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Workers are enduring more tech upheaval than ever - but it seems to be paying off

TechRadar News - Thu, 02/05/2026 - 04:09
Workers aren't being burnt out by new tech, and AI is proving effective for boosting speed, quality and overall productivity.
Categories: Technology

I used ChatGPT to get inside my dog’s head — and now I’m slightly afraid she’s smarter than me

TechRadar News - Thu, 02/05/2026 - 03:59
Tell ChatGPT what your dog is doing for some thoughtful insights into their thinking
Categories: Technology

Ahrefs SEO platform review

TechRadar Reviews - Thu, 02/05/2026 - 02:26

Ahrefs is a leading SEO tool with tried-and-true features like keyword research, rank tracking, backlink tracking, content research, and site audit capabilities. It remains one of the most powerful SEO platforms available in 2026, now enhanced with cutting-edge AI features for content optimization and brand visibility tracking.

While the pricing is premium and AI tools require additional investment, the platform's industry-leading backlink index, rich keyword database, and innovative use of AI make it a great choice for serious SEO professionals — even though there are a few caveats.

Let's get into more of that now.

Ahrefs: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

Plan

Starting rate (paid annually)

Stating rate (paid monthly)

Starter

$29/month

$29/month

Lite

$129/month

$108/month

Standard

$249/month

$208/month

Advanced

$449/month

$374/month

Enterprise

$1,499/month

$1,499/month

Ahrefs has fully revamped its pricing structure for 2026, now offering five subscription tiers plus several optional add-ons to meet diverse user needs. All plans include access to core tools like Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Site Audit, with higher tiers offering increased limits, historical data access, and advanced features.

Starter Plan ($29/mo): The newest addition to Ahrefs' lineup, the Starter plan provides entry-level access to Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Site Audit with 100 credits per month. This plan is ideal for individuals testing Ahrefs or running small-scale projects. Note that this plan only supports monthly renewal and doesn't allow purchasing additional credits or users.

Lite Plan ($129/mo): Ahrefs' Lite plan costs $129/mo ($108/mo if billed yearly) and remains ideal for solo marketers, freelancers, and small businesses. It supports up to 5 projects with 6 months of historical data and allows tracking of 750 keywords. Users get 500 credits per month and 100,000 crawl credits for site audits. The plan includes 1 user with the option to add up to 2 more at $40/mo each.

Standard Plan ($249/mo): The Standard plan is priced at $249/mo ($208/mo if billed yearly) and caters to freelance SEOs and marketing consultants. It supports 20 projects with 2 years of historical data and unlimited monthly credits. Keyword tracking increases to 2,000 keywords with 500,000 crawl credits per month. Additional features include Portfolios, Content Explorer, and Batch Analysis. The plan includes 1 user with the option to add up to 5 more at $60/mo each.

Advanced Plan ($449/mo): The Advanced plan costs $449/mo (or $374/mo, if billed annually) and is designed for SEO agencies and larger marketing teams. It supports 50 projects with 5 years of historical data and includes all Standard features plus Looker Studio integration and advanced Site Explorer capabilities. Keyword tracking extends to 5,000 keywords with 1.5 million crawl credits per month. The plan includes 1 user with the option to add up to 10 more at $80/mo each.

Enterprise Plan ($1,499/mo): The Enterprise plan has increased from $999/mo to $1,499/mo and requires an annual commitment. It's designed for large enterprises with custom needs, supporting up to 100 projects with unlimited historical data. The plan includes 3 users (with unlimited additional users at $100/mo each) and allows tracking of 10,000+ keywords with 5+ million crawl credits. Exclusive features include API access, SSO, audit logs, and advanced security controls.

All plans now include the new Social Media Manager feature in beta. Ahrefs also offers a free Webmaster Tools plan with limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit, perfect for website owners who want to monitor their own sites without a full subscription.

Optional Addons:

Brand Radar AI: Starting at $199/month

AI Content Helper: $99/month

Content Kit: $299/month

Report Builder: $99/month

Project Boost Pro: $20/month per project

Project Boost Max: $200/month per project

Ahrefs: FeaturesAI Tools

Ahrefs has significantly expanded its AI capabilities in 2025-2026, introducing several features that help marketers optimize content, track brand visibility in AI search results, and automate repetitive SEO tasks. These AI-powered tools represent a major evolution in how the platform addresses the changing landscape of search and content discovery.

Brand Radar AI stands as Ahrefs' most ambitious AI feature, tracking how brands appear across major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude. With a database exceeding 239 million prompts, Brand Radar monitors brand mentions, analyzes share of voice against competitors, identifies topic gaps where competitors appear but you don't, and correlates AI citations with web mentions from Ahrefs' massive index.

AI Content Helper ($99/month as an add-on) transforms content optimization by analyzing your draft against top-ranking pages and identifying topical coverage gaps. Rather than focusing on keyword density, it uses AI to identify core topics for your target keyword and scores how well your content covers those topics in real-time as you write. The tool provides color-coded sentence analysis showing which subtopics are covered, word-for-word recommendations for improving topic depth, and an integrated AI chat assistant that can provide feedback, brainstorm ideas, and help refine your writing.

AI Content Grader (available only for Enterprise customers) serves as a lighter version of Content Helper, assessing topic coverage of your content versus the top three SERP competitors using a traffic light grading system. This tool is particularly useful for quickly evaluating existing content and planning updates without the full content creation workflow.

