10 Things You Can Do with a Free Semrush Account

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10 Things You Can Do with a Free Semrush Account

Semrush is one of the most popular and widely used SEO tools on the market.

While the Pro plan unlocks the complete experience at $129.99/month, your free Semrush account is no mere snippet — it’s a valuable asset.

If you want to experiment with a few features in the free account before deciding to invest in the tool, this post is tailored just for you.

This post reveals the 10 best features in your free Semrush account.

How to Get Semrush for Free

There are two ways in which you can get free access to Semrush — a free sign-up account and a free 14-day trial account.

A Free Sign-up Account

A simple sign-up account on Semrush offers you limited access to all the key features within the platform.

This is essentially a “no-frills attached” account where you don’t need to provide your credit card details. You can enjoy limited access to Semrush without ever worrying about being charged.

In addition, you also get access to Semrush’s app marketplace, Semrush App Center. The App Center features several marketing apps which you can use for free.

Click here to sign-up for Semrush

 A Free Semrush Pro Trial Account

This gives you full access to all the 45+ paid features in Semrush for 2 weeks.

To create a free trial account, you’ll need to provide your credit card details.

Once the two weeks are over, you’ll be automatically upgraded to Semrush’s Pro plan ($129.99/mo).

In those two weeks, you can cancel the subscription at any time and you won’t be charged.

This article will focus on what you can do with a free sign-up account. If you’d like to sign up for a free trial, click on the link below for an exclusive 2-week free trial of Semrush Pro.

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Semrush

Experience the full power of Semrush Pro with a 14-day free trial.

How to Use Semrush for Free: 10 Best Features

1. Perform Keyword Research

Semrush is undoubtedly the best keyword research tool on the market. With an extensive database, unparalleled insights, and intuitive interface, it uncovers a wealth of data to guide your content strategy.

With your free Semrush account, you can do up to 10 keyword searches every day.

You can either use the Semrush Overview report or Keyword Magic Tool to unlock a ton of keyword opportunities.

If you’d like a quick peek at the monthly search volume and other important keyword metrics, the Keyword Overview report is your best bet.

To get started, login to the Semrush dashboard and navigate to:

SEO Dashboard > Keyword Research > Keyword Overview

Enter your target keywords in the search box and in the resulting overview report, you’ll see all the essential metrics for your keywords.

Pay close attention to monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, and competitive density.

Semrush Keyword Research Overview Report

The Keyword Overview report also generates keyword variations and question-based keywords for your target keywords.

Semrush - Keyword Variations

You can click on the “View all” button below any of these sections to open up the Keyword Magic Tool.

Under the free account, the report is limited to 10 results.

Keyword Magic Tool - Keyword List

You can set modifiers like Broad March, Phrase Match, Exact Match, or Related to narrow down your list of keywords or use the keyword groups on the left side of the keyword list to find long-tail variations for your target keywords.

Semrush KMT - Filters and Modifiers

If you’re seeking question-based keywords, just select the “Questions” modifier to see keywords in the form of a question.

Semrush KMT - Questions Modifier

In addition, you can also filter these keywords by volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC.

KMT - Additional Filters

Circling back to the Overview report, right below the keyword variations, you’ll find the top 10 Google search results for your target keywords.

This will give you an idea of who your top organic competitors are for your target keywords.

Recommended reading: How to Use Semrush for Keyword Research: The Ultimate Guide

2. Run a Site Audit

Semrush’s Site Audit tool sets the benchmark for technical SEO tools, providing a thorough analysis of your website’s technical SEO health.

Your free Semrush account allows you to run a site audit where the tool crawls up to 100 pages on your site.

To use the Site Audit tool, navigate to:

On Page & Tech SEO > Site Audit

Set up your project (you can set up 1 project as part of your free Semrush account.)

Enter your domain details and hit the “Start Site Audit” button to initiate a comprehensive scan of your site.

