Semrush Review (2025): Comparing Its Accuracy to GSC & More
written by
Victoria Kurichenko
updated on
May 12, 2025
I’ve been using Semrush since August 2023 to grow my website and create optimized content for my clients.
I like testing new SEO tools, but I always find myself coming back to Semrush Pro for client projects or using its free plan to track my own site.
Since I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Semrush and know its features inside out.
I want to share some insights you probably won’t find in other blog posts. Specifically, I’ll break down how Semrush stacks up against other popular SEO tools and highlight the unique features that set it apart.
Whether you’re looking to grow your own site (like I do) or manage multiple client websites as an agency, I’ll show you exactly how Semrush can help.
Chances are, you landed on this post through a Google search while looking for a Semrush review. That’s why I’ve skipped the beginner-level stuff and moved it to the FAQ section. If you need the basics, like “What is Semrush?” you’ll find it at the end of this post.
Meanwhile, I’ll start right by sharing my results from comparing Semrush to Google Search Console and other SEO tools I’ve worked with to actually show you how accurate the tool is.
P.S. Some links are affiliate in this post. This means I’ll earn a small commission if you decide to go for Semrush. I’m sharing this because you deserve to know this info. Even if you don’t go for it, I’m happy to support Semrush, as I’ve been using it myself for years. 🙌
How accurate is Semrush?
One of the biggest challenges for SEOs and website owners when picking an SEO tool is accuracy.
Can we trust the data enough to make data-driven decisions? That’s the real question.
Personally, I only trust a tool after running tests and comparing its numbers with reliable sources like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. That’s the best way to see if it actually delivers.
Organic traffic comparison
If you’re wondering whether Semrush’s organic traffic estimates are accurate, I’ve got you covered. I recently compared its data to see how well it holds up.
Just a heads-up—I’m only looking at organic traffic. Any data from other channels isn’t part of this comparison.
Here are my website’s organic traffic estimates from various tools for January 1–31st, 2025:
| GSC | Semrush | Ahrefs | Ubersuggest | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic estimate for: selfmademillennials.com | 8,000 | 7,800 | 13,700 | 7,659 |
Here’s a screenshot from my Google Search Console showing my organic traffic for January 2025. It estimates a total of 8,000 clicks.
And here’s what the Semrush Domain Overview report says about my site for the same period. Its organic traffic estimate is 7,800 monthly visits. That’s pretty close to my GSC data!
I used to be skeptical about this metric, but it turns out Semrush can actually give a decent traffic estimate for competitors.
Let me show you Ahrefs’ estimate. I used to rely on this tool for many SEO tasks, but lately, I’ve noticed its organic traffic and keyword estimates aren’t always accurate.
According to Ahrefs, my site had around 14,000 organic visits in January 2025. But that’s way off. My total traffic from all sources was just over 10,000, according to Google Analytics, and my actual organic traffic was only 8,000.
That means Ahrefs overestimated my organic traffic by 71.25%!
You can learn more about Ahrefs in my Semrush vs. Ahrefs comparison article.
Alright, let’s chat about Ubersuggest.
It’s another alternative to Semrush with some handy features. I grabbed a lifetime subscription during their winter holiday sale, so I’ve been testing it alongside other tools to see how accurate it is.
According to Ubersuggest, my site got 7,659 organic visits in January 2025. That’s closer to the real number than Ahrefs’ estimate, but Semrush still nailed it better.
I focused on organic traffic estimates because that’s what really matters to SEOs. This is a key SEO metric they track.
Among all the big players in the industry, Semrush stands out when it comes to traffic estimates.
And that’s no accident.
Semrush’s set of data includes over 808 million domains, 26.4 billion keywords, click stream panel data from billions of events per week, over 43 trillion backlinks, over 10 billion URLs crawled per day on average, and a range of data aggregated from social media networks. That’s impressive numbers not every SEO tool can offer.
