FocalScore vs Semrush
Checked : the Semrush Site Audit facts on this page were read on official Semrush pages, and FocalScore's come from our own code. Prices and plans change; the sources are listed at the end of the page.
Semrush is a large SEO platform, and its Site Audit is one tool inside a much wider suite of keyword, backlink, competitor and AI-search research. When we asked AI assistants to recommend a free website audit tool, Semrush was one of the names they gave.
FocalScore is a single website audit for small-business owners: 395 checks on up to 25 pages, scored for converting visitors, ranking in search and being readable by AI, with every fix written out. The two overlap on technical SEO and AI-crawler checks, and differ on almost everything around them.
At a glance
| Question | Semrush | FocalScore |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Paid plans from $139 a month (SEO plan, billed monthly; $117.33 a month billed annually) up to $549 a month (Advanced). | Free report: $0. AI Advanced Report: $49, one-time. Agency: $99 a month for up to 25 client sites. |
| What you get free | A free account with one project and 10 reports a day; the free site checker runs one check a day. | Your score with no signup; the complete page-by-page report with every fix after an email signup. No card. |
| Pages per audit | 100 pages per audit on a free account; 20,000 to 100,000 pages per audit on paid plans, per Semrush's help centre. | Up to 25 pages per scan. |
| What it checks | Over 140 technical and on-page SEO checks: crawlability and indexing, broken links, duplicate content, HTTPS, hreflang, Core Web Vitals, structured data. | 395 checks across 9 categories: Conversion & messaging, Trust & credibility, Content quality, AI readiness, Search, Speed, Mobile, Accessibility and Security & privacy. |
| AI crawler and AI-readiness checks | Yes: an AI Search Health score in Site Audit, including access for eight major AI crawlers and an llms.txt check. | 48 AI-readiness checks in the free report, including whether AI crawlers are allowed and whether you publish an llms.txt file. |
| Whether AI assistants mention you | Yes, tracked daily: 50 to 200 prompts across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and more, on plans from $199 a month; or the AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 a month. | In the $49 report: real buyer questions put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, recording whether you were named and who was named instead. A one-time reading, not ongoing tracking. |
| Keyword research and Google rankings | Yes: a database of 28.8 billion keywords in 142 regional databases, and daily rank tracking (500 keywords on the SEO plan). | No keyword research tool. The $49 report includes a one-time snapshot of where you rank on Google for the searches new customers make, and who outranks you. |
| Backlinks | Yes: a backlink database of 43 trillion links. | Paid report only, on purpose: backlink data comes from a paid data provider, and the free scan never calls one. The $49 report lists which sites link to yours, read once. No backlink index of our own. |
| Setup | A Semrush account and a project for your site. Web-based. | Nothing to install and no site verification. Works on any platform. |
| Ongoing monitoring | Yes: recurring audits and tracking for 5 to 40 websites, depending on plan. | Not yet: Monitor (monthly re-audits, $19 a month) is coming soon and not on sale. A free re-scan shows where you stand. |
What Semrush does better
- Keyword research and competitor research: a 28.8-billion-keyword database and daily rank tracking. FocalScore has no keyword tool.
- Backlinks: a 43-trillion-link database. FocalScore runs no backlink index of its own.
- Crawl depth: tens of thousands of pages per audit on paid plans, where FocalScore reads a sample of a site.
- AI visibility over time: prompts tracked daily across several assistants, where FocalScore's paid report takes one reading.
- Ongoing monitoring of several websites in one account.
Choose Semrush if…
- You (or someone you pay) do SEO as a job and need keyword, backlink and competitor data every week.
- Your site has hundreds or thousands of pages and you need every one crawled.
- You want to track AI-assistant mentions daily and have the budget for a monthly plan.
Choose FocalScore if…
- You want to know whether your homepage would win a customer, not only whether it is crawlable. Semrush lists its Site Audit as technical and on-page SEO; FocalScore adds 77 conversion and trust checks.
- You own a small business and want to know why the website isn't bringing in enquiries — not only whether it is technically sound. 77 of the 395 checks are about conversion and trust.
- You want every problem explained in plain English, with the exact fix, rather than an issue list written for an SEO specialist.
- You want one report that covers converting visitors, ranking in search and being readable by AI assistants, for free, with an optional $49 one-time report instead of a subscription.
- You want to see which businesses ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude recommend instead of you, once, for $49 — without a monthly plan.
You can also use both: FocalScore to find out what is stopping visitors from enquiring and what to fix first, and Semrush when you are ready to invest in keyword and backlink work.
Questions
Is Semrush's site audit free?
Partly. Semrush's free account includes one project and 10 reports a day, and a free Site Audit reads up to 100 pages, according to Semrush's own pricing page and help centre. Larger audits, more projects and AI tracking need a paid plan, from $139 a month billed monthly.
Does Semrush check whether AI can read my site?
Yes. Semrush's Site Audit has an AI Search Health score that looks at access for eight major AI crawlers and at llms.txt, and its paid plans track prompts across AI assistants. FocalScore's free report has its own AI-readiness checks, and its paid report puts real buyer questions to AI assistants once.
Which is better for a small-business website?
It depends on the question. If you need keyword and backlink research, Semrush is the stronger tool. If you want to know why your website isn't turning visitors into enquiries, with every fix written in plain English, FocalScore was built for that: 395 checks, a free full report, and nothing to subscribe to.
Does FocalScore replace Semrush?
No. FocalScore has no keyword database, no rank tracker and no backlink index of its own. It answers a different question: whether your website earns customers, and what to fix.
Sources
Checked October 2026 on official Semrush pages. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
- Semrush plans and prices: https://www.semrush.com/prices/
- Semrush free site checker: https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit/
- Site Audit help (checks and page limits): https://www.semrush.com/kb/31-site-audit
- AI Search Health in Site Audit: https://www.semrush.com/kb/1601-ai-search-health-audit
- AI Visibility Toolkit: https://www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-visibility-toolkit
- Semrush data sizes: https://www.semrush.com/kb/997-semrush-data
Semrush is a trademark of its owner. FocalScore is not affiliated with or endorsed by Semrush. Product names are used only to identify the products compared. All comparisons →