The term SEO has been popping up as a key focus point for web managers in the last couple of years with ever-increasing frequency. That is due to the fundamental changes in how people browse the web nowadays. At the beginning of the decade search engines weren’t as sophisticated as they are now, and people mostly just used direct URL addresses when they needed to access specific content.
As we all know, the first choice now is Google, where you’re not searching for a site per se, but instead are looking for the content itself, where the source of the content isn’t a primary concern.
The shifting tendencies of visitors have influenced a paradigm shift for web managers, where keywords, links/backlinks, tags, etc. have become crucial for success.
The market has recognized the need to enable those managers with the tools needed to work their magic. So sometimes it feels like that for every article that mentions SEO, there is a service that provides their very own twist on the matter.
Having to choose from so many options can be disheartening because you don’t really know where to start, so we’ve decided to single out some of the top solutions out there and put them up against each other to see which one is best overall.
As the title suggests, the three-way comparison will be – Ubersuggest vs Moz vs SEMrush.
Disclaimer
First of all, let’s cover the basics. Each of these solutions has a certain niche it markets as a selling point, so it’s fair to highlight what they’re all about before we delve into deeper analysis.
You might already have an inkling, but to get it out of the way, just in case – all three of these services are all-in-one SEO tools that provide similar features, granted some do it better than others but they all do the same thing.
Imagine them as cars – on the one hand, you have a brand new Mercedes and on the other the last generation Audi – they’re both high-end cars that will get you from point A to point B, but you’ll probably have a different experience getting there.
What we’re trying to say is that essentially, they’ll have more similarities than differences and therefore it’s going to be the details that put one in front of the other(s). With that out of the way, let’s dig in.
What they’re all about
Ubersuggest represents the ultimate all-encompassing SEO kit, offering you a robust domain overview of your site or the competition’s. Searching for an overview can be done by keyword or domain, depending on what you’re looking for exactly. The analysis offers you data about the top pages ranked in connection to your query; you’ll get keyword suggestions and content ideas to increase your rating, backlink data, and much more.
SEMrush advertises itself as a “marketing toolkit”. As such, SEO data is part of the things they offer, but not the sole focus. The devoted times are split between SEO and PPC data, social media strategies, outright content marketing, and market research.
It’s obvious there’s plenty of features that will provide you with an all-around massive amount of data, but you need to ask yourself – how much of this do you really need, i.e. will you get lost analyzing all the results. The extent of how much this approach will work for you depends on your needs. Do you need a little bit of everything, or are you looking for a more specialized solution?
Moz has been around for a while and it shows. Most of the web marketing terms and strategies have come from them in the last decade and a half. This longevity comes at a cost, however. Over time, they’ve diversified their features into a couple of products, so if you want to have access to everything, it won’t be as simple as imputing a query.
To get all the data, you’ll need to have access to all of their products and advanced knowledge of how the connecting integrations fit together. Once both of those conditions are met the data shown is extensive (top ranking keywords, top clicks, sites with the most domain authority, etc.)
If we’re talking about a dedicated SEO tool, Ubersuggest wins the title over Moz, simply because it really is an all-in-one SEO tool. Both Moz and SEMruch do other things that provide more data but lack the simple and direct approach of Ubersuggest.
Ease of use
Smaller sites that are battling it out for every piece of the market tend to have smaller staffs, or possibly only one person in charge of the site and everything that entails. The reason we highlight this is because not everybody has experience with using tools such as these.
If the managing staff/person is trying to figure everything out as they go, it takes a lot of time before the tool is accessible to everyone. How easy it is to get into and what is the expected learning curve are therefore important factors to account for when searching for the perfect SEO tool.
Ubbersugest
The very first thing that pops off the preverbal page with Ubersuggest is that you’ll be ready to go as soon as you reach the site. You won’t have to install anything, sign up, or give any information for that matter, just input the keyword you’re looking for, select the location you’re targeting and you’re off.
What you get back is an elegant overview of all keywords and key-phrases derived from and related to your input with the accompanying data regarding search trends and volumes over the past year, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC.
Along with keyword data, you’ll also get back content ideas where you’re presented with readymade titles, you can then work around and expand into articles.
The process of enquiring about a domain is much the same as it is for keywords – enter the domain and choose the location. You can do this type of query for your site, to see how you stack up, or for a competitor’s site, either way, the data you get back is extensive.
Naturally, you’ll get to view the monthly traffic numbers for the last year, organic keywords, domain score, and backlinks just to name a few. Furthermore, you’ll be able to sort out the top pages and keywords by country.
Since there is usually a difference in content searches based on location, with this data you’ll know how to appease your target audience and similarly, what to avoid with others to maximize your results.
SEMrush
To use SEMrush, unlike Ubersuggest, you’ll first have to sign up for a free trial. While the process is simple, signing up for something, even if it’s free, can potentially be a deal-breaker for some, so we’re inclined to highlight it.
To start a query, you need to access the keyword overview tool. From there just enter your desired word and feast on the results you get back.