Beyond these flagship tools, Ahrefs has embedded AI throughout its platform. AI Keyword Suggestions in Keywords Explorer help brainstorm lateral keyword opportunities your competitors may have overlooked. AI Search Intent Analysis goes beyond traditional intent categories (informational, navigational, transactional, commercial) to provide granular breakdowns showing exactly what percentage of traffic goes to each specific intent type. AI Keyword Translator automatically translates keyword lists into 40+ languages while preserving local dialect nuances, making international SEO research significantly faster.

Finally, the upcoming Patches feature will use AI to automatically fix simple technical SEO issues on your website with one click, eliminating the need for developer involvement for common problems like missing meta tags or broken schema markup. The platform also includes AI detection in Site Audit, which can identify pages with AI-generated content, and an "Ask AI" feature throughout the interface that helps with specific tasks like rephrasing content, generating alternatives, or explaining data.

 Site Explorer

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

The Site Explorer is a powerful tool for analyzing a website's SEO performance. It presents insights into organic search traffic, backlink profiles, and paid search activities. Apart from its core purpose, Site Explorer presents several advanced features that help in the analysis and strategic planning of SEO experts.

For example, if you want to analyze your competitors' best-performing web pages, you can do it under “Top Pages.” This tool goes through a specific website and lists down the top-performing pages that are getting the most traffic. Through this, you can create several strategies for targeting the right keywords and ranking along your competitor's popular articles.

Our next favorite feature is the "Outgoing Links" report which presents a list of where a site is sending its traffic through external links. This can help in identifying potential partnership opportunities for your website or even ensuring that outbound links are to reputable and relevant sites, which is super important for maintaining a site’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

Apart from that, Site Explorer's "Content Gap" tool lets you compare your site's keyword profile against those of your competitors. It simply identifies keywords for which your competitors rank but your site does not. This is such a useful tool that even the talented SEO experts at TechRadar use it.

The fun doesn’t end here. You also get an "Internal Backlinks" report, which analyzes the internal link structure of a website and helps in optimizing site architecture for better crawl ability and distributing link equity effectively across pages. Lastly, it also provides a "Broken Links" report, identifying both broken inbound and outbound links. Fixing these links can improve user experience and site health. 

 Keywords Explorer

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer not only excels in providing detailed keyword metrics and suggestions but also offers several other features that enhance keyword research and strategy development. For instance, it includes a "Keyword Difficulty" score, which helps users quickly assess how challenging it might be to rank for a specific keyword based on the strength of the current top-ranking pages. This score is calculated using a variety of factors, including the number and quality of backlinks pointing to the top-ranking pages, making it a reliable indicator of the effort required to compete.

It further helps you understand the reader behavior with the "Clicks" data, which estimates the total number of clicks that the search results for a keyword receive. This metric is super useful as it goes beyond mere search volume to give an idea of actual traffic potential, considering factors like SERP features that might affect the click-through rate for organic listings.

Additionally, Keywords Explorer offers a "Return Rate" metric, which measures how often people search for a keyword again. This insight is valuable for identifying keywords that could bring recurring traffic to your site.

We also tested its SERP analysis features that show the presence of features like featured snippets, site links, and image packs in the search results for a keyword, providing pointers on how to optimize content to achieve these high-visibility positions. And to top it all, Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer even integrates with other tools available on the platform. This helps you transition from keyword research to site audit or content exploration, making it a great solution for anyone looking to enhance their SEO and content marketing efforts with data-driven insights.

Site Audit

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

Probably this feature is like that doctor who tells you what’s wrong with your website in terms of SEO. Site Audit scans your entire site to find out everything from technical SEO problems to content-related issues. Plus, it doesn't just highlight what's wrong, but it also delivers actionable tips to easily fix those issues.

To test it, we gave it a sample site and it got back to us with various helpful insights such as broken links, missing alt tags, slow-loading pages, and much more. It even categorized issues into errors, warnings, and notices based on their potential impact on our SEO, making it easier to prioritize fixes. What we loved even more is the visual representation of data, through charts and graphs, which gives a clear perspective of the current condition of the website.

The competitor analysis feature is another key component, offering the ability to track competitors' backlink growth and keyword rankings. This competitive intelligence can inform strategic decisions and help users stay ahead in their niche.

Additionally, if you want to track your competitor's backlinks and keyword ranking, you can use the Competitor Analysis feature. It gives a detailed insight into your peer's SEO strategies and helps you in staying ahead in your niche.

Rank Tracker

(Image credit: Ahrefs )

If you want to monitor your website's ranking for targeted keywords on the SERP, you can use the Rank Tracker feature present in Ahrefs. It's particularly useful for tracking the effectiveness of your SEO strategies and understanding how changes in your website or external factors influence your rankings.

First off, Rank Tracker can help you track your website’s ranking positions across different search engines and locations, presenting insights into how well your pages perform in various regions. This is crucial for businesses targeting a global audience or aiming to improve their local SEO. It further provides updates on ranking positions, showing whether your site’s rankings for specific keywords have improved, declined, or remained stable over time.

It further helps you level up your SEO game by offering visibility and traffic forecasts based on your ranking positions. These projections can help you estimate the potential traffic you might gain from improving your rankings for certain keywords, making it easier to prioritize SEO tasks. Not just that, you can see which keywords trigger special search results like featured snippets, local packs, or knowledge panels. 

 Content Explorer

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

Content Explorer focuses on analyzing the performance of your website’s content across different topics and niches. It guides users on content creation, outreach, and strategy decisions by explaining what content resonates with your readers and earning backlinks for your site. As you open the tool, you need to enter the website to analyze its content. Once searched, it provides many insights about the content, including the referring domains, page traffic and its value, URL Rating, organic keywords, and social shares. 

