MOZ Versus SEM Rush

[Kingalan1]

Can MOZ perform pretty much the same functions as SEMRUSH or is it worth keeping and paying for both SEO tracking tools?  Can MOZ perform pretty much the same keyword tracking functions making SEMRUSH redundant?

Thanks, Alan

[Toddfoster]

Hello Alan,

I find it depends on who you ask, but generally speaking I find that most SEO's on Moz use SEMrush to some  extent or another to fill in the gaps left behind by Google Keyword Planner. It really is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal and useful for many different applications. I suppose you could go it alone with Moz but I feel like having more tools in your bag is the best way to approach our industry, given its propensity for growth and development.

Can Moz perform many of the same functions? Sure.

Is SEMrush redundant? I don't think so, but some people might disagree.

I have access to all the fun gizmos and gadgets and I can tell you that I choose SEMrush every time - not saying Moz is bad, it is a personal preference from my perspective.

Hope this helps!

Rob

[matbennett]

I'd turn the question about - what functionality are you looking for?  I love a tool, but no longer enjoy handing over large 4-figure sums every month to support my marketing tool habit (I've tried most publicly available toolsets at some point plus a few others).  I now prefer to trial lots of tools in order to understand what they offer but only buy/subscribe to those that fit my strategic needs.

IMHO Moz's strength is that it provides a solid foundation - giving a broad range of tools that are easy to understand and use.  Getting deeper into things often reveals areas where you need something more specialised.  I recommend Moz to a lot of people but no longer subscribe to the pro tools myself as it just wasn't a great fit for me.  I am now most reliant on Raven + SEMrush + Majestic + Screaming Frog + SEO Tools for excel +hootsuite +buzz sumo plus a few home built extras and free tools to tie it all together.  That mostly works for me, although I still miss Advanced web ranking.   On paper that whole collection only really still does what Moz does (but costs lots more!) and Moz still has a few extras that I don't have covered - particularly for US based projects.

More focused "specialist" tools will often go deeper into one area.   SEMrush is particularly strong on keyword research and PPC monitoring for example.  If you find that you need more capability to get a job done then that is the time to go tool shopping.  Paying for SEO tools without a clear idea of why you need them gets expensive quickly.

If SERP tracking is an area that you think you might need to tool up on then Advanced web ranking is well worth a look.  I'm not convinced that monitoring swathes of rankings is as useful as it once was, but if I return to it then that is the tool I'd use. SEMrush is great, but I don't see that as their best area.

[max.favilli]

Mat, why you prefer majestic over ahrefs? In which ways you found majestic more powerful?

[matbennett]

Very good question. A timely one too as I am toying with jumping ship to Ahrefs.

Majestic's data has a number of advantages over anyone else's.  I find their TrustRank and CitationFlow to be more useful than similar metrics from other providers.  That is icing on the cake though. For me the cake is crawl size.  Majestic have a huge crawl which means that you get visibility on more links.  The argument of smaller crawls is that only important links are included, but I don't buy that.  Providers with smaller crawls miss more top quality links on large sites and those are important.   Links from the BBC are a holy grail for some sites that I work from - right up there as the best they are likely to get. All of the big backlink data providers miss these frequently. I find Majestic misses less of them.

I used to always pull backlink data into internal tools or work with it in excel. However SEO is a much smaller part of my roll these days and I now use data differently.  These days I am more likely to be doing quick checks on sites than in depth analysis.  This is tempting me to move to Ahrefs which has a much better UI than Majestic.  I'm still weighing up the benefits of convenience over accuracy though.

[max.favilli]

Thanks for the answer. I hate Majestic UI too.

[ruborg]

This post is deleted!

[ruborg]

_ I am now most reliant on Raven + SEMrush + Majestic + Screaming Frog + SEO Tools for excel +hootsuite +buzz sumo plus a few home built extras and free tools to tie it all together.  That mostly works for me, although I still miss Advanced web ranking.   On paper that whole collection only really still does what Moz does (but costs lots more!)_

Hi Mat, I wonder could you elaborate on this comment a little for me. I find it hard to understand: the collection of tools you mention costs a lot more than Moz, but only does the same job as Moz. Would you be able to provide more detail about why you prefer this approach then if it's costing you more, and does the same job?

Thanks!

[matbennett]

Majestic's crawl picks up a lot more than ahrefs for me.  Deep links on a high quality BIG sites seem to be a particular issue with any tool where the crawl is more limited.

[matbennett]

Hi Ruborg,

I would argue that those tools don't do the same as Moz.  They cover the same areas, but do different things.  Also, Moz is much more limited in the number of sites you can direct it at.  With the domain limit in Moz I'd say I am paying considerably less and getting more of the functionality that I am after.

That isn't any criticism of Moz. It's horses for courses and Moz just isn't the right horse for the course I run on!