Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization (SEO), and Semrush just elevated it to a whole new level.

Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), the SEO landscape has quickly evolved, becoming more dynamic and intuitive almost overnight.

At Semrush, we're leading this revolution, weaving AI into our tools to streamline your workflow and roll out some truly groundbreaking features.

With these updates, tasks that once took days now take minutes, making your approach to SEO both smarter and more strategic.

Ready to dive in?

Let’s show you what’s new!

What’s New: Leveraging AI for Smarter Keyword Research in Semrush

Semrush is already known for being the most robust keyword database on the market. Now, we’re upgrading it.

This latest AI-powered update is once again transforming the keyword research process, giving you even more information to make better decisions.

Here's what you can do now:

• Measure how competitively your domain can rank for specific keywords with Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD%).

• Check your site’s Topical Authority, measuring your domain’s relevance and expertise on any subject.

• Swiftly construct a website content plan with pillar pages and sub-pages using the reimagined Keyword Strategy Builder (formerly Keyword Manager).

What’s the magic behind these enhancements?

A sophisticated algorithm powered by large language models (LLMs).

Combining Semrush data and AI technology, this algorithm meticulously assesses the thematic relevance between a target topic and a domain’s core topics.

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In other words, our system uses AI to analyze how closely your domain's main themes align with any potential topics you want to cover on your site.

Here’s a quick rundown of the tools where you’ll see major updates:

1. Keyword Overview: This is your first stop for a snapshot of keyword performance and potential, now with a personalized feel.
2. Keyword Magic Tool: Your keyword wizard is now putting out the best keywords with more AI-driven insights specific to your website.
3. Keyword Strategy Builder (formerly Keyword Manager): Completely redesigned, this tool is your strategy headquarters, helping you craft and implement your keyword strategy through topics and pages.

Excited to see how these updates can revolutionize your strategy?

Let’s dive deeper!

Keyword Overview: More Personal Insights for Your Site

The Keyword Overview tool is your go-to for a quick snapshot of how keywords may perform in your SEO strategy. It analyzes everything from current rankings to potential improvements and competitive standings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

What’s changed and why?

We’ve transformed the Keyword Overview tool to give you deeper, more actionable insights. By adding a layer of personalization and analytical precision, you can better align with your specific SEO goals.

• Topical Authority: This checks how authoritative your domain is on certain topics, helping you pinpoint where you can shine in search rankings. It analyzes content quality and relevance, helping to predict how well your content will perform in search engine rankings.

• Potential SERP Positions: See where your keywords rank now and where they could go with the right push. This insight is great for prioritizing SEO efforts and setting realistic expectations for keyword performance.

• Domain Competitive Power: This measures your domain’s ability to rank for specific keywords compared to the competition. It's a metric that supports strategic planning by clearly showing where you stand against competitors and identifying areas where you can potentially dominate.
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %): PKD customizes keyword difficulty scores for your domain, making them more relevant to your specific situation. This means you can pick out exclusive, low-hanging fruit, domain-specific keyword opportunities.

These new features offer you more contextual competitive analysis for specific keywords. This analysis is important for spotting both opportunities and potential challenges, allowing you to refine your SEO strategy to better target areas where you can gain a competitive edge.

Keyword Magic Tool: Check Personal Difficulty Scores for Large Lists of Keywords

The Keyword Magic Tool has long been a favorite for its ability to unearth extensive keyword opportunities. In its latest update, we've made a subtle yet powerful enhancement that significantly boosts its utility.

What’s Changed and Why?

We've enhanced the Keyword Magic tool by adding the Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) metric alongside the traditional Keyword Difficulty (KD). This change allows for a more customized approach to keyword evaluation, catering specifically to your domain.

How It’s Better

The Keyword Magic tool now includes dual difficulty metrics: Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and traditional Keyword Difficulty (KD).

This update gives you a clear view of how hard it might be to rank for specific keywords generally and for your particular domain. It helps you quickly spot keywords that are realistically within your reach, streamlining your strategy and decision-making process.

With these updates, the Keyword Magic tool isn’t just about finding keywords; it’s about finding the right keywords for your situation.

