SEMrush Hacks - Guide

[fasttrak]

Following my recent Ahrefs guides (Part 1, Part 2 & Bonus), a lot of members asked if I had any hacks for free tools as Ahrefs is not within their budget.

So, given that we all get a FREE 30 day trial of SEMrush from BHW, I thought this would be a good place to start + even if you have Ahrefs, SEMrush does things that Ahrefs cannot, which you will love.

• BHW 30 day SEMrush trial signup
• Already used it? You can find LOTS of free trials with a simple Google search and a new email address.... just saying

I have a few Hacks to share and will try and post something new for you every couple of weeks, so if you like what you see, be sure to check back for more.


Part 1 - On Page Checker, Content Hacks

Most SEMRush users focus on competitor analysis and KW research, and for some reason never look at the On Page Checker. Which is a shame, as it is a hugely powerful tool in its own right.

So, continuing with the Baseball Bats example, as I am lazy and it works nicely!

1. Create a Project for your money site, if you have not done so already.

2. From the SEO Dashboard, click on the Setup Button in the On Page Checker section.

I have used a website in this example which is not ranking, but is not a million miles away, just needs a little push (sound familiar? ).

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3. Remove any non money pages from the auto import and click on the Collect Ideas button.

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4. Click on On Page SEO Checker and choose the money page which is stuck outside the top 10 on Google.

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Now for the clever stuff.

You are now presented with lots actionable SEO ideas or advice to improve your money page and help it rank higher. The area I want to focus on today is the Content section.

Content Ideas

In this section you can see both onpage SEO elements which are optimised and potential content issues stopping your money page from ranking. Choose any of the issues and click on to See detailed analysis.

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Does any of the below sound good?

• Would you like to see how your KW density compares to your competitors?
• Or what about how the length of your article matches up to the top 10?
• Perhaps video content would help you rank, do the top 10 pages use them?
• Have you included the same semantic words as the top 10, are you missing any?
• What about easy backlinks which your competitors are using to rank?

Did you know that SEMrush could show you all of this, and even better, show you how you stack up against the top 10?

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Keyword Usage

It is easy to see from here some of the reasons why this page is not ranking as well as it could be.

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Your competitors rank right? So obviously they are doing something right. So reducing the KW frequency within the article main text will align your content to what is ranking. Easy win.

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This report is really easy to read and shows you where you are going wrong, reducing the effort you would normally take to check this manually or using other tools.

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Semantic

The semantic report shows related KW's that the Google top 10 are also targeting, and most likely ranking for.

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If you see the majority of your competitors targeting a word and you are not, then YOU SHOULD BE!

Its an easy fix that will bring more traffic to the site. No brainer.

Content Length

How many times do we see someone asking how many words their article should have? And our answer is always the same, it should be at least the same as the current top 10 and ideally a bit more.

So, how can we check this out quickly? Yep, you guess it, with the Content Length report.

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As you can see, this particular article certainly has enough words, when compared to its competitors, but as we saw in the Semantic report, this page is not targeting the right words.

Video Usage

Do you need videos in your articles for them to rank? Good question and obviously a very common one asked when planning a money page.

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What I love about this report is firstly the simplicity, it is extremely easy to see who does and does not use videos in their articles, so you can pickup on requirements quickly, and secondly the fact it shows you all of this by KW. That is really cool.

Readability

I personally tend to use this report as a gauge, as readability is subjective. Basically it allows me to quickly see if I am in the right ball park compared to the current top 10. I aim to be at least the average.

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Again, a super easy report to get the information you need quickly, with minimal effort.

Backlinks

I have left this report till last as I am not convinced that it is particularly helpful. As you can see, it is a quick view showing any common links your competitors have in common. The vast majority of these are rubbish, but you can discover a few gems every now and again.

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Conclusion

Having now seen what the On Page Checker can do for you and how easy it is to use. You will probably want to test all your money sites to see if there are any quick wins to improve your rankings.

It really is a powerful tool and presents the information you need in a super easy way, saving you hours of wasted effort.

If you are stuck on page 2, it is definitely worth a look.

Let me know what you think and stay tuned for Part 2 of the Semrush Hacks Guide.

 

[wisdomkid]

You did well. Amazing guide. I do appreciate and +thanks given.

 

[fullwall3t]

I can't wait for part two. I have always felt like semrush is useless; you've proven otherwise! Great job, thank you for these tutorials.

 

[TheVigilante]

From ahrefs to semrush

 

[thescrrr]

Great guide again, can't wait for your next ahrefs tricks!

 

[terrycody]

From ahrefs to semrush

Semrush did BIG updated several times these recently years, so yeah, at first we all knew it was the best then ahref won the battle for a long time, but seems now, they are back!