What makes it even easier to understand is the graphical representation of the metrics along with the timeline to help you further understand the behavior of your website’s specific content. While we ran a scan for one of our sites, it gave us the entire data along with useful metrics. We even sorted the list in various formats like relevance, domain rating, Twitter shares, and date, which made the list even more helpful. 

After doing the proper analysis, we even tried exporting the list for other team members, and Ahrefs did it seamlessly in a .CSV format, where we also had the option to choose the number of rows we wanted. Plus, if you run a website with multiple languages, you can further analyze the content based on different languages, giving a good summary of the website’s content map.

Ahrefs: Interface and in-use

Like a lot of software these days, Ahrefs is used through a web browser, and we like the robust online interface, however it has no dedicated desktop program or smartphone app. The web app puts a ton of information into each page, with explanations for important features available via convenient info-bubbles. You can rely on The Dashboard to give you an overview of your projects, with each of the five core components having its own landing page. Finally, most elements provide more info via clickable links making them interactive for greater insights into the many graphs, charts, and metrics. 

Ahrefs: Support

If there’s one thing that Ahrefs does best besides SEO, it might be its customer support. It offers support access 24/7 via email, which is helpful for technical issues that require longer conversations and screenshots. For quick fixes and general queries, live chat is available during business hours.

We have had multiple occasions to verify Ahrefs' support quality here at Techradar. Most recently, we asked them about their link intersecting feature, and within minutes, a team member assisted us with it. 

(Image credit: Ahrefs)

Moreover, the platform's Help Center is packed with detailed articles, guides, and FAQs for self-service assistance, while a collection of tutorial videos and webinars provides visual learning options for users at all levels. 

Ahrefs also has an active online community for peer support and hosts sessions for direct feedback to the development team. This comprehensive support ecosystem helps you navigate the platform's features, resolve issues promptly, and maximize your SEO efforts.

Ahrefs: The competition

Ahrefs provides similar functionality to other major SEO tools like SEMrush and Moz, and they all offer similar price points for basic plans. Historically Ahrefs has been the more expensive option, recent pricing updates have made it more in line with its competitors.

Carefully consider which features and data limits work best for your budget, because different products prioritize different features at different price points. SEMrush’s basic plan, for example,  offers 10 times the page crawls as Ahrefs’, but no API access or historical data, unlike the latter. 

Ahrefs: Final verdict

If your primary focus is building a robust backlink strategy, conducting detailed site audits, and diving deep into competitive analysis, Ahrefs is a clear winner. Its extensive backlink database and detailed site audit reports offer valuable insights for improving your website's SEO performance.

Ahrefs' strength in finding your competitors' strategies through its Site Explorer and Keywords Explorer tools can give you a real competitive edge in your SEO game. And with the new AI tools, their feature-heavy toolset is more accessible than ever.

For businesses and professionals prioritizing link building and detailed analytics on backlinks, along with a strong toolset for keyword research and site audits, Ahrefs provides an equally comprehensive solution. Its user interface is designed to accommodate both seasoned SEO experts and those new to SEO, which makes it a versatile choice for many.

Categories: Reviews

Semrush SEO tools review

TechRadar Reviews - Thu, 02/05/2026 - 01:57

Semrush was launched in 2008 by a group of IT and SEO specialists to make the digital competition fair and transparent. Today, it's one of the most popular and powerful platforms used by marketers to grow their website’s traffic and keep up with the SEO industry.

It offers a wide range of features, including keyword research, competitive analysis, site audit, on-page SEO checker, and many more. With the introduction of Semrush One, it has also added complete visibility tracking across AI search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. In this detailed review, we’ll cover Semrush’s core features, pricing plans, use cases, and much more.

SemRush: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: Semrush)

Plan

Starting Rate (paid annually)

Starting Rate (paid monthly)

Pro

$117.33/month

$139/month

Guru

$208.33/month

$249/month

Business

$416.66/month

$499/month

Semrush One Starter

$165.83/month

$199/month

Semrush One Pro+

$248.17/month

$299/month

Semrush One Advanced

$455.67/month

$549/month

Semrush underwent a significant evolution in October 2025 with the launch of Semrush One, which fundamentally changed how the platform approaches search visibility. The company now offers two main product lines: the Classic SEO Toolkit and the bundled Semrush One platform.

SEO Classic

The Pro Plan now costs $139.95/month (or $116.16/month billed annually), representing a $10 increase from previous pricing. This entry-level plan is ideal for freelancers, startups, and in-house marketers managing up to 5 projects. You can track up to 500 keywords, generate 10,000 results per report, and access 3,000 reports daily. The plan includes essential SEO, PPC, and research tools, covering keyword research, website audits, backlink analysis, competitor analysis, and advertising tools.

The Guru Plan remains at $249.95/month ($208.33/month annually) and targets agencies and mid-sized businesses. This tier includes everything in Pro plus the Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data access (12 months), multi-location and device tracking, and Looker Studio integration. You can manage up to 15 projects, track 1,500 keywords, and generate 30,000 results per report. This plan has become particularly popular among growing marketing teams needing more robust data analysis.

The Business Plan stays at $499.95/month ($416.66/month annually) for large agencies and enterprises. It expands to 40 projects, 5,000 tracked keywords, and 50,000 results per report. Exclusive features include Share of Voice metrics, extended limits, API access, PLA (Product Listing Ads) analytics, and free migration from third-party tools. This tier is designed for organizations with extensive marketing operations requiring deep data insights.

Semrush One

Semrush One represents a major strategic shift, bundling the Classic SEO Toolkit with the AI Visibility Toolkit into a unified platform. This integration addresses the evolving search landscape where AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity are reshaping how users discover information.

