SEMrush Free Tools

 

SEMrush is a powerful tool that provides a wide array of features for digital marketers, but many of its advanced features are available only with a paid subscription. However, SEMrush also offers a limited set of free tools that can be incredibly useful, especially for small businesses, individual marketers, or those just starting out with SEO and digital marketing. Below are details on how to use these free tools:

1. Domain Overview

What It Does: The Domain Overview tool gives you a high-level view of any domain's performance. You can see metrics like organic search traffic, paid search traffic, backlinks, and display advertising data.

Enter a domain name into the search bar on the SEMrush homepage.

View the overview of the domain’s organic search performance, including the number of keywords it ranks for, the estimated monthly traffic, and the main competitors.

Use this data to benchmark your site against competitors and identify areas for improvement.

2. Keyword Magic Tool (Limited Use)

What It Does: This tool helps you discover new keywords by generating a list of related keywords along with their search volume, difficulty, and CPC.

Enter a seed keyword into the Keyword Magic Tool.

Explore the list of related keywords and filter by search volume, keyword difficulty, and other metrics.

Use this information to expand your keyword strategy or find long-tail keywords that are easier to rank for.

3. Keyword Overview 

What It Does: Provides detailed information about a specific keyword, including its search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, and the top-ranking pages.

Enter a keyword into the Keyword Overview tool.

Analyze the data provided to understand how competitive the keyword is and what content is currently ranking for it.

Use these insights to decide if you should target this keyword or look for less competitive alternatives.

4. Site Audit 

What It Does: The Site Audit tool checks your website for SEO issues, providing a comprehensive report that highlights errors, warnings, and other issues that could affect your rankings.

Set up a site audit by entering your domain.

SEMrush will crawl a limited number of pages (up to 100 on the free plan) and generate a report.

Review the audit report to identify technical SEO issues like broken links, missing meta descriptions, duplicate content, and more.

Fix the issues to improve your site's SEO health.

5. Position Tracking 

What It Does: This tool allows you to track your website's rankings for specific keywords over time.

Enter your domain and the keywords you want to track.

SEMrush will monitor your rankings for those keywords and provide daily updates.

Use this data to understand how your SEO efforts are affecting your rankings and make adjustments as needed.

6. Backlink Analytics 

What It Does: Backlink Analytics provides insights into a website’s backlink profile, showing the number of backlinks, referring domains, anchor texts, and more.

Enter a domain into the Backlink Analytics tool.

Review the data to see where your backlinks are coming from, the quality of those links, and how your backlink profile compares to competitors.

Use this information to improve your link-building strategy by identifying high-quality backlink opportunities.

7. On-Page SEO Checker

What It Does: This tool provides recommendations for optimizing specific pages on your website based on your target keywords.

How to Use It:

Enter the URL of a page and the target keyword(s).

SEMrush will analyze the page and provide actionable SEO recommendations, including improvements to content, meta tags, and other on-page elements.

Implement the recommendations to improve the page’s chances of ranking higher for the target keyword.

8. SEO Writing Assistant (Google Docs Add-on)

What It Does: The SEO Writing Assistant helps you optimize your content for SEO as you write it, providing real-time suggestions on readability, keyword usage, and other SEO factors.

Install the SEO Writing Assistant add-on for Google Docs or WordPress.

Start writing or paste your content into the tool.

Follow the recommendations provided to improve your content's SEO potential before publishing.

9. Social Media Poster 

What It Does: The Social Media Poster allows you to schedule posts to various social media platforms and monitor their performance.

Connect your social media accounts to SEMrush.

Use the tool to create and schedule posts across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Track engagement metrics to optimize your social media strategy.

10. Traffic Analytics 

What It Does: This tool provides an overview of a website’s traffic, including the number of visits, bounce rate, and traffic sources.

Enter a competitor’s domain into the Traffic Analytics tool.

Review the data to understand their traffic sources, top pages, and audience behavior.

Use these insights to refine your own traffic acquisition strategies.

Limitations of SEMrush Free Tools

Limited Results: Free users only have access to a limited number of results and searches per day.

Limited Keyword Tracking: You can track only a few keywords in the free version.

Limited Site Audit Pages: The site audit tool will only analyze a small number of pages on your site.

Data Access: Full access to all data and advanced features is reserved for paid users.

How to Make the Most of SEMrush Free Tools

Focus on Key Metrics: Use the tools to track the most critical metrics that will impact your SEO and digital marketing efforts.

Identify Quick Wins: Prioritize the most actionable insights that can yield significant results with minimal effort.

Supplement with Other Free Tools: Combine SEMrush's free tools with other free SEO tools to get a more comprehensive analysis.