SEMrush offers up information such as keyword difficulty, volume, trends, etc. along with suggestions in the form of keyword variations, questions, and related keywords. All of these will help you paint a whole picture of the targeted keyword.
For data regarding domains check out the Traffic analyzer. Entering a domain in the query will net your data such as the number of total and unique visits, average duration, bounce rate, etc.
Just like all of these tools are designed to do – putting all of the data together will create guidelines on what to focus on and what to possibly avoid.
Moz
Just like SEMrush, to use Moz, you’ll also have to register for a free trial. After you’re through with the registration, the process of starting queries is similar to both of the previously-covered services – just type in a keyword and wait for the results.
The result data encompasses volume, difficulty, opportunity, and potential of the target keyword, along with suggestions and a SERP analysis. Finally, just like with Ubersuggest you’ll get a list of title mentions that can help you come up with themes for your articles (after you see what’s trending up).
To get data on domains you have to access the domain SEO analysis tool. After you enter your URL, or the URL of one of your competitors you’ll get back much of the same data we’ve already covered – domain authority, linking domains, ranking keywords, and the spam score, along with top pages for both links and domains among others.
When talking about the simplicity of use, you really have to give it up to Ubersuggest – there are no trials hidden behind registrations and you use one search engine for both keywords and domains. You really can’t get any simpler than that, while still getting back the same, if not, more comprehensive results than the competition.
Unique features
We’ve already touched on this a bit. Since all of the services essentially do the same thing, there are many more things that overlap, than there are those which set them apart. However, each of them has certain details and/or features that make them unique. Let’s see what those are.
Ubersuggest
Let’s start with keywords – Ubersuggest gets you the information you probably won’t find on every service that’s available like search volume by device (mobile and desktop) and the searcher’s age. Information such as this can prove to be crucial when launching targeted campaigns, to preserve your resources by creating specialized campaigns based on the data.
Also, if you want to track what’s hot right now, don’t sweat, you’ll be able to track up to 20 keywords from any country or city.
Analyzing sites goes even deeper in detail with the comprehensive site audit feature, which crawls 150 pages of your site to let you know what’s working and what needs to be fixed.
If that’s not enough, you even get access to a free Chrome extension that helps you gather and analyze data on the fly.
SEMrush
Marketing is the name of the game when SEMrush is concerned. Using their various analyses, you’ll get offered different ways to improve your marketing presence. It’s, therefore, no surprise that it lets you create, launch, and manage campaigns on Facebook or Twitter right from the social media toolkit.
Among other things, it will enable you to schedule posts (with the best times provided), edit images, etc.
In most cases, these features would have to go through an additional piece of software, so it’s refreshing to see that someone has integrated them in as core functions.
Moz
The diversity Moz offers works for and against it at the same time. Aside from the expected keyword and domain searches, it provides you with a site audit/crawl feature (slightly less detailed than Ubersuggest) giving you extensive data about your site, or that of a competitor.
In case you’re on the hunt for suggestions, you could try out the unique on-page optimization. The tool will first analyze all the elements of your site to figure out what works and what doesn’t, after which you’ll get helpful suggestions on how to fix all the issues.
Unfortunately, these applications are segmented, and as such, will usually be used separately, so you’ll have to compile data from all these different sources manually.
Highlighted by the super detailed site crawl and the unique Chrome extension we have to once again give the edge to Ubersuggest. Across the board, the “basic” features are mostly the same, but the extra things Ubesuggest does raise it above the rest.
Pricing
Lastly, we get to the cold hard cash. Robust tools such as these have to cost something, so let’s see how much and how those prices stack against each other.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a freemium product, but believe it or not, much of the features are included in the free tier. Most of the things we’ve covered about keywords and domains are absolutely free. The restrictions are put on the number of queries, not on the tools you’ll be using.
If you’re opting for more inclusive options, there are three plans to choose from, all of which have a regular monthly fee and a discounted lifetime option:
All the features are included in all the plans; the limits are put only on the data numbers. So be sure to check out the official pages for more information.
SEMrush
SEMrush also offers a free option, but it’s very limited in what it gives you to work with. Only one website can be added to the analysis and only a total of ten reports are available. Additionally, even the paying tiers have paywalls for features such as rank tracking, which means that the least expensive Pro tier might not give you the full experience you’re expecting:
Feel free to check the official pages for further details on the pricing tiers.
Moz
Since Moz has a couple of products we’ve decided to focus on Moz Pro, the most likely tool you would use for your SEO data.
Unlike SEMrush it doesn’t limit features (apart from the speed crawl available only in the last tier), but instead it works by limiting the number of times you can use the features, similarly to Ubersuggest (only with higher prices):
If you head over to the official pages, you can see all the features associated with the four different plans.
If we’ve had some dilemmas in declaring the winner in previous categories, this one is as clear cut as it gets. Ubersuggest is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in both prices and what if offers for those prices.
Conclusion
There was probably no reason to drag this article as long as we’ve had – Ubersuggest is the absolute winner, taking home every category, thereby cementing itself as the best SEO solution out there right now.
If there are any doubts, even though there shouldn’t be, you can always check all those features for free and see for yourself how good it is.