The Starter Plan ($199/month or $165.83/month annually) combines the equivalent of Semrush Pro with AI visibility tracking. You can monitor up to 5 websites, track 50 prompts daily across major AI platforms, and monitor 500 keywords. This plan saves $40/month compared to purchasing Pro ($139.95) and AI Visibility Toolkit ($99) separately.

The Pro+ Plan ($299/month or $249.17/month annually) includes all Starter features plus historical data, monitoring for up to 15 websites, 100 tracked prompts, and 1,500 keywords for daily tracking. This tier particularly appeals to growing agencies managing multiple clients.

The Advanced Plan ($549/month or $457.50/month annually) offers comprehensive capabilities for large agencies, including API data integration, MCP (Model Context Protocol) access, free migration from third-party tools, monitoring for 40 websites, 5,000 keywords, and 200 prompts daily.

AI Visibility Toolkit

Available separately at $99/month per domain, this toolkit can be added to existing Classic SEO subscriptions. However, purchasing Semrush One provides better value and integration. The toolkit tracks brand mentions and visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI platforms. Additional domains cost $99/month each, and extra users require $99/month per seat. Prompt tracking can be extended at $60/month for 50 additional prompts.

ContentShake AI

This AI-powered content creation tool is available as a standalone subscription at $60/month or included within higher-tier plans. It generates SEO-optimized articles, provides topic ideas, creates outlines, and publishes content directly to platforms. The tool supports seven languages and integrates Semrush's competitive data with AI writing capabilities.

Additional costs

Semrush plans are designed for single users. Additional user seats cost extra: Pro plans add users at one rate, while higher tiers have different pricing structures. The platform also offers various add-ons including Base Report ($10/month) and Pro Report (pricing varies) for enhanced integrations. The AI Writer Chrome Extension is free with limited features (50 rewrites/month for non-subscribers).

All plans include a 14-day free trial for new users (7 days for some toolkits), though Semrush has implemented a strict refund policy limited to seven days after purchase for annual subscriptions only, available as a one-time offer.

SemRush: FeaturesAI tools

Semrush has aggressively expanded its AI capabilities, transforming from a traditional SEO platform into a comprehensive AI-powered marketing suite. The platform now offers multiple AI-driven tools addressing content creation, visibility tracking, and optimization across both traditional search engines and emerging AI platforms.

ContentShake AI represents Semrush's flagship content creation tool, combining ChatGPT's generative capabilities with real-time SEO data from Semrush's extensive database. Unlike standalone AI writing tools, ContentShake AI leverages Semrush's competitive intelligence, analyzing top-ranking content to generate articles optimized for both search engines and user engagement.

ContentShake AI also generates royalty-free AI images and supports seven languages including English (American and British), French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. You can customize tone of voice, readability level, and brand style, with the platform maintaining consistency across all generated content.

Content Toolkit encompasses multiple AI-powered features beyond ContentShake. The AI Article Generator creates data-driven content for both Google and AI search engines, AI Search Optimizer helps make content visible across traditional search results (Google) and AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT. Meanwhile, Semrush's Content Repurposing feature uses AI to transform website content into shareable assets for social media, email campaigns, and other channels. Topic Finder analyzes Semrush data to suggest trending content ideas while the SEO Brief Generator creates structured outlines for readers and search algorithms.

AI Visibility Toolkit addresses the paradigm shift toward AI-powered search experiences. Launched as a standalone product in early 2025 and integrated into Semrush One in October 2025, this toolkit monitors brand presence across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI platforms.

Visibility Overview provides an AI Visibility Score showing how frequently and prominently your brand appears in AI-generated responses compared to competitors. Brand Performance Analysis tracks how AI platforms describe your brand, identifying which content they cite and whether mentions are positive, neutral, or negative. Semrush also offers the AI Readiness Audit, which checks technical and structural issues that could block AI systems across 25+ on-page factors.

Keyword research tools

(Image credit: SemRush)

SemRush does in-depth keyword research and offers tons of details, including search volumes that often stretch into millions for high-traffic terms, user intent classifications (informational, commercial, navigational, transactional), and competitive density scores on a scale from 0 to 1.0. This is crucial to tweak your SEO strategy to match your audience's behavior precisely.

Plus, its competitive analysis doesn't just skim the surface but goes deep. By analyzing your competitors' organic search metrics, SemRush finds out not just the keywords they're ranking for but also delivers a visibility score that reflects their prominence on SERPs. This is instrumental in identifying not just any keywords but the right ones that can improve your SERP positioning.

The tool's keyword magic feature is also pretty impressive, as it offers over two million keyword ideas from a single seed keyword. This vast pool of suggestions opens up avenues for content strategy expansion and reveals less obvious yet potentially lucrative keyword opportunities.

We also love SemRush’s Gap analysis feature which takes a comparative approach and directly contrasts your keyword profile with up to five competitors. It's not merely about volume but it dives into keyword difficulty scores and SERP features occupied by competitors. This comparison explains strategic gaps in your SEO approach and offers a roadmap to prioritize efforts on keywords where you can realistically outperform your rivals.

Moreover, if you’re looking for “not provided” keywords, SemRush also integrates with Google Analytics and Google Search Console to bring such keywords to light and present a complete picture of your organic search landscape. This integration is super-friendly for bridging the gap between estimated search data and actual visitor behavior on your site.

Again, SemRush is designed to help you out with extensive tasks. For this, you get to manage and segment up to 2,000 keywords under the Keyword Manager. This feature is particularly useful for large-scale campaigns or agencies managing multiple clients.

