What You Need To Know About SEMrush in 2023, Is It A Good Tool?

Ahrefs alternatives.

The popular SEO tool, Ahrefs, is pretty pricey.

Prices start at $99.00 a month.

Of course, you get what you pay for. Ahrefs is the top of the line, state of the art, best SEM (Search Engine Marketing) tool in the industry.

Are there cheaper Ahrefs alternatives?

Yes!

This post will review SEMrush, SimilarWeb, Moz, SpyFu, and Ubersuggest.

Contributing author Tracy Gomez and I will review SEMrush, and I will review the other Ahrefs alternatives, SimilarWeb, Moz, SpyFu, and Ubersuggest.

Let’s get started exploring Ahrefs alternatives.

6 Ahrefs Alternatives

What You Need To Know About SEMrush, Is It A Good Tool?

Are you looking to boost your SEO efforts? If so, you might have come across SEMrush. Likewise, you might be wondering whether or not the tool is worth paying for. In this article, we will be going over the information you should know to answer the question, is SEMrush worth it?

What Is SEMrush?

SEMrush is a specially designed SEO tool that can be used to enhance the optimization of your website. Essentially, it is an all-in-one marketing tool kit that is there to help you figure out whether or not your website is performing well, what it can do better, and how it stacks up against the competition.

What You Need To Know About It: 

1. Keyword Finder

One of the main things that you will want to look for when you are trying to identify the right SEO tools to invest in would be something that can help you identify the best keywords to target.

This is where SEMrush really excels.

By giving access through their Keyword Research Tool, you will be able to find all kinds of long-tail keywords that you can target. These keywords will offer you the ability to take advantage of low competition.

Along with this, you will even be able to find related keywords that can help you optimize your website and content to rank higher. 

2. Backlink Opportunities

Another thing that SEMrush can really help with is identifying backlink opportunities. Link building is very important and having a tool that helps you identify opportunities is a great way to better position your website to rank higher.

You will be able to analyze your competition’s backlinks which is going to give you a comprehensive list of potential opportunities that you can seek out. You will be able to see exactly what links they have and get all of the pertinent data you need to figure out if you can leverage it yourself. 

3. Social Media Help

SEMrush also has a lot of potential for boosting your social media efforts which can help your ranking potential. You will be able to use their Social Media Tracker to help identify content that you can share. This will allow you to see what social media platforms you should be taking advantage of.

4. Domain Analytics

You are going to be able to take a deep dive into your website’s analytics. You will be able to see everything with this including the total amount of traffic you are getting, the keywords that you are targeting and ranking for, and you can even dive deeper to get even more valuable information. 

Is SEMrush Worth It? 

There is one simple downside to SEMrush. The price is relatively high for an SEO tool.

That being said, it is much more than a simple tool. It is more of a ‘toolbox.’ Because of the features and value that you can derive from SEMrush as a whole, it more than makes up for its high price point.

If the price is a bit too high for your budget, you should check out this article on SEMrush alternatives (that are not covered in this article). 

Host Blogger’s Comments:

SEMrush Pricing

A SEMrush discount Promo Code can be found here.

SEMrush gives you 10 free queries a month.

I consider SEMrush a free SEO tool since I use this powerful tool 10 times a month for free in many ways.

However, if you do want to pay for all the features of SEMrush without limitations, take advantage of Black Friday sales.

In fact, a 2019 SEMrush Black Friday sale included a 76% discount (Source).

SEMrush vs SimilarWeb

SEMrush is made for Search Engine Marketing, hence the name SEMrush. The acronym for search engine marketing is SEM.

Other SEO tools are better for other SEO functions. Consider this quote from Quora:

SimilarWeb is great for competitor research, link building by reverse engineering, competitor ranking tracking, and market entry research.

SimilarWeb is a good tool with amazing UX/UI (User Experience/ User Interface) very useful.

As you can see, while SEMrush and SimilarWeb are both good for competitive analysis, there are differences as well.

SimilarWeb Pricing

As you can see from the screenshot, SimilarWeb has a free 3-month plan.

SEMrush vs Moz

Like SEMrush, Moz is excellent if you are looking for Ahrefs alternatives.

