How an AI marketer uses Semrush
Semrush is a search marketing platform that estimates how websites perform in Google. It reports the keywords a domain ranks for, how hard each keyword is to win, which ads a company runs in paid search, and which sites link to it. An AI marketer uses that data the way a good SEO lead would. It reads the reports, compares you with your competitors, and decides which gaps are worth closing.
Kite does that work with your Semrush account. It finds the keywords worth targeting, sees which pages and ads are working for competitors, and audits backlink profiles. Then it writes and publishes the pages that answer what buyers are searching for. You connect Semrush with an API key, and Kite reads your Semrush data from there.
Marketing jobs Kite can do with Semrush
Semrush data is most useful when it ends in a decision about what to publish. Kite starts with the keywords your buyers search for, then looks at who wins them and why, and finishes by changing your site and checking the result. The jobs below follow that order.
Find the keywords worth targeting
Kite uses Semrush to size up a keyword before anyone writes a word about it. For each phrase, it reads the monthly search volume, the cost per click advertisers pay, the level of competition, and a keyword difficulty score from 0 to 100. It can check up to 100 keywords in one pass, so a full topic list gets scored at once instead of one search at a time.
From a single seed phrase, Kite also pulls the broad-match variations, the related keywords and synonyms, and the questions people type into Google about it. Say you sell scheduling software for clinics. Kite might start from "patient scheduling" and come back with the questions clinic managers actually ask, the phrases with real volume that your site doesn't cover, and the ones too competitive to win this quarter. It then proposes which pages to write first.
Semrush keeps separate data for each country, so Kite reads the regional database that matches the market you sell into. When you're expanding into a new country, it can compare the same keyword across regions.
See what your competitors rank for and where you're missing
Kite reads the organic keywords any domain ranks for in Google's top 100 results, along with the pages that earn those rankings and the subdomains behind them. It also asks Semrush who your real organic competitors are. Those are the sites that compete with you for the same keywords, and they're often not the companies your sales team names.
The sharpest version of this job is the keyword gap. Kite compares your domain with up to four competitors at once and sorts the keywords into three groups: the ones you all share, the ones only you hold, and the ones your competitors rank for while you don't. That last group is your content gap. Kite looks at the competitor page that ranks for each gap keyword and works out what that page answers that yours doesn't. Then it proposes a specific page or section to close the gap.
For any single keyword, Kite can also read the domains and URLs in Google's top 100 results. It can look at a past month too, which shows whether a competitor's page climbed recently or has held the spot for a long time.
Explain why competitors show up in AI answers
Semrush measures Google, and Kite measures AI answers itself. Kite runs your buyers' questions through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude and records which brands appear and which pages the answers cite. Semrush then explains what those cited pages have going for them in search.
Suppose Perplexity keeps citing a competitor's comparison page when buyers ask for tools like yours. Kite reads that page's Semrush data, including the keywords it ranks for, its Authority Score, and the sites that link to it. That tells you whether the page wins because it ranks well, because respected sites link to it, or because it answers the question more directly than anything you've published. Each reason calls for different work, and Kite proposes the one that fits.
Learn from your competitors' paid search
Kite reads the keywords a competitor buys in Google Ads, the ad copy Semrush has observed for that domain, and twelve months of its ad history. That history shows which keywords it bid on, where its ads appeared, and how its copy changed over time. For any keyword, Kite can also see which domains have advertised on it over the past year and who appears in the paid results today.
This tells you what a competitor is willing to pay for and how it pitches itself to buyers. If a rival started bidding on your brand name last month, Kite can spot it. If three competitors have run the same angle in their ads all year, that angle is probably working. Kite uses the pattern to write your own Google search ads and the landing pages behind them. For ecommerce brands, it reads Google Shopping data as well, including the product listing ads a competitor runs, the keywords that trigger them, and the stores competing for the same shoppers.
Audit backlinks and find sites worth pitching
Kite reads the complete backlink profile Semrush holds for any domain or URL. That includes:
- the individual backlinks and their anchor text
- the referring domains and how they're spread across countries and top-level domains
- the Authority Score of the target and of the domains that link to it
- the month-by-month history of backlinks and referring domains
- the topics the linking sites cover
Kite can compare the backlink profiles of several domains side by side and find the sites that link to your competitors but not to you. Those sites already write about your space, so they're the most likely to link to you as well. Kite researches each one, writes the outreach pitch, and can send it from your team's Kite email address once you approve. It also shows when a competitor gains links quickly, which often explains why its pages climbed.
What Kite reads in Semrush
Information Kite can read
- Keyword metricsSearch volume, cost per click, competition, and keyword difficulty for single keywords or batches of up to 100, in one regional database or across all of them.
