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9 Ecommerce Website Optimization Tactics [Expert Insights]

2025-03-13 21:04:01

Want to 2X, 3X, or even 4X your ecommerce sales?

Start by diagnosing what’s working on your site and what isn’t.

Then, apply targeted fixes based on real data. Not hunches.

In this guide, I’m sharing my lessons and strategies from 10+ years in digital marketing.

Plus, I interviewed four leading ecommerce website optimization experts for their best conversion-driving insights:

• Leigh McKenzie from UnderFit (also head of SEO @ Backlinko)
• Rishi Rawat from Frictionless Commerce
• Anna Bolton from Conversion Copy Co.
• Kurt Philip from Convertica

Let’s start by identifying the biggest roadblocks standing between you and more revenue.

Phase 1: Analyze and Diagnose Your Site’s Existing Issues

Every effective ecommerce website optimization strategy starts with a solid, data-driven diagnosis.

As economist W. Edwards Deming once said:

Quantitative Research: Finding Patterns in the Numbers

Quantitative research focuses on analyzing data to identify trends and behaviors.

It helps you answer questions about your online store’s performance, such as:

• Where are visitors dropping off in the funnel?
• What are users actually doing on each page (scrolling, clicking)?
• How does behavior differ across traffic segments (e.g., mobile vs. desktop, organic vs. paid)?

The good news:

There are many tools to help you with this analysis.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Google Analytics provides helpful insights into user behavior and website performance.

Including how visitors from different traffic sources behave.

For example, to uncover drop-off points during checkout:

Navigate to Reports > Monetization > Checkout journey.

This lets you examine the flow from checkout to purchase.

And analyze abandonment rates for each stage to identify potential bottlenecks.

For example, a high abandonment rate on the payment page might signal technical issues.

Or trust barriers, such as last-minute doubt about product quality.

Hotjar

Hotjar, a heatmap and behavior analytics tool, is incredibly powerful for qualitative research (more on that soon).

It gives you a clear picture of how online shoppers interact with your site.

And lets you uncover friction points that frustrate users.

For example, click tracking reveals where visitors interact with your site.

And which elements get the most engagement.

Scroll heatmaps show you how far users make it down a page. And where they drop off.

Warm colors (like red) indicate higher engagement.

And cool colors (like blue) signal lower engagement.

Move heatmaps track how shoppers move their mouse across the page.

This reveals areas of interest and hesitation.

Session replays let you watch real user recordings, showing exactly how visitors navigate your site.

Watch this in action below:

Semrush Site Audit

Semrush’s Site Audit tool uncovers technical issues that affect SEO and the user experience (UX).

For example, it flags crawl errors, which are usually caused by broken links or incorrect redirects.

These dead ends confuse users and make it harder for search engines to crawl your pages.

(And if Google struggles to crawl them, your ranking can take a hit.)

The tool also identifies slow-loading pages that frustrate visitors.

It can also identify code bloat (aka too much JavaScript or unused CSS) that makes pages sluggish.

This can cause delayed interactions that lower conversion rates.

Qualitative Research: Uncover the “Why” Behind the Data

Qualitative research helps you understand why customers behave the way they do.

Including their pain points, motivations, and desires.

It also helps you identify barriers to conversion, such as hesitations about buying.

And learn about other products your web visitors are considering.

Qualitative Research Methods

There are many data sources for qualitative insights.

And each one can reveal different issues and opportunities:

But you don’t need to go all-in on every qualitative method right off the bat.

Start with the data you already have.

Then, gradually level up as time and resources allow.

Turn Your Research Into Actionable Insights

You’ve got the research.

Now, you need a system to organize it.

As Anna Bolton, chief CRO and conversion copywriter of Conversion Copy Co., says:

So, what do you do?

Build a research repository to bring all your insights together in one place.

Think of it as a living database of findings and insights. This way, it’s easier for you to act on data.

But you don’t need anything fancy.

Start with a simple spreadsheet.

Include everything from customer research (interviews, surveys) to conversion rate optimization (CRO) results and survey data.

For example, Anna and I use a spreadsheet like the one below for one-off client projects.

For larger-scale projects, use UX research tools like Aurelius Lab and Dovetail.

These tools offer more advanced ways to store, categorize, and retrieve insights.

Phase 2: Apply Ecommerce Website Optimization Fixes to Increase Conversions

The ecommerce website optimization best practices we’re about to cover are designed to do one thing:

Improve the customer experience.

And when you do that, conversions naturally follow.

As Leigh McKenzie, head of SEO at Backlinko and owner of UnderFit, says:

1. Boost Page Load Times

Fast-loading pages are non-negotiable for a great user experience.

Ignore speed, and conversions and bounce rates will suffer.

But increase speed. And good things follow.

Take Vodafone, for example.

After optimizing their Core Web Vitals, they saw:

• 8% more sales
• 11% boost in cart-to-visit rates
• 15% jump in lead-to-visit rates

Test your site speed (and Core Web Vitals) with tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Here’s what to aim for:

For Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) target under 2.5 seconds.

For Interaction to Next Paint (INP), 200ms or less.

And for Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), keep it below 0.1.

How to Optimize Page Speed

Not hitting Core Web Vitals benchmarks?

Here’s how to fix that:

Start with a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare or AWS CloudFront.

It speeds up your site by delivering content from servers closer to your users. This reduces lag and load times.

Next, upgrade to high-performance hosting to minimize server response delays.

Plus, use tools like Tinify to shrink uncompressed images while preserving quality.

Then, clean up unnecessary code.

You can do this with tools like Terser, which helps improve rendering speeds.

Lastly, don’t forget browser caching.

This helps repeat visitors load your site faster by storing assets locally.

2. Optimize High-Impact Pages First

Want to see results fast?

Begin with the pages that offer the quickest wins, such as product and checkout pages.

This is what Rishi Rawat, product page optimization specialist at Frictionless Commerce, does.

So, how do you identify your site’s high-impact pages?

Look at where a page fits in the marketing funnel.

Start with the pages closest to the sale.

These are the pages that attract visitors in the decision and action stages. Such as product pages or the cart page.

But you might also include other pages based on user behavior.

For example, optimize the product and cart pages if your site has high cart abandonment.

This ensures the product page sets the right expectations.

So, when shoppers get to checkout, they feel confident in their choice.

But, if your goal is to boost mobile sales, optimize the mobile experience first.

Want to maximize paid ads conversions? Make product landing pages a priority.

3. Make Navigation and Search Intuitive

Shoppers don’t always leave because they dislike your products.

Sometimes, they leave because they can’t find what they’re looking for.

That’s why navigation plays a big role in ecommerce website optimization.

If your navigation makes users rethink their next step, you’re already losing them.

For example, imagine you’re searching for dog crates on pet company Chewy’s website.

You sort the results by price.

But now, the first products you see are lock latch replacements and crate pans—not dog crates.

That’s a bad user experience.

And it might cost them the sale.

The solution?

Always test filters before launch to ensure they work as expected.

And design navigation to adapt to various browsing behaviors.

Make backtracking easy with breadcrumbs and a “Recently Viewed” section.

Plus, use AI to suggest relevant filters, related categories, and top products.

Navigation also impacts SEO.

As Leigh put it,

4. Fix Product Page Issues

Have low-converting product pages?

They might be missing key information, like sizing or dimensions.

So, don’t give shoppers reasons to doubt the purchase.

Provide vital details clearly and compellingly.

Here’s what I mean.

For clothing and shoes, essential buying criteria include fit, size, and return policies.

Include details like aggregate “fit” subscore (a summary of how well an item fits based on user reviews). Especially for items like jeans.

The clothing site Everlane includes user-reported fit data right on their product pages.

For furniture, you’d want to include dimensions, materials, assembly, warranty information, and more.

But displaying this information isn’t enough. It needs to be easy to find and absorb.

That’s why Wayfair includes a clear, at-a-glance product details section.

For food and supplements, ingredients and nutrition details are non-negotiable.

Supplement company AlgaeCal prominently displays these details right in the hero section.

Your product image gallery is another potential reason for low conversions.

But don’t just show your product. Use it to tell its story.

I love how Huel, a plant-based food company, does this.

It adds key selling points directly onto product photos.

Like nutrition facts and product benefits.

User-generated content (UGC) also works well as an addition to your photo gallery.

It can also boost credibility by showing your products in real life.

Videos provide an even richer view.

Clothing company ASOS includes short video clips that show how clothing moves and fits on real people.

5. Make Checkout Easy

Checkout is a fragile part of the conversion funnel.

It’s the moment when the customer is closest to buying.

And most likely to hesitate.

That’s why 65% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing a purchase. Ouch.

So, what should you do?

Make the checkout process effortless.

Consider Amazon’s one-click checkout.

The less thinking required and the faster the process, the higher the conversions.

One way to do this?

Strip the checkout process down to the essentials.

For example, only ask for the bare minimum in your checkout form.

• Name
• Email
• Delivery address
• Billing address
• Payment details

If you must ask for additional details—like a phone number—explain why.

Transparency reduces friction.

If checkout requires many steps, use a progress indicator. It shows shoppers how far they are in the process.

This reduces uncertainty and keeps them moving forward.

Guest checkout is non-negotiable.

Why?

Forcing users to create an account hurts conversions.

Over 26% of shoppers abandon checkout when forced to create an account.

Let them buy first.

Then, invite them to create an account after the purchase.

That’s what Boots, a health and beauty retailer, does.

As Kurt Philip, CEO of Convertica, says:

But consider this:

Your job doesn’t stop when someone adds an item to the cart.

This is your chance to remove any last-minute hesitation and get the sale.

Ridge Wallet, an accessories manufacturer, does this well.

It displays social proof at the top of the checkout page by highlighting its “100K+ 5-star reviews.”

It also includes trust boosters like a risk-free trial and fast shipping.

Outdoor gear company Patagonia highlights its “Ironclad Guarantee” on the checkout page.

This reassures buyers that buying is risk-free.

And it also strengthens Patagonia’s credibility.

Clothing company Everlane also understands the power of timing.

It reminds shoppers of first-time buyer discounts at checkout to encourage them to take advantage of savings.

Helping to reduce cart abandonment.

And convert hesitant buyers.

6. Write Copy That Educates and Persuades

Conversion copy isn’t just about clever wording.

It’s about guiding shoppers to action through clear information and persuasive web design.

Clarify Your Message

First-time visitors should instantly understand what you sell and who it’s for.

Boom Beauty’s product page is a great example.

Their copy clearly communicates both product purpose, ideal customer, and benefits:

• “Three multitasking beauty essentials”
• “Three sticks. Endless Possibilities.”
• “Simplify your beauty routine”

Layer Persuasion Principles into Every Page

Preemptively address objections with persuasion principles.

