From Semrush to SE Ranking: A switch that gave Succeed Digital reliable SEO data and a powerful toolkit

Meet Succeed Digital: A veteran team with 20 years of results-driven digital experience

Succeed Digital is a full-service digital agency based in the UK, with a team of 20 professionals and over 20 years of industry experience. It specializes in SEO, performance marketing, web development, digital marketing, UX/UI design, and conversion rate optimization. The team also works with clients from all industries.

The team has partnered with well-known brands like Tesco Mobile, Thompsons Solicitors, RSPCA, Tommy’s, Tentsile, Eton Bridge Partners, Boostworks, Gabriel Scott, and Alumasc.

The Challenge: Delivering trustworthy SEO data and reports clients actually want to see

Before switching to SE Ranking, Succeed Digital had found that Semrush wasn’t providing sufficiently accurate data and helpful SEO features with modern agency needs in mind.

🛑 No platform could meet all its work needs. Succeed Digital relied on Semrush before switching to SE Ranking. The team also used other tools to make up for Semrush’s limitations. This multi-tool setup got the job done but it wasn’t an efficient solution.

🛑 Unreliable competitive analysis and keyword tracking data. Semrush couldn’t deliver the level of data accuracy and detail the agency’s clients expected.

Joeri Vanhamel

Head of Search, AI and Performance Marketing at Succeed Digital

We did have an instance where a client questioned the accuracy of data from our previous tool, Semrush. The client was understandably frustrated with the perceived inconsistent competitor comparison data that appeared to fluctuate dramatically month-to-month, which if left unchecked, would ultimately undermine their trust in our reporting and recommendations. This situation highlighted our need for a more reliable data source that could maintain consistency and accuracy over time.

The Solution: Switching to SE Ranking to reduce fragmentation of SEO tools in favor of a feature-rich SEO toolkit

Succeed Digital chose SE Ranking after extensive research. The team tested platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Dragon Metrics. Here’s how SE Ranking stood out:

Reliable insights that took the guesswork out of strategic SEO planning and client reporting

The Succeed Digital team was most concerned about how accurate their competitive analysis data was. With the tools they were using, they couldn’t confidently use the data they had in their audits and client reports. SE Ranking solved this problem easily.

SE Ranking had better functionality, especially in keyword research and competitive data analysis. Its approach to data collection and regular data cleaning helped the Succeed Digital team feel way more confident about their metric accuracy.

Maryia Starykava

Product Manager at SE Ranking

To ensure the highest possible data accuracy, we at SE Ranking continuously refine our calculation formulas. Most recently, we implemented a machine learning algorithm to predict CTR for different SERP positions and began factoring in traffic from both ads and SERP features.

SE Ranking plays a key role in Succeed Digital’s consultative sales process and strategic planning. The team uses its data to highlight real SEO opportunities and show clients the value of their recommendations. With accurate search volume data, Succeed Digital can zero in on what users are actually searching for. Now the team can help clients target the keywords that matter most.

Brad Smith

Founder and Director at Succeed Digital

The platform enables us to substantiate our ideas during audit presentations with reliable data, which in turn helps us create and sell actionable strategies. With these capabilities, we have the ability to develop and present outstanding, compelling SEO plans that work.

Improved position and data analytics tracking

SE Ranking’s most standout feature is URL tracking for individual keywords and URLs in search results. It has helped to provide Succeed Digital insight into its content strategy performance. The team no longer has issues pinpointing what’s working well and what needs adjustment.

This functionality can be found in SE Ranking’s Rank Tracker tool.

This feature has proven uniquely valuable to Succeed Digital.

Joeri Vanhamel

Head of Search, AI and Performance Marketing at Succeed Digital

This helps us quickly identify when our content strategy goals are working or aren’t being met—a capability we found uniquely valuable compared to competitors, with only Dragon Metrics offering something similar, but at a much higher cost and with a smaller keyword research sample size at the time.

Succeed Digital now tracks and reports on Bing and Yahoo rankings. This is crucial because many of its clients request Bing data. 

