SEMRUSH, or SEM Rush, is the straightforward SEO software everyone needs to audit and improve their websites for search engine performance. I recently recommended that a client get their own SEMRUSH account because I want them to be the account owners. When I told a colleague I was doing this they asked why I didn’t just set them up with a project space on my SEMRUSH account. I explained the problem with gatekeeping digital marketing technology and products.
For too long, people have relied on trusting digital marketing vendors and believing everything they tell us, even when we have no clue what they’re showing us or saying about our website and performance. I say the first step is putting the account in their name so they know they, or someone they trust, can log in at any time and see what’s been going on. I feel the same way about website hosting with GoDaddy, and I continue to rely on the brand and consumer care offered by industry-standard websites.
Now, I know my clients are not likely going to log in and poke around in SEMRUSH to generate reports and start taking on technical SEO work on their own, but I do make sure they understand what it is and that they can grant user access to others. At no time should any third-party vendor own the rights to your content or your tools.
This is What Marketing Companies Use
Behind the scenes, many marketing companies use SEMRUSH, an SEO industry standard product, to audit, repair, and make technical SEO recommendations to clients. This product cuts the work and the mystery out of search engine optimization.
Here at Lone Star Content Marketing, we’ve been using this product for many years and to great success. Along with other analytics software and alerts we use, we always know where we have work to do because SEMRUSH tells us. When we start, we do a full website audit and it tells us exactly what needs repair, what areas need more work, and what opportunities we have to make our client’s websites appear higher up in the search engines, maps, and other listings. If we have bad backlinks or link issues, we find out right away with SEMRUSH.
Especially when more than one vendor has touched different elements of the overall marketing and digital content, we need to be safe and make sure nothing toxic is left behind, and no errors were made by others.
There Should Be No SEO Mystery Behind the Curtain
Search engine optimization is pretty straightforward and anyone offering SEO services should be able to teach you what they are doing. If at any time you feel like you have questions that aren’t being answered, that can be a red flag.
There are several elements of search engine performance and the entire experience is very simple if you have a good teacher. Just think about a website being written for humans first, and search engine robots second. When we operate a sandwich shop we coordinate our content appearing on the website and written on the back end (technical content) to tell the search engines all about our sandwiches. Now, if we start talking about hot tubs all over our website, the search engine robots can get confused about what your site is about. So if your side hustle is selling hot tubs, don’t mess up your sandwich shop website, create another independent website for the hot tubs.
If the search engine robots don’t understand what you do, they are less likely to display you to others because the search engines don’t want to offer up bad information. There are endless ways to confuse search engines and our job is to prevent that communication breakdown.
Why You, The Law Firm or Business Should Have The Account
Just like you should maintain ownership and control of your accounts for website hosting, content management, and so forth, you should retain ownership and control of your SEMRUSH account.
This is a product that is worth it’s affordable subscription price. Most small law firms and businesses do fine on the SEMRUSH Pro Plan for just under $140 monthly. Peace of mind that nobody can hide your website performance is important. Knowing you can get independent help at any time is also valuable. Learning enough knowledge about your marketing is your responsibility and this is a best practice.
Giving Access to Your Marketing Team and Vendor Management
Just like using the META platform for Facebook and Instagram content management and advertising, you should maintain ownership and control and give administrative or whatever level of access to your account that you determine is reasonable.
As the owner, you can grant access to your vendors to use your account to perform regular tasks. You can also promptly terminate that access if the vendor relationship ends. This also applies to your website hosting and Google consoles, you should have ownership information and keep user access information somewhere safe.
The Monthly Report Gives Recommendations to Improve Search Engine Results
Many people who have started using SEMRUSH are spending their time fixing errors and resolving the problems highlighted in the audit reports. Then they can get to the recommendations section of the report and focus on keywords and content. This also works well with any paid advertising work through Google and sponsored social media.
When marketing people tell you that you need more content, they’re right, but it needs to be correctly formatted content in furtherance of your current content strategy. Jamming a bunch of SPAMMY AI content into your website is a gimmick used to show an immediate boost of search engine traffic – the reality is that traffic is usually search engine robots there to index your new content. And if it’s not that great, it knows that your site might get sidelined. Even Google knows we don’t like content we don’t trust. SEMRUSH is here to help!
Nick Augustine, J.D. – here to help – If you need a website doctor to check up on your website and SEO, let me know. If you are doing your content, you can use me for hourly and monthly digital marketing consulting! I offer a special one-hour-a-month deal that fits every budget when you need another set of eyes and opinions you can trust. Learn more: Branding & Relationship Development Consulting.
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