Content optimization tools 

(Image credit: Semrush)

SemRush content optimization tools analyze and provide recommendations on keyword usage to make your content more SEO-friendly. They not only identify which keywords to use but also mention the number of times to use them. This is guided by insights acquired from your competitor's performance.

Plus, you can integrate Semrush into your Google Docs, WordPress, and even MS Word account. It offers extensive writing assistant tools that use AI to brief you on important metrics about your content, including its formatting, SEO optimization, tips to improve readability, and many more. They do this by evaluating your content for factors like sentence length, complexity, and overall structure and offering suggestions to enhance readability. This is crucial, as accessible content tends to perform better in terms of user engagement and search engine rankings. The best part? You get all this live along with your writing tools. This saves a lot of your time during editing and improves your content significantly. And, if you use a separate tool for plagiarism checking, SemRush will also solve that issue, as it has its own originality checker. The tool scans a vast database, flagging potential duplicates so you can maintain the uniqueness of your content, which is critical for ranking purposes.

PPC keyword research tools 

(Image credit: Semrush)

SemRush's PPC Keyword Research Tools present highly searched terms to niche long-tail keywords, with volumes varying from a few searches per month to several thousand. This information helps you identify both high-traffic and low-competition opportunities.

Cost-per-click (CPC) analysis is another area where these tools deliver extensive data. CPC values can range from as low as $0.05 in less competitive niches to over $50 for highly competitive terms. This insight helps you make informed decisions on budget allocation and bidding strategies.

We’re also big fans of Semrush’s competitive analysis feature, which points out rivals’ strategies and reveals opportunities for optimization and outperforming competitors. This insight includes data on competitors' ad spend, the keywords they are bidding on, and their past ad performance. By gaining this information, you can identify gaps in their strategy and take an upper hand.

Lastly, you also gain access to localized data with Semrush. This helps you improve the relevance of ads in specific demographics and regions to increase your engagement rates and the overall efficiency of PPC campaigns.

On-[age and technical SEO

(Image credit: Semrush)

Semrush's Site Audit tool is designed to crawl websites in detail by simulating search engine crawling behaviors. While doing this, it pinpoints and prioritizes on-site issues, covering more than 130 checks for SEO health, including HTTPS security protocols, core web vitals, and issues like duplicate content.

Among the On-Page and Technical SEO tools, the On-Page SEO Checker is our favorite, as it goes beyond keyword optimization. Utilizing Semrush's extensive dataset, it provides tailored recommendations by analyzing SERP positions, backlink profiles, and content quality. Plus, it predicts how much traffic you might get and compares your site with competitors.

Also, if you face difficulty deciding what to include in your article, the SEO Content Template tool can be of great use to you. It generates content creation blueprints by analyzing top-performing pages for selected keywords. Moreover, It advises on text length, backlink sources, and multimedia inclusion tailored to Google's SERP features preferences.

Link building and backlink analysis 

(Image credit: Semrush)

Semrush's Backlink Analytics tool examines websites' backlink profiles by identifying link-building patterns and pointing out opportunities for growth. It does this by separating links by type, attributes, and quality. Besides this, it also tracks how backlink profiles change over time to understand patterns on how these links are won.

We all know how harmful backlinks can affect SEO health. Keeping that in mind, SemRush also offers a Backlink Audit feature that identifies potentially harmful backlinks. This process involves integrating with Google Search Console to evaluate link quality using over 45 different toxic markers. With this, you can easily manage and reject harmful links directly on the platform.

Its link-building tools further help to simplify your outreach process. It suggests potential link-building opportunities based on competitor backlink profiles and keyword priorities. We also love how Semrush manages outreach campaigns and evaluates the authority and relevance of suggested sites. Also, the way it organizes prospects by campaign for the efficient execution of targeted link-building strategies greatly streamlines the process.

SemRush: Interface and in-use

SemRush’s interface is user-friendly and effective, so whether you're a beginner or an experienced digital marketer, you won't have issues navigating its extensive toolset. The dashboard is also neatly organized, so you have tools for SEO, PPC, and content marketing at your fingertips. What we love the most about this setup is the ease with which we can switch between tasks.

Though the platform's broad range of features might initially confuse a beginner, this variety showcases SemRush's strength as a vast digital marketing tool. Overall, SemRush offers a mix of complexity and user-friendliness and delivers a powerful resource for diverse digital marketing activities.

SemRush: Support

(Image credit: SEMRush)

SemRush offers multiple support options to help you fully utilize its capabilities. If you're new to the platform or want to improve your understanding of its features, you can schedule a session with an expert. These experts walk you through the platform and demonstrate how to make the most of its extensive features.

For those considering an upgrade or needing a solution for their specific requirements, the sales team is always available to assist and guide you through the different options to find the perfect fit for your needs.

SemRush also caters to users who prefer to explore and learn independently. It offers many self-help resources, including user manuals, instructional videos, and FAQs. These materials are designed to help users navigate the platform and address any questions they may have.

SemRush: The competition

SEMRush is broadly aligned with competing SEO services in terms of both pricing and the feature set. For example, Moz Pro, one of its top competitors, has roughly comparable subscriptions (although a lower entry tier) at the price points of $99, $179, $249, and $599 per month, with each upgrade adding higher limits and new features.

Also, keep in mind that some platforms have more affordable plans than either SEMRush or Moz Pro. For those who don’t need everything included in the Pro subscription, or if $120 per month is over your budget, then consider a service with a lower barrier to entry.

