August 2, 2022

Semrush vs Moz: Top Features, Comparisons, Prices

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There’s no question that Semrush and Moz are the top tools to help businesses with their SEO channel. The question of who wins in a match-up of Semrush vs Moz is, however, more of a gray area. Both have a wide breadth of features, options, and value points. Which is the better option comes down to taking a deep dive into the features and determining which of these tools match your business goals, tech requirements, and budget. 

The great news is that we’ve done the heavy lifting for you and this guide will help you take a closer look at Semrush as it compares to Moz and set the stage for a decision on which tool to invest in for your SEO initiatives. But, first let’s review how important it is to your business.

  • Search engines are the starting point for 68% of online experiences. (BrightEdge).
  • SEO can reduce the cost of customer acquisition by 87.41% on average compared to digital advertising. (Terakeet)
  • Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic. (BrightEdge)

Now that we’ve reaffirmed the obvious – that the SEO channel is an integral part of your marketing arsenal, let’s explore two of the leading SEO tools available in today’s marketplace. And, while we’re at it, we’ll attempt to answer the age-old question of who wins in the battle of Semrush vs. Moz.


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A Comparison of Semrush vs Moz

It’s always good to start at the beginning and review the basics before diving in more deeply so let’s explore what each tool is, its purpose and see how they compare:

What is Semrush?

SEMRush logo.Founded in 2008, Semrush is a web-based marketing software that helps businesses manage and execute digital marketing strategies related to SEO objectives. It is a comprehensive tool that supports organic SEO initiatives as well as pay-per-click, social media and content marketing campaigns. 

How the SEO functionality of Semrush works

  • Allows you to identify search trends and keywords impacting your industry.
  • Helps you audit on-page SEO and suggest ways to improve. 
  • Guides you in identifying what keywords your competition is using and how they rank. 

What is Moz? 

Moz SEO logo.SEO gurus Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig founded Moz in 2004 as a blog and later launched the web-based software designed to help businesses integrate SEO into their digital marketing plans. In addition to software, Moz houses a library of educational videos and fosters a community advice forum to help people become better at SEO.

How the SEO functionality of Moz works

  • Moz is a great tool to use in addition to Google Analytics.
  • Moz Pro is a comprehensive SEO tool that helps businesses manage a wide range of facets related to their SEO including auditing, and keyword research.
  • Moz Local is Moz’s other software that focuses on updating and optimizing the organization’s local online presence.

What Features Should You Look for in Your SEO Tool?

While every business is unique, there are five features that are essential to your SEO software tool:

  1. Rank Tracking – One of the most fundamental features of the SEO tool is rank tracking. Your rank tracking will provide insights into knowing where your website is ranking and how keywords, backlinks, updated content, on-page optimizations and more are impacting those rankings.  
  1. On-Page Auditing – Your SEO tool will act as an on-page auditor that can give you actionable insights to help key areas of your website perform better in terms of rankings, conversions, time spent on site and much more. 
  1. Keyword Research – Whichever tool in the competition Semrush vs Moz prevails, a high-quality keyword research tool should be on deck. Uncovering target keywords that you can use to drive traffic organically in search engines is a foundational component of your SEO channel. You’ll want reporting features such as monthly search volume of the keyword on Google, cost-per-click for the keyword on Google Adwords, SEO competition for the keyword in Google’s organic search engine rankings and more. 
  1. Backlink Analysis – Another top feature of your SEO tool is related to the site’s backlinks – an important drive of SEO rankings. Backlinks are a marker that tells search engines if your webpage is relevant to users’ searches and worthy of higher rankings. This tool will also help analyze how your competitors’ backlinks are performing. 
  1. SEO Metrics – Metrics are at the key of your SEO initiative, so your SEO tool whether you go with Semrush or Moz, needs to have a robust dashboard of metrics that illustrate how your site is performing, where your opportunities and competitive challenges lie.

Semrush Vs. Moz Pros & Cons

Semrush Pros:

  • Easy to use – Users report that the interface is logical and data is visually presented in a way to analyze SEO performance metrics. 
  • Powerful link-building functionality, which includes a CRM-style feature that makes outreach easy and effective. 
  • Robust site auditing allows you to make concrete improvements to technical SEO and on-page SEO.
  • Provides you with an extreme amount of PPC data.

SEMRush Cons:

  • Data points only for Google, no other search engine insights are included. 
  • Plans only come with one user account, additional accounts can be costly. 
  • Users report that it is not mobile-friendly.
  • Some competitive analysis features cost an additional fee.

MoZ Pros:

  • Offers a powerful set of tools for in-depth analysis of key SEO metrics.
  • Includes a range of SERP analysis and site crawling tools.
  • User-friendly and easy-to-learn link explorer tool.
  • Superior customer service available 24/7.

Moz Cons:

  • No mobile app.
  • More expensive than some of the other options in today’s marketplace.
  • Some aspects of the user interface may require a steep learning curve. 
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