For about 8 months after launching Startup Cafe Digital (my agency business), I genuinely believed that free SEO tools were all I needed to help me crush it in both business and blogging.

To be fair, we weren’t offering SEO services back then like we do now, but we were helping our clients with content creation and content marketing.

My team and I would register for free trials with Semrush, Moz, and other premium SEO tools, and of course, rely heavily on the free Keyword Planner tool from Google Ads for keyword research and content planning.

But eventually, I hit a wall in my agency journey where just relying on Keyword Planner and trial runs of Semrush and Moz wasn’t cutting it anymore.

Having been impressed with Moz and Semrush, I finally decided to take the plunge and invest in Moz, and a few months later, Semrush for keyword and competition analysis.

Up until then, I didn’t even realize what I was missing out on.

With tools such as Semrush and Moz, you get to take your SEO game up a notch and come out with truly astounding results for your blog, business, and clients.

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably deciding whether to invest in one of these SEO tools.

You may have tried the free version of one of these or both these SEO tools and are now considering whether it’s worth upgrading to the full version.

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Even if you’ve never tried any of these SEO tools, please read this post to learn more about their features and how you can leverage the power of these tools to improve your site’s search rankings.

In this post, I’ll compare two of the most popular SEO tools on the market and see how they compete against each other on features, ease-of-use, and pricing.

Semrush vs Moz (at a Glance)

Here’s a quick snapshot of the two tools — for an in-depth comparison, go through the whole article.

Winner and Best Overall
Semrush	Moz
Semrush isn't just a tool for me — it's my SEO sidekick! From elevating my blogs to powering our agency's client strategies, its features are game-changers. If you're looking to turbocharge your business or blogging journey, Semrush is your ticket to the top.	Since co-founder Rand Fishkin's exit from Moz, there's been a noticeable dip in the value proposition of Moz Pro. I'd suggest giving the 30-day free trial of Moz a shot and then deciding if it's worth investing in.
Product Rating: 4.8	Product Rating: 3.9
Starts at $129.95/mo	Starts at $99/mo
Extensive keyword research capabilities Detailed site audit features Competitive analysis insights Backlink tracking and analysis Content optimization recommendations Advertising and PPC data insights	Widely recognized proprietary metric for domain strength Useful for optimizing local business listings Browser extension gives instant SEO insights Moz's Q&A forum and blogs are resources for learning and support
Can be overwhelming for beginners Higher cost compared to some alternatives Access to historical data requires higher-tier plans	Expensive for the features offered Data is not as accurate or updated as Semrush Limited keyword and backlink data Cluttered UI Reporting feature lacks depth.
Start Your Semrush Pro Trial	Start Your Moz Pro Trial

Winner and Best Overall

Semrush

Semrush isn't just a tool for me — it's my SEO sidekick! From elevating my blogs to powering our agency's client strategies, its features are game-changers. If you're looking to turbocharge your business or blogging journey, Semrush is your ticket to the top.

Product Rating:

4.8

Starts at $129.95/mo

• Extensive keyword research capabilities
• Detailed site audit features
• Competitive analysis insights
• Backlink tracking and analysis
• Content optimization recommendations
• Advertising and PPC data insights

• Can be overwhelming for beginners
• Higher cost compared to some alternatives
• Access to historical data requires higher-tier plans

Start Your Semrush Pro Trial

Moz

Since co-founder Rand Fishkin's exit from Moz, there's been a noticeable dip in the value proposition of Moz Pro. I'd suggest giving the 30-day free trial of Moz a shot and then deciding if it's worth investing in.

Product Rating:

3.9

Starts at $99/mo

• Widely recognized proprietary metric for domain strength
• Useful for optimizing local business listings
• Browser extension gives instant SEO insights
• Moz's Q&A forum and blogs are resources for learning and support

• Expensive for the features offered
• Data is not as accurate or updated as Semrush
• Limited keyword and backlink data
• Cluttered UI
• Reporting feature lacks depth.

Start Your Moz Pro Trial

Key Takeaways

• Semrush stands out for comprehensive keyword research, site audits, competitive analysis, and backlink tracking, with a vast database of over 20 billion keywords.
• Moz offers strong domain and page authority metrics, valuable for optimizing local listings and providing free SEO insights through its browser extension.
• Both tools are excellent, but Semrush is recommended for its extensive features and accurate data, making it a favorite among SEO professionals and agencies.
• Pricing reflects the value, with Semrush starting at $129.95/month and Moz at $99/month. Semrush‘s higher cost is justified by its broader capabilities and more accurate data.
• Free trials are available for both tools, allowing users to explore features before committing.

What is Semrush?

Just giving a search on Google with the keywords “SEO tools” will show you exactly how complicated and crammed up the SEO world is.

There’s a tidal wave of resources out there and while most of these tools are loaded with features, they can make our lives complicated.

But most bloggers, SEO professionals, and digital marketing agencies will agree that Semrush probably provides the best bang for buck.