SemRush: Final verdict

If you’re looking for an SEO tool to enhance your website’s SEO, PPC, and content strategies, SemRush is probably among the top options. While we did face a learning curve to use its comprehensive features, its interface is remarkably user-friendly. We appreciate the supportive resources and expert guidance SemRush provided, as it helps maximize the investment.

The plans offered by SemRush are also designed to accommodate the needs of all businesses, whether a small team or an enterprise. Despite the plans being costly, the substantial value SemRush adds to online marketing efforts justifies the price, making it an excellent investment if you're looking to boost your website.

Categories: Reviews

Marvel-ous: After 7 years, Chris Hemsworth's Centr app has quietly transformed into one of the best fitness platforms on mobile

TechRadar News - Wed, 02/04/2026 - 22:30
I trained for 3 weeks using Centr, and Chris Hemsworth's dynamic fitness app had my muscles feeling Thor
Categories: Technology

Marvel-ous: After 7 years, Chris Hemsworth's Centr app has quietly transformed into one of the best fitness platforms on mobile

TechRadar Reviews - Wed, 02/04/2026 - 22:30
Centr: One minute review

Not many fitness apps have the name of a bona fide Hollywood star on them. Chris Hemsworth, the actor who plays Thor, puts his money where his muscles are with Centr, a holistic workout app that manages just about every aspect of your fitness journey. The app packs content on food to helping you plan rest days, and, of course, the exercise sessions themselves, and it does a pretty great job across all aspects.

There are daily workout classes accessible within the app, as well as self-guided workout plans that incorporate both strength training and cardio, with ratios based on your chosen goal. I was impressed with is the diversity of workouts on offer; while I’ve primarily used Fitbod over the last couple of years, that particular app essentially just keeps rotating exercises and workouts forever, with no real plan outside of the user setting a goal.

That made Centr’s way of working, with exercise plans spanning days and weeks, much easier for me to stick to, especially as it does a great job of layering in rest days or active recovery. Centr can work with the equipment you have, whether that’s bodyweight-only exercises, a full gym, or anywhere in between, and the whole app feels thoughtfully designed so that it’s easy to switch out exercises or substitute in different weight amounts.

Aside from workouts, there’s a really impressive recipe section that made me want to invest more in meal plans, and mindfulness tools for winding down after a hard day’s work. One of my favorite features is that your plan is viewable online via the Centr website, making it easier to plot your progress or prepare included recipes on your laptop.

The rub is that all of this comes at a high price, at least if you’re paying monthly. $30 a month will be a tough pill to swallow for many more casual users, but you can save a ton by going for the $139.99 / £114.99 / AU$360 annual plan. There is a free trial, but you can only enjoy that for a week, so be sure to make the most out of it.

For those looking for a holistic fitness and wellbeing tool, Centr will tick a lot of boxes. Not only is it packed with features, but the app is much easier to navigate than some rivals that do less.

(Image credit: Centr)Centr: Price and availability
  • Monthly cost is high at $29.99 / £19.66 / $29.99 per month
  • Annual plan considerably lowers costs to $11.67 / £9.58 / AU$13.33 per month
  • iOS and Android

Centr is available worldwide on the App Store and Play Store, meaning it’s ideal for both iOS and Android users.

It works out to $29.99 / £19.66 / $29.99 per month, which is more than many of its rivals like Fitbod or PUSH, but paying for a year brings that down to $11.67 / £9.58 / AU$13.33 per month, a sizeable drop.

Centr: Scorecard

Category

Comment

Score

Value

Pricey per month, meaning annual membership is the only real way to go.

4/5

Design

The initial quiz is handy for setting things up, and the app is easy to use.

5/5

Features

Wide variety of programs (including equipment-free options), mindfulness and even recipes.

5/5

Performance

No body scan workouts, but very detailed instructions and very easy to follow as a result.

4.5/5

Centr: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future)Buy it if...

You want more than just workouts

Centr incorporates mindfulness tools and recipes, meaning there’s more than just planning and tracking workouts included.

You want to build muscle sustainably

Because it factors in rest days and longer-tail workout regimens, Centr is an ideal choice for anyone looking to build sustainable muscle.

Don't buy it if...

You want to focus on workouts alone

There are cheaper alternatives that don’t have meal plans and other optional inclusions, meaning you can focus your budget elsewhere.

You want a cheap workout app

Even with all of those features, Centr is expensive, costing twice what you can get from the likes of PUSH or Fitbod.

Also consider

Centr

Fitbod

Push

Platforms

iOS/Android

iOS/Android

iOS/Android

Price

$29.99 per month, $120 annually

$15.99 per month, $95.99 annually

$15.49 per month, $89.99 annually

Devices

iPhone, Android phone, Apple Watch

iPhone, Android phone, Apple Watch

iPhone, Android phone

Guided Content

No

No

Yes

Video Content

Yes

Yes

Tes

Fitbod

Fitbod is more squarely focused on tracking weight exercises, but has an easy-to-use interface with great video tutorials for each one.

Read our full Fitbod review

PUSH

PUSH is all about building muscle, and leans on the tried and true progressive overload technique to keep you pushing ever further.

Read our full PUSH review

How I tested

I took Centr to the gym over the course of three weeks, working out with the app installed on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and then an iPhone 17 Pro Max. I also used the web interface to more easily read the recipe guides.

Categories: Reviews

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TechRadar Reviews - Wed, 02/04/2026 - 17:55
Fluance Ri91: Two-minute review

The Fluance Ri91 floorstanding speakers are the third pair of Fluance's line-up that I’ve reviewed here at TechRadar with each model sounding better than the last – I don't mind sharing that this testing has turned me into a bit of a fan.

