Diving Into SEMrush
One of the initial things I notice about SEMrush is that it is built for those with already proficient knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO). Terminology is one of those items that might seem intimidating to beginners like myself. While building a SEMrush project for this particular blog, I found the steps easy to follow for set up, but I felt left to my own devices when it came time to knowing which dashboard items were necessary for tracking data for this class-related blog, as I do not have a company website to analyze. I decided to set up all but four dashboard items: Social Media Tracker, Social Media Poster, Brand Monitoring, PPC Keyword Tool. I decided to leave out these tools considering there is not a social media account related to this class blog, there isn’t technically a brand related to this blog that would be mentioned by others, and as of right now, it is yet to be determined if we will be working with pay per click keywords.
What SEMrush Can Help Me With
SEMrush seems like a fantastic tool companies and brands can use to improve their websites and other digital aspects related to their websites and keywords. Something noticeably different between SEMrush and Google Analytics is that SEMrush seems to diagnose issues and notify its users of these issues, whereas with Google Analytics, users need to diagnose the issues themselves based on the data provided/ collected. Another difference I noticed is SEMrush is an excellent tool for comparing your websites to competitor’s websites in order to know where you stand, and where you need to improve. Right now, as a newbie to SEO, this seems like the most beneficial and exciting feature.
Running the Numbers
Once the domain for this blog was entered into SEMrush for the project, I set up the site audit feature which shows that this blog has a site heath of 80 percent. It also listed four errors, 64 warnings, and 94 notices, even though the blog is fairly new and only has a few posts on it. Next, I set up position tracking and selected some of my peers’ blogs as competitors along with some other well-known marketing sites like marketo.com, hubspot.com, neilpatel.com, and digitalmarketer.com. No surprise here, that the visibility of my blog and those of my peers lies at zero percent, far below the 22.31 percent visibility of marketo.com.
The Page SEO Checker module for the SEMrush project, is a nifty tool considering it provides users with ideas they can use to optimize their page’s SEO. For this blog, SEMrush suggests eight total ideas in the realm of backlinks, technical SEO, semantic ideas, and content ideas. According to SEMrush, adhering to these suggestions can help to increase organic traffic over 1000 percent (2021). The backlink audit found zero current toxic domains and the link building module shows 823 domain prospects. The organic traffic insights module pulls data collected by Google Analytics of the blog. This module is the most familiar to me because of my familiarity with Google Analytics.
Where I Still Need to Learn
Terminology on SEMrush is definitely one of the things I need to become more familiar with. Some of the terms like “crawlability” or “crawled pages”, “toxic domains”, and “domain prospects” are some of the terms I’m unfamiliar with in a layman sense. SEMrush does a great job of providing a lot of hover-over information, but I feel like these bits of info would be easier to follow if I were more proficient in SEO tactics and terminology.
Where to Go from Here
I’m interested in learning more about the on-page SEO checker module and how to implement the ideas they suggest in order to boost traffic. I’m also interested in learning more about the link building module and how it does or does not apply to this blog. I tend to find myself drawn more toward the site audit and the organic traffic insights module due to the general data provided and my familiarity to Google Analytics. More importantly, I would like to know in the simplest terms how to actually fix the errors on the blog that are listed in the site audit. Overall SEMrush is at first overwhelming but in the end beneficial for those looking to up their game in the realm of search engine optimization.
References
SEMrush. (2021). On Page SEO Checker. Retrieved from https://www.semrush.com/on-page-seo-checker/5144221/overview/
SEMrush. (2021). Site Audit. Retrieved from https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit/campaign/5144221/review/#overview
Hi Monica,
ReplyDeleteI agree about the difficulty with the terminology. It is mostly new to me also and I find myself having to look up the acronyms and definitions for many things. Reminds me of my first job where the training managers kept using acronyms and terms I did not know and I had no guide or way to look them up. I had to keep writing them down and asking others in the class what they mean.
You stated a difference between Google Analytics and Semrush, how Semrush seems to take things to the next level with diagnosis and notification. I can't image a full time digital marketing manager doing their job effectively with out using both and I can see major corporations have a staff of people reviewing Semrush results and reporting them to a VP of marketing and planning adjustments.
If you read my blog you will also find i agree with you about the competition and my experience taught me that knowing your competitor and responding to them quickly is absolutely necessary! Digital marketing is another area where companies must be aware and responsive to competition and its my opinion that Semrush is a necessary tool. This class is complex to me too but I find it has revealed a new world to me in terms of marketing.
One of the things I found fascinating was adding Seoquake and seeing all the webpage ranks. I clicked on the icon in my browser and see that their are many options, including Semrush. This is an area I plan to explore more in the coming weeks. What did you think of SEOquake?