Last Updated: December 21, 2024
In this article, we’re going to be comparing the SEO tools Serpstat and SEMrush.
We’ve used both of these tools extensively within our agency, and hence we figured that we’d provide our review of each tool, and compare/contrast these two awesome SEO tools.
However, if you’re in a rush, and want to get the quick scoop, read the article summary directly below.
Article Summary: SEMrush is the gold standard of SEO tools, and therefore if you’re running an agency, or require just one All-in-One SEO toolkit, we highly recommend SEMrush. Additionally, SEMrush’s PPC, PLA and Display Advertising analysis tools are more developed and provide some fantastic insights. Serpstat is an upcoming SEO tool, which has come a long way in a short space of time, and is our recommendation for those on a smaller budget, yet still requiring a solid, versatile SEO toolkit.
Table of Contents
Serpstat vs SEMrush: Key Differences
Serpstat has created an all-round tool for SEO, PPC, content marketing, market intelligence, and competitor analysis. It is created for professionals within these industries, helping SEO professionals, PPC specialists, and content marketers gain an edge over their competition. Serpstat has some large clients, including Shopify, Yves Rocher France, Loreal, and Lenovo.
SEMrush is the gold standard, SEO, PPC, Social media, Content/PR, and Market research tool. It is designed for large business’ and digital agencies that have a use for SEO, PPC, PLA and Dsiplay Advertising analysis. Currently, SEMrush is being used by some large clients including Amazon, Forbes, and eBay.
What are the main differences between these tools?
One of the differences between these two tools is that Serpstat does not have any social media tools, unlike SEMrush which has a social media tracker and a social media poster. We’ll be touching on these features within the specific features section.
The second key difference is that Serpstat does not have a brand monitoring tool, unlike SEMrush.
The third difference is that Serpstat does not provide any SEO writing optimization tool, where SEMrush has its ‘SEO writing assistant’ tool.
Pricing is another key difference here, with Serpstat being the more affordable option, with their packages beginning at $69 p/m ($55 p/m when paid annually). Semrush costs $99.95 p/m ($83.28 p/m when paid annually).
Finally, users can begin using Serpstat for Free, and of course, this has usage limits. Semrush provides a 7-day free trial, which will get you access to all of their features, but you’ll need to provide a credit card when signing up for this.
SEMrush vs Serpstat: Similarities
As we mentioned briefly, both Semrush and Serpstat are packaged as all-in-one toolkits, suitable for SEO research, PPC analysis, content marketing, and competitor evaluation.
However, we imagine that most people are looking to use an SEO tool like SEMrush and Serpstat, to do keyword research and accurately assess the viability of targeting certain keywords, in terms of how competitive the organic SERPs are.
Both tools operate using the same basic principle, allowing the user to either enter a domain, URL, or keyword within the search box.
Keyword search: Provides a keyword analysis report, which includes data such as monthly search volume, keyword competitiveness, CPC amount, related keywords, the trend of searches for the keyword/topic, etc.
Domain search: Provides a domain analysis report, which includes data like domain authority score, organic search traffic amount, number of backlinks, number of referring domains, top-ranking organic SEO keywords, competition overview, etc.
URL search: Provides a specific URL analysis report, which includes data like page authority score, organic search traffic amount, number of backlinks, number of referring domains, top-ranking organic SEO keywords, competition overview, etc.
Each element of data that is displayed within these reports can be delved further into, and both Serpstat and SEMrush allow for you to get very specific on the data that you want to analyze, providing export (CSV, XLS, XLSC, Google Docs, PDF and TXT) options for those wanting to do data analysis.
Serpstat vs SEMrush: Serpstat Review 2022
In this section, we’ll be discussing Serpstat, it’s features, benefits, pricing and who exactly this SEO tool is ideal for.
Serpstat Key Features
- Keyword Research
- Search Analytics
- Advertising Analysis
- Content Marketing Ideation
- Competitor Research
- Rank Tracking
- Market Intelligence
- On-Page Audit
- Reports and Infographics
- Backlink Analysis
- API
Keyword Research
Serpstat’s keyword research report allows users to delve down into information surrounding a specific keyword and related keywords within the niche. This is excellent when determining what content your website will be able to create, compete, and rank for within organic search.
