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SEMrush’s Content Marketing Toolkit is a powerful machine loaded with everything you need to smash your competitors with your online marketing efforts.
But what if you can’t afford this killer marketing app?
I’ve put together a list of tools so cheap even a university student can afford it.
It’s not as powerful as SEMrush’ all-in-one marketing bazooka, nor is it elegant, but with some effort it’ll get you off the ground and floating along (like a blimp) to more traffic, which should translate to more business.
Some people market their products or services based on their own opinions or gut feelings. They fall hither and yon, never getting it right.
That’s because their opinions are worthless compared to what the market says.
SEMrush‘ Content Marketing Toolkit takes the guesswork out of your marketing and forces you to be market oriented.
For that alone, it’s worth it’s weight in digital gold.
But if you need marketing tools as cheap as chips, read on.
SEMrush’s Content Marketing Toolkit has seven tools:
Each tool forms part of the road you need to travel to gain insight into what the market wants, the goal of which is to improve your content to drive more and better traffic.
Let’s take a look at these tools and consider some free alternatives.
The first step is to find a topic related to your niche.
The Topic Research Overview Screen.
In their words…
An effective content plan is based on information about your audience’s interests. SEMrush Content Platform allows you to conduct topic research by giving you the full picture of what your audience needs in just a couple of clicks.
One of the best ways (I’d say the absolute best) to market online is to create your own content on your own website.
But you need to be focused. You can’t fall around and create content around what you feel is right – you must create content around what the market wants.
That’s exactly what the Topic Research step lets you do.
This tool gives your opinion a smack upside the head and turns your attention from what you THINK people are looking for in your niche, to what they’re actually looking for.
If you’ve never done content planning before and you’re desperate for traffic but you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of content creator, blow your own mind by punching in a word or phrase related to your topic into SEMrush’ Topic Research search box.
The clarity that whacks you between the eyes from doing such a simple exercise that reveals such a wealth of information is like a really good wasabi.
The tool gives you three research areas:
Writing about subtopics are a great way to get people to your website using content that has enough relation to your own product or service to be of value to website visitors.
SEMrush makes it easy.
You punch the keywords of your main theme into the search box and SEMrush spits out related topics that’ll boost your search engine rankings from multiple fronts if you add content using those ideas to your website.
For instance, if you’re a metalworking shop, instead of harping on about your welding capabilities, a subtopic might be machining, or sandblasting. You’re sticking close enough to your core theme to create content of value even to people whose predominant interest is your welding capabilities.
That way you’re hooking people looking for welding, your main topic, as well as people looking for related services, but who now also realize you offer welding too, even though they initially didn’t think they were looking for that service.
Of headlines David Ogilvy said the following:
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
SEMrush’ Headline tool gives you quick access to a multitude of headlines for the topic you’re researching.
This helps you craft attention-yanking diamonds that’ll crank up a few notches the clickthrough rate to your website.
One of the most powerful tools man is born with is the ability to ask questions.
You could turn a blind eye to his innate inquisitiveness and wonder why people are so snoopy, or you could exploit it.
That’s what SEMrush’ Questions tool lets you do.
It’s like an FAQ section on steroids; a search engine for FAQs, in a sense.
They pull together questions from various online forums and delicately chuck them onto your computer screen to devour.
It’s clear that SEMrush’ Topic Research tool is a powerful intro into your content marketing path, but it comes with a price tag you might balk at.
So here are some free tools you could employ to help you get your topic research down pat.
While using these tools, have a spreadsheet open to which you can copy subtopics of interest. You might think you’ll be able to remember related topics but you’ll soon be trailing if you don’t paste your finds somewhere.
The obvious place to find related content first is by using search engines.
Two search engines come to mind:
All you need to do if you want to find related content is to tap your search term of choice into one of these search engines. You’ll get an amazing amount of related search results.
These are compiled from what other people like you are searching for. You might have missed an angle on your niche that others remembered and searched for. Search engines compile these searches and store them for that exact moment someone like you comes along.
Creepy, yes, but also more than mildly useful.
Let’s see what their search results look like when we do a search for a term like “how to do content marketing”.
Google displays related searches more elegantly and more prominently, but don’t fling Bing off the wing, it might be smaller but it’s got some bling. (Sorry, I had to.)
However, I’d give the gold to Google because they often include a People also search for section, which is more of a subtopic vibe than related searches.
A Google Search Results Page For The Search Term, How To Do Content Marketing. Notice The Related Searches At The Top And Bottom Of The Page.
