How to Use Semrush for Keyword Research: Steal My EASY 6-Step Process

Keyword research is the foundation of effective SEO – and Semrush is a powerful tool to help you conquer high positions on Google. This article from RankMarket will guide you in detail on how to exploit the full power of Semrush to build a comprehensive keyword strategy.

Keyword Research and Semrush Overview

What is keyword research and why is it important?

Keyword research is the process of finding, analyzing and selecting words or phrases that users enter into search engines like Google to find information, products or services. It’s not just about listing popular keywords, it’s about understanding the user’s search intent – are they looking to shop, learn information, or simply navigate to a specific website?

In SEO, keyword research serves as a compass:

• Content orientation: Helps you create articles, videos, or landing pages that meet the needs of your target audience.
• Increase traffic: The right keywords will bring the right users to your website.
• Analyze competitors: Understand which keywords your competitors are targeting so you can find opportunities to outrank them.
• Measure performance: Tracking keyword rankings helps you evaluate your SEO campaign and adjust your strategy in a timely manner.

Without keyword research, you could be wasting time and resources optimizing content that no one cares about. So, this is a foundational step that cannot be skipped.

Why is Semrush the ideal choice for SEO content creators?

Launched in 2008, Semrush has become one of the world's leading SEO and online marketing tools, trusted by over 10 million users. Not only does it support keyword research, Semrush also offers powerful features such as competitor analysis, website audit, ad management, and social media performance tracking.

So why is Semrush the ideal choice for SEO content creators?

• Huge data: With over 25 billion keywords in its database, Semrush provides detailed information on search volume, difficulty, CPC, and keyword variations.
• Search intent analysis: Helps you understand what users are looking for in terms of information, products, or services.
• Diverse features: From Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Gap to Organic Research, Semrush meets all needs from basic to advanced.
• Continuous updates: Data is refreshed regularly, make sure you stay on top of the latest trends.

Semrush Guru

buy Semrush One / Guru /Adversting / .Trends account - the most famous SEO tools for all digital marketers

View Product

How to Use Semrush for Comprehensive Keyword Research

To use Semrush effectively, you need to familiarize yourself with the interface and key tools. Here is a step-by-step guide to doing keyword research properly.

Step 1: Understand your target audience before you start

Before you open Semrush, take the time to answer the question: Who are your customers and what are they looking for? For example, if you sell organic pet food, customers might search for keywords like “organic dog food” or “safe cat toys”. Understanding their needs will help you choose more appropriate keywords.

Make a list of seed keywords based on your product, service, or problem that your customers face. For example:

• Organic pet food
• Natural dog toys
• How to care for pets safely

These keywords will be a starting point for you to expand your list with Semrush.

Step 2: Identify core keywords with Keyword Overview

1. Log in to your Semrush account
2. Select “Keyword Research” and click “Keyword Overview”
3. Enter the keywords you want to analyze (e.g. “pet supplies”)
4. Select your target country and press Enter

Semrush will show important information like:

• Search Volume: The number of people searching for this keyword every month. For example, if “pet supplies” has 49,500 searches in the US and 72,500 searches globally, this is a notable number.
• Keyword Difficulty: Calculated on a scale of 1-100, this number indicates how difficult it is to rank for that keyword. If a keyword has a difficulty of 99% like “pet supplies”, it will be difficult for a new website to compete unless it has a very strong SEO strategy.
• Intent: Semrush will categorize keywords by search intent as mentioned above, helping you understand what users are looking for.
• Trends: A graph of search volume over time, helping you determine the seasonality of keywords.
• Questions: Lists questions related to your keyword, very useful for developing FAQ content or optimizing featured snippets.

👉Important note: For new websites, prioritize keywords with low difficulty (under 50%) for a better chance of ranking.

Step 3: Expand Your Keyword List with Keyword Magic Tool

Keyword Magic Tool is Semrush's “secret weapon” that helps you generate thousands of keyword ideas from one main keyword. Here's how to use it:

1. Go to Keyword Research > Keyword Magic Tool.
2. Enter your main keyword, for example: “organic dog food”.
3. Select your country and press Search.

Semrush will return a list of related keywords, for example:

• Cheap organic dog food
• Review organic dog food
• Imported organic dog food

You can filter keywords by:

• Broad Match: All related keywords.
• Phrase Match: Keywords containing phrases main.
• Exact Match: Exact keyword.
• Related: Similar keywords but not necessarily containing the main keyword.

Also, use advanced filters:

• Search Volume: Select keywords with appropriate search volume (e.g. 100-5,000/month).
• KD: Filter keywords with difficulty under 50 for new websites.
• Intent: Prioritize commercial or transactional keywords if you sell products.

After filtering, add the relevant keywords to Keyword Manager for easy management. A useful tip is to use the “Related” and “Questions” features to find question-type keywords, which are great for optimizing for featured snippets and creating how-to content.

Step 4: Analyze Competitors with Organic Research and Keyword Gap

One of the most effective ways to find potential keywords is to “spy” on your competitors. Semrush offers two powerful tools for this:

Keyword Gap

1. Go to Competitive Research > Keyword Gap.
2. Enter your domain and your competitor's domain (up to 5 domains).
3. Select Missing to see keywords your competitors are ranking for but you aren't.

