Introduction:
In the world of digital marketing, staying ahead is not just an advantage – it's a necessity. That's where Semrush steps in, unraveling “digital secrets”. Here, we'll explore Semrush and how to use it to decipher search trends and outsmart competitors in a way that can elevate your marketing strategies.
Understanding Semrush Essentials:
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned expert, Semrush's user-friendly interface makes navigating a breeze. Imagine typing your competitor’s domain into Semrush, and suddenly, you can see everything from their top organic keywords, rankings, paid keywords and text & image ads. It’s like peeking behind the curtains of their digital strategy!
Unveiling Search Trends with Semrush:
You're not just keeping up with the trends – you're predicting them. Semrush takes you beyond the present, allowing you to anticipate the next big thing. Dive into Semrush's “Keyword Overview” tool and tada, it's like having a crystal ball. What are the search trends, keyword intent, volume and even suggested related keywords & questions you haven’t thought of before? Look no further!
You can also dive into historical data and emerge with insights that shape your content and marketing strategies. The 'Keyword Magic Tool' can also unveil related keywords, helping you to expand your paid & organic marketing efforts.. Track the rise and fall of specific keywords, foreseeing shifts in consumer interests. You can also see how difficult it may be to rank, how many search features are present, like People Also Ask or Image packs, and estimated cost-per-click (CPC).
Real-Life Insights When Looking At Semrush and Seer’s Data Platform:
This is where Seer really lays down the hammer leveraging our own data platform, alongside the insights we’ve gained from Semrush.
- A Seer alumni (Stephen Iles) noticed product listings showing in an answer box, which leads a user to Walgreens product page. Within our data platform, they noticed Answer Boxes, Product Schema (not listings), and Additional Properties had steep increases around the same time that a subset of pages for a client declined in sessions despite maintaining their rankings. Our hypothesis was that the product listings had a big impact on CTR given their visibility. The product thumbnails were unrelated to the page that owned the Answer Box content. Using report links from our data platform to Semrush (as seen in the 2nd screenshot below), we were able to uncover the exact queries that triggered this, the cached SERP example, and the estimated traffic change month-over-month
- Another common way our team deploys both tools is by using our data platform to see the current search landscape and uncover who our competitors are based on the SERPs, not bias. Then a team member can use Semrush to download more data about those competitors and leverage our technology to uncover meaningful content gaps. Meaningful in the sense that our tool only tracks the keywords we provide, and those keywords are the ones we know drive value, not some random, unrelated keyword that is not relevant to our clients’ businesses.
Gaining Competitive Edge:
Knowing your rivals’ moves is half the battle. Semrush simplifies this:
- Analyzing a competitor's paid search strategy? Just pop their domain into Semrush and bam! See their winning ads, ad copies, and estimated budgets immediately. Find seasonality before you put any dollars towards your efforts. You might even save some money by discovering you should launch sooner or later than expected.
- And the magic of 'Backlink Analytics'? You can find things like categories of referring domains, the types of links (e.g., text, image, etc.), and even the actual URLs of inbound links
With all of this at your fingertips, you're not just competing – you're dominating!
Advanced Techniques with Semrush API:
For those a bit more advanced (or not with some ChatGPT support in example below), the Semrush API grants you the power to automate tasks and analyze complex data sets at scale. Maybe you want to create your own custom dashboards with the raw data or just need to pull large data sets at a faster rate than what can be executed in the UI. The API is the way to go.
Conclusion:
Semrush illuminates your path – it’s the difference between wandering lost and striding with purpose. Embrace the light!
