Choosing between Ahrefs and Semrush can be tricky for digital marketers. This is the ongoing SEO battle:
Ahrefs vs Semrush.
Both tools are awesome and have their strengths. You need to find the one that aligns better with what you want to accomplish. It all boils down to this; Ahrefs vs Semrush – which will win?
You’ll learn the features and capabilities of both Ahrefs and Semrush. Also, you’ll get a deep dive into how they measure up against each other. This is in terms of things like keyword research, backlink analysis, technical SEO, local SEO, content marketing and more.
While both platforms share similar goals and functionality, there are key differences to consider: Ahrefs focuses primarily on backlink analysis, providing a detailed backlink audit tool. They have more frequent updates to its backlink index. You also get more insight into “Traffic Potential” metrics.
However, Semrush includes a larger keyword database, local SEO features like the Listing Management tool, an SEO writing assistant and more marketing tools that go above and beyond simple SEO. When we’re comparing ahrefs vs semrush they both shine with what they can offer, but based on the factors you’ll have to decide which one works better for you.
Ahrefs vs. Semrush: The Key Differences
Ahrefs and Semrush are popular tools used for Search Engine Optimization. People use them for increasing website traffic, getting higher rankings on Google and other Search engines. Both platforms are pretty amazing for SEO. They give you a full set of tools to plan, execute, analyze, and improve SEO efforts.
Although both are considered “all-in-one” best SEO tools, there are still some notable differences between the two when you get into the weeds with them.
Keyword Research
Both Semrush and Ahrefs offer excellent Keyword Research features to help with understanding the following; search volume, keyword difficulty, keyword trends and more. They also offer advanced keyword suggestions, which helps you to find more keywords to create content around.
This Semrush vs Ahrefs data helps with content strategy planning. This way you will be targeting keywords with the best chances of ranking higher. It will be far easier to bring more organic search traffic to your website. This organic search traffic matters to all sizes of websites and online businesses because this is the most stable source of traffic for longevity.
Keyword Database Size
While both platforms have massive databases, Semrush wins in sheer size with its over 22.3 billion keywords across 189 locations. This stacks up against Ahref’s smaller, but still incredibly valuable database of 7 billion keywords.
Having more data gives you more potential opportunities. For local SEO purposes, both Ahrefs and Semrush support local keyword databases, giving you options if your business or website caters to a specific geo-location.
Keyword Difficulty
Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty measures the number of backlinks you’ll likely need to rank in the top 10 results for a specific keyword. It does not rely as much on things like content quality, website authority or Search Engine algorithms when doing these calculations.
On the other hand, Semrush uses additional data points, making its keyword difficulty score potentially a more comprehensive metric than Ahrefs’. Semrush doesn’t just rely solely on the number of backlinks but considers the number of backlinks, the country, the word count of a keyword, whether a keyword is branded, and a search volume.
I believe it gives you a better picture of the challenges that might be associated with targeting specific keywords in order to get organic search engine rankings for those terms. Remember, if a keyword has a higher keyword difficulty, you may want to target easier-to-rank-for terms instead to see results quicker. Keyword Difficulty metrics give us a starting point, but the more context, the better.
Traffic Potential
When deciding whether a specific keyword is even worth pursuing you should think about its search traffic. Ahrefs shines here with its “Traffic Potential” metric. I personally find this tool REALLY insightful.
This allows you to get an understanding of how much traffic a specific keyword actually drives to websites. Ahref’s Traffic Potential tool – for which there’s no Semrush equivalent – helps with finding keywords that are a perfect blend of difficulty and traffic potential.
Semrush also offers accurate search volume metrics so we should use the combination of search volume, keyword difficulty and traffic potential in order to really narrow down which keywords have the most ROI and are easiest to rank for on Google or other search engines.
Backlink Analysis
You can’t neglect the importance of backlinks for SEO. This is critical if you want higher rankings. They are seen by Google as an indicator of authority. More backlinks often (but not always) leads to improved visibility.
Both platforms provide a wide array of backlink analysis tools. This way we can dive deep into the following; referring domains, backlink quality, link growth, competitor backlinks, and more. Although both are strong in their own right when it comes to link analysis, there are differences to think through.
Backlink Database Size
When deciding between Ahrefs and Semrush in terms of backlinks, Semrush takes the cake, with a staggering backlink index database of 43 trillion. It dwarfs Ahref’s database of 30.6 trillion links and provides a wealth of link-building data. So when comparing ahrefs vs semrush for sheer size of backlink data, Semrush dominates.