SE Ranking has also eliminated the need for manual data extraction thanks to its ability to integrate with Google Search Console and GA4. Succeed Digital currently uses SE Ranking’s central dashboard to monitor and present data from these (and SE Ranking’s) tools. When GA4 reveals organic traffic from multiple search engines, the team makes use of keyword performance insights from all platforms, including historical trends.

SE Ranking covered all SEO bases, especially the fundamentals

Semrush expanded its toolkit in several areas but shifted away from its core SEO functionality. After switching to SE Ranking, Succeed Digital now had access to a full suite of tools that streamline daily work. Not to mention, the cost was wallet-friendly and still worth every penny.

Joeri Vanhamel

Head of Search, AI and Performance Marketing at Succeed Digital

SE Ranking has become a foundational element in our workflow, often serving as the first step in both keyword research and SEO audits. Similar to our approach with PPC audits, it’s our go-to tool for identifying keywords and understanding traffic potential.

The team rolled out and set up SE Ranking projects to each client on a case-by-case basis.

Below are the key tools used:

• Rank Tracker. To monitor keyword performance, especially when executing content strategies for new or optimized content.
• Website Audit tool. While Screaming Frog is still the team’s primary audit tool, they use SE Ranking as a secondary audit layer to cross-validate technical findings.

• Backlink Checker. To boost Succeed Digital’s backlink reclamation service. The team uses it to identify and recover lost backlinks that impact client rankings.

• Competitor Research tool. To analyze search volume and trends, and explore related (not just similar) keywords for more relevant targeting.

• Keyword Research tool. To deliver superior semantic analysis. Succeed Digital uses SE Ranking’s keyword research functionality to simplify keyword expansion. For example, SE Ranking reveals contextually related concepts, not just keyword variants. Succeed Digital also uses it for keyword gap analysis and to uncover what competitors are ranking for that clients are missing.

• Keyword Grouper. Succeed Digital minimizes keyword cannibalization by setting the grouping accuracy to 4–6 and selecting the soft method. This keeps each content piece targeted to a distinct topic. 

The team uses this approach to move beyond optimizing for individual keywords and toward broader thematic clusters. This mirrors how real users search the web. It also supports content creation that aligns more closely with search intent, even when queries don’t precisely match the target keywords. This helps the team deliver more valuable, intent-driven content and stay efficient.

The Business impact: Boosting efficiency and client trust while cutting costs

SE Ranking’s support across key workflows helps Succeed Digital:

✅ Save costs and boost team management
Succeed Digital cut costs and improved efficiency. Every SEO team member has their own SE Ranking account, which means no more sharing logins or paying extra for limited seats. This is much friendlier than Semrush’s seating prices, which costed $45 to $100 per additional user and required account sharing. Switching to SE Ranking saved the team approximately £80 per seat.

✅ Improve tracking and reporting processes
Succeed Digital can now monitor rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo, and everything is available on a single platform. Integrating with Google Search Console and GA4 has also sped up the team’s monitoring and enhanced their data analysis.

✅ Demonstrate reliability and professionalism to boost client retention and business growth
SE Ranking is Succeed Digital’s first stop when meeting with new clients. The team uses it to get an immediate, comprehensive overview of the client’s digital presence and actionable intelligence. This keeps strategies relevant from the start. SE Ranking has also dug up insights that Succeed Digital’s clients weren’t aware of. This shed light on important contextual analyses early on in each relationship and reinforced the agency’s credibility.

Takeaways

With SE Ranking on hand, Succeed Digital makes SEO smoother, cuts down on costs, and keeps clients coming back. 

Halyna Kuzmovych

Senior Product Marketing Manager at SE Ranking

Succeed Digital is a great example of how switching to the right tools can seriously level up your SEO and collaboration with clients. They’ve built a super efficient setup that saves money, delivers accurate data, and helps keep clients happy and on board.

Curious why Succeed Digital chose SE Ranking? Want to try it for yourself? Sign up for SE Ranking’s 14-day free trial to see the SEO magic firsthand!

Written by

Daria Chetvertak

Daria is an SEO and Content Marketing Expert at SE Ranking. Her interests span across SEO and digital marketing. She likes to describe complicated things in plain words. In her free time, Daria enjoys traveling around the world, studying the art of photography, and visiting art galleries.