Semrush Tutorial – How To Use Semrush for SEO Optimization

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How use Semrush for your blog
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Semrush is a suite of SEO tools and I have shared in-depth about it in my Semrush review.

I have also shared a Semrush Free trial coupon that will let you try it for 14 days without paying anything.

In today’s post, I will be strategies that will help you to learn how to use Semrush, and how to use the data provided by Semrush to optimize your website for search engines.

Before we get to the tips, I’d like to point out a few problems with some existing blogs and show you how Semrush could help you improve your keyword ranking.

How to use Semrush to improve keyword ranking:

One of the biggest problems with old blogs (in which SEO is/was not a focus), is poor keyword ranking.

Most of the traffic these blogs get comes from random posts, but there is no knowledge of what keywords are driving traffic to these posts. This is key information missing because if you know what keywords your blog is ranking for and the keyword’s position, you can do several things to improve your search engine ranking.

Let me give you a practical scenario from ShoutMeLoud

All of the blog posts written before 2016 were not targeted for any specific keyword, and most of my old blog posts are ranking for random keywords at different positions. Some of them are on the first page, some of them are on the second, some are on the third, the fourth, the fifth, etc.

Following this guide, I can find the keywords these blog posts are ranking for and improve those rankings. You can follow this guide as well and do the same for your site.

Let’s get started:

First, create a free account on Semrush.

Once you have logged in, enter your domain name in the search field, and click on the “Full Report” of organic keywords. It will list all the money and traffic keywords you are ranking for, along with other vital details such as:

Next, sort your report based on “Keyword Position.”

We do this because we want to push our second-page results to the first and use my Google Search CTR-increase technique to get more clicks. You can also sort based on “Keyword Trend,” which is a good practice if your goal is to focus on getting more traffic.

Alternatively, if your goal is to increase your AdSense income, you can sort using “Keyword CPC”.

So we sort depending on what our specific goals are.

Here is a screenshot:

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Now make a list of all the URLs you need to work on. You can use a spreadsheet to create a list of keywords, positions, and URLs.

You can also add your keywords into the Semrush Position Tracking as it lets you monitor your keyword ranking as well. This will help you see the progress of your efforts.

So now we have used Semrush to extract some important data from our site:

  • Keywords for which we are ranking.
  • Money keywords.
  • Traffic keywords.

Our next goal is to improve the ranking of these keywords.

The following is the strategy that works for me:

1. Use SEO Writing assistant.

Semrush has a feature called SEO writing assistant that lets you optimize your article for SEO.

Here is some information that you can quickly get from an SEO writing assistant:

Subscribe on YouTube

Read about: SEO Writing assistant feature of Semrush.

I use the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize my posts for particular keywords. I have previously shared a detailed usage guide of Yoast SEO plugin that will guide you on how to use it for optimal performance. This will take care of your on-page SEO.

Bonus Tip: Add images, videos, Infographics, charts, graphs, tables and slides whenever possible. Make your content as high quality as you can. This will make sure you can retain your keyword ranking for a long time to come.

To improve ranking, backlink building is very important.

I use my guest blogging campaign technique to improve keyword ranking and get high-quality links. I initially used it for a few posts, and after I published guest posts on a few authority blogs, I saw a very significant improvement in keyword ranking.

3. Use social media marketing.

Social media signals are very important these days to improve the ranking of a keyword. Share your blog post on Facebook, and Twitter, and make sure to continue sharing at regular intervals (7-10 days).

Also, encourage your readers to share the article on their social networks and to bookmark your posts.

This is a technique that I discovered late in the game, but it continues to work very well for me.

If you are getting traffic for certain keywords, try to create more posts on similar and related topics. Interlink them, and this will help to improve each article’s ranking.

And that’s it!

Now you just have to keep an eye on your keyword improvement with Semrush and see how this works out for you.

How to use Semrush for further SEO of your blog:

Again, Semrush is an SEM tool; you can use it to find details for any website. Make a list of popular sites in your niche, and start mining out their data using Semrush.

I also use Semrush to generate more keyword ideas which lead to more traffic and thus more advertisement income.

For example, ShoutMeLoud’s niche is blogging and SEO, so I can focus on similar niche blogs to get more content and keyword ideas.

I have been using Semrush for some time now, and I continue to find it worth my money. For any serious blogger who wants to work on the overall SEO keyword improvement of their blog, Semrush could be a very profitable tool.

Let me know how you are using Semrush for the SEO of your blog in the comments below.

If you find this article useful, remember to share it on your favorite social networks!

Here are a few hand-picked articles for you to read next:

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A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

16 thoughts on “Semrush Tutorial – How To Use Semrush for SEO Optimization”

  1. Rajeev M

    Just one clarification – why am I putting my domain name? Shouldn’t I be putting search terms for what I am writing about? eg my domain name maybe something like ‘playhigh’ and I could be writing about leadership development or golf!
    Please help!

  2. Harsh Shah

    Dear Harsh,
    I have been using free trial version of SEMRush for 7 days and it’s so helpful for a new blogger like me & I will be mow upgrading it to pro version. I am using it for my new Tech Website http://tricks techno.com It’s an awesome tool and must use by every blogger.

  3. Pepso

    Thanks Harsh,

    I was actually thinking about going PRO with SEMRush and you just might have decided for me. Keep it up!

  4. Maharshi

    Awesome post as always. Which SEMRUSH plan would you suggest for a new blog by the way? I know it depends on lot of factors, but would love to have your inputs on the same.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Maharshi
      Pro plan is good to start with.

  5. Rijina Minj

    Hi Harsh thanks for sharing valuable information. I found your blog when a question came in mind how to use SEMrush tool for SEO. It was helpful and got additional information from hear.

  6. Carla

    Amazing, amazing post. Im a newbie blogger and you have explained it in a way that a newbie would understand! thank you and keep it coming!

  7. Sagar

    Hi Harsh,

    Thanks for this valuable information. I have been using semrush free version to check backlinks. In my opinion it is good. I think its time for me to go pro as I find semrush very useful.

    Regards

  8. Adam Ostopowich

    The SEMRUSH tool and its uses have been lucidly and thoroughly described in this post. The writing style of Harsh Agarwal is attractive and appealing.

  9. Manish

    Hi Harsh,

    First of all thanks for this nice informative post. I am reading you blog regularly. But In this post I have a query regarding the title and your blog content.

    As per you blog title you decide to give a tutorial about how to use semrush. But there is no tutorial.

    This is little bit confusing. I hope I will a get a nice tutorial from you related to semrush use and finding right keyword.

    Thanks again for this information. I love this blog.

  10. Rahul Chawla

    Hi Harsh,

    Thanks for the sharing the information, For sure this is a going to be bookmarked.

    Now the check list to make more pages and have quality content has been created !

    Cheers !

  11. Justclickin

    Hi Harsh,

    I should really thank you for this article… I did know that SEMrush is a paid one and the charge is at a bit higher end before looking at its features. So, I used to avoid it a lot but this article made everything clear.

    I will try it out completely and will put in my comments later too 🙂

    Thanks & keep up the good work.

    MJ

  12. Mahaveer

    Thanks for sharing this information Harsh. I will be sure to sign up for SEMRUSH and use your guide for keyword optimisation.

  13. shubhkarman jatt

    Good tool for seo newbies like me.

  14. jatin singh

    i want to know that at starting periods when u started blogging how you made traffic for your website…..was that of your quality content or something else?

  15. MCQ

    I was much excited and wished to test the system for those 15 days to look if I can use the tool. To my utter dismay the coupon code as you’ve provided here did not work for me. It says coupon already expired. So, no way out?

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