18 Powerful Ways to Do Keyword Research with Semrush (2025)

Did you know there are numerous ways to leverage Semrush for effective keyword research?

The Semrush SEO Toolkit is packed with features designed to uncover unique, high-potential keyword opportunities that can drive traffic and boost rankings.

Try the Semrush SEO Toolkit for 14 days here!

Let’s dive in and explore how you can make the most of the Semrush SEO Toolkit for your keyword strategy!

1. Using the AI-Powered Keyword Strategy Builder

The Keyword Strategy Builder (previously “Keyword Planner”) instantly turns long-tail keyword ideas into a fleshed-out, actionable content strategy.

I recommend using this tool if you need to fast-track your website’s organic growth — or, if you have little to no experience with keyword research. 

On the Keyword Strategy Builder page, start with a list of seed keywords that are relevant to your business.

Click ‘Create list’ after entering your seed keywords into Keyword Strategy Builder. 

Keyword Strategy Builder will then generate a visual map of what your content strategy could look like. This includes topics for pillar pages and subtopics for the main content pieces that’ll generate your traffic.

Scrolling down to the “Pages Details” section, you can filter the topics based on focus keywords, search volume, user intent, and Keyword Difficulty (KD). You can also instantly switch between tabs for specific SEO goals, like “Best for Strategy,” “Quick Conversions,” and “More Potential Traffic.” 

Here’s a tip: If you need to push your content out ASAP, you can also take advantage of the Semrush Content Toolkit’s generative AI to instantly generate optimized articles.

2. Getting Personalized Keyword Suggestions 

Keyword Magic Tool is my go-to Semrush SEO Toolkit feature whenever I need to do some content planning. 

For starters, it works by turning seed keywords into thousands of potential, long-tail keyword suggestions. The results will also include crucial data, like KD, average monthly search volume, and search intent.

The new AI integration also ensures you get personalized keyword research data based on your own domain. Just be sure to enter your website address into the domain field before you hit ‘Search.’

In addition to the fundamental keyword data (e.g., search volume, user intent, and KD), Keyword Research Tool also includes your personalized metrics — namely “Potential Traffic” and “Personal Keyword Difficulty.” 

3. Getting Copilot AI’s Keyword Alerts

Copilot is the Semrush SEO Toolkit’s AI companion that not only personalizes data to your domain, but also provides instant alerts about your domain’s performance. 

The Copilot feature automatically activates whenever you create a project on Semrush. Once activated, it will automatically show you notifications on competitor analysis, technical issues, and keyword performance. 

In terms of keyword research, Copilot will also automatically round up “low-hanging fruit” keywords that will help you generate organic traffic fast. You’ll find it in the Copilot personal recommendations section of your dashboard. 

4. Check for Question-Based Keywords 

If you’re building a FAQ section or looking for unique angles to cover a topic, click the ‘Questions’ tab on the Keyword Magic Tool results page.

Traditionally, you can find question-based keywords using Google autocomplete and “People also ask” suggestions. But with the Semrush SEO Toolkit, you’ll not only get way more keyword ideas — you’ll also be able to access crucial metrics like KD, Cost Per Click (CPC), and SERP features (i.e., AI overview, image pack, and recipes) so you can optimize your content accordingly.

Question-based keywords are generally less competitive than regular long-tail keywords. They’re also often phrased naturally, making them perfect for voice search optimization. 

5. Instantly Turning Keywords Into Topic Ideas

The guys at Semrush are aware of the huge overlap between SEO and content marketing in terms of objectives. 

As such, even the SEO Toolkit will have a couple of features that are useful for content production — namely Topic Research.

This can instantly turn seed keywords into a web of content ideas.

Just go to ‘Topic Research’ under the ‘SEO’ submenu and enter your seed keyword to get started. 

Within seconds, Topic Research will provide you with several content idea cards, including the potential search volume and a few alternative topics you can focus on. 

Click ‘Show more’ below the topic you want to use to reveal more details. This includes the subtopic focus keywords’ search volume, related keywords, question-based keywords, and potential headlines.

6. Inspecting In-Depth Keyword Metrics and Variations

Semrush also uses AI to provide a more detailed and personalized look at keywords through the Keyword Overview tool.

To use Keyword Overview, go to ‘SEO’ from the main dashboard and click ‘Keyword Overview’ under “Keyword Research.” 

Tip: You can also fire up Keyword Overview straight from the Keyword Magic Tool results. 

Just click on any potential keyword and it’ll show you an in-depth report. If you also entered your domain in the “AI-powered” field, the report also includes advanced metrics like your realistic position in search results based on your website’s data.

The Keyword Overview report will also show you more keyword ideas in two categories: keyword variations and questions. Targeting these keywords will enable you to build a more robust and SEO-friendly content structure.

If you prefer the easier way of turning these keywords into content ideas, just look at the “Keyword Strategy” section. This will give you a quick overview of topics, pillars, and related post ideas for your keyword.

7. Analyzing Keyword Gaps

One of the best ways to conduct keyword research is to analyze what’s working for your top competitors. 

Semrush SEO Toolkit can help you with that, too.

Using the Keyword Gap tool, you can quickly find valuable keyword ideas that are missing from your strategy. 

To help you prioritize competitor keywords, SEO Toolkit also includes important metrics and curates the top keyword opportunities detected for your website.