When a keyword is entered into Serpstat, the first interface that is displayed is a keyword research overview, which shows a variety of data within sections, including monthly search volumes, competition level, CPC data, related organic keywords, search trends and competitors.
Users can delve deeper into information within each section, by clicking on the section either on the page or within the sidebar menu.
All of this can be viewed in the demonstration video we created below:
Each of these reports is fully exportable, with CSV, XLS, XLSC, Google Docs, PDF and TXT formats being available.
Search Analytics (Domain Analysis)
Serpstat enables users to gain deep insights on their competitors through the use of the Domain Analysis report.
There are several options available when entering a URL to be analyzed, for those who may just want to analyze without subdomains, the root domain, the URL, or the URL prefix.
Once this has been decided, and the URL has been analyzed, the report shows a lot of data including, overall visibility, estimated organic traffic, number of ranking keywords, PPC data, alongside a number of useful graphs, displaying data trends.
All of this data can be seen within the demonstration video below:
This tool is extremely useful in helping analyze each of your competitor’s top-ranking keywords, alongside the viability of your website ranking for these terms.
Advertising Analysis
Serpstat enables users to delve into advertising and PPC data, both from on a domain and keyword level.
Once in the PPC research report, you can either enter a URL, URL prefix, Root domain, Subdomain or a keyword to be analyzed.
This will ultimately display all of the ads that are being run, and the associated keywords that these ads are appearing for. Not to mention other data, including KW search volume, CPC and PPC competition levels.
Users can delve deeper into the data within specific sub-sections by using the sidebar. These are:
- Keywords
- Competitors
- Domain Vs Domain
- Ad Examples
- Ad Research
Content Marketing Ideation
Serpstat’s content marketing report is great to identify common questions that relate to a certain topic, subject, or keyword.
Once a keyword is entered within the tool, it goes about displaying all of the most popular associated questions and commonly used words.
This is highly useful for content creators and SEOs, as it provides more information on relevant questions to include and answer within their articles, which can then be marked up using FAQ schema, to increase organic search visibility.
Competitor Research
Serpstat not only allows users to identify their top competitors, but it also allows for you to do a more in-depth analysis of these competitors, both on a keyword and off-page (backlink) level.
You can use the tool to see who your top competitors are, and delve deeper into their SEO strategy, especially if they’re a new, up and coming competitor who is taking the industry by storm.
Additionally, you can view their keyword strategy and off-page SEO aspects to gain a deeper understanding on how they have achieved success.
Serpstat also allows for you to do a batch analysis of up to 200 domains at once, to compare keyword rankings.
Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is one of the most important aspects of SEO, as it provides a measurement of whether an SEO strategy is being implemented successfully.
Additionally, it also provides signs for what may have changed within the SERP results during an algorithm update.
Serpstat provides Global and City-based rank tracking, in any city, country and language.
For each saved keyword, it measures the movement of the top-100 ranking domains, so you can do further analysis if certain domains have increased in rankings dramatically, to see if they have changed their on-page or off-page SEO aspects.
On-Page Audit
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s internal (on-page) aspects, which includes content, keyword targeting, headings, structured data, schema, technical SEO issues, etc.
Once the audit has been started, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the size of the website.
Not only does Serpstat measure critical technical SEO metrics, but it also tracks these over time, both in a visual graph and in a table format.
It measures the following technical SEO aspects:
- HTTP Status Code
- Meta Tags
- Headings
- Content
- Multimedia
- Indexation
- Redirects
- Links
- Server Parameters
- HTTPS Certificate
- Hreflang attributes
- AMP-related issues
- Markup-related issues
- Pagespeed for Desktop
- Pagespeed for Mobile
Reports and Infographics
Serpstat provides a simple-to-use dashboard to organize your projects and query history.