Kitchenware company Caraway does this by answering a key question upfront:

“Is this cookware safe?”

Right away, shoppers see “Non-Toxic Coating.”

And the copy underneath provides more details about the toxic materials you won’t find in their cookware.

Balance Benefits and Features

As they browse, shoppers are constantly thinking:

“What’s in it for me?”

That’s why you need to list benefits along with features.

Menswear brand Spoke London does this well.

On their homepage, they highlight what makes their menswear different.

Like a “flawless fit” and “uncompromising design.”

Use Design to Support Your Copy

Strong copy needs equally strong visuals.

When I wrote copy for a face mask product page, the design amplified my key messaging by:

• Showing how the mask is worn
• Using close-ups to prove quality claims
• Creating a clean, scannable layout

Together, they created a more persuasive shopping experience.

7. Optimize for Mobile Buyer Behavior

Mobile shoppers think, browse, and buy differently than desktop users.

In fact, there are four key behavioral differences, according to a study.

This includes their search behavior, cognitive effort, engagement, and position in the funnel.

This means you can’t just shrink your desktop site and call it mobile-optimized.

Instead, design for how mobile users actually shop.

First, reduce cognitive load—the mental effort required to complete a task.

It’s higher on mobile due to smaller screens and limited navigation options.

Show only essential information first, then reveal more as needed.

This “progressive disclosure” keeps pages focused and reduces overwhelm.

Sephora is a great example of this.

Like many ecommerce sites, they first used a hamburger menu to simplify navigation.

But, their research showed users were still experiencing friction.

So, they replaced the hamburger menu with a scrollable navigation and pop-up filters.

Top categories appeared first, and more filters were accessible as needed.

The result? A measurable increase in mobile engagement and conversions.

Another way to improve the mobile experience is by minimizing typing and input friction.

You can do this by:

• Auto-switching to the right keyboard (numeric for credit cards, email for logins)
• Enabling autofill for addresses and payment details to reduce manual typing
• Using dropdowns and prefilled options to speed up form completion
• Ensuring buttons and links are large enough to tap easily without zooming

Mobile users also want fast search and filtering options.

Use predictive search with auto-suggestions based on past searches and popular queries.

8. Personalize the Shopping Experience

Forty percent of ecommerce customers expect a personalized experience.

But you don’t have to personalize everything.

The goal is to make shoppers feel like you understand their needs. Not that you’re watching their every move.

For example, motorcycle gear company Revzilla dynamically adjusts shipping information based on user behavior and location.

The banner updates instantly when I visit, displaying region-specific shipping details.

Though it’s a U.S.-based site, it tailors content for my location in Croatia.

It’s one small change.

But it resolves a key concern before it even becomes a question.

This reduces friction in the buying decision.

So, what else can you personalize?

Here are some examples.

Tiffany & Co. has a slide-in window for returning visitors that welcomes you back.

And encourages you to “continue shopping” by reminding you of the products you’ve viewed.

Amazon personalizes its homepage based on your buying behavior, displaying:

• Products you’ve viewed and bought
• Deals related to your past interactions

Effective personalization relies on four key data types to create tailored experiences:

• First-party data (profiles, quizzes, preferences): This lets you personalize recommendations based on customer input
• Browsing behavior (page views, search patterns, cart activity): Helps adapt content in real-time
• CRM data (buying history, abandoned carts): Powers retargeting campaigns and perfectly timed offers
• Predictive insights: Uses AI to analyze patterns and predict needs

9. A/B Test to Learn. Not Just to Win.

At the heart of ecommerce website optimization is A/B testing.

But here’s the thing:

Your goal isn’t just about finding a “winning variation.”

It’s to learn more about the psychology of your buyers.

As Jonny Longden, chief growth officer at Speero, puts it:

For example, if a trust badge increases conversions, the real takeaway isn’t just that the badge works.

It’s that customers need more reassurance before they give you their credit card.

This insight goes beyond checkout.

It suggests that trust signals should be reinforced earlier in the buying journey. On product pages, in the cart, and even in post-purchase messaging.

Why?

If hesitation exists at checkout, it likely started long before.

One more thing.

A/B testing only works if you have enough traffic to reach statistical significance.

Kurt says your test page should receive at least 10,000 visits per month.

This gives you meaningful insights in a reasonable timeframe.

But traffic alone isn’t enough.

What matters is whether you can reach statistical significance. This ensures your results aren’t just due to chance.

To determine the right sample size, use Optimizely’s A/B Test Sample Size Calculator.

Now, if your traffic is too low, A/B testing may not be the best tool yet.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t optimize your ecommerce website.

Here’s what you can do instead:

Multi-armed bandit (MAB) testing dynamically directs traffic to better-performing pages.

It doesn’t wait for statistical significance.

Instead, it continuously reallocates traffic in real time to maximize conversions as data is collected.

Another alternative is pre/post testing.

Instead of splitting traffic, test one variation for a set period and then switch to another.

Finally, make high-impact changes like a full rewrite and redesign of a product page.

These larger changes are more likely to yield noticeable improvements.

Transform Your Ecommerce Site into a Sales Machine

The bottom line:

You could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table with your ecommerce site.

Optimize it the right way, and you could double—or even triple—your revenue.

Remember, diagnose first and then make strategic, high-impact changes.

Want more proven ecommerce website optimization strategies to boost your sales?

Our definitive guide to conversion rate optimization includes:

• A/B testing basics
• A blueprint for high-converting landing pages
• Conversion copy tactics that persuade

The post 9 Ecommerce Website Optimization Tactics [Expert Insights] appeared first on Backlinko.

4 Similarweb Alternatives for Better Competitor Research

2025-03-06 06:32:26

Similarweb is powerful for digital intelligence. But like any tool, it has limitations.

You might want deeper insights into your competitors’ content strategies. Or need more reliable data for SEO planning. Or you’re simply looking for a more affordable solution.

I’ve spent months testing and researching the best Similarweb alternatives to see how they compare.

Four tools stand out as replacements.

This guide covers the top options for:

• Market trends
• Advanced SEO analysis
• Ad intelligence

Similarweb Limitations

While Similarweb excels at competitor intelligence, it might not fit everyone.

Here are some key limitations:

• Limited SEO and keyword research features: It lacks in-depth keyword rankings, SERP tracking, and backlink analysis, making it less effective for SEO professionals
• Limited keyword and backlink databases: Similarweb’s databases are smaller compared to its competitors like Semrush and Ahrefs
• Limited traffic source breakdown: It doesn’t show a detailed breakdown of where the website gets traffic from (e.g., organic search, social media, referrals, email, etc.)
• No granular audience demographics: Unlike some alternatives, Similarweb lacks detailed demographic breakdowns, such as income level or interests, that could help with audience targeting

Similarweb Alternatives at a Glance

Before I review each tool in detail, here’s a quick comparison of the best Similarweb alternatives:

Semrush .Trends

Best for marketers who want detailed competitor intelligence and market trends

Pricing: $139.95 (Semrush Pro plan) + $289 (.Trends add-on) = $428.95 per month

Semrush .Trends helps you spy on your competitors’ traffic and uncover hidden market opportunities.

It shows you how much traffic your competitors get, where that traffic comes from, and how engaged their visitors are.

Plus, you can use Market Explorer to spot emerging industry trends before your competition.

Why consider Semrush .Trends over Similarweb?

Let’s take a glance:

Here are the key features included in .Trends:

Traffic Analytics

Traffic Analytics shows you your competitors’ traffic and where it comes from.

It also reveals useful SEO performance metrics, including:

• Total monthly traffic
• Top traffic sources
• Best-performing content
• Visitor engagement metrics

And you’ll get detailed insights into website traffic and visitor behavior that’ll help you refine your marketing strategy.

Let me show you how to use Traffic Analytics to spy on your competition.

Evaluate On-Site Engagement

Metrics like pages per visit, average visit duration, and bounce rate give you a snapshot of what happens when visitors land on the site.

Here’s what these metrics tell you about your competition:

A high bounce rate means most visitors leave without exploring other pages. This often happens when:

• The content doesn’t match what visitors were searching for
• Pages take too long to load
• The site isn’t mobile-friendly

On the flip side, when you see a high average visit duration and multiple pages per visit, it usually means:

• Their content keeps readers engaged
• They’ve built effective content funnels
• Their site navigation makes it easy to explore more content

Analyze Website Traffic Sources

Go to the “Traffic Journey” tab to understand where your competitors’ website visitors are coming from and which channels are driving the most traffic. For example, organic search, paid search, social, or referrals.

What do these metrics mean?

If you see most of their traffic comes from organic search (like in the screenshot above), you’ve struck gold. This usually means:

• They’ve built a solid foundation of SEO-optimized content
• They’re targeting the right keywords for your industry
• They’re not overly dependent on paid traffic

Map Out the Traffic Journey

The Traffic Journey report is like a GPS for your competitors’ visitors. It tracks their exact path before and after they land on the site.

Here’s what different traffic patterns reveal:

Pattern #1: When you see visitors flowing from Google → Your competitor → Stripe (or other payment processors), you’ve found a winning formula:

• Their content matches search intent perfectly (thanks to a solid SEO strategy)
• They’ve built a high-converting sales funnel
• They’re turning organic traffic into customers
  

  

Pattern #2: Notice lots of visitors bouncing back to Google.com? That’s a red flag indicating:

• The content isn’t delivering what visitors want
• There might be technical issues causing frustration
• You’ve spotted a gap you can fill with better content
  

  

Discover Top-Performing Pages

Navigate to the “Top Pages” tab to identify which pages on a competitor’s site drive the most traffic.

These top pages reveal what resonates most with their audience. This offers inspiration for your content strategy.

Let’s say you run a personal finance blog. You might discover that NerdWallet’s most-visited pages are their:

• Mortgage calculator tools
• Credit card comparison guides
• Student loan refinancing reviews

This tells you three things:

1. What type of content your audience want (interactive tools and comparison guides)
2. Which topics drive the most traffic (mortgages, credit cards, student loans)
3. Where to focus your content strategy for maximum impact

Market Explorer

Market Explorer helps you evaluate your market size and track up to 100 competitors at once.

The tool shows you who’s leading your industry, who’s growing fast, and detailed insights about your target audience’s demographics and behavior.

Here’s what you can do with Market Explorer:

Get a Market Summary

The Market Summary dashboard shows you a snapshot of your chosen industry.

