Picking the right SEO tool can feel like choosing between a Swiss Army knife and a full toolbox. Both Ahrefs and Semrush are great for boosting your online presence, but they have different strengths. This guide explores Ahrefs vs Semrush, helping you choose the perfect fit for your SEO strategy.
This isn’t just a feature comparison. I’ll share my own experiences, showing you how these tools perform in real-world SEO scenarios.
Contents
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Keyword Research
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. Let’s see how these platforms handle keyword research for SEO agencies.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool offers a massive database of over 20 billion keywords, with 2.6 billion in the US alone (source). It provides keyword volume and search intent data. This helps you understand user search behavior, including the breakdown of organic vs paid searches.
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer focuses on core keyword research elements. It presents keyword suggestions with difficulty scores and offers a user-friendly interface.
This tool is excellent for technical SEO and provides keyword ideas, competitor analysis, and search volume across multiple search engines.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Technical SEO
Technical issues can hinder website performance. Here’s how each tool helps with site audits for technical SEO.
Semrush Site Audit
Semrush performs a comprehensive site audit, assigning each website a health score. It also highlights areas for improvement, like broken links and content quality. The audit offers actionable recommendations to boost your content authority.
Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs offers a streamlined site audit. It provides crucial data like the number of referring domains and site structure insights. You’ll find broken links, slow-loading pages, and other technical issues, however, Semrush may be a better choice if PPC data matters.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Backlink Analysis & Link Building
Backlinks are vital for SEO. Both Ahrefs and Semrush are powerful link building tools that excel in link analysis and backlink audits.
Semrush Backlink Analytics
Semrush offers a Link Building Tool to identify backlink opportunities and provide outreach suggestions. It helps assess backlink toxicity and discover valuable link prospects (source).
With a fresh index of over 43 trillion backlinks, Semrush reveals metrics like Authority Score. This makes it a strong competitor analysis and SEO research tool.
For small businesses (over 31 million in the U.S.), Semrush provides comprehensive backlink capabilities across digital marketing, without needing additional tools. This can greatly improve local SEO and site health score.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Ahrefs’ backlink checker delivers essential metrics and historical backlink data (source). It allows extensive exploration of broken backlink history (source) and has a “inspect” feature showing backlink history snapshots.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Content Marketing
Both platforms offer features to support content marketing for in-house SEO teams, SEO agencies, and content marketers. Both are powerful SEO tools in the right hands.
Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit
Semrush has a robust content marketing platform with valuable resources. It simplifies the discovery of top-performing keywords, making targeted SEO copywriting easier.
You can align content with search trends and optimize for YMYL and EEAT. Semrush enables tracking social media results for integrated content campaigns.
You can also centrally track campaigns from keyword research (source) to content promotion (source) across SEO, PPC, and social media. Semrush also offers on-page SEO checking features (source), while Ahrefs excels at competitor analysis to improve content. Using rank tracking, we can also identify new keyword suggestions to inform future content pieces.
Ahrefs Content Explorer
Ahrefs Content Explorer helps find competitor’s successful content. Though less comprehensive than Semrush, Ahrefs offers free AI captioning for faster campaign development (source).
Ahrefs also offers SEO features to show correlations between content, backlinks, and technical SEO with traffic fluctuations (source). However, in my experience, Semrush provides more for a larger team, including local SEO capabilities and robust backlink analysis.
Ahrefs vs Semrush: Pricing and Plans
Pricing and plans are essential considerations. The right pricing plan should align with your budget and usage needs. Choosing between monthly and annual plans can influence pricing, with most vendors incentivizing prepayment.
Semrush Pricing
Semrush plans start at $129.95 monthly (source). This tier offers substantial keyword research value (source) and is popular among business owners. Advanced features, like social media and local SEO tools, are available a la carte (source).
While the price increases with additional features, the Pro version is often the sweet spot. Adding extra users beyond the first account can push costs over $500 (source). A free trial is available for testing features, like competitor analysis for setting up NAPs (source).
Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs plans range from $129/month for Lite to $250/month for Standard (source). Ahrefs is known for its comprehensive SEO toolkit and in-depth competitor research. This can improve backlink profile development and help content marketers produce optimized SEO copywriting.
Ahrefs is lacking in PPC data. Compared to Moz Pro, Ahrefs and Semrush are priced similarly for single users. Both offer competitor analysis and backlink data.
Ahrefs’ pricing is competitive compared to tools like Screaming Frog or Answer the Public (source). Ahrefs provides a robust standalone solution for tracking key SEO metrics.
FAQs about ahrefs vs semrush
Is Ahrefs or Semrush more accurate?
Semrush is praised for data accuracy, especially in keyword volume and competitor analysis. Ahrefs excels in backlink analysis but faces some scrutiny for its traffic estimates. Semrush is generally better for website traffic estimates (source), but both tools are generally accurate (source). These features are great for rank tracking and targeting new keywords.
Is there something better than Semrush?
Semrush is a powerful all-in-one tool, but some alternatives might better suit specific needs. Ahrefs is best for backlink analysis. Moz Pro is good for beginners (source). Ultimately, “best” is relative (source). Both Ahrefs and SEMRush have good SEO features to facilitate broken link building.
What is the difference between Ahrefs API and Semrush API?
Both APIs grant data access, with different functionalities. Ahrefs’ API specializes in backlink checks, with a focus on historical link quality data (source).
Semrush’s API provides broader access to features like historical data and keyword metrics back to 2012 (source). This facilitates marketing integration and custom dashboards spanning paid advertising reports (source), local search, and keyword research.
Is Semrush the best SEO tool?
Semrush is undoubtedly powerful and valuable to marketers. But, “best” is subjective (source).
Ahrefs shines in backlink analysis, and Moz can benefit newcomers. Given my experience as a frequent user and author on their blog (source), I generally lean toward Semrush.
Consider your specific needs, such as the needed package and marketing activities (source) when deciding. If additional data and paid advertising management features are important, this becomes important to think through. The Pro version provides substantial functionality at a manageable cost, even with the potential for additional expenses with a la carte features (source). SEMrush provides SEO tools including search volume data and backlink profiles which is especially useful when conducting a backlink audit and link analysis for local SEO.
Conclusion
Ahrefs vs Semrush: The winner depends on your SEO goals. If you prioritize deep backlink analysis and competitor research, including keyword ideas and search volume, Ahrefs might be ideal (source).
If you need a complete marketing suite and broad insights into metrics like running Google Ads campaigns (source), Semrush is a good pick (source). This comparison should help simplify your decision and enhance your organic search strategies.
