Searchmetrics Review

Detailed Reviews

Searchmetrics is an enterprise-level SEO content marketing platform that helps the user with all the SEO and content strategies. There are multiple suits under the umbrella of Searchmetrics, with each of them taking care of a specific section. They help users deal with on-page and off-page SEO while keeping a close on eye on what the competitors are up to.

Pros 

• Dedicated suites for different aspects of SEO management.
• Focuses on holistic approach rather that individual keywords.
• Gives due importance to mobile SEO.
• Easy to keep track of what competitors are doing.

Cons 

• Does not focus much on the social media side of things.

Introduction 

Ranking high on search engines is as serious of a business as it gets. The job requires one to do thorough research, create awesome content, gather backlinks, and keep a close eye on all the trends and changes.

The going gets even tougher when one starts reaching the top search results page. Searchmetrics provides the user with a different tool for each step of the process.

The way the Searchmetrics suite differs from the rest of the SEO tool is its focused approach to deal with different stages of optimization.

There are four software in the suite, and they specialize in content research, analytics, market research, and website monitoring.

In this review, we will go through these suites and tell you how they deal with various stages of SEO and content marketing.

So, let's not waste much time and jump right into the review.

Research Cloud

Knowledge is power. The more information you have about the trends, competitors, search engine algorithm updates, etc., the better will be the decisions you make. 

The sole purpose of Research Cloud is to provide the user with as much information as possible. It touches almost every topic associated with search engine rankings.

You can use it to conduct research around any domain. The tool will fish out all the available information, and allow you to make informed decisions.

It starts with a brief overview of what you will be looking at in the tool. For starters, it shows the website's organic and paid rankings. There is a visibility score which factors in mobile as well as desktop visibility.

It then goes into the regions from where the visitors are accessing the website. There is a section that tells about the contribution of various SERP features in organic ranking. 

It then gets into rankings. It goes into the top ranking keywords for both organic and paid rankings. There is also a section to discuss the ranking potential of the site. It also shows the difference between the amount of money they would have been paying if they were to pay for all the currently organically ranking keywords. Finally, there is a glimpse into the competitor domains.

Things will change quite a bit in the overview section if you add a competitor. Research Cloud will show all the different charts and stats comparing the two domains. A direct comparison with a closely ranked competitor makes it easier to point out all the gaps in current strategies and allows one to improve the rankings.

The tool would even provide you with relevant competitor suggestions when you choose the comparison option.

However, this was a mere glimpse of the capabilities of this tool. We are yet to explore all the different sections present in it.

Organic Search 

So, it begins with the current keyword rankings for the domain. The 'organic ranking' section shows the number of organic keywords appearing in the first five pages of Google search results. The number is only for the rankings under the question rank. They also show the average number of organic keywords for the top-ranking domains.

The more interesting part for us was the graph for organic visibility. Searchmetrics allows the user to turn on indicators for Google updates. Doing so allows one to monitor a specific update affected the visibility of the website. It gives some insight into how the algorithm perceives a specific website.

You can see the keyword rank spread on various scales. You can see the change in the distribution of keywords for different rank groups on a time scale. It will let you know if the current strategies are working effectively, or there is a need to change things.

'Winner and Loser keywords' section shows data for keywords going up and down the ranks. It is the ratio between the winner and loser keywords that seems to matter more in the long run. There is a dedicated section for biggest winners and losers, as well.

The tool allows you to compare the rankings with top competitors. It would use shared keywords on the domain under consideration and other domains to discover the competitors. You can see the difference between the overall standings of competing domains.

The directories can be a great help to local businesses. They not only help with the overall SEO of the page but help customers find the business. Searchmetrics goes into the visibility of a domain on directories too. 

The 'Organic Search' section provides the user with a good look at all the stats related to organic keywords on the domain. It is also a great tool to do some research on the competition and find out how their techniques are doing for organic keywords or probably find some longtail keywords they are ranking for.

SERP Features 

This section of Searchmetrics breaks down SERP data with respect to different regions and domains. 

Search engine results vary with region. The SERP breakdown by region matters a lot to websites, whether they are targeting a local audience or not. It is just the number of regions under observation that vary across them.

A website trying to target a global audience might want to use different content strategies around the same topic.

There are multiple SERP features, and most of the time, they lead to different search results. Your website might rank higher for specific SERP features and not have any presence in another SERP feature for the same keyword.

