Until now the only data I was concerned with tracking via Semrush was the domain authority score and backlinks.
This was used to establish the baseline of launching a site with no marketing and that the domain authority would be 0, or very low. The only panel in the Semrush dashboard I was looking at looked like this:
So, over the weekend I spent a couple of hours to get it set up with a lot more helpful data points.
Getting massive value from Semrush while bootstrapping
Swell Diary is currently pre-revenue, it's even pre-validation (that is yet to be tested and discovered). But Semrush will set you back $139/month, that's $1,668 per year and when you have no revenue, that's a lot.
But it's possible to extract gold from Semrush without paying a cent using the free account. The free account lets you set up a lot of the available tools. The tools are restricted however and after around 10 requests you'll be blocked by a modal to signup and pay. The interface unlocks again after 24 hours.
This might seem limiting but you can normally run enough queries or reports to inspire ideas or actionable tasks for one day.
Here's a snippet of how dashboard looks once you've set up all the free tools.
What can you set up for free
Here's some of the things I set up for free and the immediate value I got.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Semrush uses and displays your Google Analytics and Search Console data in a number of reports so it's worth integrating these straight away. Integration might become more useful later, but for now you can see basic traffic details in one place.
Keyword position tracking
For now I've added in the top level, short tail keywords. These are terms like daily surf videos. These are the prized keywords which I expect to take longer to rank for. For now it is good to get an idea of where the web site ranks and if it is improving or not. In another update I'll start adding long tail keywords
Backlink audit
Enable this feature to track and audit your backlinks. You want to minimise toxic backlinks as much as possible. You can integrate Google Search Console to create backlink lists to exclude.
Site audit
Even if you think you know how to do technical SEO, like h1 tags, titles, etc... run this audit. I am glad I did because it picked up some really basic mistakes. I had duplicate meta descriptions on a bunch of category pages for example. This is the kind of gold you can get for free and it was a quick 15 minutes of coding to fix the issue.
Note, the site audit is only run once a month on the free account on 100 pages but it should pick up the main issues that need to be fixed immediately.
On Page SEO Checker
This one is another gold mine. As the chart below shows, it will give you feedback and ideas on what you can improve immediately to optimize your page content.
Backlink prospects
Enter your competitors into the Link Building tool and you will get a list of potential websites that might link to you. This report is based on the competitors you enter and who is linking to them.
Upgrading to the paid plan
Semrush is extremely useful if you are building a website that depends on traffic volume. It is also a powerful tool to discover popular niches and business ideas.
It is definitely something to consider paying for. But right now I am minimising costs until I get early signs of validation that surfers will return to my website to watch videos.
Once I validate the need, Semrush will be top of the shopping list.