Semrush integrations, and which of them actually connect

Every SEO platform advertises its integrations as a count of logos. The count tells you nothing. Three questions do: does it connect by itself, does it cost more, and what am I handing over?

Semrush’s list answers those three differently depending on where you look, and the differences are not labelled.

The two that change what Semrush can tell you

Google Search Console. This is the one that matters, and it is not really an integration so much as a correction. Without it, Semrush is showing you modelled estimates about your own site. With it, the tool has your real queries, impressions and positions. Connect it on day one of any project, before you form a single opinion from Semrush’s own numbers.

Google Analytics. Turns on the user-experience side of several reports. A whole idea category in the On-Page SEO Checker stays empty without it, and you would never know the difference. Also feeds Organic Traffic Insights, which is the tool that recovers the keywords Analytics reports as “not provided”.

Everything else on the list is convenience next to those two.

The one that is not automatic at all

Google Ads connects directly. The PPC Toolkit does not. There is no automatic connection there, and the walkthrough says so out loud: you upload your data manually.

That is a workflow-shaped difference, not a footnote. If you were planning a monthly paid-search report that pulls itself together, half of it is a file you export and import by hand every month. Check that before you promise a client an automated dashboard.

The two that cost extra

Neither of these is obvious from a features page.

Google Business Profile. The local features built around it require an additional plan on top of your subscription. Not a higher tier. A separate purchase.

The App Center. This is a marketplace, and it’s presented inside the product as though it were part of it. There are free apps, apps with trials, and paid apps priced entirely independently of your Semrush plan. Two figures visible in my own walkthrough: one app at $35 a month, another at $169 a month after its trial.

The categories are broad, covering AI tools, keyword research, competitor analysis, social, media monitoring, content, reporting, e-commerce and agency tooling. Some are genuinely good. None of them are included, and a couple cost more than a whole tier of the platform they sit inside. Worth counting alongside what the subscription itself costs.

What you actually hand over

This is the question nobody asks about an integration, and it’s the one with consequences.

Connecting Search Console for reporting is a normal OAuth grant. But the Backlink Audit disavow flow is different: it gives you an email address and asks you to add it as a user on your Search Console property, which you can only do as a verified owner. That is an account on your property, not a scope you revoke from a permissions screen in ten seconds.

Plenty of agencies do this daily and it’s a reasonable trade. Make it deliberately, note it somewhere, and remove the access when the work is finished. The full walkthrough of that flow covers where it appears.

The ones worth knowing exist

Short list, because most of the value is above.

Google Sheets export. Push keyword sets straight out instead of downloading CSVs. Small, and it removes a step you do constantly.

Google Tag Manager and browser extensions. The SEO extension puts Semrush data on top of a live Google results page, which is genuinely handy for quick checks.

Third-party tools carrying Semrush data. Surfer SEO, among others, pulls Semrush competitive data into its own interface. If you already pay for a content optimiser, check whether it does this before buying a Semrush tier for the same numbers.

Social platforms. Relevant only if you use the social toolkit, which most SEO buyers never open.

The honest summary: connect Search Console and Analytics, expect the PPC side to be manual, and treat the App Center as a shop rather than a feature list.