At this point, Semrush is one of the most established and powerful SEO tools out there, offering more backlink and keyword data than any other tool.
If you’ve been thinking about trying Semrush Pro, here’s a little perk—my partner link gives you a 14-day free trial to Semrush Pro instead of the usual 7 days. Just a small way to get more time to explore and see if it’s a good fit! 😊
Page performance comparison
Plus, I thought it’d be interesting to see what these tools say about my best-performing blog post—AI SEO tools.
I first published this article in January 2024, and by the end of the year, it had become my biggest traffic driver, even beating some industry giants.
Here are the estimates from various tools for January 1–31st, 2025:
| Data for the AI SEO tools page | GSC | Semrush | Ahrefs | Ubersuggest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic visits | 3,965 | 5,100 | 6,700 | 12,671 |
| The number of ranking keywords | – | 278 | 518 | 212 |
| The number of backlinks | 60 | 55 | 73 | 43 |
None of the SEO tools gave me spot-on data about my top blog post’s performance, but Semrush came the closest.
That means you can probably trust Semrush when checking your competitors’ top-performing pages. The numbers won’t be 100% accurate, but they’ll still show clear trends—whether a page or domain is growing or losing traction.
I hope you found these comparisons helpful!
If there’s anything else you’d like me to test for this Semrush review, drop your suggestions in the comments. I’ll run the experiment and update the post.
What you can do with Semrush
Let’s dive into what Semrush can actually do and why I keep coming back to it.
I’ll walk you through some of its standout features, like the Keyword Magic Tool, it’s a total game changer and saves so much time.
Here’s a quick look at what Semrush offers, and then I’ll break it down in more detail:
- Get an overview of a domain’s online presence
- Track a domain’s growth over time
- Find out which topics and keywords are driving organic and paid search traffic
- Compare up to five competitor domains in one report
- See key metrics like organic and paid search traffic, and backlinks, for specific countries or globally
- Track a domain’s progress for organic and paid traffic, and backlinks over any period (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.)
- Check out competitors’ top-performing pages based on traffic and keywords
- See how much organic traffic a search term is sending to your competitors
- Discover and analyze competitor traffic sources
- Spot keywords and URLs gaining or losing traffic
- Get updates about competitors’ activities, like when they publish new content
- Run an SEO audit to find technical issues
- Get daily or weekly email updates on major changes so you can stay ahead
- Monitor your site’s rankings and your competitors’ daily
- Get suggestions for improving every page on your site
- Generate optimized content in different languages with ContentShake AI
- Manage local listings with Semrush Local
- And more!
This is already a long list, and I’ve only covered the SEO features.
But Semrush is an all-in-one SEO toolkit that can be used by an entire online marketing team.
Beyond SEO, it also helps with social media campaigns, paid search ads, influencer marketing, outreach, market research, and much more.
While I was updating this Semrush review, I looked into how many features Semrush has.
Want to take a guess?
Semrush offers 55 different features for all sorts of online marketing tasks. So, whatever you need, there’s probably a Semrush report or feature for it.
Since I mostly work with SEO and content writing, let me share some SEO tasks that Semrush can help you do.
1. Check and analyze any website
With the Semrush free plan or Semrush Pro, you get access to the Domain Overview report, which helps you quickly check out any website.
Here’s how it can be useful for you:
- See how your website’s current performance
- Track your website’s organic traffic and keyword trends (if they go up or down)
- Check out any website’s domain authority
- Figure out if a website is good for link building
- See if a website is growing or losing momentum
Most SEO tools have a similar report but with fewer metrics included. What I like about Semrush is it includes all essential information in one report to quickly asses any website’s current state.
SEO experts will find this report really helpful, but if you’re just starting out, it might feel a bit overwhelming with too much information.
2. Find keyword ideas based on your seed keyword
Unlike many other SEO tools, Semrush has a powerful Keyword Magic Tool that can help you find easy-to-rank keywords based on your seed keyword.