As you’ve seen, there is a range of reports and useful infographics that are available, and the data can all be exported.
Email alerts can be set up, to alert when a specific domain has a change in rankings for particular keywords.
White-label reports are also available, making it great for SEO agencies who want to give these reports to clients.].
Backlink Analysis
A backlink is a hyperlink from one website, leading to another. It acts as a vote of confidence for the linked-to website, and ultimately Google places importance on this within their search algorithm. Therefore, assuming the linking source is reputable, backlinks will pass ‘link equity’ which helps the linked-to website/particular URL rank better in the SERPS.
Serpstat provides backlinks analysis for both your own website and competitor websites, including historical data, so you can see the accumulation of these links over time.
The backlinks dashboard report contains an overview of a website’s backlink profile, including Serpstat Domain Rank (Score out of 100), Number of Follow/NoFollow Links, Referring Domains, Backlinks, etc.
This includes a visual overview of links gained over time, alongside the type of links, overall anchor text profile, and a TLD & geographical map of where the links are coming from.
Each of these data types can be further explored by either clicking on the section within the report, or selecting it within the sidebar.
API
Serpstat has an available API which in turn feeds daily rankings, competitor analysis, positing tracking and keyword research data into your own reporting systems.
We personally use the API for the Serpstat Chrome Plugin, which allows us to do a quick SEO analysis of any website whilst on the page.
Serpstat Benefits
- Affordable Pricing – When comparing against competitor products on the market, like SEMrush and Ahrefs, Serpstat is much more affordable
- Efficient Development – The company has come a long way since 2013, and Serpstat is now considered to be up there other SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and Majestics.
- Stand the test of time – Over 200,000 users, so it’s a tool that is sticking around
- Always adding new features and updates – An example being that their ‘Keyword Quality Control’ and ‘Keyword Clustering and Text Analytics’ tools are currently in beta and are able to be tested on the platform
- Established customer-base – Serpstat is currently used by companies like Shopify, Loreal, Lenovo, Yves Rocher, etc. This is an extremely positive sign and shows that large organizations are seeing the value from their SEO tools..
Serpstat Pricing
Serpstat has a variety of packages to suit every budget, not to mention they provide a 20% discount for those who want to pay annually as opposed to monthly.
You can read all of the information regarding pricing, and what exactly is included within each package on Serpstat’s pricing page, which you can find here: Serpstat Pricing
Who is Serpstat for?
Serpstat is for the agency, business, or specialist who is looking for an all-in-one SEO tool, without the large monthly overhead, when comparing against tools like SEMrush.
Yes, the platform is a lot newer, and because of this, it’s less developed. But Serpstat has done an amazing job to get to where they are today, and are constantly improving the functionality, interface, and features available.
However, for those who don’t mind spending more money, to gain access to a more established platform, SEMrush may be for you! So take a read of the section below.
SEMrush vs Serpstat: SEMrush Review 2022
In this section, we’ll be discussing SEMrush, it’s features, benefits, pricing, and who exactly this SEO tool is ideal for.
Semrush Key Features
- Organic Research
- Keyword Research
- Advertising Research
- Display Advertising Tool
- Backlinks
- Product Listing Ads
- Traffic Analytics
- Market Explorer
Organic Research & Keyword Research
SEMrush’s domain overview report enables you to get an overall picture of the SEO health of a website, showing the domain’s overall authority, organic search traffic, paid search traffic, backlinks, top-ranking organic keywords, main competitors, etc.
One of the nice features here is that alongside these metrics, it gives you an impression as to if this has increased or decreased upon SEMrush’s last measurement, with a red/green arrow or red/green percentage increase/decrease.
The organic research report goes further into depth on the specific organic keywords that the domain, URL, subdomain or sub-folder is ranking for.
This includes some nice graph data showing the overall trend in organic keywords that the domain is ranking for, alongside a list of top organic keywords, top position changes, SERP features (showing featured snippets, site links, image pack, local pack, etc), top pages, and a competitive positioning map.