I use Semrush for pretty much everything I do. I use it to find new keyword opportunities, do backlink analysis, fix site issues, and to spy on competitors’ keywords.

At Startup Cafe, we use Semrush to help our clients rank better in search engines for competitive keywords and check data on how their competitors are utilizing SEO and SEM.

If you know the current state of SEO, you know just how important long-tail keywords and low-competition keywords are. And that’s exactly the kind of data Semrush provides.

In fact, Semrush has the largest keyword database in the industry (over 20 billion keywords) and you can easily obtain thousands of keyword variations for your target keywords.

Semrush is also second to none when it comes to providing the most accurate search volume data for keywords.

Whether you’re using it to improve the SEO of your posts or to bolster your Google Ads campaigns, you can rely on Semrush to present the most accurate and relevant metrics for your target keywords.

How to Use Semrush

If you’ve never tried Semrush before, then you can read this section to know how to start. Others can skip this part of the post and move on to the next section to read the rest of the article.

To get started, you’ll need an active Semrush account. If you don’t have one, you can register for a free Semrush account using the link below.

This will give you free access to Semrush‘s PRO plan for 14 days.

Once you’ve registered and logged into the Semrush dashboard, you’ll find the default search bar like the one shown below. If you’d like data on SEO traffic, navigate to Organic Research from the main navigation menu.

Next, you can type the domain name of your competitor to see the keywords they are ranking for. For this example, I plugged in the Semrush website to examine the keywords they are currently ranking for.

The results for your search should look something like this:

Scroll down till you find the Top Organic Keywords section and click “View all” to see all the organic keywords of the target domain.

The next step is to set filters to find the top 10 keywords for which your competitor is ranking for (this is just an example. You can set any parameters you deem fit for your competitive analysis).

If you’re analyzing a large website, make sure the monthly search volume for these keywords is at least 1,000+. Once you’ve applied the filters, the results page should look something like this:

Once you have the data for the top 10 keywords that your competition is ranking for, you can optimize your own keyword strategy and content to make sure your website ranks well for each of these 10 keywords.

In some cases, your competition may already be a big player in the market with several backlinks and other SEO factors to back them up.

In such cases, what you can do is chase ‘low-hanging fruits’ aka long-tail keywords with low-to-medium competition.

These are the keywords where the search volume is low, but the traffic is high since there is little to no competition.

For example, let’s say you own a meditation retreat in Singapore and you’d like to increase the search traffic to your website.

Instead of trying to optimize your site for the keywords ‘meditation retreat’, you can optimize your site for keywords ‘buddhist meditation retreat in singapore’ which is a long-tail keyword with low search volume, but good traffic.

The best part about Semrush is that you can check not just Google ranking results, but also Bing.

You can also check how your website and your competitors are ranking in over 120 countries.

With the paid version of Semrush, you get the following features:

• Site Audit – This is one of the best features that Semrush offers. You can do a site audit to find and fix the issues with your website. Semrush offers ‘health percentage’ of your site and notifies you via email whenever the health percentage of your site is at risk.

• Position Tracking – Semrush‘s position tracking tool is widely recognized as the most accurate position tracking tool on the market. With the pro version of Semrush, you can select up to 500 keywords and see how your website is ranking on search engines for these keywords. You can frequently monitor your site’s search visibility on both desktop and mobile, and take the necessary steps to optimize your rankings for critical keywords.

• Backlink Audit – With the Backlink Audit tool, you can conduct deep link analysis and identify toxic backlinks that may be hurting your site’s rankings. Semrush also sends you email alerts whenever the tool spots suspicious backlinks. Once you’ve identified all the toxic backlinks to your site, you can use Semrush to create a disavow file, which you can then submit to Google Search Console.

• SEO Reports – If you run an agency, you know the importance of sharing weekly reports with your clients to track progress towards your goals. Semrush has the best reporting features amongst all premium SEO tools. You can choose from any of the ready-made report templates the tool offers, and all reports can be exported as PDFs.

You can even schedule PDF reports to be sent to you via email at regular intervals.

Scheduled reports are available even with the most basic plan ($129.95/mo).

With the Guru plan ($249.95/mo), you can create branded reports by placing your company logo and name at the top of each report to give a personal touch to your SEO reports.

With the Business plan ($449.95), you can take it to the next level by creating white label PDF reports by customizing the look and feel of your reports.

You can do all these and more with a PRO subscription of Semrush.

My suggestion would be to first try their free 2-week trial and use all these features yourself.

I personally use Semrush‘s Guru plan ($249.95/mo) because of the higher limits and the fact that you get access to Semrush‘s Content Marketing toolkit. This toolkit includes 6 amazing content marketing tools to help level up your content and beat your organic competitors in SERPs.

To learn more about Semrush‘s Content Marketing Toolkit, refer to this in-depth guide on Semrush’s content marketing features.

