SEMrush and Ahrefs both provide SEO tools. An SEO is simply the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, it is more like a process of making distinct changes to your website design and content to improve its visibility in search engines. SEO tools are used to get information on the key things your website needs to improve its traffic, by generating keywords and other intelligence data. SEMrush and Ahrefs are two different companies that sell online visibility and marketing analytics software subscriptions. SEMrush on one hand was founded by Dmitry Melnikov and Oleg Shchegolev, and launched in 2008. They started it as an SEO tool and browser extension. While Ahrefs was launched in 2011 by Dmitry Gerasimenko. If you’re in need of SEO tools and you’re wondering which to use between these two, there are some distinctive features you might want to look out for like;
The Size of Backlink Database and Analysis of Backlink
In a recent publication in 2020, SEMrush boasts of providing 717 million domains while Ahrefs provide 163 million. This should be an advantage for SEMrush, although at the same time while SEMrush may appear to have more domains, the number of backlinks that would appear for different websites would depend on context. This means that however, SEMrush seems to have more domain databases, Ahrefs sometimes provides more domains than SEMrush under the same search, and vice versa. Another advantage SEMrush poses over Ahrefs in Backlink analysis is its intersect tool which allows you to compare your backlink with 4 others while Ahrefs gives you 3. Apart from these differences, both SEMrush and Ahrefs give you a breakdown of details like the anchor text used, linking domain types, and the country of origin of requested backlinks.
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Toxic Backlink Audit Feature
This is quite an important feature because it highlights spam links which could get you penalized in search results. This feature is unique to SEMrush which means it can’t be found on Ahrefs. Well, you can say this is one of the features that make your subscription fee worth it.
User Interface
A lot of users would agree that Ahrefs provides a better interface, this is probably because it appears to be more organized than that of SEMrush. As simple as this difference may be, it eventually helps in navigation, to help users find the tools easily. Although to give SEMrush a bonus on this basis of comparison, users who prefer a graphic presentation of data will most likely prefer SEMrush.
Subscriptions
Ahrefs subscription is provided in 4 packages, they are:
- Lite which runs for $99 a month
- Standard which runs for $179 a month
- Advanced which runs for $399 a month and
- Agency which runs for $999 a month
Although these subscription fees are relatively expensive, you can say they are worth the spend considering the features provided. For Ahrefs however, paying for a 1-year subscription in advance earns you 2 months free. For the number of user accounts, Ahrefs Advanced plan gives 3 user accounts while the Agency plan gives 5 user accounts.
While SEMrush subscription is provided in 3 packages, they are
- Pro which runs for $99.95 a month
- Guru which runs for $199.95 a month and
- Business which runs for $399.95 a month
SEMrush also offers 7 days free trial. Paying for a 1-year subscription in advance earns you a 16% discount. Although in terms of the number of user account, they offer 1 account for each plan, and you’ll have to pay to add more user accounts. The additional fee is $70 monthly for Pro users and $100 for Guru and Business users.
Finally, there are significant differences between these two SEO services aside from the above mentioned. Despite their different features, SEMrush and Ahrefs both have great tools to help improve your work on your website.
