Keyword research is critical for any SEO project to begin, exist, and survive. When a project has its keyword research done using Semrush, its chance of performing well is much higher than its alternatives.
This is the feedback of many other SEO experts, including me, who have spent years in the SEO field and have seen the tool and the search engine evolve.
When I began using Semrush for Keyword research, the difference I saw in my process made me admire this tool.
This post explains how keyword research works while using Semrush and why it’s much better than any other current process you might be following.
How I Did My Keyword Research Without Semrush
Before an introduction to Semrush, I was trying my ways of researching for keywords. What many bloggers followed previously was:
- Directly visit competitor websites and find relevant keywords
- Manual brainstorming and mind-mapping
- Using the Google auto-suggest feature
- Using Google Trends to analyze the data
- Checking discussion forums
- Using Google keyword planner
- Using Wikipedia
These methods were quite revolutionary when any professional SEO tool was unavailable. As I grew my knowledge, I was introduced to a few more ways of keyword research that I still use at times.
- Using the website operator for keyword research
- Checking the people also asks for a section
- Entering the keyword on YouTube, checking the ranking titles, and auto-suggest
All these methods require a huge amount of effort and time investment. Even if you minimize the time to research and get the hang of it, the time you invest eventually stays the same.
That’s the reason why I prefer to use Semrush now, as it keeps my time-to-effort ratio balanced. And this review of Semrush, is not just because I am an admirer of one of the best SEO tools.
As a content marketer, I genuinely feel that Semrush has made my life easier and allowed me to do more quality research than relying on secondary sources
How Do Semrush Tools Help In Keyword Research?
Semrush maintains its keyword database of over 25 Billion keywords, and over the years, Semrush has analyzed over 808 million domains from Google search results.
This vast data allows for a broader search of keywords and brings a set of actionable keyword data you can work on.
Semrush Keyword research tool helps you to:
- Know your audience better
- Target critical keywords
- Understand the search intent of your audience
- Get relevant topics to cover
- Enhance your ad campaign efforts to boost impressions and clicks
- Improve sales
- Create a better brand awareness
Since I started researching Semrush, I have been exposed to more perspectives to analyze a keyword potential, especially for a particular location.
What Does Semrush Offer For Keyword Research
Semrush offers deeply useful keyword research features, with the help of 5 tools primarily:
- Keyword Overview
- Organic Research
- Keyword Magic Tool
- Keyword Gap
- Keyword Strategy Builder
These tools, when combined, allow the user to boost the traffic and perform well on Google search results.
Doing keyword research is basically a 3-step process:
Step 1: Finding keywords with the most promising stats that can be easy to target and rank.
Step 2: Work on finding more keywords related to the main keyword
Step 3: This research can then be saved to the keyword strategy builder for execution
Here are all the tools that make Semrush so popular and desirable as a tool:
1. Using the Keyword Overview Tool
The keyword research begins primarily with the Keyword overview tool, where you add a search phrase (keyword) and start tracking its potential. You can enter up to 100 keywords at a time in this tool.
Next, you can select the country, exact location, and any particular domain name to get personalized keyword research data. To get useful data, this AI-powered keyword checker digs deep into its database to show the keyword search volume, search intent, and a very unique ‘keyword difficulty metric.’
To further support the research, you also get information about the Authority Score, backlink data, and traffic to analyze the ranking posts (your competitors). Once you have a basic idea about your keyword, you can use the Keyword Magic tool.
2. Keyword Magic Tool
This tool does as its name suggests. It does magic in its way using AI. With personalized results, potential keyword difficulty, and the traffic your domain can achieve while targeting a particular keyword.
That’s not all, you can also monitor the keyword trend over the past 12 months, the cost per click, and which SERP features a particular keyword of competitor rank for.
Such information helps you to utilize your resources better, avoid covering highly difficult keywords with no scope of performing, and focus on better opportunities.
While you get this data, you can also tweak these results by filtering them out by, volume, KD%, Intent, CPC, results with or without a specific keyword, and also advance filtering by – word count, competitive density, SERP features, and results in SERP.
By this step, you are basically done finding the potential keyword ideas. But if you are running short of ideas, the AI powered Keyword Magic tool can suggest relevant keyword ideas by number of coverage and by volume.
Once a good list of keywords is shortlisted, you can move on to work on building a plan of execution for this research.
3. Keyword Strategy Builder
This next stage of keyword research with Semrush was introduced to me as ‘Keyword Manager,’ which works well to create a list of the finalized keywords up to 10,000 at once.
It can display a map of pillar pages and sub-pages, sharing key details about the pages to make for the website and keywords to use.
This list can be made by reaching the Keyword Strategy Builder page, Keyword Magic Tool, from the Keyword Gap tool, Keyword Overview, or Organic research, or can also be added manually.
From here, you can now further focus on which keywords to start with. Analyze them by focusing on the – intent, keyword volume, KD%, and keyword density inside the cluster. To further ease out the process, find the bifurcation of these keywords done by the tool:
- Best for strategy
- Easy start
- Quick conversions
- More potential traffic
Proceed with sending these keywords to the content curators with accurate comments on how to cover them if you are the decision maker.