Google Also Includes A People Also Search For Section, Which Reveals Topics Related To Your Search.
A Bing Search Results Page For The Search Term, How To Do Content Marketing. Notice The Related Searches At The Bottom Of The Page.
Forums are a GREAT space for topic research.
It’s as simple as finding a forum in your niche, signing up and scouring threads, collecting nuggets of marketing research gold as you go.
One forum in particular offers a vault of insights.
Quora.
Quora is phenomenal. Want to see questions related to your niche? You won’t find a better place.
Once you’ve created a Quora account, simply start browsing the site—a task made easier by the fact that their information is well organized—and look at the questions people post.
Quora also has what they call Spaces, which are collections of topics you can follow.
Quora Spaces Are Great For Market Research.
Use Quora’s search function too. It’s a fantastic tool because it lets you search by type, topic, author or time.
For instance, the type setting lets you choose to see answers from only one of the following types:
This is a great way to drill down and winnow the chaff from the wheat.
I ALWAYS make use of Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster for ALL websites, whether my own or for clients.
Both of these tools come with performance indicators.
Google Search Console simply calls it Performance, while Bing Webmaster calls it Search Performance.
It shows you which keywords you show up for in these search engines, as well as the average position over a specified period of time.
Just like SEMrush’ Topic Research tool, these two tools obliterate your opinion, forcing you to become market oriented.
Bing Search Performance Report Screen.
Google Performance Report Screen.
Of course, by using free research tools you’re missing out on the refinements available with SEMrush’ Content Marketing Toolkit.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
I won’t be listing everything you’re missing out on here. The list is far too long. If you’ve got the cash, sign up for an account (through my affiliate link, please) and get going.
You’ll find some of these glorious subtopic insights without the help of SEMrush, should you choose to make use of free alternatives. But SEMrush streamlines market research by putting all of these tools together.
If you’re anything like me you steer clear of trying to be trendy.
However, you might find yourself in a niche where it’s all about trends, all the time.
SEMrush shows you the hottest trends right now so you can make them part of your content marketing game.
SEMrush’ Topic Research tool comes with useful sorting capabilities that lets you sort by volume, difficulty or topic efficiency.
Although backlinks aren’t as important as they used to be—you can get to the top of Google without backlinks; I’ve done it a few times against strong competition (and Michael Martinez wrote an excellent piece about it, but I can’t find it now)—they’re still a great way to get more people to your website.
SEMrush shows you how many backlinks a piece of content has.
SEMrush shows you information like Facebook engagements.
Although I’m not a social media user, some marketers swear by social media. If you think social media is the way to go for your business you’ll find their social media metrics a boon.
The next step is to create a content calendar.
The Marketing Calendar Overview Screen.
In their words…
Planning and managing content activities requires constant monitoring. The SEMrush Content Platform helps you to keep track of your team tasks and deadlines to ensure all activities will be implemented in time.
If you don’t plan your content marketing strategy you’ll soon wander off and forget all about it, even if you start off with a bang.
And if you don’t keep on top of it you’ll soon be spiraling out of control.
Mental commitment means nothing if it’s not underpinned by a plan that’s written down in some or other form.
SEMrush helps you create a content calendar to which you and your team can commit and stick to.
It consolidates EVERYTHING you need to up your rankings and makes collaboration a cinch.
SEMrush gives you a digital calendar to which you can add content projects. Content, in my eyes, means long form articles, since that’s my thing. However, content also includes email campaigns, social media posts, PDFs and whatever else you can chuck into the content creation category.
The tool lets you organize tasks through campaigns and activities.
It also lets you share the calendar with collaborators. You can also assign tasks to collaborators and keep track of their progress.
If you’re a due-by-date type of person, give your activities a deadline to ensure your content is published at the scheduled time.
And when your content calendar starts filling up to the point where you struggle to keep track, simply use SEMrush’ filter tool to focus on what you must.
All of this can be done by your lonesome self, or you can include your team and share the load.
Although SEMrush’ Marketing Calendar is a killer tool, it’s not free.
So what can you use if you’re so poor even a church mouse feels sorry for you?
Google offers an amazing suite of tools that doesn’t cost a penny.
There’s Google Calendar, which allows you to add events and reminders.
Then there’s Google Drive, which comes with the following tools:
all of which could easily form part of your content creation and sharing journey.
Best of all, you can share your Google Calendar and Google Drive documents with other people, creating a free content collaboration workflow.