Verdict: Semrush is a top-notch SEO tool, which is used and trusted by SEO gurus throughout the world. If this is the first time you’re investing in an SEO software, then Semrush is the tool you should opt for because it allows you to perform advanced SEO tasks with ease.

From keyword research to competitive analysis to technical SEO audit, you can trust Semrush to arm you with useful data to help you rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). In other words, you’ll be improving your site’s SEO by leaps and bounds.

Is it worth paying over $100 a month? Yes, and it’s worth every penny. When used to its potential, the ROI is pretty strong with this one.

What is Moz?

Started way back in 2004 by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, Moz first started as an SEO consulting company before they developed their first SEO tool.

Rand Fishkin is immensely popular in the SEO community, and deservedly so. His Whiteboard Friday videos are a must-watch and his brilliant book Lost and Founder should be required reading for all entrepreneurs and marketers.

Though Fishkin is no longer at Moz (he left the company in 2018 to launch SparkToro), he’s still in the board of directors and an integral part of the company and its ethos.

I’m a big fan of Rand Fishkin and his content. He’s one of the few SEO thought leaders who can be considered an influencer.

But when it comes to Moz’s flagship SEO tools, I’ve mixed feelings.

Like Semrush, Moz is an all-purpose SEO tool that you can use for site audit, backlink analysis, keyword research, and so on.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Read on to learn about my reservations about spending $100 a month on Moz.

How to Use Moz

To get started, let’s talk about some of the good things that Moz offers.

The best part about Moz is that pretty much everything good about it is FREE.

So if you’re on a shoestring budget and don’t want to invest in SEO tools yet, but still want to ensure that your site ranks well, then the free services offered by Moz are industry standard.

All of these tools below are free and you can use them to improve the search visibility of your site:

• Link Explorer – You can track your link profile and uncover link building opportunities using this free tool
• Keyword Explorer – Helps you find the best keywords in your niche
• MozBar – Perhaps the best among free tools offered by Moz, MozBar is a Google Chrome extension that offers you a glimpse into any site’s Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA), both crucial metrics, on a regular basis.

Your site’s PA and DA change on a monthly basis, so it’s important to keep a watchful eye on how your site is measured in these terms. Moreover, you can perform keyword research and link analysis of the sites you visit right from the browser bar (like shown below) without having to access the dashboard. You can get your MozBar Chrome extension for free here.

If you’re using Moz for free, then you can perform up to 3 searches per day. For the example below, I gave a search on “Moz.com” to find their DA and PA and to get a fair idea about their backlink profile.

Now to the part that isn’t that good.

Having been impressed with the free services offered by Moz, I decided to take the plunge for paid subscription and found myself a little underwhelmed.

I didn’t mind paying the $99 per month price for standard subscription as long as the tools offered were worth that sum.

Being a fan of Rand Fishkin, I so wanted to like Moz Pro, but it fell short of my expectations.

I found myself using it less and less and canceled the subscription to look for better and cheaper alternatives.

Having said that, Moz by no means is a bad SEO tool.

I still use their free tools such as Link Explorer and MozBar for SEO to keep a track of my sites’ PA and DA.

Moreover, Moz has some incredible SEO and content marketing resources that you can check out for free here.

If you’re a beginner, then Moz has some of the best resources that you can read to familiarize yourself with SEO tactics. Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO is perhaps the best SEO resource if you’d like to learn the basics of SEO.

They also have an amazing blog that I visit regularly.

Whiteboard Friday, a video series featuring started by co-founder Rand Fishkin, is something that you should tune in to every week.

But if you were to ask me if I would ever subscribe to Moz Pro again for $99/month, my answer would be No.

I’d like to emphasize that this is my personal experience with Moz.

There are people who swear by Moz and they may be able to elaborate more on the paid services offered by Moz. Perhaps they’ve been able to spend more time with the tool and used it to its full potential.

For me, everything good offered by Moz is free and if you had to invest in an SEO tool, I’d recommend Semrush.

Semrush vs Moz: Which SEO Tool Should You Buy?

If you were to compare the free tools offered by each of these platforms, both have their own strengths and limitations. But if we were to compare the features offered under paid subscriptions, then I’d highly recommend Semrush over Moz.

I use Semrush for pretty much every SEO task that I do. Not just for my own blogs, but also for my agency business where we offer SEO services to our clients.

In my opinion, Semrush is a must-have tool if you want to grow your business as well as your blogging career.

The sheer amount of data available on Semrush can be overwhelming at times, but they have excellent training materials and product guides to help you every step of the way.

Their support team is really helpful and they organize weekly webinars that you can participate in to hone your SEO skills.

Moz, on the other hand, is expensive for the features it offers.

The best thing to do would be to try the free 30-day trial of Moz and probably then decide to take a plunge if you like the product.

Like I said, your experience with the product may differ and you may find value in the paid services which they offer.

On the other hand, if you had to invest in a powerful SEO tool, then Semrush has all the features you need and more. Give it a try!

