Semrush helps you optimize your SEO strategy by providing the tools you need to identify profitable keywords, understand competitor strategies, and fix technical issues that hinder your website from ranking higher in search engines like Google.
The free plan is ideal for beginners and small businesses starting their SEO journey. It offers useful insights within a daily search limit.
As your strategy evolves, you can access more features with a 7-day free trial.
Free Semrush Account: Key Features
Here’s a quick overview of what’s available with a free Semrush account:
How to Use Semrush for Free (And Where You’ll Hit Limits)
To set up your free account, simply provide an email address and password (no credit card required).
Once you’re set up, here’s how to get the most value from each tool:
1. Find High-Value Keywords
With 10 queries (tool searches) per day, you can use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool and Keyword Overview to explore keywords.
This is enough to test and identify high-potential search terms for your website.
For example, let’s say you have an online shop that sells coffee.
Search “organic coffee” in Keyword Magic to find related keywords like “organic coffee beans” or “organic decaf coffee.” These niches might be less competitive but highly relevant for your business.
And the potential payoff is real: ranking for a term like “organic decaf coffee” could generate an estimated 2,400 visits per month to your website.
Ready to dig deeper?
Use the Keyword Overview tool to get a snapshot of any keyword, analyzing its popularity and competition level.
You’ll see metrics such as:
- Monthly Search Volume: Total monthly searches for a keyword
- Keyword Difficulty: A percentage score that measures how challenging it will be to rank for a keyword
- Search Intent: The searcher’s goal (looking to purchase, gather information, find a website, etc.)
- SERP Results: Current top-ranking pages for the keyword
Every new search (in any Semrush keyword research tool) counts toward your daily limit.
Plan ahead and use your limits wisely to get the most keyword research out of the free plan.
2. Check Your Website for Technical Issues
Technical issues can harm your rankings. Semrush’s Site Audit tool identifies these problems quickly.
With the free plan, you can crawl up to 100 URLs per month, to find and fix critical issues like:
- Indexing problems: Understand why Google can’t find your important pages
- Page speed issues: Identify factors slowing down your site and frustrating visitors
- Broken links: Find dead-end links or orphaned pages that disrupt both users and search engines
- Structured data errors: Fix issues that prevent your content from appearing as rich results (like featured snippets)
- Security warnings: Address HTTPS issues causing “not secure” warnings for site visitors
For example, if you run an online store, a free audit might show slow product pages or missing product descriptions—issues that affect both rankings and sales.
The Site Audit tool provides details about which pages are affected and how to fix them.
BestSelf Co., a motivational stationery retailer, used Semrush’s Site Audit to identify and fix technical issues, including slow load times. This led to a 40% increase in organic traffic and a 17% rise in leads within three months.
If you have a large website, the 100-page limit will only cover a small portion. In this case, consider signing up for a trial to run a full audit across all pages and get a more detailed list of recommendations.
3. Monitor Your SEO Rankings
Position Tracking helps you measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
With the free plan, you can track up to 10 of your most important keywords.
The tool provides:
- Local rankings: Monitor your performance at to ZIP code level—ideal for local businesses
- Competitor comparisons: Track your competitors’ rankings alongside your own
- Daily updates: See daily changes in your rankings and spot trends
- Visibility score: Track your overall search presence, beyond individual keywords
- SERP feature opportunities: Identify chances to capture high-visibility search results
This visibility tells you when your SEO efforts, such as content updates and technical fixes, are working or need improvement.
Setting up Position Tracking is easy:
- Create a campaign by entering your domain and target location
- Enter your list of target keywords
Focus on keywords that bring in business, not just those with high search volume.
After setup, your report will populate with daily data.
The free plan allows you to track up to 10 keywords, which may be limiting if you have many pages.
With a free trial, you can set up tracking for 500 keywords (on the Pro trial) or 1,500 keywords (on the Guru trial).
Take it from Hepper, which used Semrush to grow their website to over 3 million monthly organic visitors in just nine months:
Semrush was an absolute game-changer for our content strategy. This tool was incredibly helpful for figuring out which articles our audience wanted to read, and the data we got from Semrush ultimately allowed us to publish more than 5,000 articles and grow our organic visitors from almost nothing to more than 3 million per month.