The Site Audit Overview report will project an overall health score of your site and provide a complete breakdown of all the issues that need your attention.

Semrush Site Audit Overview Report

Start with sorting out the issues in the “Errors” section, and then move on to tackling the issues in “Warnings” and “Notices.”

Semrush Site Audit - Errors Report

You can simply click on each issue to dive into the exact pages that are causing trouble. Plus, there’s a handy “Why and how to fix it” link that gives you some solid tips on fixing these issues.

Semrush Site Audit - Actionable Tips

You can also explore the thematic reports, which are super helpful in spotting specific issues related to how well your site can be crawled, its performance, internal linking, and those all-important core web vitals.

Semrush Thematic Reports

Click on the “View details” button beneath each widget to examine a detailed report on each of these aspects.

Recommended reading: How to Perform a Quick SEO Audit with Semrush

3. Track Your Keyword Rankings

Semrush’s Position Tracking tool is ranked among the most accurate rank tracking tools on the market.

With your free Semrush account, you can keep a track of up to 10 keywords.

To use this tool, visit:

SEO Dashboard > Keyword Research > Position Tracking

Enter your project details here — your domain, location and device type, and create a list of 10 keywords you’d like to track.

Position Tracking Tool - Settings

The resulting report shows you three main metrics for each of the keywords you’ve added: Positions, Estimated Traffic, and Visibility.

Semrush - Position Tracking Report

The Position Tracking report also alerts you on daily keyword fluctuations and helps you uncover potential opportunities to snag those coveted featured snippets.

4. Optimize Your Content

With Semrush’s Content Marketing toolkit, you can discover engaging new topics, get tailored content recommendations, and optimize your content’s SEO-friendliness.

To get started, navigate to:

Content Marketing > Topic Research

Enter a broad topic into the search box and hit the “Get content ideas” button.

Semrush Topic Research Tool - Search

The resulting report will generate content ideas for the topic you entered in the form of subtopics, headlines, questions, and related searches.

Semrush Topic Research Report

You can expand each card with a subtopic to view the top headlines and questions surrounding that topic.

Semrush Topic Research - Subtopics Report

Once you’ve zeroed in on a topic, you can enter the selected keywords into “SEO Content Template.”

Semrush SEO Content Template - Search

Based on an extensive analysis of the top-ranking content for your target keywords, the tool will offer actionable insights, including semantically related words to consider, average readability score, recommended text length, and potential backlink targets.

Semrush SEO Content Template - Recommendations

Plus, it also shows how your top organic competitors are using your target keywords in their content.

Semrush Content Template - Comp-Analysis

Armed with these insights, you can get a head start on creating content that not only addresses your readers’ pain points but also has a better chance of ranking higher in search engine results.

Recommended reading: 15 Lesser-Known (Yet Super Effective) Semrush Hacks

5. Monitor Your Local Listings

If you’re focusing on local SEO to grow your business, Semrush’s Listing Management tool allows you to conduct a free audit.

This tool allows you to review your company’s presence across 70+ major directories in the US, ranging from Google Business Profile and Yelp to Trip Advisor and Bing.

Additionally, it offers the capability to monitor your local listings in more than 25 countries, such as the UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany.

To use this tool, navigate to:

Local > Listing Management

Just input your company name or website into the search box.

Semrush Local SEO - Intro

This will produce a report detailing the status of your company’s listing across various directories.

Semrush - Local SEO Audit

The results of this audit can guide you in determining the future course of action for your local SEO strategy.

Recommended reading: 11 Best Local SEO Tools to Improve Your Local Search Rankings

6. Perform Competitor Research

With your free Semrush account, you can analyze up to 10 domains, including your own domain and those of your competitors.

Navigate to:

SEO Dashboard > Competitive Research > Organic Research

Just enter the domain, and you’ll get an overview report that reveals top metrics for the website, including estimated organic traffic, top organic keywords, top keywords by search intent, and more.