WordPress is the tool of choice for website owners who know the importance of delivering nutritious, fresh content.
And although WordPress comes with the built-in ability to add users (authors, editors, etc) you’ll need some plugins if you really want to turn your WordPress install into a content marketing calendar with collaboration capabilities.
No problem though.
Just get the right plugins—of which there are myriads (PublishPress comes to mind)—to turn your WordPress install into a powerhouse content creation scheduling and collaboration tool.
I try to keep things as simple as possible. I don’t use a calendar, but whenever my website analytics indicate search phrases of interest, I add a draft post to my website targeting that specific query. I also add the excerpt of the post to the draft so I don’t forget what the gist of my idea was for writing the article.
Since I don’t work to deadlines strictly, but simply follow a logical content creation pattern every week, this setup works perfectly fine for me.
But with the right WordPress plugins you can create a decent knockoff of SEMrush’ Marketing Calendar.
And it’ll be free.
As with all the other SEMrush tools, this one also comes with a few handy built-in features you might want to fork out cash for.
I won’t name everything you’re missing out on. Sign up through my affiliate link and get going if you want to experience the SEMrush benefits.
But here are some things you’re not getting.
You can:
Those you grant access to the calendar can also comment and attach files, which makes the content calendar a great place for setting goals and objectives.
Create a campaign template for those times you run similar campaigns and save a ton of time at the drawing board.
I’m a listy kinda guy. I love ticking off stuff.
It gives me a sense of enormous well-being.
Blur
If you’re one too, you’ll like that you can add checklists to your Activities inside the content calendar.
Although tags are often abused to the point of double facepalm, if used correctly, they make content deliciously palatable.
SEMrush’ content calendar lets you add tags, which should make your workflow smoother than a freshly shaved chin.
Need a nag to remind you about the next step to your content deadline?
SEMrush lets you set up email notifications for:
It’s a great way to stay on top of your content calendar and avoid missing important deadlines.
The next step is to start creating content.
The SEO Content Template Overview Screen.
In their words…
Quality, search-optimized content can improve your site visibility and increase the volume of traffic. SEMrush Content Platform provides you with a content template with recommendations on how to create winning content.
Fresh, relevant content is one of the cornerstones of good content marketing.
But not everyone knows how to create great content. And that’s OK.
There are tool to help you make it.
SEMrush’s SEO Content Template is such a tool.
The SEMrush content template lets you create an SEO content template based on your choice of keywords.
You can filter your keyword by country too, which gives you even more targeting power.
Once you’ve entered your keywords of choice into SEMrush’ system, their machine spits out content recommendations based on their massive database of information.
But there’s more…
Get a readability score so you can see if your content is easy to digest or tougher to read than a piece of motor-oil infused peanut butter brittle stuck inside your throat.
Also get suggestions of websites you could score backlinks from.
Get a sneak peak of your competitors’ keywords by way of a related keywords list.
Sculpt better titles and meta description tags that’ll help your content be more SE optimized.
Let’s look at a few free alternatives to SEMrush’ SEO Content Template tool.
Google Trends is super useful for finding trends, but also for finding related queries.
Typing the keyword, content marketing, into Google Trends reveals the interest over time, as well as a graph.
But don’t miss the box at the bottom that reads, Related queries.
Google Trends Is Not Just Good For Finding Trends; It Shows Related Queries Too.
SEOPress is a WordPress plugin that gives you an amazing amount of features for a low annual investment. (There’s a free version available too, but the paid-for SEO plugin is so cheap that I consider it a must.)
It’s insanely powerful and undercuts other SEO plugins’ pricing to the point where it makes them look greedy.
This popular WordPress SEO plugin gives you auto titles and meta descriptions.
I use it for all my sites and I rarely touch HTML titles and meta descriptions; SEOPress handles it for me.
But should you wish to edit a page or post’s title and meta description, SEOPress lets you do it.
There are a number of amazing benefits you miss out on by not using SEMrush.
Here are some…
SEMrush makes SEO recommendations.
Why’s this handy?
Seeing which keywords your top rivals rank for is worth gold. And getting to see it so easily makes SEMrush more desirable than an ice cream on a summer’s day in the desert. (And if you beat your competition you’ll make enough money to buy more ice cream.)
Finding backlinks is a time-chewing effort that often leads to a cul-de-sac.
SEMrush quickly shows you where you can find possible backlinks for your content, so you spend less time looking for backlink sources and more time reaching out to those sources. This should make you grab your wallet and sign up for an account through my affiliate link now.