Let’s say you’re just starting a business in the travel and tourism industry. This dashboard gives you the key metrics to evaluate the market and plan your strategy effectively:

Here’s what the key metrics on this dashboard mean:

• Market consolidation: Shows if a few big players dominate your market (high consolidation) or if it’s spread across many smaller sites (low consolidation)
• Market domains: How many active websites compete in your space
• Market traffic: How many monthly visitors the entire industry gets (and whether it’s growing or shrinking)
• Market traffic cost: How much you’d need to spend on ads to get the same traffic volume
• Market size: Two key numbers that matter:
  • Total Addressable Market (TAM): Your maximum possible audience size (example: “all online shoppers”)
  • Serviceable Available Market (SAM): The audience you can realistically reach (example: “online shoppers in your country”)

Analyze Audience Insights

The Audience section provides a detailed breakdown of your industry’s demographics, socioeconomic data, and behavioral trends.

These insights help you understand your target audience on a deeper level. This will allow you to tailor your marketing strategies to their specific needs and preferences.

Market Explorer even shows detailed audience socioeconomic data. For instance, their employment status, education level, and household income and size.

You’ll also see an overview of your audience’s additional interests. And what social media they use the most.

Strengths & Limitations

Ahrefs Site Explorer

Best for SEO professionals looking to analyze competitors’ organic traffic

Pricing: Starting at $129 per month

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer is an SEO-focused alternative to Similarweb. It provides detailed insights into competitors’ organic traffic and SEO strategies.

Why should you consider Ahrefs’ Site Explorer over Similarweb?

Here’s the high-level feature comparison:

Now, let’s review the key features Ahrefs Site Explorer offers.

View Your Competitors’ Top Pages

Site Explorer lets you identify the highest-value content on your competitor’s website. Plus, the top organic keywords driving that traffic.

Use these insights to replicate their success.

Let’s say you’re running a personal finance blog that competes with NerdWallet. You can analyze their top-performing pages to spot content opportunities.

In this example, the mortgage rates page is one of the most visited. This means that “current mortgage rates” is a high-demand topic worth covering on your website.

Review the Site Structures of Your Competitors

Ahrefs’ Site Structure feature shows a website’s architecture in a tree format with key SEO metrics across each section and subfolder.

This helps you analyze how competitors organize their content and which sections attract the most traffic.

For example, when you analyze one of your competitors, you can see:

• Which content categories drive the most organic traffic (e.g., reviews, mortgage guides, or financial calculators)
• The traffic performance of individual pages and subfolders
• How much organic and paid traffic each section receives, pinpointing opportunities for content optimization
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Strengths & Limitations

Serpstat

Best for SEOs and PPC advertisers looking for a budget-friendly tool for competitor analysis

Pricing: Starts at $59 per month; freemium version available

Serpstat is a budget-friendly SEO and PPC intelligence tool that analyzes competitors. It finds keyword opportunities and improves search rankings.

Why should you consider Serpstat over Similarweb?

Let’s take a glance:

Analyze Any Site’s SEO

Imagine you run a high-end salon in Philadelphia and want to compete with top-ranking salons like Salon OKO.

Serpstat’s Site Analysis > Competitors feature lets you compare multiple competitors side by side, showing common keywords and missing keywords.

But what do these metrics mean for you?

Common keywords are those you and your competitors rank for. This tells you:

Who ranks higher, and where you need to improve.

For example, if your competitor ranks #1 for a keyword while you’re at #10, you may need to update your content.

Missing keywords are keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t. This is an important insight because it can reveal:

• High-value content gaps and cover topics your competitors are already benefiting from
• New keyword opportunities, i.e., terms that are already proven to generate traffic in your industry
• Keywords that competitors dominate while your site doesn’t show up at all, likely because of indexing issues

Then, for each competitor’s domain, you can access detailed insights, such as:

• Domain overview report: Get a bird’s-eye view of their SEO performance, including total organic traffic, keyword rankings, and estimated traffic value
• Positions and keywords: See exactly which keywords they rank for, what position they’re in, and how these rankings change over time
• Top pages: Discover their highest-traffic content and the exact keywords driving visitors to each page (perfect for finding content gaps in your own strategy)
• Backlink profile: Analyze where their backlinks come from, which pages get the most links, and how their link profile grows over time
• Site audit: Peek under the hood at their technical SEO setup, including site structure, loading speed, and potential technical issues you can learn from

Why do these insights matter?

They let you reverse-engineer your competitors’ success to improve your SEO strategy.

And find high-authority sites linked to your competitors. Then, reach out to these websites for backlink opportunities.

Spy on Competitors’ PPC Campaigns

Serpstat’s Ads Examples feature lets you analyze your competitors’ paid search strategies. This helps you optimize your ad performance.

Here’s what you can learn from these examples:

• See what’s working for your competitors. Identify real ads competitors run and spot patterns in messaging, offers, and calls to action (CTAs).
• Find best-performing keywords. View which keywords each competitor’s ad ranks for to identify high-converting terms worth targeting.
• Analyze landing page strategies. Discover where competitor ads direct users. Is it a homepage, a booking page, or a dedicated landing page?

Strengths & Limitations

Exploding Topics

Best for entrepreneurs and marketers needing early trend insights to capitalize on emerging opportunities

Pricing: Free (paid plans start at $39 per month)

Exploding Topics is a market research and trend discovery tool that identifies emerging trends before they peak.

While Similarweb focuses on existing competitors, Exploding Topics helps you spot rising trends before they take off. The tool analyzes search data, social media, and startup activity to identify tomorrow’s opportunities.

Why is Exploding Topics better than Similarweb?

Let’s take a glance:

Here are the key features included in Exploding Topics:

Discover Emerging Trends Before They Peak

Exploding Topics analyzes millions of data points from search engines, social media, online discussions, and startup investments to identify growing trends.

What does this mean for you?

Let’s say you have an affiliate blog selling home technology. You want to see what’s trending to understand which products or keywords have rising demand before they become mainstream.

Using Exploding Topics, you discover that “walking pads,” compact treadmills designed for home offices, are rapidly gaining traction.

This early insight gives you three key advantages:

• You can create content while competition is still low
• You can rank for keywords before they get expensive
• You can establish yourself as an authority before the trend peaks

In other words: you get more traffic with less effort by being first.

Spot Trends 12+ Months Before They Take Off

Exploding Topics’ forecasting feature can position you as an early authority and rank faster in search.

Imagine creating content around AI image enhancers.

At first glance, it’s hard to tell if the interest in AI-powered image tools will continue to grow or if it’s just temporary hype.

Instead of guessing, you check Exploding Topics’ forecasting data. And see that the search volume for “AI logo generator” is expected to rise steadily.

Knowing the keyword’s popularity may rise gives you the confidence to take action early and secure organic traffic before the competition.

Strengths & Limitations

Match Your Similarweb Alternative to Your Growth Stage

Your business stage determines which tool you’ll need.

Just starting out? Exploding Topics gives you free baseline data to validate ideas.

Ready to scale? Semrush .Trends reveals overlooked opportunities in your space.

The right tool accelerates your market research. But knowing how to interpret the data is what drives real growth.

The post 4 Similarweb Alternatives for Better Competitor Research appeared first on Backlinko.

WordPress Redirects Made Easy: Plugin & Code Methods

2025-03-05 17:20:58

WordPress redirects ensure your users (and Google) can find your content when you:

• Change the URL
• Combine two pieces of content
• Move your entire site to a new domain

Using redirects avoids creating broken links (bad for user experience), or losing the authority of your backlinks (bad for your SEO).

In this guide, I’ll show you how to redirect your WordPress URLs with and without plugins.

When Should You Use WordPress Redirects?

You typically set up WordPress redirects any time you want visitors (and search engines) to end up at a different URL than the one they originally tried to access.

That might be because you changed an old link, or because you’re testing a new landing page.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common scenarios:

Types of WordPress Redirects

You’ll mostly rely on two key types of redirects: 301 and 302. (Even then, 301 is the type you’ll likely use most often.)

While there are others (like meta refresh), they don’t come up nearly as often in day-to-day site management (and they’re typically not best practice either). So I won’t talk about them here.

There are also subtle variations of these standard redirects (like 307 and 308 redirects). But these have very specific use cases that most site owners don’t need to worry about.

(If you do want to learn more about these, check out this extensive redirects guide.)

Here’s a summary of what you actually need to know:

301 Permanent Redirect

This is the go-to redirect for any page move that’s meant to last forever. You use it when you’ve changed your URL structure, merged content, or changed your domain.

Search engines treat this as a permanent change and usually transfer most of the old page’s authority to the new page.

302 Temporary Redirect

You use 302 redirects when you plan to send visitors to a new page for a limited time.

This could be when you’re running a seasonal promotion or an A/B test to see which version of your page performs best.

A 302 redirect tells search engines that the old URL is coming back eventually, so they shouldn’t transfer the SEO value to the new page just yet.

What to Do Before You Create WordPress Redirects

Redirecting pages, no matter why or how you do it, always comes with an inherent risk.

It’s easy to make mistakes, like creating redirect chains:

Or redirect loops:

So it’s best to do some planning before you get started.

Understand What Kind of WordPress Site You Own

There are two flavors of WordPress:

• WordPress.com: These sites are built on and hosted by WordPress
• WordPress.org: These sites run the WordPress software, but you host them elsewhere

Most sites you’ll see talking about WordPress redirects, and everything I’ll discuss below, only really applies to owners of sites running via WordPress.org.

Sites running on WordPress.com typically have more limited customization options, and this applies to redirecting URLs.

For example, users on WordPress’s cheapest plan can’t install plugins, so they won’t be able to redirect URLs with this method.

This means you’ll need to use WordPress’s built-in redirect tool. You can learn more about the different use cases in this support article.

If you run a WordPress.org site (i.e., you pay for separate hosting), you can use either of the methods below.

Create a Backup

It’s always a good idea to back up your site before making any significant changes—redirects included.

Most good web hosts offer an option for this, but you’ll also find external solutions and even WordPress plugins to do it for you.

Create a URL Map

Another good idea if you’re redirecting a lot of URLs or moving to a new domain is to map all of your current URLs to their new versions.

You can do this using tools like Screaming Frog to get a comprehensive list of all your site’s pages. Or, if your site isn’t that big, just create a list manually (with the help of your sitemap).

This gives you a reference for setting up all the redirects. And you can tick them all off as you put them in place and verify that they work.

Consider Whether You Need a Redirect

Finally, consider whether you even need a redirect at all. I’ve covered a few common situations above, but sometimes you might be better off:

• Updating the content and keeping the current URL
• Deleting the page
• Leaving it as is

For example, you might have outdated content or a page that’s no longer relevant, but no relevant page to redirect it to.

But you don’t want to lose the traffic or backlinks that post has attracted over time. In this case, it’s often just best to leave it as is.