Semrush Competitive Research - Organic Research Report

The Overview report also highlights your competitor’s top-performing pages (expandable to 10 results under the free plan), along with their percentage share of organic traffic and the total number of organic keywords they currently rank for.

Semrush - Top Pages Report

While free access to Semrush‘s competitive research toolkit comes with restrictions, you can still gather a wealth of insights here to shape your understanding of competitors and refine your strategy.

7. Check Your Page Speed 

Once you create a free Semrush account, you’ll get access to Semrush App Center. This features a curated collection of marketing apps designed to drive the growth of your business.

And the best part? There’s a whole bunch of these apps that you can check out for free with your Semrush account.

A notable standout is the free Website Checker app.

This app is designed to evaluate the SEO effectiveness, page speed, and user accessibility of your website.

To get started, just enter your domain into the Website Checker app.

In just a few seconds, you’ll receive a comprehensive report on your website’s performance. It sums up your site’s capabilities in key areas: performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO, all reflected in a single total score.

Semrush Website Checker Report

This report essentially provides a breakdown of what needs to be improved or fixed to make your site more accessible and SEO-friendly.

8. Perform a Plagiarism Check

To ensure your content is authentic and not plagiarized or AI-generated, you can use the free Plagiarism Checker app from the Semrush App Center.

Open the Plagiarism Checker app and paste the text you’d like to check.

Semrush Plagiarism Checker - Example

You’ll then receive a report detailing the probability of plagiarism or AI-generated content, along with an analysis of its readability, reading time, and any grammatical mistakes.

Semrush Plagiarism Check

9. Generate a Custom Email Signature

Having a sleek, well-designed email signature not only boosts your professional appeal but also leaves a lasting, positive impression on your contacts.

With Semrush’s Email Signature Generator, you can create a unique email signature that captures the essence of your professional image and personal brand.

You can choose from a variety of professionally designed layouts and customize the style and details to match your unique brand identity.

Semrush Email Signature Generator - Example

Once your email signature is ready, you can copy and paste it into any popular email account, including Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, Outlook, Proton, and more.

10. Create a Buyer Persona

Creating buyer personas for your business is a vital step in fine-tuning your marketing strategy.

By developing detailed profiles of your ideal customers, you can better understand their needs, behaviors, and decision-making processes.

You can use the Semrush Persona app to develop your buyer and user personas for free. This tool lets you choose from a library of pre-existing templates or create your own personas from scratch.

Semrush Persona

Furthermore, the templates are fully customizable — you can add different modules or create new ones. For instance, you can choose to include demographic information, customer pain points, and other factors influencing buying decisions.

Semrush Buyer Persona Example

Once your buyer persona document is ready, you can share it with your marketing team to streamline your communication strategies and ensure everyone is aligned with the target audience’s needs and preferences.

Final Thoughts

A free Semrush account offers an impressive array of features that can significantly enhance your online marketing efforts.

However, to truly unlock the full potential of what Semrush has to offer, upgrading to a premium account is the way to go.

A premium account provides deeper analytics, more advanced tools, and greater access to data and resources, enabling you to fine-tune your strategies, stay ahead of competitors, and achieve more robust and measurable results.

Sign up for a 2-week free trial of Semrush Pro by clicking the link below. This will give you exclusive access to all the 45+ paid features in the Semrush platform, including keyword research, competitive analysis, site audit, backlink analysis, and much more.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER
Semrush

Experience the full power of Semrush Pro with a 14-day free trial.

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Sandeep Mallya
Sandeep Mallya is the Founder & CEO of Startup Cafe Digital, an award-winning digital marketing agency in Bangalore, India. He is an active member of the startup community, having worked with several early-stage startups and accelerators. 99signals is Sandeep's online marketing blog. The blog currently features 200+ in-depth articles, how-to guides, and hacks on a wide range of online marketing topics such as SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, blogging, and more.

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