March 16, 2016 seograil.com
SEMrushI’m not just an (ex)employee. I’m a customer
too!Sean Malseed // @seanmalseed Director of Technology, Greenlane Search Marketing
@seanmalseed
Yeah, I used to work there. Whatevs. NBD.
@seanmalseed
The SEMrush US office when I worked there
Me.
@seanmalseed
SEMrush US office today… holy shit.
@seanmalseed
The important question peoplealways ask me about SEMrush
@seanmalseed
Do you say “S-E-M-rush” or
SEMRUSH?
@seanmalseed
ESS - EE - EM - rush
@seanmalseed
(jeez)
@seanmalseed
The other important thingsto know about SEMrush.
@seanmalseed
What we’ll look atWhat is SEMrush
What I use it for
How you can use it
Free vs. paid
Deeper tips & tricks
@seanmalseed
What is SEMrush?
Keywords, competitors & on-site.
@seanmalseed
From SEM’s hidden secret to SEO/SEM staple.
SEOquake started in 2006 targeted to SEOs. They decided to build a tool for PPC people.
SEMrush started collecting data in late 2008, targeted to PPC pros who wanted to find holes in competitor data.
SEMrush in 2009
@seanmalseed
Famous for KW research, but now it’s so much more
Everyone and their mother used SEMrush for keyword research since at least 2010. In the past few years, they’ve blown up way beyond that.
I find that people who use it every day still don’t know all its features.
@seanmalseed
What I use it for
Everything, every day. Permanent part of my
repertoire.
@seanmalseed
Domain overviews
Especially versus competitor sites
@seanmalseed
Domain overviewYou can learn a ton about a domain - both yours, and your competitors’.
@seanmalseed
What’s good?● Organic & paid
Keywords
● Traffic trends(if you thinkabout it right)
What’s not?● Backlinks
● Exact traffic
@seanmalseed
What do you mean, “exact traffic” not good?SEMrush is not Google Analytics - traffic is calculated by looking total keywords ranked for a domain, what positions, and what search traffic those keywords get.
Google Analytics is way more accurate, but remember: you don’t have access to your competitors’ Google Analytics accounts!
SEMrush traffic data is super powerful when used to compare traffic movement, gains, losses, wins, misses, gaps, and more between you and your competitors.
@seanmalseed
Keywords by domain is cool and all...
https://www.semrush.com/info/ranktank.org+(by+organic)
@seanmalseed
But it’s cooler to compare.
https://www.semrush.com/info/domain_vs_domain
@seanmalseedhttps://www.semrush.com/info/domain_vs_domain
@seanmalseedhttps://www.semrush.com/info/domain_vs_domain
I’m totally kicking Moz’s ASS!
@seanmalseed
Oh, and I totally proposed this feature when I worked there.
Did I mention I used to work there?
Yeah. I used to work there.
Whatevs. NBD.
@seanmalseed
Me.
@seanmalseed
Keyword research
It’s like totally awesome for this.
@seanmalseed
Starting from a keyword
https://www.semrush.com/info/buy%20running%20shoes+(full+search)
Start broad, dig deeper, check phrase match
Need a starting point? Use the previous slides to get keywords from your competitors - gaps, weak ranking pages, etc.
@seanmalseed
Phrase match report magic
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
Pro tip:
Do this kind of research on your competitors’ rankings to find strong keywords that they only have a tenuous grip on!
@seanmalseed
Keyword difficulty is amazing.
I wish I came up with it when I worked there.
Did I mention I used to work there?
I talked in Poland one time…
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
Site auditI start every tech audit with
this tool
@seanmalseed
Site audit tool
https://www.semrush.com/info/buy%20running%20shoes+(full+search)
I don’t always use SEMrush for tech audits - but I generally start with this + Screaming Frog
@seanmalseed
Where the F- is the site audit tool? I never saw it!Projects -> Add project -> Site audit
There’s a lot of cool stuff under projects. Like custom keyword position tracking!
https://www.semrush.com/projects/
@seanmalseed
Adding a site audit project is easy. And comprehensive.
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
@seanmalseed
What site audit checks
48 points, including:
Errors, broken links, server errors, titles, metas, headings, images, speed, and a crap load of awesome, useful things.
@seanmalseed
What’s the issue, where it is, and exportable.
@seanmalseed
How I use this
SEMrush to look at the high level, Screaming Frog to dig deep and find all instances, export and combine everything.
Other tools I use erry-day, erry-audit: Majestic, Ahrefs, Rank Ranger, URL Profiler, etc
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