4. Analyze Your Backlink Profile
Backlinks (links from other websites pointing to yours) are key to SEO. They act as endorsements, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy.
Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool reveals who’s linking to you, what they’re saying about you, and how you compare to competitors.
When you analyze your domain, you’ll find:
- Link quality: How trustworthy your backlinks are
- Referring domains: Which websites are linking to your content
- Top pages: Which pages attract the most backlinks
- Anchor text analysis: The phrases used to link to your content
- Toxic backlinks: Harmful links that could hurt your rankings
With a free plan, you can run up to 10 searches per day. This lets you analyze your own backlink profile or peek into your competitors’ link building strategies.
For example, if you run a health-focused coffee business, you may find that your competitor’s blog post about coffee’s health benefits has earned links from multiple nutrition websites.
This insight can guide you to create similar content to attract those valuable links.
Further reading:
5. Optimize Your Most Important Pages
Small changes to your pages—updating titles, improving heading structure, or adding related keywords—can lead to significant ranking improvements.
Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker identifies changes that will have the biggest impact on your key pages.
With a free account, you can set up one campaign with a limit of 10 pages or keywords.
The free version of this tool provides:
- Content suggestions: Ideas for improving your written content
- Title & meta description tips: Ways to make these key elements more effective
- Keyword usage guidance: How to better incorporate search terms
- Technical checks: Basic technical issues affecting your page performance
- Competitor insights: How your page compares to top-ranking competitors
For the best results within the free limits, prioritize pages that already have some search visibility but haven’t reached their potential.
This may include your homepage, product pages, or conversion pages, where small improvements can have a big impact on your business.
For example, updating a slow-loading product page with a clearer title and stronger meta description can improve both rankings and conversion rates.
If your site has many pages, the 10 page limit means you can only optimize a small portion.
A trial unlocks the ability to:
- Analyze all your important pages
- Access AI-powered content suggestions tailored to your industry
- Get prioritized recommendations based on potential traffic impact
- Track on-page improvements over time
- Generate detailed reports of your progress
6. Set Up Local SEO Monitoring
For businesses with physical locations, appearing in local searches (e.g., “coffee shop near me”) is essential for attracting nearby customers.
Accurate business listings across the web ensure your business appears when customers search locally.
Semrush’s Listing Management tool helps you track where your business appears online and assess the accuracy of your listings.
With the free plan, you can run a basic scan that provides:
- A grade for your overall online presence
- The number of NAP (name, address, phone) citations that need fixing
- Your average star rating
- The number of reviews for your business
Focus on correcting any critical NAP inconsistencies and ensuring your Google Business Profile is accurate to maximize the impact of the free plan.
Other free Semrush tools for local SEO include:
For businesses with multiple locations or those in competitive local markets, you may quickly encounter the limitations of the free tools.
Want to see a real local business’s results from Semrush? BetterVet used Semrush to rank No. 1 for 1,900 keywords, growing organic traffic by 2,000% in just one year.
“Semrush was crucial in helping us boost our local and national presence in a very competitive industry.”
Want to dive deeper into local SEO? Sign up for a trial of the Semrush Local Toolkit.
This gives you access to advanced features like automated distribution of your business information, review monitoring, and a heatmap report to track local rankings.
7. Create Content with AI Tools
If you struggle with generating ideas or structuring content, Semrush’s free content creation tools can help.
The SEO Writing Assistant fine-tunes your content for both readers and search engines. With the free plan, you can create or review one piece of content.
Simply input your draft to get an overall content score based on:
- SEO optimization
- Tone of voice
- Originality
- Readability
The free version provides basic feedback on readability and SEO, helping you refine your content before publishing. You can also install an extension and work directly from Google Docs.
In addition, Semrush offers several free AI writing tools (no account required):
Each tool offers three free uses per day and generates up to 300 words of text, allowing you to create and polish your content.
If content creation is a priority and you’re hitting daily limits, consider a trial of the Semrush Content Toolkit, which offers more tools to help you build and scale your content production.
8. Analyze Social Media Performance
To grow your online presence, it’s crucial to understand which posts resonate with your audience and what strategies your competitors are using to win.
Semrush’s free tools give you the insights to measure what works and find new content ideas to stand out.
