Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important channels for user acquisition. SEO gets increasingly complex with time, as more and more businesses come into existence every day, resulting in more and more websites competing for visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google updates its algorithms, signals, and strategies almost every day, to make sure they are giving quality search results to its users. This makes it highly difficult for businesses to crack the secret recipe to get their respective websites to rank on the top of the search results all the time.
The good news is that along with the standard SEO practices and procedures, there are certain tools for SEO that can actually give you an edge in terms of data, actionable insights and reports, thus providing you with a unique advantage over your competition.
SEMrush is one of the most popular SEO tools in the industry due to its long-standing reputation and the competence it provides to marketers and businesses. The tools provided by SEMrush are not just limited to SEO, but they can also be used for other purposes like search engine advertising or PPC advertising, social media, content marketing, and market research. The tools and features of SEMrush cover all the aspects of Search Engine Optimization, giving you an all-in-one toolkit for SEO. (Read – Semrush review – Pros and Cons of Semrush)
Moz is another very popular SEO tool among digital marketing professionals, small businesses, as well as big companies. Moz didn’t actually start as a tool, but rather, as an SEO consulting company and an online community of SEO experts who would share their ideas and research on the subject. Moz tools has all kinds of features required for SEO. Moz also offers certain free SEO tools, available once you register for a free Moz account.
SEMrush vs Moz – Comparison of Features
Let us now provide you with a comparison of features between Semrush and Moz, so you can decide which one can serve you better. (We did a similar comparison between Semrush and Ahrefs, so do check it out if you are considering to give Ahrefs a try)
| Features | Semrush | Moz |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Research | SEMrush has a powerful keyword research tool which will give the best performing keywords for your business along with their search volume, CPC, number of results for each keyword, etc. You can also find keywords with less competition, along with finding related keywords. You can also change the parameters and filters on the dashboard to get the list of keywords you are seeking. | Moz provides a comprehensive keyword research tool and keyword explorer, which generates keyword suggestions from a seed keyword, along with metrics like monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, organic CTR, etc. Moz also gives the keywords a priority score based on their analysis of SERPs for that particular keyword. You can choose from various filters to pick the right keywords for your website. |
| Backlink Analysis | SEMrush shows you all the backlinks for your domain and their anchor texts. It shows you the percentage of no follow, do follow links, and the source country. Also, the Backlink Gap tool tells you what links your competitors have, and where you have an advantage, so you can choose strategies based on that information. SEMrush’s Brand Monitoring tool helps you track and analyze your brand mentions on the web. | The Links section in Moz shows you the backlinks coming to your site under ‘inbound links’, how they changed over time, and also a comparison with your competitors. Moz also helps you identify the mentions of your brand/business name online, and check whether they are linking back to you, so you may request that particular website owner to link back to you if they mention your brand/business name |
| Rank Tracking/Position Tracking | SEMrush allows you to track the position of your site and the page that ranks for a particular keyword, through its position tracking tool. | Moz also allows you to track the ranking of your site and the pages that rank, for each keyword. The position/rank tracking feature is almost the same in both the tools. |
| Site Audit & Site Crawl | SEMrush provides you with a great deal of information in its site audit feature. It shows all the crawling errors, site issues, images with missing alt tags, etc., and also gives an overall health percentage of your site. The domain analytics tool in SEMrush provides you with an overall report of your domain, its organic presence, backlinks, traffic analytics, etc. | Moz’s site audit is one of the main features of Moz, which gives you a report of the overall one-site elements and gives recommendations. Moz’s site crawl tool allows you to crawl the whole website to find errors, duplicate content, missing page headings, spammy links, crawl errors, etc. |
| Competitor Analysis | SEMrush provides you with a great deal of competitor analysis and insights. It allows you to know your competitors’ keywords, know their best performing keywords, their backlinks, and their paid search advertising efforts. | Moz competitor analysis is simpler and not as detailed, when compared to SEMrush. Moz compares your back-links, keywords, Domain Authority, and Page Authority with that of your competitors. |
