you get a 17% discount.

Semrush also has an agency-growth kit made especially for agencies with multiple clients. Thus, they provide the add on to Pro, Guru, and Business accounts; however, the cost of each profile drastically increases to $219.95, $329.95, $549.95/month, respectively.

Features in each premium version

Here are the features for the pro version of the tool and the limits of each feature

1. Domain and keywords: 10K searches per day (3K requests a day
2. Keyword Magic Tool: 10K results per report, and 3000 reports per day 
3. Site Audit: 100K crawled pages per month
4. Number of projects: 5 projects
5. Position tracking: 500 keywords amongst the five projects
6. On-page SEO checker: 500 keywords
7. Social Media Toolkit: You can track 50 social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube are the supported channel for free users). You can manage only ten social profiles; (each Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Pinterest and Twitter profile is treated as a separate profile).
8. Content Marketing Platform: Pro users cannot access it
9. SEO Idea unit: 500 units
10. PPC Keyword: CPC and Volume data are available for 500 keywords
11. Scheduled PDF report: 5
12. Product Listing Ads Research: 10 rows of results

Here are the features that the Guru premium accounts can access:

1. Domain and keywords: 30K results searches per day (5K requests a day)
2. Historical data: Guru level can access all the searches on Semrush
3. Keyword Magic Tool: 10 per day 
4. Number of projects at a time: 15 projects at a time
5. Site Audit: 300K crawled pages per month
6. Position tracking: 1500 keywords amongst your 15 projects (cannibalization report, multi-targeting and Google Data studio integration)
7. On-page SEO checker: 800 keywords per month
8. Social Media Toolkit: You can track 100 social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube are the supported channel for free users). You can manage only 30 social profiles; (each Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Pinterest and Twitter profile is treated as a separate profile).
9. Content Marketing Platform: Access to tools such as unlimited access to tools, 800 SEO content templates for content writers and marketers, 20K pages to audit, tracking five countries’ responses to your content, track 50 posts, one content calendar to track your content, and five plagiarism checks per month.
10. SEO Idea unit: 800 units
11. PPC Keyword: You can access 1500 keywords’ CPC and Volume data
12. Scheduled PDF report: 20
13. Product Listing Ads Research: 10 rows of results

And finally, here are the features for the Business premium account:

1. Domain and keywords: 50K results searches per day (10K requests a day)
2. Historical data: Business accounts can access all the searches on Semrush
3. Keyword Magic Tool: 10K per day 
4. Number of projects: 40 projects at a time
5. Site Audit: 1M crawled pages per month
6. Position tracking: 5K keywords amongst your 15 projects (cannibalization report, multi-targeting, share of voice tracking and Google Data studio integration)
7. On-page SEO checker: 2K keywords per month
8. Social Media Toolkit: You can track 300 social profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube are the supported channel for free users). You can manage only 50 social profiles; (each Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Pinterest and Twitter profile is treated as a separate profile).
9. Content Marketing Platform: Access to tools like unlimited access to tools, 2K SEO content templates for content writers and marketers, 20K pages to audit, tracking ten countries’ responses to your content, track 50 posts, infinite content calendar to track your content, and ten plagiarism checks per month.
10. SEO Idea unit: 2K units
11. PPC Keyword: You can access 6K keywords’ CPC and Volume data
12. Scheduled PDF report: 50
13. Product Listing Ads Research: Unlike the previous three accounts, the business account has full access to PLA.
14. Apart from the above features, the business account also can get display advertising reports of their competitors.
15. API access is also exclusive to business account users.

Is the premium version worth it?

The premium version is segregated perfectly for each buyer persona and has appropriate amounts of limit for each account.

 Rating it on the necessity of the tool

The tool is necessary for content marketing research efforts. And the functionality of the tool tries to add as many features as possible. The Semrush team has tried to add most features into its SaaS platform, from keywords research to social media management. 

However, the tool lacks data for niche keywords in countries apart from the USA. As Indian content writers, you will find it challenging to get keyword volume statistics for long-tail keywords. In such a case, you have to have another tool to cross-check data. 

We give it an 8/10

Rating it on the UI/UX of the tool

The UI and UX of the tool are also good. As a content writer who has to conduct keyword research, competitor analysis, and look at the SERP results of keywords, it was reasonably easy to do so. It also rates the related keywords with relevance to your current keyword. Thus, you can target slightly unrelated keywords too.

A unique thing I liked about Semrush was its ability to show SEO difficulty stat and a “priority” score for each keyword. The priority score lest you know if you should target it based on search volume, competition, and SEO difficulty. 

Moreover, the platform’s useability is pretty intuitive and is not difficult to navigate. 

We give it a 9/10.

Rating it on the affordability of the tool

No matter how functional and easy to use the tool is, affordability can often trump both. As you can see from the section about pricing, the SaaS tool is pretty expensive. If you factor in the currency conversion, the tool’s cheapest account, the Pro version quickly becomes inaccessible to startups and freelancers. 

Thus, we give it a 6/10. 

Alternatives for the same tool

There are not many tools that compete with Semrush’s extensive features, but here is our attempt to provide some alternatives:

• Advanced Web Ranking (costs half the amount as Semrush)
• Ahrefs (provides results for search engines other than Google)
• Google Keyword Planner (free if you want to search keyword search volume and the CPC)
• Moz (a strong competitor of Semrush)

Final rating and Conclusion

All in all, the tool gets a 7.6 out of 10 ratings from us. Semrush is an excellent one with many functionalities; however, the affordability factor is a significant roadblock. But if the tool fits your budget without fracturing your pocket, you should go for it. 

SEO and content writing often go hand in hand. Thus, many content writers need an SEO tool for content writing. If you would like to explore what is SEO in content writing and SEO tricks for content writers, you can check our blog here.

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