What After Keyword Research?
Once you are done squeezing out the best keywords to target, the next stage remains to convert the keywords into conversion-worthy content.
Whatever your niche and earning methods, having the right keywords covered equally well is critical, and tracking the progress of the published content is further vital.
And to surprise, these tasks also have a role in keyword research.
Writing The Content
If you are short of quality writers, you can refer to Sermush’s AI content tool – ‘ContentShake AI,’ which can help you write optimized articles. This tool guides you to fix the readability, tone, and easy Google Doc integration.
This process is significant in keyword research, too. While an SEO tool can help you share the metrics of top-performing posts, some low-traffic projects can cover beneficial information, too.
The person working may find unique ideas for presenting the content. You can further channel your keyword research with Semrush based on a set pattern or what works.
Keyword Position Tracking
Next, while your keywords are shortlisted, written, and published, your keyword research still goes on.
You can keep track of the keywords you publish using the Semrush Position Tracking tool.
While setting up a project for position tracking, you can track the website’s performance on – Google, Bing, and Baidu. Further, you can even track the performance based on a map’s device, country, and specific area.
After choosing this and selecting/adding the required keywords, you can proceed to create a tracking campaign. This tool allows you to analyze the position of your published posts, track competitor rankings, keywords they have covered, and an entire ranking distribution of your project.
To improve the ranking of your existing posts, you need to continue your keyword research for what competitors are covering and what is working for them.
Semrush Keyword Research Limits As Per Plans
While Semrush is an intricate keyword research tool, it does have limitations in searching keywords. Depending on the Semrush pricing plan, you will have varied aspects to each of the keyword research tools offered:
| Semrush Keyword Research feature | Pro Plan | Guru Plan | Business Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $139.95/mo | $249.95/mo | $499.95/mo |
| Projects to create | 5 | 15 | 40 |
| Keyword results per report | 10,000 | 30,000 | 50,000 |
| Keywords to track | 500/mo | 1500/mo | 5000/mo |
If you are currently enrolled on a lower-tier plan or planning to buy Semrush for the first time, use this Semrush Coupon Code to save 17% on the above-mentioned prices for subscriptions.
How To Use Semrush For Keyword Research Free?
If Semrush subscription costs feel too steep for you, keyword research can still be continued with quality free tools offered by Semrush, and by claiming a 14-day Semrush free trial using our partner link.
As you decide on which Semrush plan to subscribe to, you can follow the guide to claim the Semrush free trial and get an additional week of Semrush on us!
Alternatively, you may use the available Semrush free tools to get a hint of how the tools work and even find quality data for free every day without signup.
Here are the free tools offered:
- Website authority checker
- Keyword rank checker
- SERP checker
- Keyword search volume checker
- Plagiarism checker
- Backlink checker (to be launched soon)
Another way to use Semrush is free for keyword research is by using the free website traffic checker offered by Semrush, which allows you to evaluate the live updated performance of top websites like – Apple, Amazon, ChatGPT, etc.
This free feature further helps you understand how exactly Semrush can help in research.
Keyword Research Using Semrush Pro Tips
To refine the keyword research done via Semrush, there are a few practices that you can adopt.
- Using the negative keyword filter: Add the keywords you know for sure that you do not want to be included in the results.
- Get Semantic Keywords using SEO content template: Semrush offers a feature that helps you cover the content semantically and suggest the keywords that you should be using.
- Use the Keyword Gap tool: To compare your content against a competitor directly, you can find organic, paid, and PLA keywords. This helps find untapped opportunities and directly compare the keywords against the competition.
How To Get Better at Keyword Research With Semrush?
With all the tools handy and offering you the world at your fingertips, Semrush tools offer mega benefits.
To get better at keyword research with Semrush, use these tools effectively, or get familiar with any new update or a new tool, you can do it by following these methods:
- Use a tool:
This is a practical hack that might sound very obvious, but using more and more of the tool will help you get better results.
- Semrush Academy:
Get certified for keyword research by learning keyword research officially from Semrush. Check out the free Semrush keyword research course offered by Semrush Academy.
- Official resources:
Find the written guide on any tool or feature you wish to master from Semrush. The Semrush Help Center, Knowledge Base, and Semrush blog are a gold mine that can help you master the Semrush features.
- Attend relevant webinars:
Semrush also conducts webinars regularly with experts on topics like SEO, AI, Local SEO, Content Marketing, etc.
If you feel it is overwhelming or things are not working out, you may even consider hiring a professional agency. Check out this list of Semrush Agency partners, which can help with all your SEO queries and troubles.
Conclusion: Keyword Research With Semrush Is A Class Apart
Semrush can help you polish the keyword research process, eliminate errors, direct you to better opportunities, and save time.
As you grow your project and aim to do more in less time, Semrush can be useful to scale things up for you. Try for yourself once to see the difference firsthand. Pick any one of the free Semrush tools or begin your 14 day Semrush free trial.
Don’t stay unaware for long, as your competitors who use Semrush peak their traffic and website performance!