Here’s a flowchart to help you decide what to do:

But if you do need a redirect, here’s how to implement them.

How to Redirect WordPress URLs with a Plugin

Using a plugin is by far the easiest way to handle redirects in WordPress. You don’t have to touch any code, and they’re usually pretty easy to set up.

Here’s an overview of the most popular WordPress plugins for creating redirects:

I’ll show the main interface for each one below, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. The main things to consider are any other plugin features you might need and whether you can do it for free.

Redirection

Types of redirects: 301/302/303/304/307/308

Redirection is the most popular free plugin for simple 301 redirects.

It does exactly what the name implies and is a plugin purely for creating and managing redirects.

You can add new redirects very easily, and the plugin automatically tracks any 404 errors on your site.

Plus, if you update the URL of a page, you can set it to automatically create a redirect for it.

That means you don’t need to worry about broken links appearing that could cost you traffic and rankings.

You can also choose various HTTP status codes for pages. This is handy if you’re deleting content and want the URL to send a 410 gone status code, for example.

The Redirection plugin can also handle a few useful sitewide redirects:

• HTTP to HTTPS
• Removing WWW
• Adding WWW

As I’ll show you later, you can set these kinds of redirects up through .htaccess. But if you want a simple, no-code way to do it, this is SUPER useful.

If you’re looking for something lightweight and focused purely on redirects, this plugin is a great choice.

301 Redirects

Types of redirects: 301/302/307

301 Redirects is another option if you just want basic link redirection without any extra features.

The free version handles most common redirect scenarios through a simple interface.

But there’s a premium version available if you want other features like:

• Redirect management and matching rules
• Detailed 404 monitoring
• Link scanning

Rank Math

Types of redirects: 301/302/307

Rank Math is an all-in-one SEO plugin that also lets you create redirects—without needing a premium subscription.

Note that you can set up three types of redirects and choose 410 or 451 status codes.

Its standout feature (for this discussion) is the auto-redirect function: when you change a URL slug, the plugin sets up a redirect for you automatically.

This saves you from having to remember to do it yourself.

It also includes an array of other SEO tools—like keyword optimization and schema settings.

So, if you need a plugin that can handle other aspects of your site’s SEO, Rank Math is a good pick.

Yoast

Types of redirects: 301/302/307/410/451

Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress.

The downside is that you need the premium version to access the built-in redirect manager. If you’re already using Yoast Premium for other features though, it’s a no-brainer.

You’ll get a user-friendly interface for setting up 301 or 302 redirects (and 410/451 status codes), and it’ll automatically set up redirects when you change URLs.

AIO SEO

Types of redirects: 301/302/303/304/307/308

AIO SEO (All in One SEO) is another heavyweight in the SEO world. It offers redirect features, but you need a paid subscription to unlock them.

In return, you get a clean, well-structured dashboard where you can manage redirects alongside other SEO tasks.

Like the others, the redirect manager is straightforward—just enter the old URL, the new URL, and save.

If you’re already using AIO SEO for keyword optimization or sitemap management, upgrading for the redirect module could make sense.

How to Set Up a Redirect in WordPress via .htaccess

If you’re comfortable taking a more hands-on approach, you can skip plugins entirely and create redirects by editing your site’s .htaccess file.

(Note that this only applies to WordPress sites running on Apache, not Nginx.)

This file tells your server how to handle certain requests, and it’s often used for things like permalinks and redirect rules.

It can be faster than installing a plugin, and if you already have lots of plugins on your site, it limits how much extra “bloat” you add to it.

In other words: your site might run faster.

The catch is that one wrong line of code can bring your whole site down. So I strongly recommend you consult your developer if possible. Or, at the very least, take a lot of care when doing it yourself.

How to Access .htaccess

The usual method to edit your .htaccess file involves an FTP client. This is a “file transfer protocol” program that lets you access your server’s files from your computer.

There are lots of options, like Cyberduck, FileZilla, and WinSCP.

Check out this guide to .htaccess files for a walkthrough of how to do this.

In many cases, you can edit your .htaccess file right inside your hosting control panel (like cPanel or a similar dashboard).

Look for a “File Manager” or something similar:

Then, look in your site’s root folder (often called public_html) for your .htaccess file.

It might be hidden by default—there’s usually an option in your settings to change that.

You’ll see lines of code that might look a bit intimidating, but don’t panic.

You don’t need to edit any of them. We’ll just be adding some additional lines of code to our .htaccess file.

Before You Start

For some redirects, you’ll need to add a few lines of code like this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

You don’t need to worry too much about what this does, but essentially it lets you add certain rules that’ll execute specific types of redirects. (Some hosts might enable the first line by default, but it’s fine to add it here anyway.)

You don’t need these for a basic single redirect, but you will for the more complex ones.

You also only need to add it once in your .htaccess file (provided you don’t also have “RewriteEngine Off” somewhere else in the file). But I’ve included it in each of the instances below that require it.

Finally, it’s important to note that these .htaccess rules don’t “create” any new pages.

You need to ensure the pages you’re redirecting to are live when you add the rule. Otherwise the redirect will lead to an error page.

With that in mind, here are the most common types of WordPress redirects you can add to your .htaccess file. In each case, add them at the start of your .htaccess file.

Redirecting a Single Page

To redirect a single page using your .htaccess file, add this line of code, replacing the /old-url and /new-url parts with your own URLs:

Redirect 301 /old-url https://yourdomain.com/new-url

Redirecting a Single Folder

When you want to redirect a folder (e.g., moving a /blog category over to your /news category), use this code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /news/$1 [L,R=301]

Again, you’d replace the blog and news parts with your own folder names.

But what do all the other parts mean?

You don’t need to know the specifics, as there are lots of possible combinations. But this particular case does the following:

• ^ means “start looking at the beginning of the URL path”
• blog/ is the folder we’re redirecting from
• (.*) captures everything after blog/ (think of it like copying it to the clipboard)
• $ basically says “that’s the end of what we’re looking for”
• /news/ is the new folder we’re redirecting to
• $1 essentially “pastes” everything we “copied” with (.*) into the new location
• L means stop processing rules for this specific request once it matches this rule
• R=301 means it’s a 301 redirect (as opposed to 302, for example)

So, it would redirect a URL like:

https://yourdomain.com/blog/post-1

To:

https://yourdomain.com/news/post-1

Redirecting to a New Domain

Redirecting to a new domain is where things can get tricky. Having done this myself, I strongly recommend you speak to your developer first.

But if you plan to do it yourself, here’s one example of a rule you can add to your .htaccess file (obviously subbing in your specific old and new domains, with or without www as required):

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?olddomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

As with redirecting folders, there are a lot of symbols in there. I won’t go over them all individually, but here are a few important parts:

• RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} essentially means “check what domain the user is trying to access”
• ^(www.)? matches either www. or nothing at the start of the domain—this ensures it catches both www.olddomain.com and olddomain.com
• [NC] means “not case sensitive,” so OLDDOMAIN.com would also match
• ^(.*)$ captures the entire URL path after the domain (like /about or /contact)

So this code would redirect:

• https://olddomain.com/about > https://newdomain.com/about
• https://www.olddomain.com/blog > https://newdomain.com/blog
• https://olddomain.com/product/item > https://newdomain.com/product/item

This maintains the same structure for each URL but on the new domain.

You can tweak some of the symbols to catch or ignore specific parts of the URL. But again, it’s probably best to seek help from your developer if you need a more precise solution.

If you try to redirect “olddomain.com/example-page” but there’s no “newdomain.com/example-page” or its URL is slightly different (e.g., newdomain.com/example-page1), the user will get a 404 error.

That’s why you should create a redirect map before starting a site move. For more on this, see our website migration checklist.

Redirecting HTTP to HTTPS

You can also redirect your website from HTTP (unsecure) to HTTPS (secure) via .htaccess. (You’ll, of course, need a valid SSL certificate.)

However:

You might not need to. There’s a good chance your web host offers a method to do this for you. Or you might already have a plugin that does it.

In either case, you shouldn’t then add a separate .htaccess rule to redirect to HTTPS. Doing so can actually lead to issues.

But if you do want to add it, here’s the code:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

You can copy and paste this rule directly into your .htaccess file without subbing anything in.

Redirecting WWW to Non-WWW

As with redirecting to HTTPS, you can usually redirect from the www. version of your website without touching your .htaccess file.

One method is through your WordPress dashboard’s “General” settings tab. Just enter the URL you want to use for your domain name in the “WordPress Address” and “Site Address Boxes”:

But if you want to do this via .htaccess, here’s the code to add (you can copy and paste it in without changing anything):

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [L,R=301]

Pros and Cons of Using .htaccess for WordPress Redirects

The main advantages of using .htaccess to redirect WordPress URLs include:

• Fewer plugins, less bloat: Every plugin you install can slow down your site. Changes to .htaccess don’t rely on lots of extra code running in the background.
• Extra control: You can set up advanced redirect rules, and you can be very specific about what does and doesn’t redirect.
• Fast execution: Because .htaccess rules run at the server level, your redirects happen quickly.

But there are a few drawbacks:

• Risk of breaking your site: One small typo can cause major errors. Double-check everything, and always keep a backup.
• No built-in tracking: Unlike plugin dashboards that log errors and hits, you won’t see which URLs have triggered the redirect unless you check your server logs.
• Potential performance impact: While the actual redirects might be fast, adding lots of .htaccess rules could impact overall performance and page speed (although it won’t be noticeable in most cases).

A big caveat here, though, is that which method is right for you will depend on how many redirects you need to implement and the nature of them.

Need to redirect a couple of pages, and want an easy way to do it as needed?

The likely small performance impact of a single plugin is probably worth it for the flexibility and convenience.

Redirecting one URL?

It’s probably most efficient to add it to your .htaccess file (it’s just one line of code).

Performing a massive site migration with thousands or millions of redirects?

For massive sites, it’s probably not worth taking any risks trying to use a plugin or editing your .htaccess file. This is where you’ll likely want to seek expert assistance.

How to Check Your WordPress Redirects Are Working

Whether you set your redirects up using a plugin or via .htaccess, I recommend testing to make sure they work as soon as you’ve implemented them. This lets you fix errors before they impact your users (or your SEO).

You can do this manually by checking the URLs if you didn’t create that many redirects.

But if you have lots of them, you can use a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit to check for issues across your entire site.

You just set up your audit and once it runs, you’ll head to the “Issues” tab.

Search for “links” to bring up any relevant issues:

Pay particular attention to these errors and warnings:

• # internal links are broken
• # pages returned 4XX status code
• # redirect chains and loops
• # pages with a broken canonical link
• # links couldn’t be crawled (incorrect URL formats)
• # links on HTTPS pages lead to HTTP page

These often occur when you implement lots of redirects and set up some (or all) of them incorrectly.

