Semrush vs Similarweb — Which is the Better SEO tool?
Style Factory
E-commerce, web design and digital marketing advice and resources for growing businesses.
In this Semrush vs Similarweb comparison, I walk you through the key differences of these two popular SEO tools and help you work out which one is best for your business.
OK, let’s kick this comparison off with the key reasons to use Semrush over Similarweb.
Please note: we independently and honestly review all products in our comparisons. But when you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. View editorial policy here.
Reasons to use Semrush over Similarweb
1. Semrush's keyword research database is much larger than Similarweb’s.
While Similarweb maintains data on around 5 billion keywords, Semrush does so on 26 billion. This difference in database size means that you’re usually going to get more keyword ideas from Semrush than Similarweb — something that was born out in my testing.?
With all the keyword research I did using both tools, Semrush consistently surfaced more keyword suggestions than Similarweb.
2. Semrush lets you access data on a per-country level on all plans.
Semrush lets you see all its key data on a per-country basis —?a simple dropdown menu lets you filter domain overviews, advertising research data and keyword research data by country. This is important, because it lets you plan SEO campaigns for any country or market you like.
Similarweb by contrast only gives you access to location-based data if you are on one of its enterprise level plans, which will cost you at least $15,000 per year.
3. Semrush lets you create topic clusters
Topic clustering is an SEO tactic where content is organized around central themes to improve a website’s structure. It involves creating a main ‘pillar’ page that serves as the core hub for a broad topic — this pillar page then links out to related ‘cluster’ pages that delve into related aspects of the topic. The aim of this is to let you create lots of relevant content about a given topic, establishing ‘topical authority‘ in the process — something that many SEO professionals believe can enhance a site’s general ability to perform well in search results.
Semrush comes with a ‘keyword strategy builder’ that gives you the ability to create these important topical maps for your content quickly and easily — but there’s nothing comparable available from Similarweb.
4. It provides you with dedicated content marketing tools
On its ‘Guru’ plans and higher, Semrush gives you access to a dedicated content marketing platform. This is a suite of content research tools that lets you:
Unfortunately, you won’t find similar tools available in Similarweb.?
5. Its backlink analysis features are available on all plans.
Gaining external links —?or backlinks — to your website is a really important part of SEO. The more high-quality links you have pointing to your site, the better it will generally perform in search results.
On all its plans, Semrush shows you exactly who’s linking to your site or a competitor’s — but Similarweb restricts this information to its most expensive plans. Semrush also comes with dedicated features to help you create effective link building campaigns — Similarweb doesn’t give you these at all.?
6. The Semrush free trial is much more generous
On the Semrush free trial, you get access to all the platform’s key features and data. This gives you the opportunity to really try the platform out properly and even plan a full SEO campaign using it.
By contrast, Similarweb’s trial only lets you access a limited number of tools, and applies very ungenerous limits on the number of times they can be used. It only lets you perform 15 tasks per day, which is not going to be enough to let you get a full sense of the platform. Additionally, you can get a longer trial from Semrush than from Similarweb. Although both platforms officially give you a 7-day trial period, Semrush occasionally makes a 14-day trial available too, via special promotional links. You'll find one of these here.
OK so that’s the key things that Semrush does better than Similarweb. But where does Similarweb win? Let’s take a look at that now.
Reasons to use Semrush over Similarweb
1. Similarweb lets you see the number of zero-click searches for keywords
Zero-click searches refer to situations where users find the information they need on a search results page without needing to click on any results.
For example, the keyword ‘weather today’ often results in zero-click searches, because Google typically shows the weather forecast directly on the results page when you enter this query. Knowing that a keyword has a high percentage of zero-click searches can help you create richer content that encourages users to click through for more information?—?allowing you to capture traffic that simple answers might miss. Helpfully, Similarweb provides detailed data on zero-click searches, while Semrush doesn’t.
2. It provides keyword suggestions for Amazon and YouTube
Although Google is the world’s biggest search engine, it isn’t the only one. Amazon and YouTube are used by millions of people every day to find products and content, so being able to get a sense of what keywords those users are entering into them can be very valuable. Similarweb lets you perform keyword research for these two platforms —?but Semrush restricts you to Google only data.
3. Similarweb's site auditing tools are more powerful
An SEO audit highlights issues that might be hurting your site’s performance in search engine results.
It involves assessing technical factors (like how fast your site is loading and how it displays on different devices) and on-page SEO (for example the keywords in your content, the title tags used, how headings are structured and so on). In terms of the number of audit checks in each platforms’ tool, Similarweb has an edge — its site audit tool checks over 300 site performance factors, compared to Semrush’s 150 or so.
It’s worth noting, however, that Similarweb’s site audit tool is only available on its custom plans, which can be expensive.
4. It gives you more search intent data
Search intent refers to the motive or goal a user has when entering a keyword into a search engine — this could be finding an answer to a question, looking up a specific website, purchasing a product or exploring a topic.
Semrush and Similarweb both give you search intent data, showing you when a keyword is informational, transactional, commercial or navigational —?but Similarweb goes one further and gives you a ‘jobseeker’ search intent category too, making the tool potentially more useful to HR or recruitment companies than Semrush.
OK, so that’s four areas where we think Similarweb outperforms Semrush.?
Now, let’s sum things up.
Summing up
Overall, it’s hard not to conclude that Semrush is the better SEO tool here. It provides more affordable access to its full range of features, and it comes with more powerful tools than Similarweb (particularly where content marketing and backlink analysis are concerned). And, as discussed, its free trial is much more generous in nature.
Speaking of free trials, you can access both below:
And if you’re interested in learning more about these two platforms, you’ll find an even deeper dive into both in our Semrush vs Similarweb blog post comparison on the Style Factory site.
Alternatives
There are several similar products to Semrush and Similarweb on the market, with key alternatives including:
We have some comparisons of these against Semrush — just follow the links below:
This article was written by Chris Singleton based on research by Matt Walsh.