Considering that Semrush’s keyword database has over 26.4 billion keywords, I’m sure you’ll find keyword ideas for your website.
I recommend using Semrush when you:
- Want to find keyword ideas related to your niche
- Want to launch a new website and need to understand a niche potential
- Specifically looking for easy-to-rank keywords with business potential
Here is how you can use Semrush Keyword Magic Tools step-by-step.
1. Open Keyword Magic Tool and insert your seed keyword (my seed keyword is “SEO” in the example below).
2. Indicate your filtering parameters only to see relevant keywords, such as the following:
- Volume: 100+
- Keyword Difficulty: Easy
- Search Intent: Commercial
This way, you’ll quickly narrow down the search to relevant and easy-to-rank keywords for your website.
3. Review and select relevant keywords.
In my case, I’ve got 738 keywords after applying the filters. I’ve manually reviewed all keywords and picked 10 juicy keywords for my website. In fact, there were more suitable keywords, but I’ve already targeted most of them.
3. Check competitors’ top-performing pages
Whenever I need fresh keyword ideas for my website, I take a peek at my competitors’ top-performing pages. If something’s working for them, why not borrow a few smart strategies?
I’ve been doing this since 2015, and trust me, it works!
If you’re stuck on keyword research or your competitors keep outranking you, find out what works for them. It’s super simple with Semrush!
Just head over to the Organic Research report, go to Pages, and filter by traffic. Boom—you’ve got a list of their best-performing pages.
Check out the screenshot below. These are my website’s top pages, according to Semrush.
In my case, software review posts perform the best. That’s part of my affiliate strategy. Most of them rank in the top 10 and bring in sales. 💰
4. Check competitors’ top-performing keywords
Just like in the example, you can use the Organic Research report to find out which keywords bring the most traffic to your competitors.
Go to Organic Research > Positions, and you’ll see their top keywords, along with search intent and featured snippets.
5. Find keywords your competitors rank, but you don’t
There is one more advanced strategy to conduct niche keyword research.
With Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool, you can see which keywords your competitors rank for, but you don’t.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Keyword Gap report.
- Add up to five competitor URLs.
- Click Compare and select Untapped.
If you use direct competitors’ URLs, you’ll get a solid list of keyword ideas.
I tried this myself and found 8.9k keywords, which is way too many to go through manually. Since there’s no filter in this report, you’ll have to sort through them yourself.
Want to narrow it down?
Try adding just one competitor’s URL instead of five.
6. Find competitors' top-traffic generation channels
There is one more way of using Semrush effectively.
The Traffic Overview report provides an in-depth overview of competitors’ top traffic generation channels, including the top sources!
In the example below, Semrush got my top traffic generation channel right — it’s organic search. The second top-performing channel is referral because I am an active Medium writer with over 20k subscribers.
I believe the Top Sources is one of the most valuable reports here, giving you answers to what websites send traffic to your competitors and whether you can replicate their strategy.
If you use Semrush Pro, you’ll only get a peek at the top three traffic sources. To see the full report, you’ll need to upgrade to Semrush Trends.
Semrush Trends gives you a quick snapshot of the market and competitor insights, helping businesses spot trends and find new growth opportunities.
Funny story, while writing this Semrush review, I accidentally bought Semrush Trends by clicking on a CTA inside my account. Since my credit card was already linked, the charge went through before I even realized it.
I wasn’t too worried, though. I had requested a refund from Semrush before, and they processed it within 24 hours. But after checking out the reports, I actually found them useful, so I decided to keep the subscription.
One of the reports I found interesting shows which pages are growing or losing traffic in a specific country. If these pages matter to your business, you might want to optimize them to keep their rankings steady.
7. Monitor your competitors’ latest activity
Semrush has a cool feature I haven’t seen in other tools. It’s called Semrush EyeOn, and it keeps an eye on your competitors 24/7.