The main “meat” of the report, however, would be the top keyword opportunities panel.

8. Locating Untapped Keyword Opportunities

Another way to use the Keyword Gap tool is to find untapped opportunities — AKA keywords that at least one of your competitors ranks for, but not you.

Simply look under the “All keyword details” section and switch to the ‘Untapped’ tab.

Untapped keywords are generally easier to rank for due to the lower competition. In other words, they’re excellent target keywords if you’re looking for quicker rankings and organic traffic.

9. Exploring Competitor Keywords with Domain Overview

If your main goal is to outrank a particular competitor in search results, you can directly analyze their organic keywords using the Domain Overview tool.

This will show you a list of their top organic keywords along with important data like search intent breakdown, position distribution, traffic share per country, top backlinks, and more. 

You can get started by going to ‘SEO’ and clicking ‘Domain Overview’ from your main dashboard.

From there, just enter your competitor’s domain, set your target location (optional), and click ‘Search.’ 

Within seconds, scroll down to the “Top Organic Keywords” section to explore your competitor’s most popular keywords. Feel free to click ‘View details’ for a more comprehensive and detailed look.

10. Revealing the Keywords of a Specific Page

To unveil the organic keywords of a specific page or post, use the Organic Research tool. 

This is perhaps the most effective SEO Toolkit feature in terms of dissecting competitor keyword strategies.

Just enter the page URL you want to analyze and click ‘Search.’ 

Within seconds, you can view your competitor’s top keywords for that specific page — as well as a handful of important insights like monthly traffic, SERP features, and top subdomains.

The “Top Keywords” list includes their current rankings, the keyword’s search volume, and your competitor’s traffic share.

Analyzing page-level keywords is perfect if you’re optimizing content that directly competes with the competitor’s URL. This can be a product page, collections page, blog post, or downloadable resource.

11. Researching Keywords Using Anchors

An “anchor text” is the phrase or word in which a backlink is embedded. 

By studying your competitor’s anchor texts, you’ll not only identify more unique keyword ideas. It will also give you an understanding of their link building strategy.

Semrush’s SEO Toolkit is more than equipped for this.

Start by firing up the Backlink Analytics tool, entering your competitor’s page URL, and switching to the ‘Anchors’ tab.

12. Targeting Keywords with Specific Search Intent

One of the golden rules of effective keyword research is to understand the intent behind search terms and fine-tune your content to match audience expectations.

Semrush SEO Toolkit lets you do just that by analyzing the search intent behind keywords. 

Simply use the filter tool to search for keywords with specific intent — be it informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.

13. Adjusting Keyword Results by Difficulty

Ideally, you need to target keywords with a low to medium KD rating. These are viable keyword strategies that you can realistically rank for without spending exorbitant amounts on link building, content creation, and technical optimization.

In SEO Toolkit, these keywords fall in the 0-49 KD range. 

Similar to search intent, you just need to use filters to easily identify these keywords. 

14. Identifying Low-Hanging Fruit Keywords

In SEO, low-hanging fruit keywords refer to search terms that you currently rank for — but only from positions 11-20. 

That means you don’t need to dedicate as much time, money, and manpower to reach Google’s first page for these keywords. 

The Semrush SEO Toolkit makes it easy to find low-hanging fruit keywords through Copilot suggestions.

You can also use the Organic Research tool by going to the ‘Positions’ tab, clicking the ‘Positions’ filter, and selecting ‘#11-20.’ 

The result would be a list of lucrative keyword opportunities that can lead to quick wins for your business.

15. Finding Keywords with Specific Terms

Going back to the Keyword Magic Tool, an easy way to look for more relevant keyword ideas is to filter the results by included terms. 

On the Keyword Magic Tool results page, just click on any term that must be included in the left panel. Feel free to sort the terms by search volume or the number of matching keywords.

Clicking on any word instantly refreshes your keyword list, making this the quickest way to find relevant SEO keywords. 

Alternatively, use the filters tab to include (or exclude) a set of keywords or just one. 

16. Discovering Related Keywords

Need to compile a beefier list of keywords for your website?

Don’t fret — Semrush’s SEO Toolkit has your back.

Just head to the ‘Related’ or ‘Phrase Match’ tab of the Keyword Magic Tool results page.

This will show you LSI and potentially profitable keywords you can target in the same article.

17. Understanding Keyword Intent

When picking keywords, it’s important to identify the search intent behind them and adjust your content accordingly.  

Informational keywords, for example, are perfect for “what is” posts, while commercial and transactional keywords are useful for landing pages. 

Semrush SEO Toolkit ensures you immediately understand the intent behind each keyword idea. You can also filter Keyword Magic Tool suggestions based on the search intent you want to target. 

18. Building Up Your Keyword Clusters

Using the Keyword Strategy Builder lets you skip most of the tricky aspects of creating topic clusters for content research — providing a more streamlined process compared to the antiquated Keyword Manager. 

Whenever you find new keywords, simply click on their checkboxes, click ‘Send keywords,’ and send them to your Keyword Strategy Builder. 

Final Words

There you have it — 18 ways to use Semrush SEO Toolkit for keyword research. 

Which strategy will you start with to ignite your next SEO campaign? 

If you’re still undecided if Semrush is the platform for you, your best bet is to try it for yourself. 

Click here to get an exclusive 14-day trial of the Semrush SEO Toolkit.

Good luck!