As mentioned before, backlinks, although revered by some online marketers as the be-all and end-all, are not as important as yesteryear. You can rank without backlinks.
But good backlinks certainly will boost your performance and help you inch yet another step to the top.
The next step is to ensure your content is unique and optimized.
The SEO Writing Assistant Overview Screen.
In their words…
Content optimization of new or existing texts is no longer a time-consuming struggle with the help of the SEMrush Content Platform. Our writing assistant helps content creators to ensure their texts are unique and search-optimized in just a few clicks, right in Google document or WordPress account.
SEMrush’ Writing Assistant helps to ensure your content is unique so you’re not labeled a content thief.
Let their powerful assistant check your content for search engine friendliness using metrics like content length, readability, links and keywords.
Use the readability tool to check your content is easy to read so you don’t frustrate website visitors and force them off your site into the wide open arms of a waiting competitor.
Selling to an upmarket crowd? You can’t be using the tone of a third grade teacher then. SEMrush’ tool helps you determine the right tone of voice you need for your target market, so you don’t sound arrogant or stupid.
Your content must pass three main tests in this regard:
Quetext is a GREAT tool to check if your content is unique.
The free version lets you check up to 2,500 words per month. That’s plenty of free checking.
For a few dollars more per month you can check up to 100,000 words.
The Hemingway App lets you paste your content into their app right inside your browser.
Your readability score is shown in the right hand sidebar and updates real-time.
The tool also highlights wordy paragraphs to give you a visual indication of those blocks of text that need chiseling.
I recommend getting the desktop app. It only costs a few bucks.
About the Tone Analyzer tool their website says…
This service uses linguistic analysis to detect joy, fear, sadness, anger, analytical, confident and tentative tones found in text.
This is the one SEMrush tool I don’t care for.
I’m not a huge fan of most writing assistants, Hemingway App being one exception.
If you use a writing assistant you run the risk of losing your voice, which should be unique.
And what happens if it’s not unique? You might sound like a copycat. And that’s when it’s easy to label you a plagiarist.
So you won’t miss anything by not using this tool. (Remember, that’s my opinion. You might find value where I see none.)
The next step is to monitor your or your competitors’ brand presence.
The Brand Monitoring Overview Screen.
In their words…
Choose the most effective PR channels for content distribution and analyze your or your competitors’ brand presence there with the SEMrush Content Platform.
This tool shows you all the important places you or your competitors are being talked about and whether the sentiment is positive or negative.
At the same time it reveals opportunities for promoting your content. That’s ALWAYS a handy feature.
If you’re serious about your business having a good name, you must monitor your brand online.
SEMrush’ Brand Monitoring tool lets you keep track of where your brand is mentioned online and whether people love or hate it.
Track your brand in up to ten countries and see resources related to your niche from which you could score possible backlinks.
Filter your list of finds to ignore certain websites and focus only on what you really think will make an impact on your online marketing.
Evaluate potential backlinks with insightful metrics like authority score, monthly traffic volume and potential reach.
All of this info is available in a handy overview format showing your or a competitor’s brand visibility so you can quickly and easily make decisions for your brand.
What you’re looking for in this category is sometimes to referred to as listener tools.
These tools keep an ear to the ground to listen for whispers or shouts about your brand.
There are many free alternatives. Let’s take a look.
Google Alerts is an easy-to-use tool that lets you set up email alerts for your favorite search terms.
You can set up a delivery schedule to receive a daily or weekly digest with alerts for your chosen keywords.
Your keywords could be anything, from a name to a product name to a product type to an email address to a hashtag.
Screenshot Of The Google Alerts Page.
TweetDeck, once an independent social media dashboard, was acquired by Twitter to form part of their official suite of tools.
TweetDeck lets you set up multiple Twitter accounts in a single dashboard.
You can tune various settings to your liking to set up a Twitter alert dashboard exactly to your liking.
I would have stuck a screenshot of TweetDeck here, but since I’m not much of a social media user my TweetDeck is about as exciting as a wet paint sign, so it won’t do much to educate you.
Most social media platforms come with free analytics. You can access these easily whenever you wish.
This goes for Facebook pages, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
Some of these platforms require you to jump through a tiny hoop or two, but once you’ve cleared the flames you gain access to important metrics.
By not using SEMrush for brand monitoring you’re missing out on a boatload of benefits.
The social media monitoring landscape is filled with marvelous tools, but these tools are often so highly priced that I’d expect to receive a free truck thrown into the deal were I to sign up.