Keyword Gap helps you uncover keyword opportunities you're missing, and add them to your content strategy.

Organic Research

Here's a more detailed tool that lets you see specifically what keywords your competitors are ranking for:

1. In Domain Overview, click on organic keyword metrics or go directly to Organic Research
2. Enter your competitor's domain and select a country
3. Use filters to find the right keywords:
   • Filter by Keyword Difficulty (0-49% for new websites)
   • Filter by specific keywords (e.g. only show keywords containing “organic” and “dog”)
   • Filter by Position to see keywords that competitors are ranking well for

One particularly useful piece of information in this report is the “Organic Traffic Cost” – an estimate of how much it would cost to pay for organic traffic through Google Ads. This number is invaluable when you need to prove your SEO value to your clients or boss.

Step 5: Compare keyword gaps with Keyword Gap

Keyword Gap is a unique tool from Semrush that allows you to compare your keyword strategy with up to 5 competitors. This tool is especially useful for finding keyword opportunities that your competitors are ranking for but you aren't targeting.

How to use:

1. Access the Keyword Gap Tool under Gap Analysis
2. Enter your domain name in the first box and your competitors' domains in the next boxes
3. Select the comparison type (Intersections to see common keywords, Missing to see keywords you don't have but your competitors do)
4. Select the country and click “Compare”

The Venn diagram that appears will show you how much keyword overlap there is between your sites. The “Missing” section is especially important because it helps you discover keywords that your competitors are ranking well for but that you aren’t targeting.

For each “missing” keyword, evaluate:

• Relevance to your product/service
• Competitiveness based on Keyword Difficulty
• Conversion potential based on search intent

Step 6: Refine your keyword list

After collecting your keyword list, refine it based on 4 criteria:

1. Relevance: Keywords should be relevant to your product, service, or content.
2. Search Volume: Prioritize keywords with a large enough search volume but not too competitive.
3. Keyword Difficulty: Choose keywords with a KD that matches the strength of your website.
4. Search Intent: Make sure the keyword matches the goal (sales, informational, or branding).

For example, the keyword “how to choose organic dog food” (KD 20, Search Volume 500, informational intent) is suitable for a blog post, while “buy … for dogs” (KD 35, Search Volume 300, transaction intent) is ideal for a product page.

How to Build a Standard SEO Keyword Set for Your Website Using Semrush Tool

After researching, it’s time to build a comprehensive and strategic keyword set for your website. Here’s the detailed process:

Step 1: Categorize Keywords by Search Intent

Each keyword should be assigned to a search intent type:

• Informational: The user is searching for information, e.g. “how to care for a puppy”.
• Navigational: The user wants to go to a specific page, e.g. “a website that sells pet supplies”.
• Commercial: The user is researching before buying, e.g. “organic dog food review”.
• Transactional: The user is ready to buy, e.g. “buy natural cat toys”.

Use Semrush to identify search intent in Keyword Overview or Keyword Magic Tool. Then, categorize keywords into corresponding groups.

Step 2: Group keywords by topic (Topic Clustering)

Instead of optimizing each keyword for a separate article, group keywords into topics to create a pillar-cluster content structure:

• Pillar Page: The main page focuses on the main keyword, for example: “Instructions for taking care of pets with organic products”.
• Cluster Pages: Related sub-articles, for example:
  • “How to choose organic dog food”.
  • “Top favorite natural toys for cats 2025”.
  • “Benefits of Organic Pet Food”.

Use the Keyword Strategy Builder in Semrush to automatically group keywords into topics. The tool will suggest a content structure with pillar pages and sub-pages.

Step 3: Create a Keyword Map for Your Website

A keyword map is a strategic document that links keywords to specific pages on your website. This helps avoid keyword cannibalization and ensures that each page has a clear SEO goal.

Use the Semrush research to create a keyword map using the following template:

LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are semantically related keywords that help Google better understand the topic of the page. Semrush displays these related keywords in the Related Keywords section of the Keyword Magic Tool.

Step 4: Optimize on-page elements with SEO Content Template

After identifying the target keywords for each page, Semrush also provides the SEO Content Template tool to guide you in optimizing on-page content:

1. Access SEO Content Template in the Content Marketing section
2. Enter the main keyword of the page
3. Select the country and click “Create SEO Template”

Semrush will analyze the top 10 ranking results and make suggestions:

• Semantic Keywords: Related keywords that should appear in the content
• Backlinks: Websites you should consider building backlinks
• Readability: Ideal readability Content Ideas
• Text Length: Recommended content length
• HTML Tags (H1, Meta Title, Meta Description): Suggestions for important HTML tags.

Semrush Keyword Research FAQ

Conclusion

Keywords are the language of the Internet, and Semrush is the ultimate dictionary to help you understand what users want. Get started today: sign up for a Semrush account at RankMarket, create a preliminary keyword list, and apply the steps in this article. Don't forget to track performance and optimize continuously for the best results.

Keep going, SEO warriors!

References:

• How to Use Semrush for Keyword Research: https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-use-semrush-keyword-research/
• Keyword Research for SEO: What It Is & How to Do It: https://www.semrush.com/blog/keyword-research/