The Fluance Ri91 represent a modernized addition to the competitors for our list of the best stereo speakers – like the Fluance Ri71, they are a step up for the company since they include support for Bluetooth including aptX, plus an HDMI ARC input. Add in the reasonable price for what they are, and they're very tempting indeed.

There are issues with the Fluance Ri91, but they're minimal. Sure, the sound is a bit mid-focused, but most people looking for pleasing audio will appreciate this fact (and they sound great overall anyway). The lack of a phono preamp isn't a dealbreaker, and is easily remedied if needed.

The only real concern I have is about build quality, because the original pair of these speakers I received had an issue with the HDMI port (quite a major one: it didn’t work).

That said, the Fluance Ri91 speakers come with a warranty, and the replacement pair the company sent presented no issue during review.

Considering how expensive floorstanding speakers can get, I think these speakers at $799 (about £640 / AU$1,270) are very easy to recommend for any music lover or budding audiophile.

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Price and release date
  • $799 (about £640 / AU$1,270)
  • Released in March 2025

Being the big brother of the Fluance Ri71 I recently reviewed, the Fluance Ri91 is appropriately a bit more expensive, but thoroughly reasonable at $799 (about £640 / AU$1,270).

While the Fluance Ri71 is available in both the US and UK, the Ri91 reviewed here seems to only be available in the US.

At least these floorstanding speakers are available through a number of retailers like Amazon, Macy’s, and Walmart, as well as directly from the brand itself.

Fluance Ri91 review: Specs

Dimensions

41.73 x 8.5 x 10.24 inches / 106.0 x 21.6 x 26.0 cm

Weight

Active Speaker: 41.89 lb (19 kg) Passive Speaker: 40.79 lb (18.5 kg)

Active or passive

Active

Subwoofer

No (has sub out)

Frequency response

40Hz - 30kHz

Dolby Atmos / DTS:X enabled

No

Maximum output

150 watts

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Features
  • Comes with HDMI ARC input
  • Bluetooth supports aptX HD
  • Doesn’t come with phono preamp or Wi-Fi streaming

The feature set of these sorts of speakers – even active ones – is going to be pretty limited compared to what you find in the best soundbars, despite the addition of an HDMI port. But that’s because they’re not trying to do the same thing. The features here are focused on convenience and helping getting the best stereo sound possible.

Regarding convenience, it first should be noted that the Fluance Ri91 are an active set of floorstanding speakers, meaning that they don’t need an external receiver for power or connections. Also on the convenience front is the HDMI-ARC input, which is new for Fluance on the Ri91 and the Ri71 bookshelf speakers that were released at the same time.

There's Bluetooth 5.0 and aptX HD support for wireless streaming, with the allowing transmission of higher-res audio. That’s greatly appreciated for those using hi-fi-level streaming services – but not that there's no Wi-Fi, or for the highest-res support, except for wiring in the old-fashioned way.

These speakers pump out 150 watts of class D power using two 6.5-inch woven glass drivers and a 28x35mm AMT in place of a traditional tweeter. There’s no subwoofer, but there is a bass port at the bottom of each speaker cabinet.

All the connectivity is on the back of the active speaker, which is the right one by default, though you can hold the mute button down for three seconds and switch the configuration. Besides the ARC-supported HDMI port, there are also two RCA inputs, and a subwoofer out, along with the speaker wire hookups.

Lastly, while you can (and should) connect one of the best turntables to these speakers, the Fluance Ri91 do not come with a built-in phono preamp, so you’ll need to make sure your record player has one built in (or get an external one) to make sure the signal going to the speaker is loud enough.

  • Features score: 4.5 / 5

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Sound quality
  • Sound great when turned up and a little muffled when not
  • Somewhat mid-focused
  • Better for music than for movies

The Fluance Ri91 sound very good. And for any audiophiles out there, they sound like what you would expect from floorstanding speakers that cost about $800. They’re not going to wipe the floor with speakers that cost the price of a new car, but they’re good enough to blow away people that are not in the audiophile world, or are new to it.

I played all sorts of artists to test them, from John Coltrane to Kendrick Lamar to Smashing Pumpkins. I also listened to music from the ’60s and ’70s. After all my listening, a few things became clear.

First, as somewhat behemoth speakers, they don’t really come alive until you turn the volume up, in some instances even sounding a tiny bit muffled when lower. Also, when I was initially listening at lower volumes, I felt like I wasn’t getting a lot of low end. Turning them up fixed all these issues.

The sound was expansive when loud, with plenty of low-end, though you might want to add a sub if you listen to a lot of Hip Hop or EDM, as some songs didn’t translate as well. The high-end was clear and detailed, and the mid-range was rich, though it is a bit upfront.

Unfortunately, there’s no EQ for the mids, so you have to turn up the treble and bass a little if that bothers you (I prefer to cut the mids a bit when dealing with this problem, but obviously couldn't here).

I also used the Fluance Ri91 for some movie watching and gaming. The sound quality is there, but being a more traditional stereo setup makes this not as ideal for the immersive home theater experience.

With music, I can feel the wide stereo soundstage with accurate imaging when the speakers are correctly set up. With movies, it can feel a little one dimensional, especially at lower volumes.

Now, that’s not to detract from the Fluance Ri91, as they shine for a more traditional listening experience, and that’s what they’re really meant for. They do work well enough for movies and gaming, but using them right after testing a surround-sound system really highlights that these are speakers for listening to music first.