SEMrush’ brand monitoring dashboard does a terrific job of keeping an eye and ear on your brand’s presence.
Best of all, it’s not splintered. It’s part of a cohesive set of tools that’s easy to access and use.
The next step is to track the performance of your article/s.
The Post Tracking Overview Screen.
In their words…
The lifecycle of your content posted on external blogs doesn’t end with its publication. With the SEMrush Content Platform you can track the performance of up to 50 external articles, yours or your competitors’.
If you don’t track you won’t know how your content’s performing or how your competitor’s content is performing.
SEMrush’ Post Tracking tool lets you set up a project for the domain you wish to track and add the URL of the page you’d like to track.
Connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts to further refine your tracking analysis.
Pit article against article to see which of your content performs better so you can focus on expanding on that specific topic and not waste time on fluff.
Get an overview of shares your article received across the social media spectrum.
Keep an eye on your content with daily updated metrics and get a clear picture over time of whether your content is having an impact.
See estimated reach and referral traffic for your content.
There’s not much by way of free alternatives for SEMrush’ post tracking capabilities that doesn’t come with effort.
For instance, you could set up a killer Google Analytics and Google Search Console dashboard using Google Data Studio and incorporate social media metrics, but for the average person it’s a daunting task.
Neil Patel comes closest to offering something free, called Traffic Analyzer. It seems to form part of the Ubersuggest toolbox. Or perhaps it’s called the Neil Patel Toolbox. (Maybe he should christen it Patel’s Panoply.)
It’s not a bad tool at all, in fact.
Set up projects and connect them to your Google Search Console, from where it automatically pulls in keywords you rank for.
There are limits though. Patel’s tools are free up to a point, then it starts costing you.
The major miss when you’re not using SEMrush for post tracking is the convenience of having enough data easily available in one place.
Although Neil Patel’s tools are great, SEMrush seems to offer a more in-depth set of metrics, without inundating you with fluff.
There’s no point in having access to all the data in the world, but you have no clue how to draw meaning from it so you can make the next marketing step.
The next step is to audit your content.
The Content Audit Overview Screen.
In their words…
Analytics done on a regular basis allows you to understand what works better for your target audience and select the most effective approach to achieve your goals. The SEMrush Content Platform analyzes thousands of your articles in just a few clicks and segments them into groups for further update.
This is the last tool in the SEMrush toolbox and probably one of the most important.
Use the Content Audit tool to analyze your or your competitor’s articles, with the ability to segment content for further analysis.
SEMrush lets you analyze thousands of articles, which assists in quick decision making.
Keep an eye on your articles’ performance, all consolidated by SEMrush from Google Analytics, backlinks and social shares.
Get access to your content metrics through a convenient single dashboard, not a hammered together browser bookmarked hack of a system.
Here, again, it’s difficult to name a free tool that won’t cost you effort to put together.
And by that I’m not saying you’re stupid. Far from it.
But the average business owner isn’t in the business of putting together analytics dashboards.
And when you create a DIY analytics dashboard you might miss out on crucial data.
What’s bad about that is that you might not even know you’re missing out on data, blissfully ignorant of some metric you should actually be keeping an eye on.
Nevertheless, let’s look at a possible free alternative to SEMrush’ Content Audit tool…
I LOVE Google Data Studio.
It’s a fantastic way to make metrics make sense.
You don’t want to just gawk at a pie chart and some lines. You must know what those pie charts and lines and bars all mean and how they can help take your marketing forward.
Google Data Studio helps make sense of your data.
But you need to plug in your Google Analytics and your Google Search Console, which, as stated above, might not be as simple for the average business owner looking for analytics to do.
If just thinking of doing that makes your heart melt, then it’s probably best to just fork out cash and get SEMrush.
Again, the main aspect you’re missing out on is the convenience of having the right data in one easy-to-manage location.
You might find a box full of free analytics and auditing tools out there, but you’ll either have to keep going back and checking manually, or you’ll have to whack together a workflow from a bunch of different sources.
That’s why SEMrush shines in this regard.
SEMrush is a superb tool that’ll help you rank better and get more traffic super quick.
But not everyone can afford it, and that’s why these free alternatives together make up a passable substitute.
But remember, free is never free.
What you save in money you’ll waste in time and effort.
Take a look at SEMrush and let their Content Marketing Toolkit do the heavy lifting for you.
Just click the yellow GET SEMRUSH button and sign up for an account through my affiliate link.