- Keyword ideasBroad-match variations, related keywords, and question-format searches for a seed phrase, which become the topics and headings of new pages.
- Domain rankingsThe organic keywords, ranking pages, and subdomains for any domain, plus the side-by-side keyword comparison of up to five domains.
- Search resultsThe domains and URLs in Google's top 100 organic results and in the paid results for a keyword, including past months.
- Competitor listsA domain's competitors in organic search, in paid search, in Google Shopping ads, and by shared backlinks.
- Advertising historyA domain's paid keywords, observed ad copy, twelve-month ad history, and the advertisers on a given keyword over the past year.
- Backlink dataBacklinks, referring domains, anchor text, Authority Score, link history, indexed pages, and how referring domains break down by country, top-level domain, and topic.
- Site categoriesThe categories Semrush assigns to a domain, which help Kite confirm that a suspected competitor really sells into your market.
How Kite connects to Semrush
Add an API key for your Semrush account. Kite uses the access granted to that key. When a task needs Semrush, Kite sends you a link to connect it, and you paste your key there. Semrush counts API usage in units, so before a large batch of reports, Kite checks how many units your account has left.
From there, you can start with a goal rather than a report request. Ask Kite why a competitor keeps outranking you, or which topics you should write about next quarter. Kite already knows your positioning and competitors from its research on your business, so it chooses the domains, keywords, and regional database to pull and comes back with a diagnosis and a plan.
How-to guides using Semrush
- How to find out why competitors get cited in AI answers with Semrush Coming soon Kite records which competitor pages the AI assistants cite for your buyers' questions, then uses Semrush rankings and backlink data to explain what those pages have that yours don't.
- How to find content gaps with Semrush and update your Webflow site Coming soon Kite finds the keywords your competitors win and you don't, decides which Webflow pages to change, writes the updates into your CMS collections, and publishes them.
- How to find content gaps with Semrush and update your self-hosted WordPress site Coming soon The same gap analysis ends in your WordPress posts. Kite finds the right post, updates its content after you approve, and checks the live page.
- How to compare AI mentions, search performance, and competitors with Search Console and Semrush Coming soon Google Search Console supplies your own clicks and impressions, Semrush supplies the competitor view, and Kite lines both up against your AI-answer visibility to find the gaps worth closing first.
Where Semrush fits in Kite's marketing work
Kite's own tracking shows where you're missing from AI answers, and Semrush helps explain why. Kite reads the rankings and backlinks behind the pages the assistants cite, decides what to change on your site, and ships it. After the change is live, it runs the same questions again to measure the difference.
Semrush's keyword comparison is the starting evidence for this job. It shows the keywords competitors rank for that you don't. Kite turns that list into specific pages, writes them, and publishes them on your site.
Semrush supplies the volume, difficulty, and question data. Kite weighs that against what your product actually solves, so the list it brings back favors the keywords your buyers search for and you can realistically win.
Semrush's advertising data shows what competitors bid on and how their ads read. Kite uses it to plan your own paid search and write the ads and landing pages that go with it.
Semrush holds the backlink profile for any domain, including ones you don't own. Kite reads it to explain a competitor's authority or to find sites worth pitching for links of your own.
Limits and product-specific details
- You need Semrush API access. Semrush offers API access to accounts on its Business plan, which buy API units separately and spend them on each report. Accounts on other plans can't connect through an API key.
- Kite changes nothing in Semrush. It doesn't create projects, position-tracking campaigns, or site audits inside your Semrush account. The work Kite does with the data happens on your website, in your ads, and in outreach.
- Ad copy is a sample. Semrush records the ads it observes in Google's paid results. That's a large picture of a competitor's advertising but not a complete one.
- Semrush numbers are estimates. Search volume and ranking data come from Semrush's own models. For traffic to your own site, Kite reads your analytics and Google Search Console when they're connected.
Common questions
Do I need Semrush for Kite to do SEO research?
No. Kite comes with search data built in, through DataForSEO, which covers keyword volume, rankings, search competitors, and backlinks without a separate subscription. Connect Semrush when your team already plans around its numbers, such as its keyword difficulty scores and Authority Score, or when you want Kite to read the same Semrush data your team uses.
Does Kite use Semrush's own AI features?
Kite reads Semrush's keyword, domain, advertising, and backlink reports through the API. It doesn't operate Semrush's in-app AI tools. Kite's view of AI answers comes from its own tracking of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude, and Semrush data explains what's behind the pages those answers cite.
Can Kite check Semrush data on schedule?
Yes. You can ask Kite to repeat a Semrush job on a schedule, such as a monthly review of which keywords a competitor gained or a weekly look at the new ads in your category. Each run reports in Slack with what changed and what Kite suggests doing about it.