Backlink Updates
When it comes to backlink update frequency Ahrefs is ahead of the game because it updates its backlink index every 15 minutes, compared to Semrush’s daily updates. Having faster, more frequent backlink updates gives a deeper insight into how a backlink strategy is performing in near-real time.
Backlink Audits and Gaps
For the purpose of finding more backlink opportunities, both tools give a ‘Backlink Gap’ analysis tool, allowing you to easily find websites that link to your competitors. But are missing a link back to you. Ahrefs backlink audit shines with a really comprehensive report.
This report helps with identifying potentially problematic links so we can address them to keep the backlink profile squeaky clean for optimal performance and avoid algorithmic issues.
Technical SEO Audits
In SEO, site health really matters for several reasons. Both Semrush and Ahrefs provide SEO Site Audit features that uncover the following; broken links, crawl errors, missing meta descriptions, slow loading times, mobile usability issues, hreflang implementation issues (if international), and other technical problems that may impact a site’s performance in Search engines like Google.
Site Audit Features
Both tools give actionable insights so you can easily optimize websites. This is for a chance to get improved SEO visibility. You can use them for technical SEO. It’s about scanning a website for errors like broken links or pages not found (404 errors).
Core Web Vitals
Also, Ahrefs and Semrush both now assess Core Web Vitals (CWVs). They play a significant role in SEO ranking performance, so having them in an SEO platform audit tool is nice. This makes it easy to identify and improve website elements that will impact website usability.
Issue Identification and Prioritization
I think Semrush’s Site Audit feature goes deeper with the type and breadth of issues it identifies compared to Ahrefs. It analyzes over 140 technical and on-page SEO checks, which helps SEOs with uncovering potential problem areas that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
But don’t write off Ahrefs completely. Ahrefs goes above and beyond with providing step-by-step walkthroughs within the site audit report that gives you instructions on fixing errors.
Semrush On-Page SEO Checker
Semrush has this thing called an “On-Page SEO Checker. It is an awesome tool I wish Ahrefs offered. It gives personalized, actionable recommendations on improving on-page elements based on the audit and the best-performing competitors in the industry.
Content Marketing Features
Topic and Keyword Research
Content marketing requires extensive topic and keyword research in order to find low-competition topics. Then target relevant terms within each article or video, or audio file for the purpose of being discovered. Both SEO tools help us do this in different ways.
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
This is an incredibly powerful research tool. It is best-in-class because we can uncover top-performing content across different categories and even analyze top shared content. Also we can review the backlinks driving to this content. Ahref’s database is huge for its content explorer, indexing over 13.6 billion web pages.
Semrush’s Topic Research Tool
This Semrush tool makes it easy to generate content ideas, explore top-trending subtopics and uncover commonly asked questions people ask about these topics in order to create comprehensive, relevant content that gets clicks.
SEO Writing Features
Semrush includes an “SEO Writing Assistant. I rely on this tool all the time because it integrates into leading platforms like Google Docs and WordPress for on-the-go guidance. This AI tool guides our writing process, ensuring that content is engaging, grammatically correct and SEO-friendly with target keywords.
Local SEO Features
Semrush Listing Management Tool
It goes above and beyond to cover most, if not all our Local SEO needs. It gives us everything to distribute and optimize our local listings across major online directories.
Semrush dominates with this. Ahrefs doesn’t have anything remotely as comprehensive as Semrush for optimizing Google Maps and citations.
Local Keyword Data
You need more Local keyword research. That’s for hyper-targeted terms relevant to certain geographical areas.
We need Semrush here because they win big in local reporting. Its On Page SEO Checker is fantastic.
It has a really specific Local Keyword module where we can pull metrics such as keyword difficulty, volume, Search Intent and even CPC – all of which can then be geo-targeted by country, state or even municipality. This level of specificity is key for any size online business to rank well for targeted geographies that matter for business growth.
Local Citations Setup
If you need to manage your local citations effectively you can’t go wrong with Semrush. You should also create your NAPs (Name, Address and Phone Number) the correct way.
I use Semrush because it has this super powerful “listings” tool. You can really dial in the process of creating local SEO listings. Ahrefs is sorely missing local citations and other directory management capabilities.
This is why Semrush is the superior local SEO platform.
Pricing
Here is another key consideration for choosing Ahrefs or Semrush. This is how much these platforms actually cost.
Ahrefs Pricing
This platform comes in 4 main varieties. There’s the free webmaster tools option. Although free, this version lacks most key capabilities for an effective SEO process. Next is “Ahrefs Lite”.
