Introduction:
If you’re creating niche sites, doing video marketing and/or running paid ads, you absolutely MUST do keyword research. Without doing any research, you’ll be going in blind.
You can do keyword research in 2 ways…
- Manually
- Use a reliable keyword research tool
The only advantage of doing it manually is that it will save you some money. But the disadvantages are many. Not only is keyword research time consuming and draining, but it’s very difficult to calculate a keyword’s competitiveness on your own.
The competitiveness score relies on a multitude of metrics and just finding these out is just too tiresome.
Which leaves you with the second option – using a keyword research tool. With a good tool, you’ll get in-depth data in minutes. You’ll be able to compile a long list of keywords to target, you’ll know your chances of ranking for a keyword before you even start and most importantly, you’d be able to do it all fast and without much effort.
There are many keyword research tools on the market because thousands of marketers need these tools – and where there’s money to be made, you can bet that there will be competition.
That’s good and bad news for you. The good news is that the competition forces many of these tools to keep improving and getting better… the bad news is that it can be overwhelming for you when it comes to choosing one.
Whenever keyword research tools are discussed, most SEO specialists and niche marketers will mention a few popular names such as Ahrefs, SEMRush or Long Tail Pro.
Our research showed that most preferred SEMRush over the other tools. Let’s see why this is one of the most sought after keyword tools on the market…
The Pros
- Established brand
SEMRush was launched back in 2008. They’ve been in business for over a decade and the company boasts having over 7 million paying users and has won 14 international awards when it comes to SEO.
Very few keyword tools, if any, can match this level of quality and popularity. SEMRush works and is used by Fortune 500 companies… and if it works for them, you can bet it’ll work for you.
- Very advanced tool
While keyword research tools such as KWFinder and Long Tail Pro are good, we have to be frank here and say that they’re nowhere in SEMRush’s league. This is truly a next level software.
With 800 million profiles, 20 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks and 140 databases being crawled by SEMRush, you’ll get the most detailed and up-to-date keyword data you need.
- Brainstorm new keywords
While most other keywords do this too, SEMRush gives you even more keywords because its keyword suggestion tool is more advanced. So you’ll find it easier to build a list of keywords to target.
- Tracks your keyword rankings
Add a few keywords into your account and SEMRush will track your rankings in the search results for these keywords. This is a very useful feature and you’ll be able to see exactly where all your keywords rank from one interface, instead of manually searching for them individually.
- 7-day free trial
If you’re wondering how SEMRush works, you can take it for a spin for 7 days risk-free. Once you see how powerful it is, you’ll definitely sign up for it.
- Competitor domain analysis
This is one of SEMRush’s most popular and strongest features. It’s what puts it ahead of the competitors. With SEMRush, you can see exactly how your competitors are ranking in the search engines.
You’ll be able to get the backlink profile, the number of keywords they’re ranking for, their authority score, the anchor text they’re using and much more.
This is invaluable information that you’ll need in order to beat your competitors in the rankings. If they have 20 backlinks, you may need to get 25 to your own blog post. But you can only do that if you have the data – and SEMRush gives you all the data you need.
- SEO audits
Besides just spying on your competitors, you also need to know your own site/s performance in the search engines. SEMRush will allow you to run an SEO audit on your site to see what you’re doing right and it’ll highlight areas where you need to improve.
Once again, this is priceless information that will give you an edge when it comes to ranking in the SERPS.
- Create a guest blogging strategy
With the info you get from SEMRush’s link building tool, you’ll know which site owners to approach to ask for backlinks or offer a guest post to. You’ll be able to pull out the website owner’s contact info and send them a personalized email.
- Track PPC campaigns
If you’re using paid advertising, SEMRush will help you track your PPC campaigns, and keywords’ performance. It’s too technical to go into detail here. But just know that if you’re using paid ads.
- Lots of tutorials
The beauty about using a popular tool like SEMRush is that you can find tons of tutorials on YouTube made by users. The SEMRush knowledgebase and the SEMRush Academy (with tons of free courses) is extensive too.
No matter what, you can rest assured that there’s enough tutorials to help you navigate and use the tool effectively.
- White label reports
If you’re running your own SEO agency, you can use SEMRush to create white label reports to use for your clients. You can add your own branding and no one will know that your data is ‘powered by SEMRush’.
- Excellent support
If you have any difficulties, you can always contact SEMRush’s support desk via live chat (office hours) or email.
The Cons
There are a couple of downsides to SEMRush. For starters, the interface can seem overwhelming. It provides so much data that if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s a bit of a chore to navigate the interface.
But if you spend a couple of hours using the tool for 2-3 days, you’ll figure it out and get the hang of it.
The pricing may deter some marketers from using it. While it’s not overly pricey, it’s not inexpensive either. So make sure you have a few keyword research goals before you sign up.
Should You Get It?
If you’re doing keyword research, SEMRush is second to none. Some marketers may prefer Ahrefs and that’s fine. At the end of the day, you need a tool that you’re comfortable using and which works for you.
Sign up for SEMRush’s 7-day trial and use it. That’s the best way to know the value this keyword research tool will bring to your business – and if it’s suitable for you. You’ll be glad you did.