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With these personally analyzed keywords, you can take the next step to shape a keyword strategy in the new Keyword Strategy Builder

Keyword Strategy Builder (formerly Keyword Manager): Build a Comprehensive Plan

The Keyword Strategy Builder is Semrush’s revamped Keyword Manager tool that’s all about making your SEO keyword strategy as fast and effective as possible.

What’s Changed and Why?

We've upgraded the old Keyword Manager to do more than manage keywords through clusters and mind maps. Now, Keyword Strategy Builder helps you visualize and build an entire SEO content strategy from the ground up using Topics and Pages. What was once the time-consuming task of creating a keyword strategy is now fully automated with AI.

When you enter your seed keywords, it doesn’t just spit back a list; it creates a clear map of pillar pages and subpages, guiding you on what pages to create for your website and what keywords to use.

How It’s Better

Here's how this tool is changing the game:

• Streamlined Website Hierarchy: Making a plan for website structure is now smoother than ever. This tool replaces traditional keyword clustering with a clear hierarchy that links pillar topics to subtopics, each aligned with the right keywords. This ensures your content plan is organized effectively for both people and search engines.

• Content Planning Made Simple: The tools help you narrow down how much content you need, what topics to cover, and how to link them together for the best SEO results. It’s like a guide to mapping your content strategy, making content planning easier.

• Organized Topics and Pages: The tool neatly categorizes your content into Topics and Pages, each tagged with specific keywords and metrics.

  • Topics: A Topic is a group of keyword clusters, organized by theme and importance, designed for your website's main Pillar pages and their Subpages.
  • Pages: Pages consist of a list of Pillar and Subpages, each with keywords specifically associated with them.

With the new Keyword Strategy Builder, you can craft a well-thought-out strategy that will bring clarity and direction to your SEO efforts.

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Personalized Keyword Research Use Case: Promoting an Online Platform

Imagine you run a digital marketing agency and are tasked with promoting Wix.com as a leading platform for building online stores.

You start by entering "how to make an online shop" into the updated Keyword Magic Tool. Then, you enter the domain name in the AI-powered filter bar to focus the report on finding the best keyword opportunities for Wix.com.

The tool quickly provides a breakdown of related keywords, highlighting which terms Wix.com can rank for effectively, using the new Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD).

While keywords like “online shopping website” are moderately competitive, they are still highly relevant and obtainable for promoting Wix.com.

Interestingly, it also reveals that Wix.com ranks first for "how to create a website," a top-ranked keyword in this niche, reinforcing Wix.com’s authority on the topic of website creation.

Using the Keyword Overview tool, you then focus on a single keyword from these suggestions, examining potential SERP positions and the competitive landscape. This tool provides detailed insights into how the keyword fits into the broader clusters around your seed topic, enabling more strategic planning.

Next, you can turn to the Keyword Strategy Builder to structure these keywords into a content plan.

The tool suggests drafting pillar pages such as "Best Online Shopping Websites," then outlining several subpages and their target keywords.

Each page and subpage is linked to specific keywords that can be targeted together with a single page to promote the website effectively. With each page, it’s easy to see the total volume and average difficulty of the keywords.

This data-driven strategy ensures that you focus on the most achievable keywords, positioning Wix.com for increased SEO success and traffic growth.

How Are These New Metrics Calculated?

Semrush's Personal Keyword Difficulty is calculated using Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze any domain's relevance to any specific keyword.

It’s a complex process, but the basic way it works is that we’ve combined Semrush data with LLMs to develop a thematic vector map of every topic and how topics are related to each other. This allows us to measure the “distance” between any two topics.

When determining a domain's main topics and authority, we can measure the distance between that domain and any other topic on the map.

This measurement allows us to determine Topical Authority— the closer the thematic match, the lower the PKD%, showing the keyword is a good fit for your site.

This method ensures that our keyword suggestions are finely tuned to your site’s current standing and potential in search rankings.

Looking Ahead to AI-Backed Keyword Research

Semrush's AI enhancements revolutionize keyword research by tailoring it to your domain's unique strengths with features like PKD and Topical Authority.

These tools are engineered to boost your SEO efficiency, helping you strategically climb search rankings.

And the best part?

These features are included in any paid Semrush subscription.

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