You’ll get instant alerts whenever they publish a new blog post, launch a web page, run search ads, or post on social media.
As an SEO expert, I find this super useful because it shows me exactly what my competitors are doing and how often.
I’ve been keeping an eye on several websites using Semrush EyeOn. One time, I got a report saying a site had published 99 new pages in just a week.
Crazy, right?
Without Semrush, I would’ve never caught that!
8. Track your website’s rankings
Besides checking out your competitors, you can also use the Semrush SEO tool to keep an eye on your own website’s performance, especially your keyword rankings.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Position Tracking
- Select your website (or set up a new project)
- Click on Rankings Distribution > Keywords
After following these steps, you’ll be able to add keywords for tracking. I suggest focusing on the most important ones for your business, like transactional keywords that bring in revenue. Keeping those rankings high should be a priority.
Once you’ve added your keywords, click Save (or Update if you’re making changes).
Semrush will then generate five reports:
- Rankings Overview
- Top 3
- Top 10
- Top 20
- Top 100
I find these reports super useful.
Here’s how I use them:
- I work to maintain rankings for keywords in the Top 3 and Top 10 reports.
- I focus on improving rankings for keywords in the Top 20 report.
Plenty of SEO and AI marketing tools offer similar features, but I like how Semrush presents key data in a way that’s easy to understand.
Shoutout to Semrush for keeping me on top of my website rankings with those handy weekly reports!
Since January 2025, I’ve been running my site like a real business—refining my content and sharing exclusive SEO insights.
And it’s paying off.
My AI SEO Tools page is crushing the rankings, even outranking some industry giants! It brought in 6,259 visits in January (per Google Analytics).
I’ve also revamped about 30% of my Content Writing Tools for SEO post. It’s still a work in progress, but the rankings are already climbing.
Plus, I dropped an updated Semrush review on Feb 7—no fluff like “What is Semrush?” Just straight-up insights and real comparisons with other SEO tools I actually use.
All these updates (and more) show up in the weekly ranking report Semrush sends straight to my inbox. Super convenient—I don’t have to track it manually, Semrush keeps me in the loop.
Here’s what Akshay Negi, a brand marketing expert, says about using Semrush’s Position Tracking tool to boost his online business:
9. Track your website’s health
With Semrush Site Audit, you can check the current state of your website or your competitors.
I use this feature to track whether any technical issues occur on my website, such as the following:
- 404 errors
- No-indexed pages
- Wrong canonicals
- Wrong redirects or redirect loops
- Duplicate content
- Broken internal and external links
- And more.
It’s worth mentioning that many websites have technical errors and rank in the top positions on Google.
For example, my website has issues with the Core Web Vitals, a set of specific factors that Google considers important for user experience on a website.
Nevertheless, 74.3% of all pages on my website generate organic search traffic.
10. Get on-page SEO recommendations
Semrush’s on-page SEO checker scans your web pages for technical issues and SEO mistakes that might hurt your rankings.
It points out areas where you can improve your content, page structure, and metadata to boost your chances of showing up higher in search results.
To get these recommendations, you’ll need to set up a project in Semrush and add your website.
When I tried it, Semrush gave me 33 suggestions for 8 pages on my site.
In my case, I’ve reviewed all Semrush recommendations for my Gumroad review article and implemented some of them.
In particular, I
- Updated roughly 30% of the content
- Improved metadata
- Improved the content structure
- Added some of the recommended semantically related keywords
Semrush has also listed a few websites I could use to build backlinks. However, I did not build any since I didn’t have time for it.
Nevertheless, the impressions and traffic to the Gumroad review page increased. Therefore, I suggest updating content on your top-performing pages from time to time to maintain rankings.
Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
There is one more tool I want to talk about in this Semrush review.
When I first tried Semrush SEO Writing Assistant, there were no tools like Koala AI, ContentShake AI, or ChatGPT to help with on-page SEO.
