Job ticket 624639 · smb · prospecting map · no subscription
Semrush staples judgment to data and charges US$117.33 a month for the staple.
This page is a prospecting map. Paste the keywords you already own — Search Console exports, customer questions, autocomplete gleanings — and a free-tier model folds them into page-shaped claims: intent called from the queries' own words, every metric either yours or printed as 'not in input'. Then brief any cluster into a writer-executable spec with its grounding shown. The data layer — volumes, rank tracking, backlinks — stays honestly labeled as the thing this page does not replace.
Semrush is a trademark of Semrush Holdings, Inc. This is an independent, unaffiliated comparison built on Semrush's own pricing page, linked below and re-read every thirty days.
Claim map — rendered in this browser
Sample data is illustrative, not a claim about Semrush. Every Semrush figure on this page comes from the linked pricing page, read 2026-09-27.
The prompt pack
Two prompts, each mapped one-to-one onto a Semrush feature you are currently rationed on. Run them from this page with a free key, or copy them into any free chat model — the text is identical either way, and it is printed in full at the bottom of this section so it survives this site.
Loading the pack from tools.json… If this fails, the full prompt text is still readable below.
One-time unlocks only, never a subscription. If a price ever appears here it was read from Stripe in that request, not typed by hand. An unlock is client-side gating, not secure payment verification: it is stored in this browser and cannot prove payment to anyone else.
What Semrush's own pricing page says
Read from semrush.com/pricing (seo-ai-search) on 2026-09-27. Fields we could not read are marked unconfirmed rather than filled in with a plausible number.
| The job | Semrush (no free tier) | SEO plan (US$117.33/mo annual) | This page + a free-tier model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | — no free tier on the page we read | US$117.33 /mo billed annually, or US$139 month-to-month | US$0 forever. A free-tier key costs nothing; the prompts are yours. |
| Keyword clustering | Inside the paid tools | Keyword tools across 5 sites, 500 tracked daily | Prompt 1 folds YOUR pile: every query mapped once, intent called, strays confessed in 'unmapped' |
| Content briefs | Inside the paid tools | Content toolkit tiers | Prompt 2: eight fixed rows with a grounding column — 'gap: writer confirms' where homework is missing |
| Volumes, ranks, backlinks | Their genuine moat | The actual product — crawlers and indexes | Not here, not faked, said in writing. GSC gives you your own clicks free; buy data when a number matters |
What this replaces, and what it does not
A displacement claim you cannot substantiate is a lie with good typography. This is the whole scope, including the parts where Semrush wins.
Replaced: the folding judgment
Your queries into page-shaped claims with intent verdicts and honest ambiguity ('LEARN or FIX') — the thinking half of keyword research.
Replaced: the briefing layer
Writer-executable briefs where every element is grounded or flagged — including the 'evidence to gather' row that makes content unfakeable.
Replaced: the counterfeit temptation
The map renders 'not in input' where volumes would be — a discipline no dashboard will sell you.
NOT a data vendor
No crawls, no volumes, no difficulty scores, no rank tracking, no backlink index. That half of Semrush is real infrastructure; this page names it as the moat instead of imitating its numbers.
NOT a rank promiser
Nothing here estimates positions or traffic. A brief's success metric is that the piece answers its searchers — measured later, in your own GSC, for free.
NOT a site auditor
Technical SEO (crawl errors, page speed) is measurement work for measurement tools.
The prompts, in full, as text
Copy these into any model. They are the product; the page around them is convenience. Each block is the exact system prompt the interactive runner sends, plus the user-message template.
Prompt 01 — 1. Keyword fold · semrush-keyword-fold v1.0.0 · best ally: Google Gemini API — Free usage tier · gemini-2.5-flash-lite
Replaces: The clustering judgment inside Semrush's keyword tools: your queries folded into page-shaped territories with intent called — minus any number you didn't paste.
Why this model: Clustering requires holding the entire pile while assigning every line exactly once under a no-invented-metrics law; long free context plus structured output is the machine, and temperature stays low because taxonomy is not a creative act. Fallback ally: Copy-Paste Relay.
System prompt (1707 chars):
You fold a pasted keyword pile into page-shaped clusters. You are a cartographer of queries: you map what was pasted, you invent nothing. The words 'not in input' are your most important output.
Return ONLY one JSON object. No markdown fences, no commentary, no preamble.
{
"kicker": string (max 8 words),
"title": string (max 8 words),
"columns": [ { "label": "cluster → one page" }, { "label": "intent" }, { "label": "queries folded in" }, { "label": "numbers, if you pasted any" } ],
"rows": [ [ string (<= 12 words: the page this cluster wants to be, phrased as a working title), string (one of BUY | COMPARE | LEARN | FIX | NAVIGATE, called from the queries' own words), string (<= 30 words: the queries, verbatim, comma-separated; count in parentheses), string (<= 14 words: metrics ONLY as pasted — clicks, impressions, whatever the export had — else 'not in input') ] ],
"notes": [ string (max 30 words each) ]
}
Hard rules:
1. Every pasted query lands in exactly one cluster. A final row 'unmapped (n)' collects strays honestly.
2. One cluster = one intended page. If two query groups need different pages, they are different clusters even when they share words.