Moz vs Semrush: Pricing

In this section, we’ll briefly examine the pricing plans offered by both these tools.

Moz Pricing

These are the Moz Pro pricing plans as of August 2020:

• Standard – $99/mo (ideal for beginners)
• Medium – $179/mo (ideal for startups)
• Large – $249/mo (ideal for small businesses and agencies)
• Premium – $999/mo (ideal for large agencies and businesses)

Note: You can save 20% by switching to annual pricing.

Semrush Pricing

Semrush increased their prices in early 2023. This is Semrush‘s current pricing structure:

• Pro – $129.95/mo (ideal for startups and bloggers)
• Guru – $249.95/mo (ideal for SMBs and marketing agencies)
• Business – $499.95/mo (ideal for enterprise and large businesses)

Note: You can save up to 17% by switching to annual billing.

Final Verdict: Semrush vs Moz

I’ve had a fantastic experience using Semrush. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Having said that, I’d like you to approach these tools without any preconceived notions and form your own judgment in deciding which tool is more suited for your business and website.

Which is why I’d urge you to try these tools for at least two weeks, or maybe even a month, before forming an opinion.

Luckily, you can grab a free trial of both these tools and get access to most of their top features.

To summarize this post, here’s a visual breakdown of how Semrush compares with Moz on key parameters:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is Semrush better than Moz?

Yes, Semrush is often considered better than Moz for its extensive keyword research capabilities, detailed site audits, competitive analysis tools, and accurate backlink tracking. Its broad database and precise data analytics offer deeper insights for optimizing SEO strategies.

2. What is the difference between Moz and Semrush?

The main difference between Moz and Semrush lies in their focus and breadth of features. Moz is known for its domain and page authority metrics, making it useful for beginners and those focused on local SEO and link building strategies. It offers a user-friendly interface and valuable educational resources.

Semrush, on the other hand, provides a more complete suite of SEO tools, including robust keyword research features, comprehensive site audits, competitive analysis, and backlink monitoring features. It also boasts a larger keyword database and offers more in-depth data analytics, making it better suited for advanced SEO professionals and agencies looking for detailed insights and actionable intelligence to enhance their SEO strategies.

3. Are there any free trials available for Semrush and Moz?

Both Semrush and Moz offer free trials, allowing users to explore their features before making a financial commitment. Semrush offers a 14-day free trial, while Moz provides a 30-day free trial.

4. How does Semrush‘s keyword database compare to Moz’s?

Semrush boasts the largest keyword database in the industry with over 20 billion keywords, offering thousands of keyword variations and detailed search volume data. Moz also provides a robust keyword research tool, but Semrush‘s database is more extensive and provides deeper insights.

5. What are the pricing plans for Semrush and Moz, and how do they compare?

Semrush’s pricing starts at $129.95/month for the Pro plan, with higher-tier plans available for advanced users. Moz’s pricing begins at $99/month for the Standard plan, with options for larger businesses and agencies. Semrush‘s higher pricing is reflective of its more comprehensive features and larger keyword database.

6. Which tool is better for backlink analysis, Semrush or Moz?

Semrush is generally considered better for backlink analysis due to its extensive backlink tracking and analysis features, along with the ability to identify and disavow toxic links. Moz also offers backlink analysis tools, but Semrush provides more detailed insights and actionable data.

7. Can Semrush and Moz help with local SEO?

Moz is particularly useful for optimizing local business listings due to its focus on local SEO tools and metrics. Semrush also offers features for local SEO, but Moz’s tools are specifically designed to improve visibility in local search results.

8. How do Semrush and Moz support content marketing efforts?

Semrush supports content marketing with its Content Marketing Toolkit, offering tools for content creation, optimization, and performance tracking. Moz provides insights into keyword opportunities and SEO optimization, but Semrush offers a more comprehensive suite of tools for content marketers.

9. Can I use Moz for free?

Yes, you can use Moz for free, especially through its MozBar tool. MozBar is a free browser extension that provides instant SEO insights about websites, including metrics like Page Authority and Domain Authority.

10. Which SEO tool is best?

Among the plethora of SEO tools available, Semrush consistently ranks as the top choice for many SEO professionals and digital marketers due to its comprehensive array of features.

Moz, once at the forefront of SEO tools, now finds itself outpaced by competitors like Ahrefs and SE Ranking. Ahrefs is renowned for its robust backlink analysis features, while SE Ranking, while SE Ranking offers a versatile, all-in-one SEO platform for detailed website audits, keyword tracking, and competitive analysis.

Google’s own suite of tools, like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, also provides essential data for SEO at no cost.

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on June 3, 2016 and has been updated regularly since then for relevance and comprehensiveness. 

