SEMrush is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform, and its Content Marketing Toolkit is particularly valuable for content creators. However, the subscription cost can be a barrier for some. This guide demonstrates how to achieve similar results using a combination of free tools, effectively replicating the core functionality of SEMrush’s toolkit.
Understanding SEMrush’s Content Marketing Toolkit
SEMrush’s Content Marketing Toolkit consists of seven main tools:
- Topic Research: Identifies trending topics and subtopics related to your keywords.
- Marketing Calendar: Helps you plan and schedule your content activities.
- SEO Content Template: Provides recommendations for creating SEO-friendly content.
- SEO Writing Assistant: Checks your content for readability, originality, and SEO optimization.
- Brand Monitoring: Tracks mentions of your brand across the web.
- Post Tracking: Monitors the performance of your published content.
- Content Audit: Analyzes your existing content for areas of improvement.
While SEMrush offers a streamlined, integrated experience, we can replicate most of this functionality using free tools, albeit with a bit more manual effort.
1. Replicating Topic Research
SEMrush’s Topic Research tool helps you discover trending topics, subtopics, headlines, and questions related to your keywords. Here are free alternatives:
Google Search and Bing Search
- “People also ask” boxes: When you search for a keyword on Google, pay attention to the “People also ask” boxes. These reveal common questions related to your topic, providing valuable insights into user intent.
- Related searches: Scroll to the bottom of the Google and Bing search results pages. The “related searches” section suggests additional keywords and topics that people are searching for.
- Google Autocomplete: As you type a keyword into the Google search bar, note the suggestions that appear. These are based on popular searches.
Forums and Communities (Quora, Reddit)
- Quora: Search for your keyword on Quora (Quora). Explore relevant questions and topics. Follow relevant “Spaces” to stay updated on discussions.
- Reddit: Find subreddits related to your niche (e.g., r/Welding for welding-related content). Observe the discussions, questions, and popular topics.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (free) provides data on the keywords your website is already ranking for. This can reveal content opportunities.
- Go to the “Performance” report.
- Look at the “Queries” tab to see which keywords are driving traffic to your site.
- Identify keywords with high impressions but low clicks – these might represent topics where you could create more targeted content.
2. Replicating the Marketing Calendar
SEMrush’s Marketing Calendar helps you plan and schedule your content. Here are free alternatives:
Google Calendar and Google Sheets/Docs
- Google Calendar: Use Google Calendar to schedule content deadlines, publication dates, and promotional activities. Set reminders to stay on track.
- Google Sheets/Docs: Create a content calendar in Google Sheets or a content planning document in Google Docs. Outline your topics, keywords, target audience, and publication dates.
WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugins
- Several free WordPress plugins, such as PublishPress, offer editorial calendar functionality directly within your WordPress dashboard.
3. Replicating the SEO Content Template
SEMrush’s SEO Content Template provides recommendations for creating optimized content. Free alternatives include:
Google Trends
- Use Google Trends (Google Trends) to identify trending topics and related queries. This can help you choose timely and relevant keywords.
SEOPress (Free WordPress Plugin)
SEOPress is a comprehensive SEO plugin for WordPress. The free version offers features for optimizing your content, including:
- Title and Meta Description Optimization: SEOPress helps you create compelling titles and meta descriptions that include your target keywords.
- Content Analysis: It provides basic content analysis, suggesting improvements for keyword density and readability (though less detailed than SEMrush).
4. Replicating the SEO Writing Assistant
SEMrush’s SEO Writing Assistant checks readability, originality, and tone. Here are some free alternatives:
Quetext (Plagiarism Checker)
Quetext (Quetext) offers a free plan for checking plagiarism (up to 2,500 words per month). This helps ensure your content is original.
Hemingway App (Readability)
The Hemingway App (Hemingway App) is a free online tool that analyzes your writing for readability. It highlights complex sentences, adverbs, and passive voice, helping you create clearer and more concise content.
IBM Watson Tone Analyzer (Tone of Voice)
IBM offers a free demo of its Watson Tone Analyzer (Tone Analyzer), which can help you assess the tone of your writing (e.g., formal, informal, joyful, sad).
5. Replicating Brand Monitoring
SEMrush’s Brand Monitoring tool tracks mentions of your brand. Free alternatives:
Google Alerts
Google Alerts (Google Alerts) is a free service that sends you email notifications whenever your specified keywords (e.g., your brand name, product names) appear in new web content.
TweetDeck (for Twitter)
TweetDeck (TweetDeck) is a free tool (owned by Twitter/X) that allows you to monitor Twitter mentions, hashtags, and keywords in real-time.
6. Replicating Post Tracking
SEMrush’s Post Tracking monitors the performance of your published content. A free alternative:
Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Google Analytics: Track pageviews, bounce rate, time on page, and other metrics to understand how users are interacting with your content.
- Google Search Console: Monitor your search rankings, clicks, impressions, and click-through rate for specific keywords and pages.
- By combining data from both, you get a fairly complete view.
7. Replicating Content Audit
SEMrush’s Content Audit analyzes existing content. A free approach involves using:
Google Data Studio (with Google Analytics and Search Console)
Google Data Studio (Data Studio) is a free data visualization tool. You can connect it to your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts to create custom dashboards that track key content performance metrics.
- This allows you to identify underperforming content that needs updating or repurposing.
- While it requires some setup, it provides a powerful and free way to audit your content.
Alternatives to SEMRush Itself
There are also some tools that, while not free, offer a cheaper, or more focused alternative to SEMRush itself. Ahrefs, Moz and Ubersuggest are three very popular options.
Conclusion
While SEMrush’s Content Marketing Toolkit offers a convenient, all-in-one solution, you can effectively replicate its core functionality using a combination of free tools. This approach requires more manual effort and lacks the integrated dashboard of SEMrush, but it provides a cost-effective way to improve your content marketing strategy and achieve significant results. By strategically using these free resources, you can gain valuable insights into your audience, plan and optimize your content, track your performance, and ultimately drive more traffic and engagement.