I connected Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to Google Docs to get instant tips on improving my content for SEO. It made things easy because, by the time I finished writing, my post was already optimized and ready to publish.
If you want to use it, just enter your target keyword in the sidebar and start writing. The tool will give you real-time feedback on:
- Keyword use – It checks how often you use your keyword and if it’s in the right places.
- Readability – It shows how easy your content is to read and suggests ways to improve it.
- SEO score – It gives your content a score based on keyword use, readability, and SEO best practices.
Semrush pricing
Even though Semrush has a free plan you can use to check various metrics, it’s not enough to conduct proper keyword or competitor research.
You’ll have to upgrade to at least Semrush Pro plan to use the tool. The Semrush Pro plan costs $139.95 monthly, which is a lot but still cheaper than what I used to pay for Ahrefs, $199.
I summarized everything you should know about Semrush pricing below.
It’s also worth mentioning that Semrush issues refunds within one day if your card was accidentally charged, like in my case. You’ll only need to fill out the contact form to request a refund. The Semrush support team will respond to you via email to confirm the refund.
Before choosing any paid plan, I recommend signing up for the Semrush Pro 14-day free trial. This way, you’ll test the software and decide whether it works for you.
To wrap up
You’ve made it to the end—nice job!
I kept this article long on purpose so I could dive deep into all of Semrush’s features and share my experience using it.
Semrush isn’t the most affordable tool, but I use the Pro plan for my own projects, client keyword research, and competitor analysis.
If you’re in SEO or run an online business, having a solid SEO tool can make a big difference by giving you reliable, up-to-date data for smarter decisions.
FAQ
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, I saved all the basics for the end. So, let’s go over some common questions you might have!
What is Semrush?
Semrush is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market, and it is used by businesses of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. It is known for its comprehensive data and its wide range of features.
I recently came across this Linkedin post from Glen Allsopp, the founder of Detailed.com and a well-known SEO expert.
In this insightful post, Glen reviews Semrush’s performance in early 2025 and shares his predictions for its growth.
In a nutshell, Semrush is a solid company projected to expand by approximately 20% this year.
For SEOs, businesses, and content creators, this suggests that Semrush will remain a leading force in the SEO tool market.
Is Semrush data reliable?
Compared to other SEO tools, Semrush’s data is relatively reliable.
Semrush claims they obtain their data through a mix of proprietary and third-party data sources, including clickstream, web crawling of third-party websites, and the different data Semrush’s customers grant them access to, which includes our customers’ website and social media data.
According to the Semrush 2023 annual report, as of December 31, 2022, and 2021, Semrush empowered over 803,000 and 537,000 active free customers, respectively, and over 95,000 and 82,000 paying customers, respectively, in over 157 and 145 countries.
What are Semrush alternatives?
If you believe you’d better pick an alternative after reading this Semrush review, I’d recommend the following tools:
Is Semrush good for beginners?
If you’re new to SEO, Semrush might feel a bit overwhelming at first.
There are so many tools, reports, and features packed into the dashboard that it can be tricky to know where to start.
A better approach might be to begin with something simpler, like Ubersuggest, and then gradually work your way up to a full SEO tool like Semrush.
From what I’ve seen, Semrush is widely used by SEO agencies, B2B companies, and SaaS businesses that focus on online marketing.
If you want to give Semrush Pro a try, you can start with a 7-day free trial!
Hello there!
My name is Victoria.
I am an SEO expert, Medium top writer, solopreneur, and the founder of Self Made Millennials. I help companies create optimized content and attract potential customers through organic search results. In addition, I share how content creators can monetize their writing skills.
Grab my SEO ebook
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2 Responses
Be careful when you choose a “free” plan, you won’t cancel it so easy.
Hi James,
Thank you for reading my article.
I just want to clarify that a free plan means you can use a tool for free without paying anything. You’ll only have to pay if you decide to upgrade to Semrush Pro.
I used Semrush’s 7-day trial several times and could cancel it without any issues.