Also, like SEMrush, Moz offers you 10 free queries a month.

However, unlike SEMrush, you can use Moz’s features for free, unlimited when you download the Google Chrome extension, the MozBar.

I like using Moz for competitive analysis.

This MozBar guide will tell you how to use Moz to see your competitors’ Domain Authority Rankings and meta descriptions.

SEMrush vs SpyFu

I use SpyFu year in and year out for free.

The free features of SpyFu are enough for me. I use SpyFu to check my Google Rankings and for competitive analysis. These free features are unlimited.

Marketers, it gets better: You can actually use SpyFu to see your competitors’ online ads.

Consider these comments from blogger Moss Clement:

“Analyzing one’s competition is a fantastic way to see first-hand how to beat them on SERP. For this, I use SpyFu.

It shows me how my competitors are performing, the keyword terms they’re ranking for, as well as related keyword phrases that can help your content outrank them.”

Should you wish more features, SpyFu has a premium plan.

SpyFu is pretty user-friendly, but if you need one, here is a SpyFu tutorial.

Ubersuggest

Like the Ahrefs alternatives described in this post, Ubersuggest also gives you helpful SEO analysis of your website and your competitors’ websites.

In early 2020, Neil Patel started charging to use Ubersuggest.

Pricing: $10. per month for the unlimited features of Ubersuggest that use to be free. However, you can still use Ubersuggest for 5 free queries per month.

Note: This is more expensive than SEO tools like SEMrush and Moz that offer 10 free monthly queries.

However, these Ahrefs alternatives are more expensive than Ahrefs which doesn’t give you any free queries. Even the Ahrefs trial offer is $7.00 for 7 days.

Update July 2020:

Ubersuggest now has a free Google Chrome extension. This makes Ubersuggest’s features accessible from your browser.

[Related Reading: How to use Ubersuggest. Also, this Ubersuggest io tutorial explains how to use the recent updates to Ubersuggest.]

Semrush vs. Serpstat

A great alternative to Ahrefs, with a full set of features and affordable prices, is Serpstat.

The service has a free trial period of 7 days, where you can familiarize yourself with all the functionality and appreciate its capabilities. 

With Serpstat easy to analyze your competitors in the organic and paid, cluster keywords, as well as generate new content and work with text, and much more, find out more in an Extensive Guide.

Ahrefs Alternatives FAQ

Which is better Ahrefs vs SEMRush?

Ahrefs is considered the best SEO tool in the industry. Ahrefs even has a Facebook groups where you can go for help and talk to CEO Tim Soulo.

Which is the best free SEO tool?

I have used SpyFu happily without paying for years.

Wrapping Up: Ahrefs Alternatives

Keeping up with your SEO efforts can be a full-time job. That is typically why you would want to invest in an all-in-one tool like this. SEMrush is really valuable for those that want to cut the time it would normally take to perform competitive analysis and other SEO strategies. By getting a tool like this, you will be able to minimize the amount of time you end up spending on a lot of SEO activities. 

Along with this, you will be able to better target the right activities and strategies that you should be investing in. You will have a much better ability to effectively compete with your competition because you can regularly analyze what they are doing right and identify the right opportunities that are presented.  If you can swing it in your budget, the answer is a resounding “yes” to the question, “Is SEMrush worth it?”

Author: Tracy Gomez

Host blogger’s comments:

In closing, SEMrush is such a valuable tool, since you can use SEMrush for free 10 times a month, people consider SEMrush a free Ahrefs alternative.

All of these can be considered an Ahrefs free alternative. I will tell you why: Even Moz and SEMrush are free for up to 10 queries a month. Ubersuggest is free for 5 queries. Do you know any Ahrefs free alternatives?

As mentioned, you can use SEMrush for a variety of functions. For example, you can use SEMrush to check your Google Rankings.

You can also use SEMrush to spy on your competitors.

Clearly, I’m a big fan of SEMrush. I use the tool regularly and blog about SEMrush often.

Readers, please share so bloggers and marketers on a tight budget learn about these free Ahrefs alternatives.

I look forward to your views in the comments section. Have you heard of SEMrush? What are your experiences with this popular tool?

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