| Local SEO | The tools provided by SEMrush can be helpful for Local SEO/Location-specific SEO as well. SEMrush offers certain features and resources to help you with the Local SEO for your business. The Listing Management tool (available for the US and Australia, for now) helps businesses with local SEO analysis like backlinks from directories, Google and Google Maps, Yahoo, etc. It is a new feature and is still in the development phase. | Moz has better Local SEO tools that can help businesses with location-based SEO, compared to that of SEMrush. Moz shows your site’s performance in local search results and provides recommendations to excel in local SEO. It also provides Review Management features under its Moz Local subscription package. |
| Paid Search | SEMrush also has tools that help your paid search efforts so you can complement it with your organic search efforts. It offers paid search insights like recommending keywords, keyword competitiveness, CPC optimization, and Ad copy recommendation as well. | There are no specific tools meant for paid search in Moz. However, the search insights and recommendations produced by Moz can also be applied for paid search campaigns. |
| Dashboard Features | SEMrush has a rich dashboard interface which shows you all the critical and important KPIs like traffic data for organic search, paid search, backlinks, etc. | Moz also has great executive dashboards somewhat similar to that of SEMrush. The main difference is that Moz emphasizes Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) metrics which are exclusive to Moz |
| Content Research & Optimization | SEMrush tools offer you great leverage in terms of content research and optimization. The SEO Content Template tool helps you plan the perfect SEO based on the keyword research data from the Keyword Magic Tool and the Topic Research Tool. | Moz’s tools, like Keyword Explorer, can help you come up with the right kind of keywords and audits your page content and generates relevant suggestions to optimize your content using On-page Grader. |
Pricing – SEMrush Vs Moz
SEMrush offers four kinds of subscription plans from which you can choose depending on your business requirements. You can get a trial period of 14 days during which you can decide whether it can serve you well or not.
Moz also offers four subscription plans. You get an initial trial period of 30 days so you can always check whether you find it beneficial and whether it serves your purpose or not.
Let us compare the pricing and the features of SEMrush Pro and Moz Pro Standard.
| Feature | SEMrush Pro ($99 .95 /mo) | Moz Pro Standard ($99 /mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Projects/Campaigns | 5 | 5 |
| Number of Keyword Rankings | 500 | 300 |
| Pages to Crawl | 100,000/month | 100,000/week |
| Results per report | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Users | 1 ($70/month per additional user) | 2 |
| Backlink Queries/Month | Depends on the Projects and Results | 5000 |
| SEO Ideas Unit Or Keyword Queries/Month | 500 | 150 |
The price for SEMrush Pro and Moz Pro Standard are the same while the features vary. If you are a beginner in SEO, or a solo professional or a freelancer, then we would recommend Moz as the better option because of its ease and simplicity when compared to SEMrush. The features of Moz Pro, along with their resources, can pretty much cover your requirements for SEO.
That being said, the prices seem much higher for Moz when you compare advanced plans and features of Moz Pro Medium or Large with that of SEMrush Guru or Business. So, if you are a business owner or a marketing agency, and are thinking of purchasing advanced plans, then SEMrush would be the best option due to their wide range of features and suitable prices.
Why You Should Choose SEMrush over Moz?
Whether you are an SME or a startup in its nascent phase, SEMrush can be highly beneficial for your business. While the complex data and insights in SEMrush can be overwhelming at first, they can be easily understood with the help of their resources, guides, and how-to articles. Since SEMrush is not limited to SEO, you can also gain advantage from their other tools for paid search, social media monitoring, topic research for content, etc.
While the users are limited to one per their standard plans, additional users can be added with additional pricing depending on the chosen plan. SEMrush can be advantageous to marketing agencies too. Their wide variety of features and quality of metrics make them the best option for many kinds of businesses and agencies alike.
Why You Should Choose Moz over SEMrush?
Whether you are a freelancing professional or a small agency whose focus is mainly on SEO and Content Marketing, Moz Pro plans can pretty much serve your purposes while being simple and consuming less time and effort. Moz’s learning center, the resources, and the support offered by Moz team can help you fulfill your SEO requirements to an optimal level that can provide a great advantage to your business/brand against your competitors in the market.
The users for Moz Pro plans are 2, 10, 25, and 40 respectively for Standard, Medium, Large, and Premium plans respectively. Thus, you can pretty clearly see that they can be of great help to marketing agencies.
Overall Winner and Our Verdict
Considering the features, prices, and plans for two of the most reputed tools in the SEO industry, we declare SEMrush as the winner among the two. While Moz also has awesome features that are of industry-standard, SEMrush can provide more leverage to its users in the overall game of search engine optimization or search engine marketing.
While we have given our verdict according to our analysis, as a user, you can analyze and choose the tool that best serves your purpose and requirements by making use of their free trials.