The Semrush Alternative: SEO Work, Done For You
Semrush is a broad SEO and competitive research toolkit your team uses to find opportunities and track results. AI for Marketing is a managed service: we turn that kind of research into published pages and fixes, Jakub reviews the work, and you approve it before it goes live. If you have an SEO team using Semrush every day, or backlink analysis is central to your strategy, keep it. This page is for the case where the data is paid for but the work it points to is not getting done.
Most tools are fine. The question is who does the work.
You pay for Semrush, but the work it was bought for keeps slipping because nobody has time to plan, produce, check and report on it.
Semrush is set up, used and owned by someone on your team. AfM often works inside a client's existing tools.
Runs the marketing work as one managed service. Jakub reviews it, you approve it before anything goes out, and a weekly report shows what changed.
Results from past engagements
What the work has produced before.
None of these came from replacing Semrush. Each is one client's result with its dates and qualifiers. The first three are work Jakub delivered as a consultant, all or mostly before AI for Marketing Ltd was incorporated in August 2025. Your results depend on your market, budget and starting point.
Anonymised global technology platform: $270 to $8.86 over about 11 months (Q4 2024 to Q3 2025), after moving from LinkedIn only to Meta and LinkedIn
ToastPal, over 12 months (October 2023 to October 2024)
Mumshandmade, week 12, platform-reported, during a four-month engagement (September 2024 to January 2025)
Allegiance Industries, automated lead prospecting built in 2026
Side-by-side comparison
Semrush vs AI for Marketing
These are different things. Semrush is software your team operates; AfM is a managed service that does the work. The rows below are the criteria that usually decide it, including where Semrush is the stronger choice.
Replacement matrix
What stays, what changes, and what AfM takes on
This is not a rip-and-replace playbook. For each part of the work we say whether Semrush should keep doing it, and where AfM would take the work on as part of the managed service. You make the call.
Keyword and competitor data
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on keyword and competitor data.
Remains useful
One of the largest keyword and competitor databases available
Where Semrush falls short
Semrush does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Search data from third-party APIs such as DataForSEO, plus your Search Console once you share it. Smaller, but enough for most sites
Backlink analysis
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on backlink analysis.
Remains useful
Deep backlink database, audits and monitoring
Where Semrush falls short
Semrush does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Lighter backlink data. Not a like-for-like replacement here
Technical audits
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on technical audits.
Remains useful
Detailed site audits with prioritised recommendations
Where Semrush falls short
Semrush does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
We audit, prioritise by likely impact and make or brief the fixes once you approve
Content production
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on content production.
Remains useful
Little to keep here beyond historical data you can export.
Where Semrush falls short
Semrush leaves this gap unresolved: Writing guidance; your team writes and publishes.
What AfM does
Pages and articles researched, written, reviewed by Jakub and published once you approve
Rank tracking
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on rank tracking.
Remains useful
Daily position tracking and alerts
Where Semrush falls short
Semrush does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Search Console based tracking; Jakub reviews changes and decides the response
Detailed breakdown
Where each one is stronger
Research tool versus the work it points to
Semrush is excellent at telling you what to do: keywords worth targeting, pages competitors rank for, technical issues on your site. It stops at the to-do list. Someone still has to prioritise it, write the pages, make the fixes and check what happened. In the managed service we do that work. Jakub decides the priorities and reviews every page and fix, and you approve them before they go live.
Data depth: where Semrush is stronger
Semrush's keyword, competitor and backlink databases are among the largest available, and its toolkit goes well beyond SEO. We use smaller third-party search data sources such as DataForSEO, plus your own Search Console once you share it. For most small and mid-sized sites that is enough to decide what to write and fix. If you need deep competitive research every day, keep Semrush.
Backlinks: where we are not a replacement
If backlink analysis and link building are central to your strategy, Semrush's depth is hard to match and we do not claim to replace it. We can work alongside it: you or your team keep the backlink work, and we run the content and on-site fixes.
What a content system can do, with the disclosure it needs
On Jakub's own project Harmonance (not a client), AI-written articles published without human review reached 10,976 organic clicks and 770,576 impressions in 152 days, October 2024 to March 2025, from a new site. It shows the method can work. It is not a client result, and client work adds Jakub's review and your approval before anything is published. Results depend heavily on your site, market and competition.
Rank changes: monitoring versus deciding
Semrush alerts you when positions move. The useful part is deciding why and what to do: refresh a page, fix a technical issue, add internal links or leave it alone. Jakub reviews ranking changes as part of the service and proposes the response; changes go live when you approve them.
Pricing: the fair comparison
Semrush is sold in tiers with add-ons, and its prices change often, so check Semrush's own pricing page for current figures. AfM is one monthly fee for the managed service. The fair comparison is your subscription plus the writer and specialist time needed to act on the data, against having that work done and reported.
Honest assessment
Should you stop paying for Semrush?
Often the honest answer is no: keep Semrush and have the work in it done. These are the signs either way.
The work is the bottleneck, not the tool.
- You pay for Semrush but the content and fixes it points to keep not happening
- Your bottleneck is writing and publishing, not research
- You want one person accountable for SEO work and a weekly report on what changed
- You do not need Semrush's full depth and mainly use it for keyword ideas and site audits
It works, and someone owns it.
- Backlink analysis and link building are central to your strategy
- You have an SEO team that uses Semrush's full toolkit daily. Keep it, and ask us only about the gaps
- You mainly need competitive and market research, not content production
Who does what
What AfM manages, what Jakub reviews, what you approve
You buy managed work and measurable improvement, not software. You never have to log in to our system or run it.
Your SEO work: keyword and competitor research, content planning, new pages and articles, updates to existing pages, internal linking and technical fixes, published once you approve.
Jakub reviews every piece of work before you see it: the plan, the copy, the campaign settings and the numbers in the report. The system keeps your context and helps produce the work; the judgement and the priorities are his.
Nothing goes out without your approval. You approve the first fixes, every campaign, email and page before it goes live, and any change to the tools you pay for.
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for read-only Search Console and analytics, and publishing access to your site or CMS, and nothing more.
A starting point recorded when we begin (search impressions, clicks, ranking pages and leads from organic search, whichever apply), then a weekly report showing what we published or fixed and how those numbers moved.
If you go ahead
How it starts
Free written breakdown
It starts from your website and everything publicly visible, plus any numbers you choose to share. No logins needed. It shows what we found, where it came from, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether Semrush is worth keeping.
A short call, if you want one
A free 15-minute call to agree what AfM would manage. One monthly fee for the managed service; we confirm the number on a call once we have seen what needs doing. You sign one proposal before we start; after that it rolls monthly, with no lock-in, and you can cancel any time.
Access, only once you decide to go ahead
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for read-only Search Console and analytics, and publishing access to your site or CMS, and nothing more. We change nothing until you approve the first fix.
First fixes, reviewed and approved
Jakub reviews each piece of work before it reaches you, and you approve it before it goes live. First fixes go live within days of payment and access, once you approve them.
Decide what happens to Semrush
Semrush stays, is downgraded or is cancelled only when you decide, and only once the work it was meant to support is running without it. Keeping it is often the right answer.
Frequently asked
Questions, answered straight
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Not sure whether to keep Semrush?
Ask for a free written breakdown. It starts from your website and what is publicly visible, plus anything you choose to share, and needs no logins. It shows what we found, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether Semrush should stay.
Book your free breakdown