If you’re an existing Semrush user, here are some resources you can check out to make the best use of your Semrush subscription:

• 10 Actionable Things You Can Do with Semrush to Boost Your Traffic
• How to Use Semrush for Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide
• Semrush Site Audit: 10 Most Overlooked Features
• How to Use Semrush to Crush Your Competition
• 15 Lesser-Known (Yet Super Effective) Semrush Hacks
• How to Use Semrush .Trends to Deconstruct Competitor Strategies
• ChatGPT + Semrush: How to Use ChatGPT with Semrush for SEO Success
• How to Use Semrush to Maximize Your Content Marketing ROI

Here are some more comparison posts featuring Semrush that you may find useful:

• SEO Tools Showdown: Semrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz Pro vs SpyFu
• Semrush vs Ahrefs: Which SEO Tool is Better?
• Semrush vs Mangools: Which SEO Tool is Better?
• Semrush vs SpyFu: Which Competitor Analysis Tool is Better?
• Semrush vs Ubersuggest: Which SEO Tool is Better?

The post Semrush vs Moz: Which is the Best SEO Tool? appeared first on 99signals.

• How long should a blog post be?
• What’s the minimum word count required to rank in the top 10 search results on Google?
• Should every blog post be long form in the post-Hummingbird era?

I’m sure you’ve spent countless hours doing research on the internet, rummaging through various articles to find an answer that’s convincing and really applicable to your industry.

This research is quite valid.

After all, as bloggers and content marketers, it’s our job to create content that’s optimized for maximum traffic, social shares, and conversions. Therefore, we need to ensure that the blog post we are about to publish is positioned to get more shares, backlinks, and of course, traffic.

In this article, we’ll shed light on how long your blog post should be and also reveal ways in which you can arrive at the right word count for your post for any topic.

What’s the Ideal Word Count?

There was a time when the ideal word count for a blog post was somewhere between 300 to 800 words. There are publications which still follow this rule and benefit greatly from it. (more on that a bit later)

But ever since the Google Hummingbird algorithm update, long form articles have dominated search engine result pages.

Let’s take a look at three different studies that prove this to be the case.

A study conducted by serpIQ found the average content length of top 10 search results to be over 2000 words. In fact, the top 5 results were articles with over 2300 words.

An even more elaborate study by Backlinko found that the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.

And finally, a study on Google search ranking factors by SEMrush found that long-form content tends to rank higher in SERPs for high-volume keywords.

So the key takeaway from all these studies is that long-form content ranks higher in search results than short-form content. Moreover, the average word count of a Google first page result is close to 2,000 words.

But is this applicable to all industries? Perhaps not.

Viperchill did an in-depth analysis of top 5 blogs from 8 different industries to see the average post length of each. Here’s what the study found:

As you can see, gadget, web news, and gossip blogs tend to publish shorter articles. This should come as no surprise as these blogs publish multiple times during the day. On the other hand, marketing, finance, and personal development blogs publish long-form articles, but post less (1-7 times per week). Also, the topics covered in these niches are quite complex which require in-depth analysis and explanation.

So, the question still remains. How long should a blog post be?

The answer lies in doing a bit of research on the top blogs or publications in your niche. This is where a tool like SEMrush’s SEO Content Template can make your life easy.

The SEO Content Template is a tool within SEMrush that helps SEOs and marketers develop SEO-friendly content. The tool provides basic SEO tips to help you create content that outranks your rivals on the SERPs for your target keywords.

In the next section, we’ll explain how you can leverage this tool to arrive at the ideal word count for your blog post with two examples from different industries.

How to Use SEO Content Template to Arrive at the Right Post Length

You’ll need an SEMrush account for this section. If you don’t have an SEMrush account yet, you can get a 30-day free access to SEMrush GURU by clicking here ($199.95 value).

Below is a video tutorial of SEO Content Template. You could also scroll down to find step-by-step instructions on how to use SEMrush‘s SEO Content Template.

Here’s how the SEO Content Template tool works:

1. You enter keywords that you want to target with your content in the SEO Template search box.
2. SEMrush analyzes content on the Google’s top 10-ranking pages for your target keywords.
3. On the basis of these top 10-ranking pages, SEMrush provides key recommendations for creating content that’s optimized for SEO. These recommendations include semantically related words, backlinks that you should you try to target, readability and ideal text length.

Side note: SEMrush is a powerful digital marketing suite that can help you with more than just content length. Read my full review of the software, or start your 30 day free trial to test it out for yourself!

Now let’s deep dive into using this tool. The first example deals with a marketing topic and the second one deals with a topic that’s trending in the gadget world at the moment.

Login to your SEMrush dashboard and click on SEO Content Template on the left hand navigation menu just below Topic Research Tool.

In the first example, I entered the target keywords “link building tips” into the SEO Template search box and found these results:

The top 10 search results included the usual suspects from the SEO industry – Moz, Backlinko, Matthew Woodward, CMI Institute, and so on.

The recommended text length for this topic is 4,469 words. This is based on the average word count of the top 10 posts for the seed keywords. Understandably, most sites featured here have published mammoth guides for link building and are therefore ranking in the top 10 SERPs.