The post WordPress Redirects Made Easy: Plugin & Code Methods appeared first on Backlinko.

Organic Traffic: What It Is & How to Increase It (6 Ways)

2025-03-03 21:55:30

Growing your website starts with reaching the right people.

Not random traffic.

People actively searching for the solutions you provide.

That’s where organic traffic shines.

Unlike paid advertising or social media, organic traffic attracts visitors with clear intent.

At Backlinko, organic traffic brings us over 571K monthly visitors—each one specifically interested in SEO and digital marketing.

In this guide, you’ll learn all about organic traffic, including how to measure and increase it.

Let’s start with what organic traffic is and how it differs from other traffic sources.

What Is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website or blog from unpaid search engine results.

Think of it as people finding your content naturally when they search for information, products, or services.

These unpaid clicks are organic traffic.

For example, if someone searches “seo competitor analysis” on Google and clicks on a regular (non-ad) result, that counts as organic traffic.

The key word here is “unpaid.”

While you might see “sponsored” or “ad” results at the top of search results, clicks on these aren’t organic traffic—they’re paid traffic.

You earn organic traffic by creating high-quality content that matches what people are searching for (search intent) and optimizing it for search engines (SEO).

Understanding Organic vs. Other Traffic Sources

Search engines aren’t the only way people find websites.

Visitors might come from social media, email newsletters, or by typing your URL directly.

Here’s how different traffic sources compare:

Why Organic Traffic Matters

Organic traffic isn’t just about reaching your target audience.

It’s about building assets that continue delivering value long after you create them.

Here’s why investing in organic search makes sense for businesses of all sizes.

Cost-Effective

Organic traffic is one of the most affordable ways to attract qualified visitors to your website.

This is especially true when you compare it to paid advertising, which costs anywhere from $0.11 to $0.50 per click, according to a WebFX survey.

Now, let’s consider a leading home improvement site, The Spruce, as an example.

They attract 9 million organic visitors monthly.

This traffic would cost them an estimated $7.1 million if they paid for it through Google Ads.

Pretty impressive, right?

As you can see, organic traffic can deliver incredible ROI compared to the ongoing costs of paid advertising.

Builds Authority

Consistently ranking for search terms helps establish your site as an industry leader.

NerdWallet demonstrates this perfectly.

With 13.2 million monthly organic visitors and 5.2 million backlinks, they’ve become the go-to source for financial advice.

Their approach?

Creating comprehensive content that displays E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) signals:

• Author credentials and expertise
• Regular content updates with accurate information
• Citations to credible sources
• Real-world experience and testing
• Clear website policies and contact information

When they rank #1 on Google for terms like “best high yield savings account” or “how to invest in stocks,” it reinforces their position as a trusted voice in personal finance.

And helps them build website authority and confidence with every click.

Drives Targeted Traffic

When someone finds your site through organic search, they’re currently looking for what you offer.

Think about someone searching for “how to optimize a blog post.”

They’re not casually browsing—they’re sitting at their computer, working on content, and need guidance right now.

If your site ranks highly for this search, you’re reaching them at the perfect moment:

When they’re most likely to read your advice, implement your tips, or purchase a solution that helps them succeed.

That’s the power of organic traffic.

By consistently appearing in these high-intent searches, you connect with people precisely when your expertise matters most.

Generates Long-Term Leads

While paid campaigns stop delivering the moment you pause them, organic traffic compounds over time.

The key is creating content that matches what your audience is searching for at every funnel stage.

Including when they’re researching a problem, comparing solutions, or ready to make a purchase.

This builds a sustainable pipeline of qualified leads that continues growing long after you publish the content.

The best part? You don’t have to depend on daily ad spend.

How to Check Organic Traffic

Tracking your organic traffic reveals which content drives visitors and growth opportunities.

It also proves your SEO ROI.

These three tools make it easy.

Organic Research

Semrush’s Organic Research tool goes beyond basic traffic metrics to show you the full picture of your organic performance.

Start by entering your domain and clicking “Search.”

For this example, I used Sweet Peas and Saffron, a meal prep site.

Right away, you’ll see interesting data on your site’s organic performance.

For example, I learned that Sweet Peas and Saffron has:

• 88.8K ranking keywords
• 110.2K monthly organic traffic
• $33.8K in traffic value

Click the “Positions” tab to discover every keyword you rank for.

Filter by “Positions,” “Volume,” “Intent,” “SERP Features,” and more for deeper insights into your search performance.

I filtered Sweet Peas and Saffron’s results by “Position #1” and learned they have 791 organic keywords in the first spot on Google.

Terms like “air fryer chickpeas” and “asian salad dressing” drive consistent organic traffic to this site every single month.

The “Position Changes” report shows where you’re gaining or losing ground in search results.

This helps you spot trends and react quickly to ranking drops.

For example, Sweet Pea and Saffron’s post, “Easy Homemade Fajita Seasoning,” has recently seen a 2.6K decrease in traffic.

When you see drops like this, you can:

• Check if your content needs updating
• See if competitors have published better content
• Look for technical issues affecting the page
• Review if the search intent has changed

The sooner you identify these issues, the faster you can fix them and recover your rankings.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) shows you where your organic traffic comes from and how visitors behave on your site.

Here’s how to check your organic traffic on this platform:

Click “Reports” in the left-hand menu.

Click “Life cycle,” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic acquisition.”

Now, you’ll see an overview of your site’s performance, including organic search.

For a breakdown of which search engines drive the most organic traffic to your site, scroll to the traffic acquisition report.

Next, click the plus sign to add a secondary dimension.

Select “Session source.”

Now, you’ll see an organic traffic breakdown by search engine.

Google Search Console

While GA4 tracks all search engines, Google Search Console (GSC) focuses solely on Google traffic—giving you detailed data about your Google search performance.

Start by opening your GSC account and clicking “Performance” > “Search results” in the left sidebar.

Scroll to see the top queries and pages that attract organic traffic to your site.

You’ll learn how many clicks and impressions each one gets.

And each term’s position on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

How to Increase Organic Traffic in 6 Steps

There are dozens of ways to improve organic traffic.

But these six high-impact tactics consistently deliver the best results.

1. Fix Technical Issues

Technical problems can limit your organic traffic growth.

This is why it’s important to identify and fix them.

First things first:

Make sure Google is indexing your content.

Go to Google Search Console and click “Indexing” > “Pages.”

If you see lots of non-indexed pages, don’t panic just yet. This number will vary for every site.

And preventing certain pages from being indexed can actually be a good thing.

What matters is that your most important pages are properly indexed.

View the “Why pages aren’t indexed” report to check for issues.

This helps you distinguish between:

• Intentionally excluded pages, such as duplicate content, form submissions, paginated pages, or anything else you don’t want indexed
• Important pages that should be indexed but aren’t due to redirect errors, accidental noindex tags, and other issues

Click any error to get details and request immediate indexing if needed.

This can be a fast and easy way to recover lost organic traffic.

Next, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s loading speed and Core Web Vitals—Google’s key metrics for measuring user experience.

Slow, poorly performing pages drive visitors away and hurt your rankings.

The tool will tell you if your site passes or fails the assessment.

It’ll also tell you what went wrong and how to fix it—like resizing images and reducing JavaScript execution time.

For a complete technical health checkup, use Semrush’s Site Audit to scan your entire site.

It uncovers hidden issues that could be limiting your organic growth:

• Crawlability problems
• Internal linking errors
• Performance issues
• Site structure problems

Review the list of “Errors” first—these are critical issues that could have the biggest impact on your organic traffic potential.

Like duplicate content, broken internal links, and returned status codes.

2. Select Keywords with Low Difficulty for Your Site

Want to know the secret to ranking faster?

Don’t go straight for keywords with the highest monthly search volume.

Start with lower-difficulty terms that are easier to rank for.

Here’s how to do it with Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool:

Enter a broad term like “LinkedIn marketing” and click “Search.”

The tool will return a long list of keywords and metrics for each one.

Including:

• Search volume: How many times per month a keyword is searched
• Keyword difficulty (KD): This is a score from one to 100, showing how hard it’ll be to rank in Google’s top 10 for the given term
• Intent: The reason behind a user’s search: they want information (informational), they want to compare options (commercial), they’re trying to find a specific site (navigational), or they want to buy something (transactional)

“LinkedIn marketing” gets 4,400 searches per month but has a daunting keyword difficulty of 95.

Let’s filter the results so we can find terms with lower difficulty.

Click “KD” on the menu and enter “0” and “49.”

Now, you’ll see only terms that are “easy” or “possible” to rank for.

As you review the list, look for terms that have:

• Search intent aligned with your content type (how-to, product reviews, etc.)
• Realistic competition levels for your site
• Enough monthly searches to be worth targeting

3. Refresh Existing Content

Want faster results?

Update existing content instead of only creating new posts.

Since Google already knows these pages exist, you’ll be more likely to see improvements quickly.

Your first step is to identify underperforming content that could benefit from a refresh.

Head to Google Search Console and click “Performance” > “Search results.”

Filter for pages with a low click-through rate (CTR) (under 3%).

Click the filter menu icon in the right-hand corner and select “Clicks.”

Select “Smaller than” and enter “3.”

Click “Done.”

Now, you’ll only see pages on your site with a 3% (or less) CTR.

Take note of the pages that have decent impressions.

Keep in mind that what’s decent for you will depend on your site, but think 500+.

These pages should have the highest potential to gain ground quickly because Google is showing them to users already.

Next, create a tracking spreadsheet for this project.

This can be a simple Google or Excel spreadsheet.

Then, search for your target keyword and analyze the top five ranking pages.

Look specifically for:

• Search intent: Does their content better match what searchers want?
• Visuals: Do they use more helpful images, tables, infographics, or pro tips?
• Content depth: What topics, examples, or case studies do they cover that you don’t?
• Updated information: Are they citing newer stats or trends?
• Metadata: Are their title tags and meta descriptions more compelling?
• Structure: Is their content easier to scan and understand, with descriptive subheads?
• Writer expertise: Do they show more authority on the topic?

Make targeted improvements based on your findings.

Some pages might need a complete rewrite, while others may only need updated statistics or better examples.

Track your results in Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Look for increases in:

• Organic traffic
• Click-through rate
• Average ranking
• Time on page

4. Target Evergreen Topics

Unlike news articles or trend pieces that quickly fade, evergreen topics maintain consistent organic search volume because they solve timeless problems.

Think about searches like “how to tie a tie” or “how to cook quinoa”—these questions never go out of style.

Case in point:

The search term “how to cook quinoa” gets 33.1K monthly searches.