All of this can be seen in the report example below:
Advertising Research
SEMrush’s advertising research report enables users to analyze their competitor’s ad budgets and the keywords that they are bidding on. Not only this, but it also provides you with information regarding the exact ad copy and landing pages that your competition is using, so that you can analyze and replicate their PPC strategies.
As you can see, Semrush provides a full list of these keywords, alongside data such as the associated landing page, estimated traffic, PPC cost, PPC competition.
Additionally, it includes macro-data such as the overall amount of keywords being bidded for, the total ad cost, and the number of traffic being acquired by these ads.
This information makes it easy to analyze a competitor’s PPC strategy.
Display Advertising Tool
Semrush’s display advertising tool enables users to get an overview of your competitors GDN marketing strategies. GDN stands for Google Display Network.
As you can see the report allows you to do a deep dive analysis into your competitor’s display advertising targeting, specific ad copy/design, and the publishers that they’re advertising on.
This is invaluable information for those agencies, business’ and individuals who are looking for display advertising analysis data.
Backlinks
Backlinks are the fuel to help boost a website’s overall rankings, and because of this, they’re highly important to not only acquire, but to analyze… Especially if your competition is outranking you. This is where SEMrush’s backlink report comes in handy.
The backlink report contains plenty of data relating to the inputted domain/subdomain/URL.
This includes referring domains, referring IPs, backlink types, link attributes, TLD distribution and some useful graphical diagrams showing the increase or decrease in certain backlink data.
Users can then look further into these information topics, with the example below showing us delving further into the specific backlinks linking to SEMrush.com
Product Listing Ads
Semrush allows users to analyze competitor Product Listing Ads which are launched through Google Shopping.
The tool not only allows for you to see the competition’s best performing PLAs, but also what keywords are triggering each particular ad.
This is such a great feature for both e-commerce stores and agencies who help e-com store, to help analyze Google Shopping competitors.
Traffic Analysis
Semrush provides useful information on a website/URLs traffic volumes, which can be useful when analyzing both your own website and that of competitors.
This report includes visits, unique visitors, pages per visit, average view duration, bounce rate and much more information.
Semrush allows for you to do a side-by-side analysis of your site against competitors, in terms of traffic and the audience-base.
Additionally, you can look at the top geolocations where you competitors are active, and compare against your own site
Market Explorer
The market explorer report is a useful report for any marketer who wants to get a better understanding of a new market or existing niche.
As you can see, SEMrush’s market explorer report includes plenty of useful diagrams, showing where competitors are in regards to each other, and the industry itself.
An example of such a diagram is the growth quadrant, which shows market leaders, game changers, niche players, and established players.
This kind of report can then be delved into further, using more of a narrow focus, and a more limited timeframe.
Semrush Benefits
- Developed tools – SEMrush is one of the most established & well-respected SEO tools on the market, and this is simply because it works incredibly well and satisfies every marketer needs.
- Easy to use Interface – The SEMrush interface is very easy to use, and we actually prefer it when comparing against Serpstat.
- Used by highly established companies – Amazon, eBay, Quora and Booking.com all use SEMrush, and that’s definitely a good sign when choosing a marketing tool.
- Zendesk Live Chat – It’s always good to get support instantly, and with SEMrush’s live chat, you can.
Semrush Pricing
Semrush has a few pricing options, starting from $83.28 per month (when paid annually), leading up to $333.26 and upwards for larger business.
You save 16% when paying annually, which is definitely useful to consider.
You can read all of the information regarding pricing, and what exactly is included within each package on Semrush’s pricing page, which you can find here: SEMrush Pricing
Who is Semrush for?
Simply put, SEMrush is for the business that not only wants a fantastic SEO toolkit, but also one that can provide Display, PPC, PLA and general marketing analysis, in a form that provides a lot of information and is understandable (and exportable).
Given the higher price-point, we imagine that it is designed for larger business and agencies, although we do know freelancers who have purchased the smaller plan.
Currently, SEMrush is being used by some large clients including Amazon, Forbes, and eBay, which shows that it really can provide a brand with value.