If you’re diving into SEO, you’ve probably heard of SEMrush (or maybe even tried it). But here’s the thing: SEMrush isn’t just a bunch of tools — it’s a complete dashboard built to help you outsmart competitors, find golden keyword opportunities, fix on-site issues, and create content that ranks.
In this post, we’re breaking down the SEMrush dashboard features in a friendly, easy-to-digest way. No jargon, no fluff — just real talk on how to use SEMrush like a pro.
What Is the SEMrush Dashboard?
The SEMrush SEO Dashboard gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything happening with your site (and your competitors). With customizable widgets and key metrics like traffic, backlinks, and keyword rankings, it’s your daily SEO check-in spot.
Pro Tip: Set up your Projects in SEMrush. This activates powerful tools like Site Audit, Position Tracking, On-Page SEO Checker, and Backlink Audit — all tailored to your website. If you’re new to SEMrush’s automation capabilities, check out our guide on SEO automation tools from SEMrush to see how to streamline your workflow and save hours each week.
Before we go too deep into individual tools, it’s worth pausing to look at the big picture.
Your SEMrush Toolkit: 19 Must-Know Features (Updated for June 2025)
Want the cheat sheet? Here it is—your essential Semrush features:
Competitive Research
1: Domain Overview – Your competitor’s profile in one click
2: Organic Research – Spy on their top-performing keywords
3: Keyword Gap – Find out what you’re missing
4: Backlink Gap – Discover backlink sources you haven’t tapped
Keyword Research
5: Keyword Overview – The foundation of smart targeting
6: Keyword Magic Tool – The ultimate keyword brainstormer
7: Keyword Strategy Builder – Organize keywords by intent and page
8: Position Tracking – See daily changes in your SERP rankings
9: Organic Traffic Insights – Blend GA + GSC + SEMrush for full visibility
Link Building
10: Backlink Analytics – Know who’s linking to you (and why)
11: Backlink Audit – Clean up spammy or toxic links
12: Link Building Tool – Outreach and win real backlinks
13: Bulk Analysis – Competitive backlink benchmarking
On-Page & Tech SEO
14: Site Audit – Fix technical SEO issues before Google notices
15: On Page SEO Checker – Page-specific, actionable SEO tips
16: Log File Analyzer – For deep technical SEO work
Content Tools
17: SEO Writing Assistant – Live optimization while you write
18: Topic Research – Endless, SEO-driven blog ideas
19: SEO Content Template – Instant content blueprints
Now that you’ve seen the complete toolkit, it’s time to dive deeper. Below, we’ll explore each category, walk you through how to use the tools, and share real-world use cases to make your SEO strategy more effective (and less overwhelming).
1. Competitive Research: Know Your SEO Rivals
If you’re not watching your competitors, you’re missing out on a goldmine of insights. SEMrush’s competitive research tools are among the most powerful key features of Semrush. They help you spy ethically, learn strategically, and improve quickly.
Domain Overview
Start with a bird’s-eye view of any competitor’s domain. You’ll instantly see their:
- Organic traffic trends
- Paid ad spend
- Top keywords
- Backlinks and referring domains
- Traffic distribution by country
It’s a great way to benchmark your performance or audit potential clients.
Use case: Want to pitch a local business? Run a domain overview for them and their top competitor, then present a gap analysis as part of your proposal.
Organic Research
This is where the gold lives. Organic Research lets you see what keywords your competitors rank for, how much traffic they get, and whether those terms trigger rich SERP features like featured snippets or People Also Ask boxes.
Instead of guessing what drives traffic, use this tool to reverse-engineer their success — and aim to outperform it.
You can sort by:
- Traffic %
- Position
- Keyword difficulty
- CPC
Pro Tip: Filter for keywords where your competitors rank #1–3, and create better content targeting those same terms.
Keyword Gap
One of the most underused Semrush features. Plug in up to five domains and instantly spot keywords they rank for, but you don’t.
You’ll find:
- Missing keywords (they have, you don’t)
- Weak keywords (you rank, but poorly)
- Shared keywords (who’s outranking whom?)
Perfect for finding quick-win opportunities.
Backlink Gap
Same concept, but for links. Discover backlink opportunities by seeing which sites link to your competitors but not you.
That’s an instant outreach list—these are domains already open to your niche.
Pro Tip: Filter by “follow” links only to find high-authority backlinks worth pursuing.
2. Keyword Research: Fuel for Your SEO Strategy
Knowing your audience is great. But knowing how they search is even better. This is where the key features of Semrush shine. These tools uncover search intent, trends, and gaps—all in one dashboard.
Keyword Overview
Start with a single keyword. You’ll get:
- Monthly search volume
- Keyword difficulty (KD)
- CPC and competitive density (for PPC)
- SERP features present
- Top-ranking pages
This is essential for validating whether a keyword is worth pursuing.
Keyword Magic Tool
This is arguably the best keyword research tool on the market. Enter any seed term and SEMrush will return thousands of variations, grouped by topic and intent.
Example: Search “digital marketing” and you’ll get clusters like:
- digital marketing strategy
- digital marketing courses
- digital marketing salary
- local digital marketing
You can filter by:
- Broad/Phrase/Exact match
- Search intent (informational, transactional, etc.)
