There are many keyword tools out there. In fact I think I wrote a post on keyword tools a while back. Options are great, but the thing about me and options is that I spend too much time trying out options than using the tools and until you use them, tools are just toys. SemRush, from the makers of the SEOquake Toolbar, is a keyword tool that has many of the functions of many other tools combined.

Organic and Paid Search Engine Research

If a client or I rank #1 for a keyword in Google’s organic listings, I usually buy the top listing in Adwords too, if I can justify the cost per click. And it has never been wrong to do. It has always been profitable. Organic and paid search engine marketing work hand in hand. In fact, many of the people who we are marketing to don’t know the difference. They don’t know those are ads on the right hand side of Google.

So it’s good to have a tool that gives you data important for search engine optimization as well as that data that applies to pay per click advertising.

And SEMrush does that. Just type in your url and hit the button.

And the type of data available through SEMrush is not available through any type of desktop SEO software. It takes a lot of data gathering to give these types of results. Desktop software will show you and your competitors rank for a keyword

Here are some of the things the resulting reports will tell you.

Find Out Who Your Search Engine Competitors Are

Start by typing in your domain and you can find those sites that are directly competing with you for search engine traffic on the organic side and the Adwords side of the equation. Click on any site you find in this list and you get another full report specifically on that site, with the keywords they rank for in Google and the keywords they pay for in Adwords.

Get a Peek at Some of Your Competitor’s Adwords Ad Copy

Under the “Adwords Ad Test”, you can also check out some of the Adwords ad copy leading to the site.

Find Targeted Sites to Advertise On With Adwords

On the left sidebar is a tab called “Potential Ad Sellers” and you will be taken to a page that will list those domains that rank for the same type of keywords you do but have Adsense on their site. SEMrush provides a “position quality” number here to help with your decision. If the number is over 100 than the site listed gets more traffic than the site under investigation.

Regular, Plain Old Keyword Research

You can just type in a keyword too, not just domains. SEMrush will take that keyword, give you the top competitors in both the organic Google results and Adwords. You can take this research further and get a list of thousands of related keywords or do research on the top ranking domains or urls.

Find Your Site’s Own Long Tail Keywords

If you have a keyword that has been really profitable for you, type it in and find related keywords you may never have thought of.

Check Google Rankings of Any Site You Choose

With old school techniques, we search out the keywords we want to rank for, then find competitors. With SEMrush, you can find your major competitor and find the keywords they already rank for as well as an indication of how profitable the ranking is to them.

Calculate Competitors’ Costs for Adwords

If your competitor is spending money on a keyword, chances are he is making money doing so. Of course, this is not always so. I have picked up plenty of Adwords accounts where the accounts were just hemorrhaging money. But if you competitor is making money with a keyword, chance are, you can too.

Search For Potential Advertisers

There is also a tab on the side called “Search for Potential Advertisers”. With this you can hunt down sites that want the position you have in Google and may be willing to pay for it.

Accuracy?

Well, before I wrote this review, I did my own research and also read some past reviews of SEMrush. A lot of these reviews claimed the numbers were on the high side. With one site I tested, the numbers were from 20% to 25% of the true numbers. So I guess the accuracy can go either way.

But it does provide you with a a scale to go by and if you know the niche you are dealing with or have true stats on the site you are investigating, you can handicap the numbers.

Pricing

SEMrush is pretty affordable and there are few plans to choose from starting at $19.95 a month with a 33% discount for paying 6 months in advance. For the amount of data you have access to and the potential traffic it could mean to your site, this price is a steal.

If SEMrush is a little too much for you, you might take a look at SEOpivot which will show you a list of longtail keywords that hide potential traffic in your site. Also a great tool. I found enough hidden keywords to double the traffic at many of my sites and clients sites if I choose to focus on them.