If you scroll down, you can see exactly how your competitors using your target keywords:

You can click on each of the results to be taken to the respective post on your target keywords. Here’s an example from Backlinko:

Now let’s move on to the second example. In this case, I’ve picked “google duplex” which is a widely discussed topic in the gadget world right now.

Some of the sites ranking in Google top 10 are tech and gadget blogs like the Verge, TechCrunch, CNET, and so on. The ideal text length for the target keywords is 717 words which is slightly on the higher side for gadget blogs, but the controversial nature of Google Duplex is bound to attract thought-provoking articles from other news publications as well.

Once again, when you scroll down, you can see exactly how other sites are using the target keywords in their content:

You can click on any of the links to read the accompanying article for the target keywords. Here’s an example from Engadget which is one of the top gadget blogs:

Conclusion

There is no hard and fast rule on the length of an ideal blog post. Having said that, research suggests short-form articles rarely dominate search engine results. A few exceptions are news websites, especially in the gadget and entertainment segments.

When it’s all said and done, long-form articles which cover a topic in-depth tend to rank higher in search engine result pages. Furthermore, such articles also attract more links and social shares. As such, it’s important that you do your research before you start writing your article and arrive at the ideal post length on the basis of the average word count for top 10 ranking pages in SERPs for your target keywords.

If you want to save yourself some time or are giving articles to your content writer, I highly recommend utilizing SEMrush’s SEO Content Template. Let this tool do the hard research work for you, so you can focus on the more important stuff.

With the word count in mind, you’ll be better positioned to dominate SERPs for your target keywords and beat the competition.

If you found this article useful, please share it on Twitter using the link below:

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The post [Answered] How Long Should a Blog Post Be? appeared first on 99signals.

Think about it!

Strong content is fundamental to all forms of marketing – social media marketing, SEO, PPC, PR, and email marketing.

Traditional marketing is losing its steam, becoming less effective by the day. Customers no longer prefer to be bombarded by product pitches all the time. Instead, they would like brands to focus on delivering relevant, valuable, and consistent content that helps solve their problems. In other words, they’d like brands to focus less on pitching their products and more on providing solutions to the issues they are facing. This is why content marketing is so important in today’s business environment.

According to Content Marketing Institute (CMI), both large and small businesses use content marketing because it’s good for the bottom line and the customer. Specifically, businesses use content marketing for these 3 key reasons:

• Increased sales
• Cost savings
• Better and more loyal customers

In order to achieve your content marketing goals, you need a reliable platform that lets you perform a detailed analysis and assessment of your existing content assets, and provides recommendations to improve the quality of content on your site to maximize its impact. SEMrush is one such platform which can help you amplify your content marketing strategy, specifically 3 tools within SEMrush:

• Content Audit
• Post Tracking
• SEO Content Template

In this article, we’ll evaluate the key features of these lesser-known SEMrush tools in detail and examine ways to improve your content marketing strategy.

1. Content Audit Tool

The SEMrush Content Audit tool lets you quickly audit the content on all the webpages of your website, based on the sitemap data. With this tool, you can determine which pages are effective and which ones are not.

This tool provides you with various data such as social signals from Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn, backlinks, and user signals, such as number of sessions, average session duration, and bounce rate. It also automatically collects metadata, content authors, and content length for each URL. These metrics help you identify pages on your website that are not getting the recognition they deserve and could be improved with an update.

To access this tool, go to Content Analyzer –> Content Audit, enter your domain and hit ‘Start Audit’. Wait for a few minutes while SEMrush gathers the data for you.

Pro Tip: To get a more accurate data, I highly recommend you connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts with the Content Audit tool. You can do this once SEMrush generates the content audit report.

Once the report is generated, it’s time to identify loopholes and weak spots on your website. The quickest way to do this is by sorting the table by quality metrics such as:

• Social shares or backlinks – to find content that is not as popular across the web as some of your other pages.
• Content update – to find pages on your site that are the oldest and need an update.
• Word count – to find content that could be expanded into longer posts.

You can even manage your workflow within the Content Audit tool and track progress of each of your pages. Your options are ‘Not Done’, ‘In Progress’, and ‘Done’. Use these options to assign priorities to each of the pages that you’d like to improve.

You could also take the URLs that you want to improve and enter them into the On Page SEO Checker (formerly SEO Ideas). With this tool, you’ll receive actionable ideas to improve your strategy, on-page SEO, technical SEO, and more.

2. Post Tracking Tool

With the SEMrush Post Tracking tool, you can analyze and measure the performance of any article by tracking its backlinks, keyword rankings, and social shares. You can use the Post Tracking tool to track the performance of your guest posts on different sites or review any article from your competitors’ sites.

To access this tool, go to Content Analyzer –> Post Tracking, and enter the URL of the article. By default, the tool comes with a ‘demo mode’ with 3 example URLs. So before you proceed, you can check the demo to see how the tool operates.