Mobile devices are also responsible for variations in SERP. Searchmetrics takes all these factors into account while showing trends.

You can see which SERP feature helps bring more traffic to the website and identify the ones which have more potential for growth. You can observe the variation in SERP trends over a timeline and deduce if the current strategies are producing any results.

The section providing the SERP overview under the domain shows the trends for mobile and desktop traffic separately. You can compare the percentage of keywords ranking under a SERP feature with the competitors. It might be the case that some of your competitors are ranking high for a SERP feature, and you are not focusing on it at all.

 

You can find out which keywords are doing well for individual SERP features. It might come in handy while planning a campaign next time.

Paid Search 

A lot of people believe that spending some money on AdWords can solve their online visibility issues. However, it's not necessary that paid keywords will help you achieve your campaign goals. After all, it is up to the user to decide if he finds your call to action interesting or not.

Another major issue with paid campaigns is that you will always end up paying more than what is necessary if you do not spend sufficient time on research. There are always some keywords that can give one desired result without breaking the bank.

Searchmetrics tells one how the PPC campaign is doing for a domain. There will be data on the distribution of top ads and bottom ads, paid visibility of desktop and mobile devices, paid keyword ranking, and so on. You can monitor how positions varied over time and create better strategies in the future.

There will also be comparisons for domains bidding on the same keywords. There are also filters to conduct more microscopic research.

Mobile Search 

The number of mobile searches has already exceeded the ones on desktops. It wasn't a big surprise for anyone when the use of mobile browsers surpassed that of desktop browsers. It was a long time coming anyway.

However, the shift came with numerous challenges and opportunities for webmasters simultaneously. The websites now need to pay more heed to mobile browsers. Search engine results were different across the two browsers, mostly because websites behaved differently on the two browsers. Introduction of AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages) turned out to be a significant event, as well.

Most webmasters now realize that they need to work on their websites from both perspectives. Most of them give due respect to both the browsers, and so does Searchmetrics.

It has a dedicated section for mobile search results. The ranking section gives a direct comparison of mobile and desktop visibility. You can then go through different keywords and see how the rankings differ on two browsers for the same keyword. It can be a real eyeopener for some of you.

There is also a section for winner and loser keywords for mobile searches. Since the share of mobile searches appears to be going up in the future, you would want to make sure you have more winner keywords in this section. 

Content Performance

The focus has now shifted from keywords to quality and relevance of content available on the page. Keywords are still in the picture as they help to find the URLs that might be related to the search query. In the end, it all boils down to if you are providing a satisfactory response to user queries or not.

The Content Performance section of Searchmetrics focusses on the relevancy of content instead of finding out the pages filled with keywords. It helps the user find out which of the pages are more important for the website, and how to further improve the performance of pages.

The focus of this section is on URLs, the ones which are ranking high on search results, the ones that can rank better and bring more business, and so on.

The first part of the Content Performance tool gives you all the top-performing URLs for the website. It considers only the ones which rank in the top five pages of Google search results for at least one keyword. There is also a tab for the number of top-performing keywords.

The idea is that a page should focus on semantics rather than keywords. In such a case, the same URL can rank higher in search results for various keywords. The comparison between the number of top-performing URLs and keywords is to let the user know if the website is following a similar approach.

Searchmetrics gives suggestive figures for traffic index and traffic index potential of URLs. The comparison helps the user know how much they can grow in rankings by using a more holistic approach for the content.

The tool allows the user to analyze individual URLs, and that can help one in plenty of ways. The user can identify the common trait between the top-performing URLs and incorporate similar strategies on other pages. If you are monitoring a top-ranking competitor, then this section can help you know how focusing on semantics can help one get top rank for multiple keywords on the same page.

There is a section within the tool that let you know of the top competitors by URLs, too. The table-toppers are often a great source of knowledge. It will be up to you how you go about the business.

Keyword Research

Finding out the right keywords for page content is among the most critical steps of search engine optimization. Since all the content will be based around the keyword or the group of keywords you have, it is crucial for the success of the campaign that you begin with the right ones.

The keyword research tool on Research Cloud will provide you with sufficient data around a keyword. It consists of all the metrics that can give you a better idea about keyword difficulty and how much traffic it can bring to the site.

You can find keywords based on the keyword you are looking for. The filters even allow you to match exact keywords and phrases in the result. They make it so much easier for one to follow on the path of creating holistic content.