If you search Google for this term, you’ll see countless articles.

But one of the top-ranking articles is from a recipe site called Love & Lemons.

Love & Lemons gets 149K organic visitors every month from this single article.

So, how’d they turn one evergreen topic into a massive organic traffic source?

They chose a topic they knew would interest their target audience: cooking quinoa.

And created a guide that included:

• Clear explanations of quinoa basics and nutrition facts
• Detailed, tested cooking instructions
• Expert tips from real kitchen experience
• Multiple cooking methods for different preferences
• Strategic internal links to related quinoa recipes

This comprehensive approach works because it answers every question a reader might have about cooking quinoa.

How can you do this, too?

The key is choosing topics that solve ongoing problems and answering fundamental questions.

(Decent search volume helps, too.)

Find keywords like this for your site by using tools like Exploding Topics, Google Trends, and Google autocomplete searches.

5. Add Internal Links

Internal linking helps Google find, index, and understand your content.

Which is why it’s helpful for increasing organic traffic.

But it can also keep visitors around for longer. Meaning you retain more of the traffic you worked so hard to get.

Start by looking for pages on your site with no internal links (also called “orphan pages”).

Use a tool that automates the process of finding orphan pages, like Site Audit or RankMath.

But don’t add just any links.

Your internal links need to:

• Match the context of the surrounding content
• Use descriptive anchor text that explains the destination
• Help users find related information they want

For example, instead of “click here,” use specific anchor text like “AI writing tools” for an AI writing tools comparison page.

Or “keyword research guide” for a keyword tutorial.

This helps Google and visitors understand what they’ll find on the linked page.

Bonus Step: Optimize Your Link Flow

• Prioritize link equity by linking from high-authority pages to newer or lower-performing ones
• Use topic clusters to organize related content into silos that strengthen overall relevance
• Ensure crawl efficiency by avoiding excessive links on a single page

6. Build a Backlink Strategy

Backlinks remain one of Google’s strongest ranking signals.

The more relevant sites that link to you, the more organic traffic you can attract.

But how do you earn these valuable links?

Start by creating content that naturally attracts them.

The most linkable content types we’ve found include:

• Original research and industry studies
• Comprehensive how-to guides that fill knowledge gaps
• Free tools and templates
• Expert roundups with unique insights
• Attractive visuals (like infographics)

For example, we created a detailed analysis of Google’s ranking factors that has attracted 33.7K backlinks to date.

Why did it work so well?

Because it’s a comprehensive resource with over 200 ranking factors.

And we constantly update it to ensure it features the freshest information and studies.

But creating linkable assets isn’t your only option for boosting backlinks and organic traffic.

Build genuine industry relationships by joining relevant Slack, Facebook, and Reddit communities and participating in discussions.

Focus on adding value first—answer questions, share insights, and build real connections.

Only include links to your site when relevant and helpful (and if allowed by the community).

Want to accelerate your link building?

Study what’s already working in your industry.

Use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics to monitor your competitors’ backlinks.

When studying competitor backlinks, look for patterns.

Do certain topics or content formats consistently earn more links?

Use these insights to create similar (but better) resources.

And reach out to those same sites to start building your backlink profile.

Future-Proof Your Traffic Strategy

You now have a proven system for growing organic traffic.

But this is just one part of a successful traffic strategy.

Relying solely on organic traffic is risky, even for the most experienced SEO or marketer.

Here’s why:

• Algorithm updates can instantly impact your rankings
• Core updates happen multiple times per year
• Industry shifts can change how people search
• New competitors can push you down in search results

The smarter approach?

Building a diversified traffic strategy that includes everything from organic and social to email marketing.

The post Organic Traffic: What It Is & How to Increase It (6 Ways) appeared first on Backlinko.

What Is JavaScript SEO? 6 Best Practices to Boost Rankings

2025-02-27 22:05:15

JavaScript has enabled highly interactive and dynamic websites. But it also presents a challenge: ensuring your site is crawlable, indexable, and fast.

That’s why JavaScript SEO is essential.

When applied correctly, these strategies can significantly boost organic search performance.

For instance, book retailer Follet saw a remarkable recovery after fixing JavaScript issues:

That’s the impact of effective JavaScript SEO.

In this guide, you’ll:

• Get an introduction to JavaScript SEO
• Understand the challenges with using JavaScript for search
• Learn best practices to optimize your JavaScript site for organic search

What Is JavaScript SEO?

JavaScript SEO is the process of optimizing JavaScript websites. It ensures search engines can crawl, render, and index them.

Aligning JavaScript websites with SEO best practices can boost organic search rankings. All without hurting the user experience.

However, there are still uncertainties surrounding JavaScript and SEO’s impact.

Common JavaScript Misconceptions

Benefits of JavaScript SEO

Optimizing JavaScript for SEO can offer several advantages:

• Improved visibility: Crawled and indexed JavaScript content can boost search rankings
• Enhanced performance: Techniques like code splitting deliver only the important JavaScript code. This speeds up the site and reduces load times.
• Stronger collaboration: JavaScript SEO encourages SEOs, developers, and web teams to work together. This helps improve communication and alignment on your SEO project plan.
• Enhanced user experience: JavaScript boosts UX with smooth transitions and interactivity. It also speeds up and makes navigation between webpages more dynamic.

How Search Engines Render JavaScript

To understand JavaScript’s SEO impact, let’s explore how search engines process JavaScript pages.

Google has outlined that it processes JavaScript websites in three phases:

1. Crawling
2. Processing
3. Indexing

Crawling

When Google finds a URL, it checks the robots.txt file and meta robots tags. This is to see if any content is blocked from being crawled or rendered.

If a link is discoverable by Google, the URL is added to a queue for simultaneous crawling and rendering.

Rendering

For traditional HTML websites, content is immediately available from the server response.

In JavaScript websites, Google must execute JavaScript to render and index the content. Due to resource demands, rendering is deferred until resources are available with Chromium.

Indexing

Once rendered, Googlebot reads the HTML, adds new links to the crawl list, and indexes the content.

How JavaScript Affects SEO

Despite its growing popularity, the question often arises: Is JavaScript bad for SEO?

Let’s examine aspects that can severely impact SEO if you don’t optimize JavaScript for search.

Rendering Delays

For Single Page Applications (SPAs) — like Gmail or Twitter, where content updates without page refreshes — JavaScript controls the content and user experience.

If Googlebot can’t execute the JavaScript, it may show a blank page.

This happens when Google struggles to process the JavaScript. It hurts the page’s visibility and organic performance.

To test how Google will see your SPA site if it can’t execute JavaScript, use the web crawler Screaming Frog. Configure the render settings to “Text Only” and crawl your site.

Indexing Issues

JavaScript frameworks (like React or Angular, which help build interactive websites) can make it harder for Google to read and index content.

For example, Follet’s online bookstore migrated millions of pages to a JavaScript framework.

Google had trouble processing the JavaScript, causing a sharp decline in organic performance:

Crawl Budget Challenges

Websites have a crawl budget. This refers to the number of pages Googlebot can crawl and index within a given timeframe.

Large JavaScript files consume significant crawling resources. They also limit Google’s ability to explore deeper pages on the site.

Core Web Vitals Concerns

JavaScript can affect how quickly the main content of a web page is loaded. This affects Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), a Core Web Vitals score.

For example, check out this performance timeline:

Section #4 (“Element Render Delay”) shows a JavaScript-induced delay in rendering an element.

This negatively impacts the LCP score.

JavaScript Rendering Options

When rendering webpages, you can choose from three options:

Server-Side Rendering (SSR), Client-Side Rendering (CSR), or Dynamic Rendering.

Let’s break down the key differences between them.

Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

SSR creates the full HTML on the server. It then sends this HTML directly to the client, like a browser or Googlebot.

This approach means the client doesn’t need to render the content.

As a result, the website loads faster and offers a smoother experience.

Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

In CSR, the client—like a user, browser, or Googlebot—receives a blank HTML page. Then, JavaScript runs to generate the fully rendered HTML.

Google can render client-side, JavaScript-driven pages. But, it may delay rendering and indexing.

Dynamic Rendering

Dynamic rendering, or prerendering, is a hybrid approach.

Tools like Prerender.io detect Googlebot and other crawlers. They then send a fully rendered webpage from a cache.

This way, search engines don’t need to run JavaScript.

At the same time, regular users still get a CSR experience. JavaScript is executed and content is rendered on the client side.

Google says dynamic rendering isn’t cloaking. The content shown to Googlebot just needs to be the same as what users see.

However, it warns that dynamic rendering is a temporary solution. This is due to its complexity and resource needs.

Which Rendering Approach is Right for You?

The right rendering approach depends on several factors.

Here are key considerations to help you determine the best solution for your website:

Knowing these technical solutions is important. But the best approach depends on how your website uses JavaScript.

Where does your site fit?

• Minimal JavaScript: Most content is in the HTML (e.g., WordPress sites). Just make sure search engines can see key text and links.
• Moderate JavaScript: Some elements load dynamically, like live chat, AJAX-based widgets, or interactive product filters. Use fallbacks or dynamic rendering to keep content crawlable.
• Heavy JavaScript: Your site depends on JavaScript to load most content, like SPAs built with React or Vue. To make sure Google can see it, you may need SSR or pre-rendering.
• Fully JavaScript-rendered: Everything from content to navigation relies on JavaScript (e.g., Next.js, Gatsby). You’ll need SSR or Static Site Generation (SSG), optimized hydration, and proper metadata handling to stay SEO-friendly.

The more JavaScript your site relies on, the more important it is to optimize for SEO.

JavaScript SEO Best Practices

So, your site looks great to users—but what about Google?

If search engines can’t properly crawl or render your JavaScript, your rankings could take a hit.

The good news? You can fix it.

Here’s how to make sure your JavaScript-powered site is fully optimized for search.

1. Ensure Crawlability

Avoid blocking JavaScript files in the robots.txt file to ensure Google can crawl them.

In the past, HTML-based websites often blocked JavaScript and CSS.

Now, crawling JavaScript files is crucial for accessing and rendering key content.

2. Choose the Optimal Rendering Method

It’s crucial to choose the right approach based on your site’s needs.

This decision may depend on your resources, user goals, and vision for your website. Remember:

• Server-side rendering: Ensures content is fully rendered and indexable upon page load. This improves visibility and user experience.
• Client-side rendering: Renders content on the client side, offering better interactivity for users
• Dynamic rendering: Sends crawlers pre-rendered HTML and users a CSR experience

3. Reduce JavaScript Resources

Reduce JavaScript size by removing unused or unnecessary code. Even unused code must be accessed and processed by Google.