I think of it as being best for beginners. Although Ahrefs Lite lacks some more advanced features (and doesn’t come with a free trial like Semrush), it’s an entry-level choice for businesses or bloggers with minimal monthly SEO requirements.
For marketers wanting full power then go with the “Ahrefs Standard” or “Advanced” subscriptions because they provide an amazing selection of resources, reports and toolkits. Ahrefs utilizes a credit-based system, where actions performed consume those credits, while unused credits do not roll over, but for verified website owners, it offers access to a limited suite of free SEO tools.
Semrush Pricing
They do things differently compared to Ahrefs when it comes to price. They go with subscription tiers – Semrush Pro, Semrush Guru and Semrush Business. This tool offers advanced SEO capabilities with add-on upgrades for things like PPC Advertising Research, social media management and market trends.
Semrush does a double-length free trial and also offers an excellent “freemium” option where basic features can be accessed, which means you can play with it free before committing.
Value and Reporting Limits
If it comes to a head-to-head battle – ahrefs vs semrush – in the area of value, Semrush has some pretty sweet perks. Although prices start a bit higher than Ahrefs’, the fact Semrush allows for more monthly report requests is hard to beat.
Semrush Reporting Limits
Even its Pro plan lets you perform a ton more requests compared to any Ahrefs offering. The basic Pro level gets 3,000 daily domain analysis reports and this expands all the way to a mind-blowing 50,000 report requests daily for the Business plan.
Ahrefs Reporting Limits
On the Ahrefs side, their most generous “Advanced” tier caps out at 750 reports every month. Additional reports beyond those are then an added cost that you’ll be invoiced for separately. This credit-based system with usage and invoicing is something I have heard lots of negative feedback about, which I understand, although we have full features and pricing details available.
I’d rather know what my monthly invoice is so there aren’t surprise fees or an excessive invoice that pops up, as this often happens to businesses who scale with a credit based usage plan, especially on Ahref’s entry-level Lite tier.
Considering that we can’t scale beyond our budget for the month because of overages I’d vote for Semrush’s value because it provides way more reports – even on their lower tiered subscriptions.
Team Collaboration Features
When it comes to businesses needing collaboration features to work effectively together then Semrush’s Business tier lets you add additional users while managing their permissions to fit workflow requirements. The downside is each user is an added monthly fee. It’s still important to understand that Semrush lets you manage a larger team’s efforts better.
But only at its higher Business tier which is more than $400 a month.
That’s where Semrush gives way better value, especially when you need to add more users to an account – it’s simply because of their generous report limits. In fact, even for the Business level, the fact each additional user at Semrush is $100 makes me a little nauseous. You could easily wind up paying thousands per month when using it for your agency. That’s how they hook ya…
Additional Marketing Tools
Both Ahrefs and Semrush go beyond the realm of simple technical audits or backlink checkers, they each provide additional toolsets to really level up digital marketing in more creative ways. But here again is another differentiator where one shines brighter. You might be able to guess the winner this round.
Semrush Additional Features
Semrush goes deep when you think of its robust toolkit for other important activities. Some features that I personally love and that we would really miss if they weren’t included is PPC, social media, and market and consumer trend analytics reporting. I like these because this enables our teams to perform a comprehensive competitor analysis or easily craft engaging SEO copywriting projects for higher engagement rates and improved visibility.
In addition, I find Semrush’s user experience pretty darn clean. You know it just works without any excessive fluff and their documentation and tutorials for new or beginner marketers wanting more is stellar.
Ahrefs Additional Features
Let’s get into it on the Ahref’s side. Unlike Semrush, their platform primarily focuses on SEO. Although this makes Semrush more appealing because it does a lot more, I’m impressed with how well-refined their SEO product is – they do one thing, and do it really well.
I still wish that it came with some really detailed PPC reporting options, and perhaps content management workflows to enable greater content creation tasks from ideation to optimization like we find in Semrush.
Even though their free tools might not give the full benefit of a paid account it still enables casual users the benefit of Ahrefs powerful insights in their basic Webmasters Tools which I love. You could find and address technical SEO issues pretty easily.
Choosing the Right Tool: Ahrefs vs. Semrush
With a deep dive of all the most common benefits and shortcomings of Ahrefs and Semrush hopefully now you’re thinking about which one aligns better with the size and needs of your business. Both Semrush and Ahrefs give a bunch of benefits to improve your site, gain a better insight into your competitors and amplify the content strategy that you’ve spent months trying to figure out how to crack.
There’s no cookie-cutter “winner” between these two amazing marketing giants and the ideal tool comes down to this: budget constraints, needs of your organization, what type of project your team is managing and SEO maturity level of your teams. Now you’re in the big league – it’s ahrefs vs semrush – good luck.