Search volume, seasonal trends, CPC, traffic value potential, etc. are some of the metrics you will find against the keyword suggestions. They also inform the user about the integrability of a keyword with specific SERP features. It is quite a rare feature on keyword research tools, but very useful.

Moving on from a rare feature to one of the common ones, you can see the top-ranking URLs and SERP features for a keyword, as well.

Searchmetrics Research Cloud packs in a lot of information for the user. It goes deep into stats and is one of the better platforms for competition research.

Search experience

This tool on Searchmetrics suite helps you find all the avenues for potential growth and then monitor if all your strategies are working the same way you wanted them to.

It provides the user with several ways they can look at keywords. You can browse them under locations. We all know how search results vary so much in different regions. The search results even vary depending on the type of device used. Search experience allows the user to conduct research specifically for mobile and desktop devices.

It will let you monitor keywords under different tags, once you have identified the ones you are interested in.

Search intent determines how much business can a keyword bring in for you. With Searchmetrics, you can integrate intent along with demographic data and create campaigns targeted specifically at an audience group. Such campaigns allow you to bypass all the unnecessary competition and reach out to those who matter.

Search experience would help you make sure you have got all the bases covered when it comes to SERP features. You don’t want to miss out on any opportunity to get into the featured section of Google results.

The tool lets the user conduct URL analysis and monitor how different strategies affect search engine rankings. You can then devise other strategies if there are holes in the existing ones. The Search experience section would let you create custom dashboards. You can keep an eye on what matters more to you and save some valuable time by negating the need to go through different interfaces.

Content experience

Content experience is one of the more talked about tools in the suite. It helps the user at every step of the way of content creation. The writer needs to strike the perfect balance of keyword density, length of the article, readability, tone, and so many other things to rank higher on the search engine rankings.

Content experience won’t make one better writer, but it helps in creating more search engine-friendly content for sure. It goes into the details of how the semantics of a keyword can help one drive more traffic to the website. You would want to work more in the direction where there is more room to grow rather than in a saturated one.

The topic explorer section brings in all the other keywords around the one you selected and allows one to follow the holistic approach while creating content. The content created this way will help the URLs get into search results for a lot of keywords.

Competitiveness around a topic or keyword makes it as much easier or difficult to rank well for that keyword. Content experience would let you know about the competitiveness around keywords and thus help you make a better choice in terms of where you want to channel your efforts.

The editor within the tool assists in making sure you are creating the most SEO-friendly content. The suggestions and tabs present on the editor are a great help in creating the best content possible in the first draft.

The Content experience tool allows the SEO and writers to be on the same page at all times and maximize the chances of content getting into the top search results.

Site Experience

All the efforts you put in research and content creating go down in vain if the website doesn’t adhere to standards that search engine algorithms use to gauge websites.

One part of providing the search engine users with the most relevant results includes showing them the sites that care about user experience. If your website has some performance issues, then it is highly likely that the search engine might ignore it even if it has some valuable content in response to the query.

Search engines depend on crawlers to scan the world wide web and keep track of all the content out there. It is these crawled websites that show up in search results. If the search engine isn’t able to index some of the more critical URLs of your website, then your organic traffic count is going to suffer from some issues.

The Site Experience tool in the suite helps the user keep all these issues at bay. It would audit the site and point out all the shortcomings. It will provide you with suggestions about potential improvements that you can have on the website and, thus, helps improve the traffic volume to the site.

Conclusion

Searchmetrics suite comes with an answer to most of the SEO worries of webmasters. The newly added tools seem to gel well with the existing ones and provide users with a more fruitful experience on the platform.

Searchmetrics seemed relentless in making sure that users take a holistic approach toward SEO rather than focusing only on individual keywords. The emphasis on stats showing the growth potential were the highlights, as well. Those stats make it so much easier for the user to decide what to focus on.

All the portals within the suite are data-rich and offer a lot of flexibility. You can view the same stat under multiple filters in so many ways by using the filter options that come with it.

Their data pool allows you to find accurate data about rankings and traffic potential. Data accuracy is one of the fronts, where are a lot of SEO tools, fall short of their promises. However, there is a very dim possibility of that happening in the case of Searchmetrics.

The content experience tool can turn out to be a great help for SEOs. It elevates the speed as well as the quality of content. The suite takes care of website performance, too, something that often goes unattended across SEO tools.

Searchmetrics has all the potential to help enterprises perform better on search engines. They do offer a demo of the suite, and we would suggest you try it out if you are looking for an SEO tool.