Within a few seconds, SEMrush will analyze the URL you’ve entered and return with a report showing the article’s keywords, total backlinks, and social shares.

Under social shares, you’ll also be able to view the top contributors on Twitter i.e., a list of Twitter influencers who shared or retweeted the article. With this data, you can perform an influencer outreach while promoting your own content that rivals that of your competitor.

3. SEO Content Template

The SEO Content Template is a standalone tool that helps SEOs and marketers develop SEO-friendly content. The main goal of this tool is to help you create content that outranks your rivals on the SERPs for your target keywords.

This tool can also help you uncover link building opportunities and discover how your top competitors are using target keywords within their content.

To access this tool, click on SEO Content Template on the left hand navigation menu just below Gap Analysis Tool.

Here, you need to enter your target keywords, select the location, and then hit ‘Create SEO Template’. Within a few seconds, SEMrush will generate a report which will contain the following data:

• Key recommendations (based on your Google top 10 rivals) – Semantically related words, backlinks, readability, video content, text length, etc.
• See how your competitors use your target keywords
• Basic recommendations – Page Title, Meta description, H1, text, etc.

You can also export your template to a Word document to access it offline. This Word doc will list your recommendations for Page title, meta description, text, backlinks, and your rivals’ URLs.

Conclusion

To be effective at content marketing, you need a tool like SEMrush to develop a robust content strategy. Click here to sign up for a 30-day free trial of SEMrush Pro and create a successful content marketing plan for your business.

New to SEMrush? Check out the resources below, where you’ll learn effective ways and strategies to get maximum ROI from your SEMrush subscription:

• SEMrush Review
• 5 Best SEMrush Features for Bloggers
• SEMrush vs Moz: A Detailed Comparison of Key Features
• 6 Powerful Ways You Can Use SEMrush to Crush Your Competition
• SEO Tools Showdown: SEMrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz Pro vs SpyFu

The post How to Use SEMrush to Amplify Your Content Marketing appeared first on 99signals.

Just check out this research study from Robbie Richards where he reached out to 143 marketing experts to reveal their top 3 favorite SEO tools. Semrush ranked top among SEO tools fetching 63 votes while the second most popular tool (Ahrefs) got 42 votes.

In short, Semrush is the go-to keyword and competitor research tool for a majority of marketers and professional bloggers.

In this article, we’ll examine why it’s such a resourceful tool for bloggers and show you practical tips to get the most out of your Semrush subscription.

If you run a blog and have just started using Semrush or would like to use it to its maximum potential, then this article is for you.

If you haven’t subscribed to Semrush yet, please click on the link below to get free access to Semrush PRO for 30 days.

Get 1-month free access to Semrush Pro (Worth $119.95)

Here are the 5 best Semrush features you should use to improve your search rankings and drive more traffic to your blog.

Top 5 Semrush Features for Bloggers

1. Analyze Long Tail Keywords using Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush is primarily known for its Keyword Analytics feature to extract different reports for keyword research.

It works like this:

Just enter your seed keyword(s) into the search box and hit enter. Within a few seconds, Semrush will pull out the following data for the keyword(s):

• Volume of searches
• Number of results
• Phrase match
• Related Keywords
• Competition

But there is another feature within Semrush that’s often ignored by users – The Keyword Magic Tool.

The Keyword Magic Tool is an easy-to-use keyword research tool that provides all the keywords you need to build an effective SEO or PPC campaign. With this tool, you can generate tons of long-tail keywords for your seed keyword(s).

To use this feature, navigate to Keyword Analytics and select Keyword Magic Tool.

Enter your seed keyword(s) and hit ‘Search’. The Keyword Magic Tool will then automatically calculate keyword potential for you, presenting you with data on important metrics such as:

• Volume
• Keyword Difficulty
• CPC
• Competition

In addition to these metrics, Semrush will also present you with a long list of long-tail keywords for the seed keyword(s) which can be exported onto a spreadsheet for manual sorting.

Semrush will show you data on volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, and competition for each of these keywords, helping you identify the most profitable keywords for your campaign.

Once you have identified the keywords you’d like to include in your campaign, you can add these keywords directly into Keyword Analyzer to get more in-depth information on the keywords.

2. Optimize Your Existing Blog Posts with On Page SEO Checker

The On Page SEO Checker (formerly SEO Ideas) on Semrush is designed to help people optimize their websites for better search rankings. This tool suggests precise optimization ideas to improve the search visibility of web pages on your site based on what your competitors are doing to rank ahead of you.

In this case, you can use On Page SEO Checker to optimize the existing blog posts on your site.

On Page SEO Checker is a project tool, so in order to use this, you’ll need to create a new project for your domain if you haven’t already done so.

Once you’ve done that, go to the projects dashboard to start yourOn Page SEO Checker campaign. In a few seconds, Semrush will generate a report that will list all the optimization ideas Semrush has gathered to improve your website’s SEO.