3. Intent is called from the query's own phrasing ('best X vs Y' = COMPARE) — when ambiguous, write the two candidates ('LEARN or FIX') instead of pretending certainty.
4. The numbers column NEVER contains a figure absent from the paste. No search volumes, no difficulty scores, no estimates. 'not in input' is the honest cell.
5. One note must state which clusters this fold cannot rank-order without data, and that a data tool (Semrush included) is the honest source for volumes.
6. Write in the language of the queries.
User message template:
Variables:
{{keywords}}— Queries, one per line (max 12000 chars) sample data shipped with the tool{{site_context}}— Your site, one paragraph (max 800 chars) sample data shipped with the tool
Output schema (the answer must match this exactly):
Decoding: temperature 0.2 · max 1500 output tokens · responseMimeType application/json · budget ~2,500 in / ~800 out per fold · cost per run: 1 request per fold — monthly for most sites — against Gemini's free daily allowance.
Prompt 02 — 2. Content brief · semrush-content-brief v1.0.0 · best ally: Groq Cloud — free tier · llama-3.3-70b-versatile
Replaces: The brief-writing layer of Semrush's content tools: one cluster turned into a writer-executable brief — angle, must-answers, structure, internal links — from what you gathered, not from counterfeit metrics.
Why this model: A brief is a bounded composition over one cluster plus the team's own gathered notes; fast instruct output keeps it concrete (headings, questions, links) and cheap enough to brief every cluster the fold produced. Fallback ally: Copy-Paste Relay.
System prompt (1595 chars):
You write content briefs a writer can execute without asking follow-ups. You work from the cluster and the gatherer's own SERP notes; you never cite metrics or competitors the input does not contain, and you never promise rankings.
Return ONLY one JSON object. No markdown fences, no commentary.
{
"kicker": string (max 8 words: the target cluster),
"title": string (max 10 words),
"columns": [ { "label": "brief element" }, { "label": "the spec" }, { "label": "grounded in" } ],
"rows": [ [ string (one of exactly: "Working title", "The searcher's actual situation", "Angle", "Must-answer questions", "Structure", "Internal links", "Evidence to gather", "Out of scope"), string (<= 45 words: the spec itself — concrete, executable), string (<= 12 words: which input fact grounds it — a query, a SERP note, the site context — or 'gap: writer confirms') ] ],
"notes": [ string (max 28 words each) ]
}
Hard rules:
1. Exactly 8 rows, in the listed order. The 'grounded in' column is mandatory per row — a brief element with no grounding gets 'gap: writer confirms', visibly.
2. Must-answer questions come from the cluster's own queries plus any pasted SERP notes; 3 to 6, phrased as the searcher asks them.
3. Internal links only to pages the input says exist. No invented URLs.
4. 'Evidence to gather' names the specific proof the piece needs (your price data, a photo, a customer quote) — the row that makes the piece unfakeable by competitors.
5. No length targets unless the gatherer stated one; depth follows the questions, not a word count.
6. Write in the language of the input.
User message template:
Variables:
{{cluster}}— The cluster (max 1500 chars) sample data shipped with the tool{{serp_notes}}— SERP notes (optional) (max 3000 chars) sample data shipped with the tool{{site_pages}}— Existing pages (max 1000 chars) sample data shipped with the tool
Output schema (the answer must match this exactly):
Decoding: temperature 0.35 · max 1300 output tokens · responseMimeType application/json · budget ~1,500 in / ~750 out per brief · cost per run: 1 request per brief; a 12-piece quarter costs 12 requests — 1.2% of one Groq day.
Questions worth asking before you cancel
Does this need an API key?
No — copy either prompt with your export into any free chat model and paste the JSON back; the map renders locally. A free Gemini key just removes the hop.
What does Semrush cost now, exactly?
Per the pricing page we read on 2026-09-27: the SEO plan is US$117.33/month billed annually or US$139 billed monthly; Starter US$165.17 (US$199 monthly); Pro+ US$248.17 (US$299 monthly). No free tier appears on that page; legacy plan names circulating elsewhere are unconfirmed here.
Where do I get keywords without Semrush?
You already have the best pile: Google Search Console exports every query your site actually appeared for, free. Add the questions customers ask your inbox and what autocomplete suggests around your product nouns — that's a fold-ready pile no third-party estimate can beat for relevance.
When should a team actually pay Semrush?
When a specific number changes a specific decision — competitive gap analysis, rank tracking across a portfolio, backlink prospecting at scale. That's the data business, it's real, and this page's whole honesty is refusing to counterfeit it with model guesses.
Send this to someone still paying for it
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