So I figured out you can skip the entire Semrush dashboard and just talk to Claude instead. Give it your API key, ask SEO questions in plain English, and it makes the API calls for you. No code. No Zapier. Nothing.

If you've used Claude CLI for other workflows, you already know how powerful this is. Let me show you how it works for SEO.

Quick context before we start: Semrush is the research. The two things that actually move rankings are backlinks and getting your pages indexed, and I sell a tool for each:

The SaaS Backlink Vault: 500 verified sites where you can get a backlink, the same list I use for my own products.
IndexThis: pushes your pages into Google's index in days instead of weeks.

I'll show where each one fits as we go.

Setting Up Semrush API with Claude

Get your API key

Go to semrush.com, log in, then head to Profile → Subscription Info → API Units. Copy your API key from there.

Free accounts get 10 API units per day. That's enough to play around. Paid plans obviously get way more.

Give Claude your key

Start a Claude conversation and paste this:

My Semrush API key is: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

Use this key to call the Semrush API whenever I ask SEO-related questions.
The base URL is: https://api.semrush.com/

That's it. Claude now knows how to authenticate. You don't need to set up anything else.

Prompts That Actually Work

Here's the part you came for. Copy these, swap out the domain or keyword, and you're good.

Keyword research

Using my Semrush API key, find the top 10 keywords that "neilpatel.com"
ranks for in the US. Show me: keyword, position, search volume, and
keyword difficulty. Then suggest 5 content ideas based on the gaps.

Use Semrush API to find keywords related to "AI presentation tool".
Show volume, CPC, and competition level. Sort by highest volume first.

Find long-tail keywords (search volume 100–1000) for the topic
"email marketing for SaaS". Pull from Semrush and group them
by intent: informational, commercial, transactional.

I use the long-tail one a lot. It's genuinely useful for finding blog topics that are actually rankable. This is how I plan content for MagicSlides too.

Competitor analysis

Use Semrush API to compare "gamma.app" and "beautiful.ai".
Show me: organic traffic estimate, number of ranking keywords,
top 5 pages by traffic. Who is winning and why?

My domain is "magicslides.app". Use Semrush to find my top
5 organic competitors. Then show what keywords they rank for
that I don't — those are my content opportunities.

Pull the top 10 traffic-driving pages for "canva.com" using
Semrush API. For each page, tell me the main keyword and
estimated monthly visits.

The second one is my favorite. It literally tells you what to write next.

Backlink analysis

Use Semrush API to pull backlink data for "notion.so".
Show me: total backlinks, referring domains, top 10
linking domains with their authority scores.

Find the 10 most valuable backlinks pointing to "gamma.app".
I want anchor text, source domain, and domain authority.
Then suggest where I should try to get similar links.

Compare backlink profiles of "slides.ai" vs "magicslides.app"
using Semrush. Who has more referring domains? What link
building tactics should I steal?

This shows you who links to your competitors. Getting those links yourself is the slow part. That's why I built The SaaS Backlink Vault: 500 verified sites where you can actually get a backlink, sorted so you can work through them in an afternoon instead of cold-emailing site owners for weeks.

Site audit and blog writing

Use Semrush API to check the on-page SEO health signals for
"magicslides.app". What are the biggest issues I should fix first?

This is where it gets really good — you can chain research and writing in one shot:

Use Semrush API to find the top 5 ranking articles for the
keyword "best AI presentation tool". Analyze what they cover,
then write me a 1500-word blog post that is better than all of them.
Naturally include related keywords from Semrush data.

Once the post is live, don't wait weeks for Google to find it. New pages on small sites often sit in "Discovered – currently not indexed" for a long time. IndexThis submits them to Google through the Indexing API, so they're usually in the index within days.

If you're building AI-powered tools or SaaS products, this workflow saves hours every week.

Pro tips

Always mention the country. Semrush data is geo-specific. If you don't say "in the US" or "in India", you'll get weird results. Just add it to every prompt.

Chain your prompts. Do keyword research → ask Claude to write the blog → then ask for internal linking suggestions. One conversation, full workflow. I do this all the time now.

Ask what API call it made. If you're curious, just ask Claude: "What endpoint did you use?" It'll explain everything. Good way to learn the API without reading docs.

Save prompts that work. When you find one that gives you exactly what you need, save it somewhere. I reuse the same 4-5 prompts every week to track ranking changes.

Free tier limits

Feature	Free API	Paid API
Daily API units	10	1000s
Keyword data	Limited rows	Full dataset
Historical data	❌	✅
Branded reports	❌	✅

10 units a day is enough to experiment and see if this workflow works for you. If you're doing this daily, you'll want to upgrade.

That's basically it

Get your API key from Semrush
Paste it into Claude
Use the prompts above
No code, no dashboards, no tools

I've been doing my SEO research like this for a while now and it's honestly faster than using the Semrush UI. You just ask what you want to know and get the answer. If you want to see how I build and ship products fast, check that out too.

Now get ranked

Research is step one. Here's what moves the numbers after it:

Get backlinks: The SaaS Backlink Vault gives you 500 verified places to get them.
Get indexed: IndexThis puts your new pages into Google fast.

Watch the full walkthrough on Instagram — @sanskarr.tiwari

Semrush API: How to Use It Without Writing Code (2026 Guide)