Semrush vs Ahrefs Comparison

When looking at how to improve a company’s SEO, many turn to a professional service with a proven track record. But with so many choices on the market, it’s hard to know which one to pick. Two services that shine over the competition are Semrush and Ahrefs, and while they may appear similar on the surface, they’re not. For instance, Semrush offers a wider choice of features and a variety of optional tools. However, Ahrefs comes at a lower price and allows for the creation of an unlimited number of projects. Each company has unique selling points that set them apart from the competition and it’s clear there’s more to them than meets the eye.

Saying that Semrush is comprehensive is an understatement. All the tools provided come with features that allow for an in-depth look at the subject you’re researching. For example, for link building, the platform includes a Backlink Audit that analyzes existing backlinks and display their toxicity levels, as well as a link building tool to find prospective backlinks. This makes it easier to figure out which links should be removed to avoid affecting the authority of your company’s website, which can be done from Semrush’s client itself.

Of course, one of the most important parts of SEO is keyword research. Semrush knows this and that’s why it provides three different tools for keyword analysis: the Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Overview, and Keyword Manager. The amount of information users can get is enormous. In addition to the usual metrics, the service also shows top competitors for a specific keyword, click potential, keyword intent, and SERP features. It’s important to mention that it allows up to 10,000 daily reports, each one with up to 50,000 results. Unfortunately, Semrush only gathers data from Google and Baidu.

The service also helps create optimized content as it comes with five dedicated tools for content marketing, including SEO Content Template, SEO Writing Assistant, Topic Research, Post Tracking, and Content Audit. Semrush goes as far as to rate how hard it is to rank for each subtopic, along with its efficiency in search engines.

But this is not where it ends, as it’s also possible to expand these features by getting the optional tools that cater to specific types of businesses. While the Local SEO tools helps distributing brick-and-mortar businesses’ information, Semrush Trends is perfect for evaluating new markets and the Agency Growth Kit ideal for marketing agencies. The best part is that Best Review readers can take advantage of our exclusive deal to try Semrush for free for 14 days.

One of Ahrefs’ main features is the user-friendly Site Explorer, which delivers an in-depth look at a target website. In addition to checking the content gap between your website and the competition, this is the place to check for outgoing links, as well as broken backlinks and internal links. Ahrefs offers the unique possibility of seeing the movement of the metrics in a calendar view.

When it comes to the Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs is similar to other SEO tools. However, it has the unusual option of providing the expected number of clicks if the website ranks for the keyword being researched. AhrefsBot is one of the most active crawlers on the market as well, visiting six billion web pages every day and updating Ahrefs’ index every 15 to 30 minutes. It’s important to mention that the company offers 500 monthly report credits per Power user and that each report can have up to 150,000 rows (with a monthly threshold of up to 10 million).

Meanwhile, Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker tracks the metrics for up to 10,000 keywords to help find which to focus on. The company sends out weekly updates but can provide daily updates at extra cost. Ahrefs also holds one of the largest databases of content ideas with 11 billion web pages in its index. The platform provides the top search results for specific tools and provides information on each page’s organic traffic, backlinks, keyword rankings, and social shares over time.

Conclusion

Both Semrush and Ahrefs offer a great number of features that can be significant time-savers. Still, the one that’ll suit you best will depend on your needs. Semrush is more comprehensive, providing more tools and in-depth information than Ahrefs. However, this might be overkill for some, and Ahrefs’ user-friendly interface makes it easier to check information. That being said, Semrush’s optional packages come with tools that you can’t get with Ahrefs. A good example is the Local SEO tools that are excellent for increasing the visibility of brick-and-mortar businesses. At the end of the day, both solutions provide plans to cater to all types of businesses and website sizes. For users seeking a more detailed look at their metrics and hoping to take advantage of extra tools like the content writing assistant, Semrush is the better choice. On the flip side, for those who prefer a more straightforward interface (even if it means losing some features) and want to get the expected number of clicks for keywords right away, Ahrefs is the way to go.