Combine multiple JavaScript files to reduce the resources Googlebot needs to execute. This helps improve efficiency.

4. Defer Scripts Blocking Content

You can defer render-blocking JavaScript to speed up page loading.

Use the “defer” attribute to do this, as shown below:

<script defer src="your-script.js"></script>

This tells browsers and search engines to run the code once the main CSS and JavaScript have loaded.

5. Manage JavaScript-Generated Content

Managing JavaScript content is key. It must be accessible to search engines and provide a smooth user experience.

Here are some best practices to optimize it for SEO:

Provide Fallback Content

• Use the <noscript> tag to show essential info if JavaScript fails or is disabled
• Ensure critical content like navigation and headings is included in the initial HTML

For example, Yahoo uses a <noscript> tag. It shows static product details for JavaScript-heavy pages.

Optimize JavaScript-Based Pagination

• Use HTML <a> tags for pagination to ensure Googlebot can crawl each page
• Dynamically update URLs with the History API for “Load More” buttons
• Add rel=”prev” and rel=”next” to indicate paginated page relationships

For instance, Skechers employs a “Load More” button that generates accessible URLs:

Test and Verify Rendering

• Use Google Search Console’s (GSC) URL Inspection Tool and Screaming Frog to check JavaScript content. Is it accessible?
• Test JavaScript execution using browser automation tools like Puppeteer to ensure proper rendering

Confirm Dynamic Content Loads Correctly

• Use loading=”lazy” for lazy-loaded elements and verify they appear in rendered HTML
• Provide fallback content for dynamically loaded elements to ensure visibility to crawlers

For example, Backlinko lazy loads images within HTML:

6. Create Developer-Friendly Processes

Working closely with developers is key to integrating JavaScript and SEO best practices.

Here’s how you can streamline the process:

1. Spot the issues: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Chrome DevTools. They can find JavaScript rendering issues. Document these early.
2. Write actionable tickets: Write clear SEO dev tickets with the issue, its SEO impact, and step-by-step instructions to fix it. For example, here’s a sample dev ticket:
   

   

3. Test and validate fixes: Conduct quality assurance (QA) to ensure fixes are implemented correctly. Share updates and results with your team to maintain alignment.
4. Collaborate in real time: Use project management tools like Notion, Jira, or Trello. These help ensure smooth communication between SEOs and developers.

By building developer-friendly processes, you can solve JavaScript SEO issues faster. This also creates a collaborative environment that helps the whole team.

Communicating SEO best practices for JavaScript usage is as crucial as its implementation.

JavaScript SEO Resources + Tools

As you learn how to make your javascript SEO friendly​, several tools can assist you in the process.

Educational Resources

Google has provided or contributed to some great resources:

Understand JavaScript SEO Basics

Google’s JavaScript basics documentation explains how it processes JavaScript content.

What you’ll learn:

• How Google processes JavaScript content, including crawling, rendering, and indexing
• Best practices for ensuring JavaScript-based websites are fully optimized for search engines
• Common pitfalls to avoid and strategies to improve SEO performance on JavaScript-driven websites

Who it’s for: Developers and SEO professionals optimizing JavaScript-heavy sites.

Rendering on the Web

The web.dev article Rendering on the Web is a comprehensive resource. It explores various web rendering techniques, including SSR, CSR, and prerendering.

What you’ll learn:

• An in-depth overview of web rendering techniques
• Performance implications of each rendering method. And how they affect user experience and SEO.
• Actionable insights for choosing the right rendering strategy based on your goals

Who it’s for: Marketers, developers, and SEOs wanting to boost performance and visibility.

Diagnostic Tools

Screaming Frog & Sitebulb

Crawlers such as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb help identify issues affecting JavaScript.

How? By simulating how search engines process your site.

Key features:

• Crawl JavaScript websites: Detect blocked or inaccessible JavaScript files using robots.txt configurations
• Render simulation: Crawl and visualize how JavaScript-rendered pages appear to search engines
• Debugging capabilities: Identify rendering issues, missing content, or broken resources preventing proper indexing

Example use case:

• Use Screaming Frog’s robots.txt settings to emulate Googlebot. The tool can confirm if critical JavaScript files are accessible.

When to use:

• Debugging JavaScript-related indexing problems
• Testing rendering issues with pre-rendered or dynamic content

Semrush Site Audit

Semrush’s Site Audit is a powerful tool for diagnosing JavaScript SEO issues.

Key features:

• Crawlability checks: Identifies JavaScript files that hinder rendering and indexing
• Rendering insights: Detects JavaScript-related errors impacting search engines’ ability to process content
• Performance metrics: Highlights Core Web Vitals like LCP and Total Blocking Time (TBT)
• Actionable fixes: Provides recommendations to optimize JavaScript code, improve speed, and fix rendering issues

Site Audit also includes a “JS Impact” report, which focuses on uncovering JavaScript-related issues.

It highlights blocked files, rendering errors, and performance bottlenecks. The report provides actionable insights to enhance SEO.

When to use:

• Identify rendering blocking issues caused by JavaScript
• Troubleshoot performance issues after implementing large JavaScript implementations

Google Search Console

Google Search Console’s Inspection Tool helps analyze your JavaScript pages. It checks how Google crawls, renders, and indexes them.

Key features:

• Rendering verification: Check if Googlebot successfully executes and renders JavaScript content
• Crawlability insights: Identify blocked resources or missing elements impacting indexing
• Live testing: Use live tests to ensure real-time changes are visible to Google

Example use case:

• Inspecting a JavaScript-rendered page to see if all critical content is in the rendered HTML

When to use:

• Verifying JavaScript rendering and indexing
• Troubleshooting blank or incomplete content in Google’s search results

Performance Optimization

You may need to test your JavaScript website’s performance. These tools granularly break down performance:

WebPageTest

WebPageTest helps analyze website performance, including how JavaScript affects load times and rendering.

The screenshot below shows high-level performance metrics for a JavaScript site. It includes when the webpage was visible to users.

Key features:

• Provides waterfall charts to visualize the loading sequence of JavaScript and other resources
• Measures critical performance metrics like Time to First Byte (TTFB) and LCP
• Simulates slow networks and mobile devices to identify JavaScript bottlenecks

Use case: Finding scripts or elements that slow down page load and affect Core Web Vitals.

GTMetrix

GTmetrix helps measure and optimize website performance, focusing on JavaScript-related delays and efficiency.

Key features:

• Breaks down page performance with actionable insights for JavaScript optimization
• Provides specific recommendations to minimize and defer non-critical JavaScript
• Visualizes load behavior with video playback and waterfall charts to pinpoint render delays

Use case: Optimizing JavaScript delivery to boost page speed and user experience. This includes minifying, deferring, or splitting code.

Chrome DevTools & Lighthouse

Chrome DevTools and Lighthouse are free Chrome tools. They assess site performance and accessibility. Both are key for JavaScript SEO.

Key features:

• JavaScript execution analysis: Audits JavaScript execution time. It also identifies scripts that delay rendering or impact Core Web Vitals.
• Script optimization: Flags opportunities for code splitting, lazy loading, and removing unused JavaScript
• Network and coverage insights: Identifies render-blocking resources, unused JavaScript, and large file sizes
• Performance audits: Lighthouse measures critical Core Web Vitals to pinpoint areas for improvement
• Render simulation: It emulates devices, throttles network speeds, and disables JavaScript. This alleviates rendering issues.

For example, the below screenshot is taken with DevTools’s Performance panel. After page load, various pieces of data are recorded to assess the culprit of heavy load times.

Use cases:

• Testing JavaScript-heavy pages for performance bottlenecks, rendering issues, and SEO blockers
• Identifying and optimizing scripts, ensuring key content is crawlable and indexable

Specialized Tools

Prerender.io helps JavaScript-heavy websites by serving pre-rendered HTML to bots.

This allows search engines to crawl and index content while users get a dynamic CSR experience.

Key features:

• Pre-rendered content: Serves a cached, fully rendered HTML page to search engine crawlers like Googlebot
• Easy integration: Compatible with frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. It also integrates with servers like NGINX or Apache.
• Scalable solution: Ideal for large, dynamic sites with thousands of pages
• Bot detection: Identifies search engine bots and serves optimized content
• Performance optimization: Reduces server load by offloading rendering to Prerender.io’s service

Benefits:

• Ensures full crawlability and indexing of JavaScript content
• Improves search engine rankings by eliminating blank or incomplete pages
• Balances SEO performance and user experience for JavaScript-heavy sites

When to use:

• For Single-Page Applications or dynamic JavaScript frameworks
• As an alternative to SSR when resources are limited

Find Your Next JavaScript SEO Opportunity Today

Most JavaScript SEO problems stay hidden—until your rankings drop.

Is your site at risk?

Don’t wait for traffic losses to find out.

Run an audit, fix rendering issues, and make sure search engines see your content.

Want more practical fixes?

Check out our guides on PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals for actionable steps to speed up your JavaScript-powered site.

The post What Is JavaScript SEO? 6 Best Practices to Boost Rankings appeared first on Backlinko.

Semrush Pricing: How to Choose the Right Plan

2025-02-27 22:04:08

Choosing a Semrush plan isn’t always obvious.

Paid plans start at $139.95 and go up to enterprise solutions. Not to mention the various add-ons and apps.

You don’t want to overpay for features you don’t need. Or pick a cheaper plan that limits your ability to grow.

In this guide, you’ll learn which Semrush plan matches your needs, whether you’re a solo blogger tracking 100 keywords or an agency managing 40+ client websites.

Semrush’s Core Pricing Plans Explained

Semrush offers four main subscription tiers:

• Pro plan at $139.95/month: Best for freelancers and startups
• Guru plan at $249.95/month: Caters to growing businesses and small agencies
• Business plan at $499.95/month: Serves larger agencies and enterprises
• Enterprise plan (custom pricing): For organizations that need custom solutions

Beyond these core plans, Semrush also offers a range of other tools through the App Center. This is where you can add specialized tools for needs like local SEO and social media management.

There’s also a free plan, and you can get a free trial of the Pro and Guru subscriptions too.

Pro Plan ($139.95/month): Entry-Level Features

Semrush’s Pro plan offers a wealth of keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitor research features.

At $139.95/mo, it’s Semrush’s cheapest plan, and is ideal for freelance SEOs, bloggers, and small business owners.

The Pro plan lets you set up 5 projects and track up to 500 keywords with Position Tracking.

But these limits don’t apply to things like keyword and competitor research. Instead, you’re limited in the number of daily “requests” you can make.

This is the number you’ll want to pay attention to if you plan to use the tool suite for more than just tracking your own projects.

With the Pro plan, you can generate up to 3,000 reports per day across various analytics tools, with each report showing up to 10,000 results.