Ultimately, choosing the right tool involves careful consideration. As a person that uses SEO software all the time to run different size businesses here’s the criteria I look at before choosing: SEO experience and expertise of your teams, overall project goals, feature requirements and monthly budget for these tools. Ultimately I’d prefer using ahrefs if SEMrush didn’t exist.
But, here in the year 2024 we’ve seen Semrush evolve into the more feature-rich tool that wins for me based on a couple key areas – their generous reporting limit for a single power user, extensive and very comprehensive PPC reports and user interface that enables all size businesses, whether beginner or experts.
My Summary - Ahrefs vs Semrush
I’m excited for you on this digital journey with either Ahrefs or Semrush. When figuring out whether Ahrefs vs Semrush wins this ahrefs vs semrush battle there isn’t a “winner”. It’s like apples and oranges because they offer completely different functionalities that matter more to different teams.
They each bring really amazing advantages for people or teams focused on SEO campaigns, organic marketing growth strategies or competitor analyses to uncover opportunity. You could start by testing them each with the Semrush free trial, while leveraging Ahrefs free Webmaster Tools or go for their basic plan to really learn these platforms inside and out.
Ultimately you will figure out which one aligns better with what it is you’re trying to accomplish.
FAQs
What is the difference between Ahrefs vs SEMrush?
While both platforms share similar goals and functionality, there are key differences to consider: Ahrefs focuses primarily on backlink analysis, providing a detailed backlink audit tool. They have more frequent updates to its backlink index. You also get more insight into “Traffic Potential” metrics.
However, Semrush includes a larger keyword database, local SEO features like the Listing Management tool, an SEO writing assistant and more marketing tools that go above and beyond simple SEO. When we’re comparing ahrefs vs semrush they both shine with what they can offer, but based on the factors you’ll have to decide which one works better for you.
Who is better than SEMrush? This depends entirely on what the “better” even is – it’s all subject
This depends entirely on what the “better” even is – it’s all subjective. I do a lot of competitive analyses between competitors. No single SEO tool is superior. If you think of Ahref’s, you’ve got other awesome choices available in today’s world of SEO tools besides Semrush. For those marketers focused specifically on in-depth off-page SEO and backlink management, I have found some real joy when using Ahrefs to dig deep. For example, you can get deep in link building tools, although I believe Ahrefs shines with backlink features when comparing them. Also you could go with options like SE Ranking, Moz Pro or even Serpstat for their unique and amazing strengths. It depends entirely on budget, the feature-sets that you need, reporting limits and if it’s local or global requirements – ultimately though Ahrefs has a edge when it comes to keyword research.
When comparing Semrush vs Ahrefs’s data sources, I’ve found some solid data to work with when managing several hundred sites and agencies I support in my SEO and marketing consulting work.
Which SEO tool is best?
You know that old saying – different strokes for different folks. Choosing the “best” SEO tool is subjective. You really gotta consider what it is your looking to accomplish. Is there any chance that maybe all you need are site audits with comprehensive walkthroughs? Are you running large multi-user teams for global enterprises?
What are the requirements and goals you need to accomplish?
Some tools like Semrush can excel at keyword research, content analysis and comprehensive, more holistic competitor research across a bunch of areas such as content, technical SEO, link building and even PPC data. Alternatively, Ahrefs shines for its super powerful backlink analysis tools and ability to help manage websites with detailed site audits, allowing you to get way more report requests than other tools available.
We must also take budget constraints into consideration when choosing a platform. Also, the complexity of the platform we are evaluating because certain tools are built specifically for marketers with more advanced expertise in the area of SEO and other technical areas. You can always test different free trial options of each of these products before purchasing a paid version to really get your hands dirty. You know to kick the tires so you can feel it out before committing. That’s what makes tools with free trials like Semrush so awesome.
Why is Ahrefs the best?
Saying that something is “the best” in the SEO space isn’t an accurate description, or very practical, but you have to acknowledge they’ve got some amazing things going on. ahrefs has a large database of over 30.6 trillion links with frequent updates, which are super fast, taking only 15 minutes.
That gives really in-depth insights for your link-building endeavors. This tool excels with deep backlink features like broken backlink analysis, helping with creative link building strategies. In addition, their “Site Audit” and “Content Explorer” tools are superb and a lot more mature compared to others in the SEO toolkit landscape. Overall though if it’s about who does one thing incredibly well, that would be Ahrefs. That makes their pricing attractive compared to their competitors when it’s solely about the world of link management and technical site audits.
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