For example, Semrush Social can provide a quick analysis of any social media page. With this free tool, you can:
- View the past 30 days of performance data
- Track page likes and follower growth
- Analyze posting activity and engagement
- Identify top-performing posts
- Compare your performance with competitors
In addition, a free version of Social Content AI helps you generate fresh social media content ideas.
- Generate 27 free social media ideas from your business description or URL
- Create captions for your social media posts
- Get suggestions for visuals and videos
- Find relevant content ideas for your specific niche
These free tools provide solid insights and ideas for improving your social media strategy without any cost.
If you’re managing multiple social media channels or need more detailed analytics, consider signing up for a trial of the Semrush Social Toolkit.
This toolkit provides a complete social media management suite, including scheduling, cross-platform analytics, and advanced competitor tracking.
9. Get SEO Guidance from Semrush’s AI-Powered Copilot
SEO can be time-consuming, requiring analysis of complex reports and data points, such as keyword analytics, backlink profiles, and technical audits.
Semrush’s Copilot acts as your personal SEO advisor, simplifying complex data and providing tailored recommendations based on your specific results.
With your free account, you get basic Copilot functionality within your SEO Dashboard.
Once you launch tools like Position Tracking or Site Audit, Copilot will start offering recommendations based on your site and competition.
How AI Copilot Helps:
- Explains your data: Translates complex SEO metrics into simple, understandable terms
- Finds important patterns: Highlights trends you might have missed in your reports
- Guides tool selection: Points you to the right Semrush tools for specific tasks
- Saves research time: Provides quick insights without needing to dig through multiple reports
For example, Copilot might alert you to keywords where your rankings are dropping or suggest new keyword opportunities, helping you adjust your content strategy efficiently.
When to Consider the 7-Day Free Trial
A free Semrush account offers a great introduction to your online visibility. But as your SEO efforts grow, you may find its limitations holding you back.
Here’s when to consider testing the full platform with a 7-day free trial:
- You’re hitting daily limits consistently:If you often wait until the next day to continue your research, it’s time to upgrade
- Your site has grown beyond 100 pages: The free Site Audit scans only 100 URLs. If your website is larger, you’ll need the full version.
- You need deeper competitive insights: If you’ve found key competitors but can’t fully analyze their strategies, a paid plan provides more detailed research
- Content creation has become a priority:The free keyword tools are useful for getting started, but limited data can make it difficult to scale content planning
- You’re ready for more accurate tracking:If you need to track more keywords across different locations or devices, the trial will show you how comprehensive rank tracking can enhance your strategy
The Guru trial gives you access to more advanced content tools and the Keyword Strategy Builder, which helps you organize scattered keyword ideas into structured content plans that drive traffic.
The 7-day trial allows you to explore these features without any commitment, helping you decide if the expanded toolkit fits your growing SEO needs.
You can pick and choose which Semrush toolkit to trial.
For example, try out the SEO Toolkit for one week and the Social Toolkit the next week.
Semrush SEO Toolkit Comparison Table
Want to test all the features before committing? Sign up for a 7-day free trial to access everything Semrush offers.
FAQs About Semrush’s Free vs. Paid Plans
Do I need a credit card to create a free account?
No, you can sign up without any payment information. However, if you want to start the 7-day free trial, you’ll need to enter credit card details.
How quickly do most subscribers hit the free account limits?
The daily limit of 10 queries can be reached in a single research session, especially if you’re actively exploring keywords or analyzing multiple domains. Tracking limits (10 keywords, 100 pages) may also become restrictive as your strategy grows.
What’s the biggest difference between free and paid accounts?
It comes down to scale. The free plan allows you to track 10 keywords—great for a personal site or testing the waters. But if you’re running a blog, managing clients, or growing a business, you’ll quickly outgrow those limits.
With a paid plan, you can track up to 500 keywords (Pro) or 1,500+ (Guru), audit entire websites, and unlock AI-driven tools that help you compete at a higher level. It’s the difference between checking your SEO health once in a while—and having a real strategy.
Can I upgrade to a paid plan later and keep my projects?
Yes, all your projects and data are preserved when you upgrade from a free account to a paid plan.
Can I test out the full capacity of the Semrush Tools for free?
Yes! You can sign up for a seven-day free trial and use all that Semrush has to offer before deciding on a plan that suits your needs. You can cancel at any time during the trial period, and you won’t be charged.