- Keyword difficulty
- SERP features
Use case: Create topic clusters or pillar content strategies with this data. And if you’re looking to compare tools for research, here’s a detailed post breaking down 12 keyword tools (free & paid) so you can pick what works best alongside SEMrush.
Keyword Strategy Builder
Once you’ve gathered your keyword list from Keyword Magic and Overview, it’s time to organize and assign them with a purpose.
Use this tool to:
- Group related keywords
- Assign target pages
- Plan internal linking
- Create keyword maps for your website
Perfect for building out content silos or product/service pages with focused relevance.
Position Tracking
Track how your target keywords rank over time. You’ll get:
- Daily rank updates
- Visibility scores
- Alerts on major ranking drops or gains
- Comparison with competitors
Pro Tip: Use device and location filters to track mobile/local performance accurately.
Organic Traffic Insights
Tracking positions is great, but understanding what happens after the click is just as important. This tool combines SEMrush, Google Analytics, and Search Console to give you end-to-end visibility on how keywords drive traffic and conversions.
Want expert help mapping your SEO keywords to growth-ready content? Book a Free Consultation and let us help you plan your SEO roadmap.
3. Link Building: Build Authority That Google Loves
Google uses backlinks as a major trust signal. But not all links are good links. SEMrush helps you find the right ones, disavow the bad ones, and build more of what works.
Backlink Analytics
Analyze your own backlinks or peek at competitors. You’ll learn:
- How many links are follow vs nofollow
- Which anchors are being used
- The authority and spam score of referring domains
Use filters to find the most powerful links you have—or want. This is one of the most insightful Semrush features for link quality assessment.
Backlink Audit
Scan your backlink profile for toxic or spammy links. SEMrush even integrates with Google Search Console to automate disavow file generation.
Important: Clean link profiles protect you from penalties and boost trust.
Link Building Tool
This is your link outreach engine. It helps you:
- Find link opportunities based on competitors
- Reach out with templated emails
- Track replies and success rates
- Monitor acquired links
All without leaving SEMrush.
If you’re unsure where to start with backlinks, don’t worry — we’ve already put together a list of the best backlink checker tools that can help you compare your link profile with the competition before you begin your outreach.
Bulk Analysis
Want to compare link profiles for multiple domains at once? Just paste in a list, and SEMrush gives you:
- Total backlinks
- Domain authority
- Referring IPs
- Anchor texts
Great for agency audits or pitching clients.
4. On-Page & Technical SEO: Fix What’s Holding You Back
Google loves a clean site. Slow speeds, broken links, and crawl issues can tank your rankings—even if your content is great. Fortunately, several Semrush features makes technical SEO accessible, even if you’re not a developer.
Site Audit
Scan your site for 140+ issues, including:
- Broken links
- Slow pages
- Duplicate content
- Crawlability issues
- HTTPS errors
- Missing alt tags and metadata
You get an SEO Health Score, prioritized recommendations, and explanations that are easy to follow.
On Page SEO Checker
Take any URL and get data-driven suggestions like:
- LSI keyword usage
- Content length comparisons
- Metadata optimization
- Internal linking improvements
It’s like having a personal SEO coach for every page.
Log File Analyzer
Want to go advanced? This tool shows how search engines crawl your site.
- Which pages get crawled the most
- Which are ignored
- Crawl errors
- Bot behavior over time
If you run an eCommerce site or large blog, this is one of those key features of Semrush that can give you a serious edge.
5. Content Ideas: Write Smarter, Not Harder
SEO isn’t just about data—it’s also about creating high-quality content that resonates with users and ranks well. SEMrush has tools for every step of the content process.
SEO Writing Assistant
While you write, this assistant checks your content’s SEO friendliness, readability, tone, and originality. It integrates with WordPress and Google Docs — a top-tier Semrush dashboard feature for content teams and solo creators alike.
Need help writing SEO-optimized content that connects with both people and search engines? Our web content writing services can do the heavy lifting while keeping things strategic and conversion-focused.
Topic Research
Enter a broad keyword or topic, and the Topic Research tool shows popular headlines, questions, and subtopics your audience cares about. It’s a goldmine for creating relevant, engaging content.
SEO Content Template
Provide a target keyword, and SEMrush generates a content brief with recommendations on word count, semantically related keywords, readability, and backlink targets based on top-ranking pages.
If content is your focus, these are key features of Semrush you’ll use regularly.
Final Thoughts: Why SEMrush Should Be in Your Daily SEO Routine
If you’re serious about growing your traffic, you can’t rely on guesswork. You need data, insights, and strategy, and SEMrush delivers on all three.
From keyword research and backlink building to technical audits and content optimization, SEMrush offers everything under one roof.
Whether you’re a solo blogger, an in-house marketer, or run an agency, using the SEMrush dashboard helps you make smarter SEO decisions every day.
Ready to Take Your SEO to the Next Level?
Try SEMrush today and see how it transforms your digital marketing game.
Or, if you’d like expert help managing it all…
Book a Free Consultation or Contact Us today. We do the heavy lifting — so you can focus on results.