At the bottom of the report will be your TOP pages to optimize, listed by their combined total volume.

The pages that are targeting the most volume of search will be at the top. To see all of your ideas, click on “View all pages and ideas” at the bottom.

To read your ideas for a specific page, click on one of the green buttons next to that landing page. Semrush will pull out the Optimization Ideas report and suggest improvements to your overall strategy, content, usage of semantically related words (aka LSI keywords), backlinks, technical issues, and user experience.

3. Optimize Your Site’s Technical SEO with Site Audit

As a blogger, the importance of technical SEO shouldn’t be overlooked. To rank high in search result pages, you need to ensure that there are no issues with the technical side of your website.

The Semrush Site Audit feature can help you identify technical SEO issues with your site and highlight steps you’ll need to take to fix these issues.

To run site audit for your site, navigate to Projects and select Site Audit.

The Semrush bot will crawl your website and return with a report on all the on-site errors you need to fix in order to obtain a higher health score. The total health score of the website is based on the ratio of found issues to the number of performed checks.

The technical issues on your site are organized into 3 categories:

• Errors – These are the issues that are of the highest severity and as such, should be fixed immediately. Examples include Broken links (internal and external), duplicate content issues, Robots.txt format errors, sitemap errors, etc.
• Warnings – These issues are of medium severity. Examples include duplicate title and H1 tags, images that don’t contain alt attributes, internal links that contain nofollow attributes, missing meta descriptions, etc.
• Notices – These are minor issues. Examples include external links that contain nofollow attributes, pages blocked from crawling, orphaned pages in sitemaps, etc.

Needless to say, the higher the number of errors on your site, the lower your total health score. Always aim at keeping the health score at 85-90% on a weekly basis.

By running regular site audits, you can monitor your site’s health on a consistent basis and ensure that your search rankings are not affected by technical issues on your site.

4. Monitor Your Brand Outreach using Brand Monitoring Tool

While brand monitoring is done mostly by marketing agencies and PR managers, it is equally important for bloggers to keep a track of any mentions that are positive as this can help you obtain an easy backlink.

The Semrush brand monitoring tool can help you save plenty of time by scanning the web to find online mentions and customer reviews of your blog. You can also monitor the mentions of your blog on Twitter.

Brand Monitoring can be found in the projects section. Go to your projects dashboard and click on the setup button in the Brand Monitoring widget.

Semrush will pull out a report listing all the mentions of your brand. These mentions can be filtered by their source (news feeds, blogs, web) and date, as well as segmented for better navigation with the help of various tags.

Furthermore, you can also use this tool to track the mentions of your competitors’ blogs to unravel new link building opportunities.

We’ll cover link building in detail in the next step.

5. Find New Link Building Opportunities with Link Building Tool

Link building still remains an integral part of SEO and authoritative backlinks from high DA sites can propel your blog post to page 1 in SERPs within no time.

Semrush’s Link Building Tool allows you to determine websites where you can reach out to acquire new potential backlinks and improve your search rankings.

To access Semrush‘s Link Building Tool, go to your projects dashboard and click on the setup button in the Link Building widget.

Next, enter 10 keywords that you wish to earn a higher ranking for and 10 competitors you’d like to outrank in SERPs.

Semrush will then present you with a list of link prospects that could help your overall backlink profile, breaking them down into different sections – prospects based on organic search, competitors’ backlinks, mentions, etc.

Each link in the prospects list can be expanded to see further details by clicking on the dropdown arrow in the Rating column.

When expanded, you will be able to see the domain quality, domain relevance, and domain health of the backlink. Each of these metrics will help you determine if this link will be beneficial to your backlink profile.

To see what each prospect looks like, you can open the link in a new tab using the blue pop out icon next to the URL.

Once you’ve identified what backlink opportunities you want to go after, your link building success comes down to reaching out with your pitch for a backlink. You can connect your GMail account with Semrush so that you can send and monitor outreach emails directly from the interface.

To get even more value out of the Link Building tool, I suggest you integrate your Semrush account with Google Search Console. This will allow you to access additional domain prospects on which you’d like to place a backlink, automatically mark already acquired backlinks, and ensure that your most important backlinks have been indexed by Google.

Over to You

Now that you know the best features and tools within Semrush, it’s time to start optimizing your blog for better search rankings.

If you haven’t used Semrush yet, I hope this post convinced you to at least give it a try. You can even check out my full review of Semrush here to see whether it is the right tool for your requirements.

To take the tool for a free 30-day test drive, click on the link below. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

Get 1-month free access to Semrush Pro (Worth $119.95)

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Related Articles

• Semrush Review: The Best Tool to Improve Your SEO and PPC
• Semrush vs Moz: Which SEO Tool is Better?
• How to Get High-Quality Backlinks with Infographics (and Boost Your SEO)

The post 5 Best Semrush Features for Bloggers appeared first on 99signals.