  • Sound quality score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Design
  • Tall and hefty as floorstanders
  • Good connections and controls on one speaker
  • Has EQ controls on remote

The Fluance Ri91 are fairly imposing, standing at just under 42 inches tall. And with a weight of about 40 lbs per speaker, they’re hefty as well. It’s a good thing that they look good (available in walnut, black, or white) since these aren’t the kind of speakers you can tuck away discreetly.

There’s a Bluetooth pairing button on the back, and two additional controls on the active speaker, one being the power switch. The other is a volume dial that sits atop the back of the speaker that can also be pressed in to change inputs.

But you’re more likely to use the included remote for any adjusting. The remote is pretty straight forward with all the usual stuff like volume controls, power, input, etc. But it also includes a Treble and Bass Boost and Cut that’s helpful for fine tuning the audio a little bit.

My only real issue with the Fluance Ri91 are some concerns about quality assurance. Not only were the styrofoam packing the speakers came in disintegrating, but the HDMI input didn’t work in my first pair, so I had to request another test unit.

The speakers were promptly replaced for me, and come with a two-year warranty for regular buyers.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Setup and usability
  • Setup is simple and straightforward
  • Positioning the speakers takes some time but is worth it
  • Using them is fairly intuitive

The functional setup of the Fluance Ri91 is very straightforward. Take each speaker out of the box, connect the active one to power, and connect the two speakers together with the included speaker wire. Then pop in the batteries for the remote and connect whatever sources you want. Flip the power switch and you’re good to go.

Of course, you should correctly set up the speakers to get the best sound and that can take a little time (and a measuring tape) – I found that you needed to be careful with positioning them next to walls. But it doesn’t take that long and it’s worth it.

Using the Fluance Ri91 is just as simple. The included remote is not all that complicated, and the color-coded LED indicator on the active speaker not only lets me know what source I’m on, but will flash when certain settings are reached, such as the mid, low, or high point for EQ settings.

  • Setup and usability score: 5 / 5

(Image credit: James Holland)Fluance Ri91 review: Value
  • These are Fluance’s most expensive speakers
  • Some other quality options at the same price
  • The Ri91 are more feature-heavy than the competition

It's interesting to compare the Fluance Ri91 with the company’s previous floorstanding entry, the Ai81, which is a little cheaper at $599, versus to $799 for the Ri91. The Ri91 replaces the silk dome tweeter of the Ai81 with an AMT one, not to mention also includes an HDMI port.

Interestingly, the Ai81 reaches down to 30Hz instead of 40Hz like the Ri91, so does have a little more bass without adding a subwoofer. On the flipside, the Ri91’s 30kHz upper range is more impressive than the 20kHz of the Ai81 and is something I value more than the deeper bass.

Since Fluance generally fits into that budget-premium range, the Fluance Ri91’s price tag is about what one would expect. They’re not in the thousands like most boutique audio brands, but have some competition at the same price, such as the Q Acoustics M40 HD. The Q Acoustics were a little more expensive when released in 2024, but go for the same amount now, not to mention are also available in the UK and Australia.

Plus, the two products stack up fairly well against each other, though the Fluance Ri91 do include an HDMI port, 50 more watts of power, and a wider frequency response, probably thanks in part to those AMT tweeters.

  • Value score: 4.5 / 5
Should I buy the Fluance Ri91 speakers?Score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

The feature set is pretty good for this type of speaker, including aptX. No, phono preamp or Wi-Fi streaming, though.

4.5 / 5

Sound quality

While not ideal for TV, these speakers sound great, particularly when turned up.

4 / 5

Design

Good port selection and imposing look only held back by build quality concerns.

4 / 5

Setup and Usability

Easy to set up and use, though one should make sure to spend some time on speaker placement.

5 / 5

Value

The price is very good for floorstanders, especially considering the feature set.

4.5 / 5

Buy them if…

You want loud and expansive, impressive sounding audio
These speakers sound really good when they’re really loud. If your criteria is loud and good, then get the Fluance Ri91.

You need extra connectivity
The included HDMI ARC port and aptX HD over Bluetooth support is something that sets these speakers apart, especially from other models at this price point.

You can’t quite justify audiophile prices
Audiophile speakers can get really expensive. These sound good while still staying under a grand. That’s pretty good for a new pair of floorstanding speakers.

Don’t buy them if…

You’re in a small space
These speakers are a bit underwhelming at low volume (and they take up a lot of space), so if you have limited space, go for the Ri71 instead.

You want pristine, neutral audio
These speakers sound very good, but are not the right pick for anyone looking for very neutral sounding audio.

Fluance Ri91 review: Also consider

Q Acoustics M40 HD
Like the Ri91, these sound massive. They also bridge the gap between big speakers and not needing a lot of space as they’re a bit smaller than the Ri91 making them a good alternative if you don’t have a big space.

Read our full Q Acoustics M40 HD review

Kanto Ren
The Kanto Ren has it all in terms of connectivity – USB-C, HDMI, Bluetooth 5.3. Plus it comes in interesting colors, though it will pick up every fingerprint. It’s lovely with a full, robust sound. However, the bass can get a little flabby.

Read our full Kanto Ren review

How I tested the Fluance Ri91
  • Used regularly for a few weeks
  • Listened to all kinds of audio
  • Tested the various controls and ports

I used the Fluance Ri91 for a few weeks at home, listening to all sorts of genres of music – Hip Hop, EDM, Top 40 Pop, Rock, Jazz, and Folk, among others – to get a better feel for these speakers. They were also tested with some TV and computer games. I tested the various controls and ports as well.

I’ve tested a lot of tech gear over the years from laptops to keyboards and speakers, and so have been able to use my expertise towards giving an honest and fair opinion, not to mention a critical eye, to any product I test.

Categories: Reviews

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