Semrush

Semrush

This connector calls the Semrush API (https://api.semrush.com, Standard API v3) with the user's own API key: Domain Overview, Organic and Advertising Research, competitors, Keyword Gap, keyword metrics and ideas, URL keywords and Backlink Analytics. Every tool is a read.

Every report spends API units from the Semrush account, per line returned. Each tool description states its price (10 to 80 units per line; historical data with display_date costs five times as much). display_limit defaults to 10 lines: raise it only when the user needs more, and never send 0, because Semrush then returns 10,000 lines. semrush_get_api_units is free and shows the balance (it also reads 0 for a key Semrush does not know); when units run short Semrush returns only the lines that were paid for, or ERROR 132 :: API UNITS BALANCE IS ZERO.

Setup (about 3 minutes)

1. API access needs a Semrush SEO Business subscription plus an API units package, bought under Subscription info, API units (https://www.semrush.com/accounts/subscription-info/api-units/). A new Business plan starts with zero units.
2. Open https://www.semrush.com/accounts/api-keys/active and copy an active v3 API key.
3. Paste it into SEMRUSH_API_KEY and install. Semrush takes the key as the key query parameter; it is stored encrypted, added to each request by the connector, and only sent to semrush.com.

Tools

• semrush_get_api_units: remaining API units (free).
• semrush_domain_overview: rank, organic and paid keywords, traffic and cost in one database (10 units).
• semrush_domain_overview_all_databases: the same per country (10 units per line).
• semrush_domain_history: monthly history of those metrics (10 units per month).
• semrush_domain_organic_keywords: keywords a domain ranks for (10 per line).
• semrush_domain_paid_keywords: Google Ads keywords of a domain (20 per line).
• semrush_domain_organic_competitors: organic competitors (40 per line).
• semrush_domain_organic_pages: a domain's ranking pages (10 per line).
• semrush_keyword_gap: shared, missing and unique keywords of up to five domains (80 per line).
• semrush_keyword_overview: volume, CPC, competition, intent, difficulty of one keyword (10).
• semrush_keyword_overview_all_databases: one keyword in every country (10 per line, about 140 lines).
• semrush_batch_keyword_overview: up to 100 keywords at once (10 per keyword).
• semrush_keyword_organic_results: the recorded Google top 100 for a keyword (10 per line).
• semrush_related_keywords: related keywords (40 per line).
• semrush_broad_match_keywords: broad-match ideas (20 per line).
• semrush_keyword_questions: question keywords (40 per line).
• semrush_keyword_difficulty: difficulty of up to 100 keywords (50 per keyword).
• semrush_url_organic_keywords: keywords one URL ranks for (10 per line).
• semrush_backlinks_overview: backlink summary and Authority Score (40 per request).
• semrush_backlinks: backlinks (40 per line).
• semrush_referring_domains: referring domains (40 per line).

Reading the answers: reports come back as text in CSV form, separated by semicolons (;), one header line with the column names and then one line per row (line breaks appear as \r\n). Td (trend) holds 12 comma-separated monthly values from 0 to 1. Column codes in export_columns: Ph keyword, Po position, Pp previous position, Pd position change, Nq monthly search volume, Cp CPC in USD, Co paid competition (0 to 1), Kd keyword difficulty (0 to 100), In intent (0 commercial, 1 informational, 2 navigational, 3 transactional; several comma-separated), Nr number of results, Ur URL, Tr traffic share (%), Tg traffic, Tc traffic cost share (%), Dn domain, Rk Semrush rank, Or organic keywords, Ot organic traffic, Oc organic traffic cost (USD), Ad paid keywords, At paid traffic, Ac paid cost, Cr competitor relevance, Np common keywords, Db database, Dt date, Rr related relevance, Pc keywords per page, Fk / Fp SERP feature codes. Fewer columns make a shorter answer but do not lower the price.

Databases: database is a two-letter country code (us, uk, de, it, fr, es...). Mobile databases (mobile-us) and extended ones (us-ext) exist for domain reports only.

Filters: display_filter takes the filter unencoded, <sign>|<column>|<operation>|<value>, several joined with |, e.g. +|Nq|Gt|1000|+|Po|Lt|11; the columns a filter may use differ per report and are listed in each tool. The connector encodes it.

Common errors (the body is a line such as ERROR 120 :: WRONG KEY - ID PAIR)

• ERROR 50 :: NOTHING FOUND: Semrush has no data for this domain, keyword or database. Check the spelling and the database rather than retrying.
• ERROR 120 / ERROR 122 / ERROR 402: the API key is wrong. Copy it again from https://www.semrush.com/accounts/api-keys/active.
• ERROR 130 :: API DISABLED: the subscription has no API access (it needs an SEO Business plan with API units).
• ERROR 132 :: API UNITS BALANCE IS ZERO: no units left; buy more units in Semrush. The backlinks reports also answer it for a key Semrush does not know.
• ERROR 133 :: DB ACCESS DENIED: the plan does not include this database.
• ERROR 429: too many requests at once; wait a moment.

Out of scope here: Projects, Position Tracking and Site Audit (the v3 Projects API is deprecated by Semrush and its successor uses a different sign-in), the Trends (traffic) API, Local and Listing Management APIs, and subdomain or subfolder reports.