For example, in the Keyword Magic Tool to generate thousands of keyword ideas:

You won’t have access to historical data in these reports. But you’ll still be able to filter for metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, and more.

In terms of technical SEO, Pro plan users can crawl up to 100,000 pages with Site Audit. This is enough for beginners and owners of smaller sites. But it can be a bit limiting for large ecommerce stores or agencies managing massive sites.

You won’t get API access with the Pro plan (probably not a concern for most people). You also won’t get access to some content marketing features (see the Guru plan section below).

Pro Plan Limits

• 5 projects
• 500 keywords to track
• 3,000 daily reports
• 100,000 pages to crawl
• 10,000 results per report
• 250 keyword metrics updates per month
• 500 SEO Ideas Units (used in tools like the On Page SEO Checker)
• 5 scheduled PDF reports

Guru Plan ($249.95/month): Advanced Features for Growing Teams

Semrush’s Guru plan significantly expands on the Pro plan’s capabilities.

At $249.95/mo, it’s ideal for growing marketing teams and small agencies that need more comprehensive tools and data access.

The plan increases your project limit to 15 and lets you track up to 1,500 keywords.

Other limit increases over the Pro plan include:

• 5,000 reports per day (vs. 3,000)
• 30,000 results per report (vs. 10,000)
• 1,000 keyword metrics updates per month (vs. 250)
• 300,000 Site Audit URL crawls (vs. 100,000)

You’ll also get access to tools like:

Topic research, for finding and prioritizing new content ideas:

Content Marketing Template, to streamline your optimizations:

You’ll also be able to integrate with Looker Studio, which further expands your reporting capabilities.

And you’ll get access to historical data within Semrush itself—all the way back to 2012:

The Guru plan gives you access to the essential Semrush toolkit. And its limits are likely enough for most SEOs and business owners, with the exception of large agencies, big ecommerce stores (300K+ pages), and enterprises.

Guru Plan Limits

• 15 Projects
• 1,500 keywords to track
• 5,000 daily reports
• 300,000 pages to crawl
• 30,000 results per report
• 1,000 keyword metrics updates per month
• 800 SEO Ideas Units
• 20 scheduled PDF reports

Business Plan ($499.95/month): Enterprise-Grade Capabilities

The Business plan, at $499.95/mo, targets larger agencies and marketing teams that need extensive data access and advanced features.

This plan also offers much higher limits than the Pro and Guru plans across the board.

Business plans allow for 40 projects, 5,000 keywords to track, and 10,000 daily reports.

You can use Semrush’s most advanced features, including API access, extended limits for site audits, and white-label reporting options.

You’ll also get access to new metrics, like Share of Voice for tracking your overall online presence compared to your competitors:

And for PPC optimization, you’ll also be able to see up to 50,000 results per PLA listings report (as opposed to 10 on the Pro and Guru plans):

These capabilities make it particularly valuable for agencies managing multiple client accounts. It’s also ideal for large in-house teams coordinating complex marketing campaigns.

For example, the API access allows teams to integrate Semrush data directly into their custom reporting dashboards or internal tools. This can streamline workflows and provide more customizable (and therefore more impactful) data analysis.

Business Plan Limits

• 40 projects
• 5,000 keywords to track
• 10,000 daily reports
• 1,000,000 pages to crawl
• 50,000 results per report
• 5,000 keyword metrics updates per month
• 2,000 SEO Ideas Units
• 50 scheduled PDF reports

Enterprise Plan: Custom Solutions for Large Organizations

The Enterprise tier moves beyond Semrush’s standardized pricing to offer customized solutions for large organizations with complex needs.

Unlike the fixed-price plans, Enterprise solutions are tailored to each organization’s specific requirements and scale.

The Semrush Enterprise platform is an entirely separate solution from the “core” Semrush platform. You get access to everything in the Business tier, but you also get a completely new dashboard with enterprise-level SEO and automation tools and capabilities.

You’ll also get access to vetted SEO experts, seamless document sharing functionality, and extensive reporting and automation features.

It’s designed for enterprise-level businesses (think Samsung, Salesforce, and SAP). This means it’s way beyond what the average person needs.

But for those with huge data, automation, and optimization requirements, Semrush Enterprise is an incredibly powerful platform.

Free Plan vs. Free Trial

Semrush’s free plan offers a solid introduction to the platform’s capabilities. You can access basic keyword research, site auditing, and competitive analysis features
for free.

This makes it an excellent option for those just starting their SEO journey or wanting to test the platform before committing.

However:

The free plan comes with significant limitations in terms of the number of reports you can generate and the depth of data you can access.

You’re limited to:

• 10 daily requests in many of the tools
• 1 project
• 100 URL crawls per month

Arguably, the most notable restriction is that you can only track 10 keywords. So you can’t monitor a full SEO campaign effectively.

That’s why the free trial of Semrush’s paid plans offers a better way to evaluate Semrush’s full capabilities.

For 7 days, you can access all features of your chosen plan, helping you make an informed decision about whether the investment makes sense for your needs.

Other Semrush Pricing

Semrush offers a range of add-ons you can tag onto your subscription. These include local SEO packages, the .Trends suite for market research, and a social media management platform.

Here’s a breakdown of the add-ons and their pricing:

Semrush also has an extensive App Center. Here, you’ll find apps to help with pretty much every aspect of SEO and digital marketing.

You can get free trials of many apps, and their prices vary.

Semrush Pricing Plans Compared to Competitors

Semrush is often a bit pricier than some of its competitors, at least at some of the plan levels.

But price isn’t everything, and it’s worth comparing the different platforms in detail to understand the value each one can provide for YOUR specific situation.

Semrush vs. Ahrefs Pricing

Semrush and Ahrefs have fairly similar pricing structures. Semrush is slightly more expensive in each of the three pricing brackets, but notably only by $0.95 in the middle tier (Guru/Standard).

On the face of it, the two options in all three cases are fairly similar:

• Semrush offers 5, 15, and 40 projects, while Ahrefs offers 5, 20, and 50 projects
• While Semrush lets you track 500, 1.5K, and 5K keywords, Ahrefs lets you track 750, 2K, and 5K
• Semrush lets you audit 100K, 300K, and 1M URLs, while Ahrefs’ limits are 100K, 500K, and 1.5M

But it’s worth noting that Ahrefs’ cheapest (Lite) plan limits you to just 500 credits across various tools per month.

With a Semrush Pro subscription (the cheapest one Semrush offers), the limits are 3,000 reports/requests per day.

But the numbers aren’t everything. There are other differences between the two tools that you’ll need to factor in when making your choice.

Semrush vs. Moz Pricing

Moz offers two cheaper pricing plans than both Semrush and Ahrefs. These are pretty limited (with the cheapest only letting you track 50 keywords per month).

But they’re still viable options for those on a budget that are just starting out with their first SEO tool.

Moz does offer feature-rich plans at higher price points, but often with lower limits than Semrush plans.

For example, the most expensive Moz plan still only lets you track 25 sites (compared to 40) and 3,000 tracked keywords (vs. 5,000 on a Semrush Business plan).

It’s also worth noting that beyond the pricing plans, the two platforms are very different. For example, Semrush’s database has more than 26.4 billion keywords compared to Moz’s 1.25 billion.

How to Choose the Right Semrush Plan

The most basic way to choose between the different Semrush pricing plans is to consider your budget and your reporting needs.

If you have a limited budget, the free and Pro plans are going to be the obvious choice. But once you start needing larger reports or to track 1500+ keywords, the Guru and Business plans are the ones to go for.

But let’s see which plans are best for which types of business and website owners.

Solopreneurs and Bloggers

For solopreneurs and blog owners, the Pro plan is usually going to be enough. You can manage up to 5 projects, and 500 keywords will be enough tracking capabilities for most small sites.

The reporting limits are generous enough too, and most beginners won’t max out on them.

But many people will be fine with the free Semrush plan—particularly if you have pretty limited keyword research needs and your site is smaller than 100 pages. It’ll give you a good feel for the platform’s core features before you sign up for a subscription.

You’ll want to upgrade to the Pro plan when you:

• Track more than 10 keywords
• Need daily position monitoring
• Have a site that grows beyond 100 pages (for Site Audit crawls)
• Want to analyze backlink opportunities

Small Business Owners

Small businesses typically find the sweet spot with the Guru plan. The additional keyword tracking and content marketing features make it ideal for sites of all sizes with moderate content production workflows.

The Pro plan suits you if:

• You manage a single business website
• You need basic competitive analysis
• Content creation isn’t your primary focus

The Guru plan becomes a better option when:

• You manage multiple business websites, or multiple client sites
• Content marketing is a key part of your strategy
• You need access to historical data
• You need to crawl up to 300K pages per month (Site Audit)

Medium-Sized Businesses and Ecommerce Stores

Mid-sized companies often benefit most from the Business plan—particularly if they’re managing multiple websites or serving many clients.

The Guru plan becomes essential for teams or individuals that:

• Create 10+ pieces of content per month
• Require advanced topic research tools
• Send lots of reports to stakeholders or clients
• Manage multiple sites or brands

Agencies

Agencies are going to be better off with the Business plan in most cases. The limits of the lower plans are just unlikely to be enough for agencies with many clients.

However, if your agency is just starting out, the Guru plan offers a cost-effective way to serve up to 15 clients with some powerful tools.

Start with Guru if you:

• Serve up to 15 clients
• Need white-label reports
• Require content marketing tools
• Want historical data access

Choose the Business plan when you:

• Manage 15+ client accounts
• Need API access
• Require advanced white-labeling
• Share reports across large teams

Semrush also offers the Agency Growth Kit. This starts at $69/month (on top of your subscription) for a CRM, client portals, and white-lable PDF reports.

But for those who want to boost their visibility on the Agency Partners platform or who need unlimited client portals, pricing increases to $149 and then $249 per month.

Enterprise Businesses

Enterprise organizations should consider the custom Enterprise tier. This platform was built from the ground up for enterprise-scale operations.

The platform offers a range of enterprise-specific solutions and features the core subscriptions don’t offer. You can read more about Semrush Enterprise here.

The Business plan is the best of the three core plans if your business isn’t quite ready for the enterprise offering. Its generous limits, integration capabilities, and API access mean it’s a cost-effective choice for many big brands and businesses.

Still Not Sure Which Plan to Choose?

Choosing the right Semrush plan ultimately depends on your specific marketing goals and resources.

To dive deeper into Semrush’s capabilities and make a more informed decision, check out our comprehensive Semrush review and complete guide to using Semrush effectively.

The post Semrush Pricing: How to Choose the Right Plan appeared first on Backlinko.