SEM Rush Detail ScreenThe folks that are behind SEO Digger have released a new tool, SEMRush and they allowed us to be part of their Beta test group so we could get a look under the hood and see what is going on.  As any one who wants to succeed with their real estate marketing and SEO efforts knows, getting information (and applying that info) is key to continued success.

the Basics

SEMRush is a tool that allows you to view your Organic results in conjunction with your Pay per click results.  The faithful followers of our blog and those who have been to our seminars know that we are big believers in a balanced approach to online marketing so this is a tool that Joe and I were really interested in checking out.  Much like Ryan Lash of YMarketing stated here, taking a Search Engine Marketing approach will give your web presence a balance that will mean customers day in and day out.

Informer

Informer is the main portion of their tool, providing a layout of 6 reports to look deeper into your website.  I don’t want this to be a “how to use SEM Rush” post, but I do think it is worth while to take a look at some of the top reports (Organic keywords and Adwords keywords are the top 2 reports).

Organic Keywords

The nice part about this report is it shows your website and what keywords you are able to be displayed on for being in the top 20 results.  This gives you a quick idea of those keywords where you are on the top 2 pages.  If you can’t find that keyword you have been focusing on, you are a little off the radar! 

Take note of the “Trend” column as well as it shows search volume over the last 12 months.  Although the graph is a bit small with no numbers for reference it does give you a concept if the keywords that you are focusing on are actually getting searched.  This is handy so you don’t have to go back and double check your WordTracker tool.  Digging deeper on an individual keyword you will also be able to see what websites show up in the top 20.  Nice and easy to keep an eye on the competition.

Adwords Keywords

This quick snapshot shows some of the keywords that you advertise on.  Now, I am not quite sure how they generate this list, because in my test of our websites, 1 brought up just 9 keywords and the other website brought up 45 keywords.  The website that brought up 45 keywords actually has fewer campaigns associated with it, so I will have to ask them how they are determining that data.  Despite that it can help you to see some quick gaps like:

  • Are you advertising on the same phrases that you are showing up organically? (increasing your odds of success)
  • Are you showing up in the position that you want?

 Some Improvements

As we are beta testers I think one of the goals is to share some items that we think our community of users might want.  Here are a few ideas on my first few cuts through the software.

  1. Display our common websites - Yes, we can view the latest “queries” we made, but often we would be researching a set of 4-10 common websites.  Make it easy for us to access our most common websites.
  2. What about our pg 3 keywords? - I know there are limitations on storage and computing time, but I would like to see a section for maybe “up and coming” keywords for those ones that are on pg 3 just about to make it to the coveted top 2 pages.  Looking at keywords that have landed on pg 3 and working them up to the top 2 pages have been some of the most fun and rewarding in my experience, but if we don’t know we are close, we might not give it that last push.
  3. Trend Graph - Have the graph display a number value as well.  Maybe even allow the chart to be clicked on for more detail so we can get a real concept of the trend.

Overall I think it is rocking.  I like that the plans are kept affordable (under $20 a month, that’s great!).  Really it’s a tool that you could sign up for, for a month or so, get some information and then come back in a few months to revisit your changes. 

Joe and I will continue to play around with it and share more information while we are beta testing.  I am already seeing some opportunities for our real estate websites so we will need to take action.  After all, reporting tools like this are great, but if we don’t do anything with the information, it doesn’t matter what features they have.

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