 

[youtube1001]

For my sites, semrush is more accurate it seems.

Now, if there is a way to export all this to some excel or something, that would be grand. There is a share to Trello everywhere but I am an excel guy.

Thanks for sharing such a detailed guide, much appreciated.

 

[Mr Positive]

Though I have the free semrush plan I really liked this guide, if someday I upgraded it’ll be very useful for me

 

[fasttrak]

You did well. Amazing guide. I do appreciate and +thanks given.

Good guide. Thanks.

Good one

Excellent write up mate.

Thanks, its nice to know it helps and I appreciated your comments. Gives me motivation to spend more time writing more guides.

I can't wait for part two. I have always felt like semrush is useless; you've proven otherwise! Great job, thank you for these tutorials.

This comment has made my day. Thank you.

From ahrefs to semrush

And back again! Well, later this week.

Great guide again, can't wait for your next ahrefs tricks!

Should have some time later this week to write it up, so keep an eye out for it.

Semrush did BIG updated several times these recently years, so yeah, at first we all knew it was the best then ahref won the battle for a long time, but seems now, they are back!

They have pretty much most of the data they need to create value. If I was them, I would take a close look at the Ahrefs reporting and simply replicate/improve it. What SEMrush do extremely well is presentation. Creating views that give you a snapshot of everything you need to quickly make improvements. If they took Ahrefs reporting and applied that lens, wow, we might just have a new leader!

For my sites, semrush is more accurate it seems.

Now, if there is a way to export all this to some excel or something, that would be grand. There is a share to Trello everywhere but I am an excel guy.

Thanks for sharing such a detailed guide, much appreciated.

You can do this. For some reason they make this feature difficult to find, but it is there. You just need to click on the little exit door icon as shown in the image below.

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HTH

Though I have the free semrush plan I really liked this guide, if someday I upgraded it’ll be very useful for me

Getting another trial is very easy, if you want to play around a bit more.

 

[Seouwirt]

Now it's time for semrush

 

[terrycody]

If they took Ahrefs reporting and applied that lens, wow, we might just have a new leader!

That's right. Such good competitions are also good for our users, btw, I wish they could change their blog UX style to "at least ahref like", cuz current version is really a pain to read lol, very horrible to use, eye pain, text fonts, god damn it....

 

[fasttrak]

Now it's time for semrush

What time is it? SEMrush time

This is great, thanks, Think I should ´give it a try!

You have nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain. Give it a whirl.

That's right. Such good competitions are also good for our users, btw, I wish they could change their blog UX style to "at least ahref like", cuz current version is really a pain to read lol, very horrible to use, eye pain, text fonts, god damn it....

They say competition drives innovation. Not always true but tech companies have always been good at copying each others best features. Long may that continue!

 

[rafark]

I love these types of guides! No love for majestic?

 

[fasttrak]

I love these types of guides! No love for majestic?

Give me a chance! Working my way through them but they take a long time to write and illustrate. I'll get there eventually, just keep an eye out for it.

 

[ajax212]

Hello I am mostly focusing on PLA and Paid Search ad campaigns. Any hidden gems tools in SEM rush for Paid search that an average user isn't aware about ? Would love to know your insight.

 

[rod]

Great post. SEMrush must be a golden tool to have and simply would make it impossible not to rank your pages in the top 10 specially for small affiliate products which not many ppl would go for.

 

[jreed]

This is great. Was thinking about getting page optimizer pro but now you have introduced this gem.

 

[milluki zolydck]

thank you so much this is very helpful for those like me who are starting and to those who feel that semrush isnt worth at all

 

[fasttrak]

Hello I am mostly focusing on PLA and Paid Search ad campaigns. Any hidden gems tools in SEM rush for Paid search that an average user isn't aware about ? Would love to know your insight.

I will be making new SEMrush guides in the future and will keep that in mind.

Great post. SEMrush must be a golden tool to have and simply would make it impossible not to rank your pages in the top 10 specially for small affiliate products which not many ppl would go for.

This is great. Was thinking about getting page optimizer pro but now you have introduced this gem.

Thanks. All tools have their pluses and minuses, but SEMrush is a quality SEO tool used in the right hands.

thank you so much this is very helpful for those like me who are starting and to those who feel that semrush isnt worth at all

It is definately worth playing around with, especially as you get a 30 day trial.

 

[vin42]

Great content. I used ahrefs to track one site as it was in their free plan but they closed all free plans. You've done a great job at highlighting things that are hidden somewhere in these tools and we dont realize as we hardly explore further than keywords and backlinks.