Semrush ContentShake Review 2023: Honest & Unbiased (Really!)

Oh oh! Here comes Semrush ContentShake – one more content writing tool!

Does it really help you to write content? How is it different from other content AI tools?

Should you use it?

I have tested the tool in detail, and I will share with you my honest Semrush ContentShake review. Read on to know my take on ContentShake’s key features, pricing, and overall performance.

What is Semrush ContentShake?

ContentShake is a new content marketing tool developed by Semrush to streamline the process from content ideation to publication to optimization.

It leverages AI and machine learning algorithms to generate personalized content ideas for your niche, write your content based on keywords it finds from Semrush, and optimize your content for your brand and SEO.

ContentShake is available in the Semrush app center.

ContentShake Review – Summary

ContentShake holds promise as a content creation solution, but it is essential to approach it like any AI tool – with a learning curve.

While it offers helpful features, especially related to SEO content writing, achieving top-tier content will require training and human input.

ContentShake Features

The top features of ContentShake can be summarized into 4 categories:

• Content topic generation
• Content creation
• Content optimization
• Content publication and collaboration

1. Content topic generation

ContentShake provides personalized topic ideas based on your business niche, that helps you to create articles that cater to your audience’s real-life questions.

It also analyzes your competition, uncovering what works best for other websites in your industry. When you have this information, you can select ideas that generate the most traffic while avoiding highly competitive topics.

All you have to do is describe your business or enter keywords, and ContentShake will find topic ideas that fit.

Now, you want to select a topic that will drive the maximum traffic to your site. When you click on these topic ideas, you get an indication of whether it will drive low or high traffic.

Now, this seems like genius, and it is helpful to get an idea, but like most SEOs, I am a bit skeptical till I see actual data of estimated traffic. I want to evaluate myself if I think this keyword will drive traffic or not.

I will actually then use Semrush and do proper keyword research. And honestly, I recommend that you do that too.

In short, I love getting so many related topics right at the start. It gives me a lot of ideas and also helps me create keyword clusters.

However, I would not only depend on ContentShake for my topic idea, I would also do my own research about topics.

That being said, the topic ideas the tool suggested based on the niche I entered is not so bad.

2. Content creation

The second part of the content writing feature of ContentShake lies in suggestions that improve your SEO content writing.

Once you choose a topic, you get an AI-generated article with the relevant outline, keywords, images, facts, structure, and competitor insights.

You get different options of titles, introductions, and images.

But the sections that really interests me most are:

• Keywords
• Structure
• Facts & Data

And of course, the most important feature: Compose with AI or Ask AI. But more on that later.

Keywords

You get suggestions for keywords that you can add to your keyword. When you hover on them, you see the volume and difficulty metrics from Semrush.

This is really great as I really trust Semrush data, and hardly any other tool lets me integrate AI writing with Semrush.

If you click on the ‘+’, the keyword is added as a target keyword and used in your content.

Where I think the tool could be better is in actually suggesting the keywords that can be used.

For instance, I found a lot of related keywords which could help my article, but they were mostly high-volume and high-difficulty. So it really depends on the topic and the way you are writing your article.

In a nutshell, ContentShake doesn’t eliminate the need for keyword research. You can add your own keywords, though, and it will be automatically used in your content.

Structure

The structure section of ContentShake outlines the on-page SEO structure used in the current article.

What I like in this section more are the competing pages and their heading tags and sub-topics. The questions that people ask is also helpful to create a content outline or an SEO content brief.

Again, this is present just as a reference to similar articles. But do these posts really feature high in SERPs? Which keywords do they get most traffic from?

You don’t get that data here, so you might want to do some competition research of your own.

Facts & Data

The Facts and Data section offers you posts and pages you can link out to if you want to add more credibility or statistics to your article.

This is quite a nice feature. Some times I have found relevant content to link out to, sometimes it has been a hit and miss.

Compose with AI

The real value of ContentShake actually lies in the command of Compose with AI, which essentially lets you add more content.

You can add detailed text prompts, asking the tool to create or revise the content exactly as per your needs. You can ask it to change the outline, rewrite existing content, or add more facts and figures.

Here I added a prompt to provide more information on the meals.

And I got this output.

You would really have to try out ContentShake to test the experience with these features.

3. Content optimization

ContentShake’s content optimization feature is a lot like the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant.

It ensures that your articles are easy to read and maintain a consistent tone of voice.

The tool employs smart algorithms to highlight any issues in your text, offering suggestions for rewrites where necessary. This content optimization feature is key to keeping both users and search engines delighted with your articles.

You can also improve your text for on-page SEO with rephrasing paragraphs, simplifying them, and more.

4. Content publication and collaboration

ContentShake lets you transfer your article to Google Docs so that you can refine your content outline there, and then publish it to WordPress (through a plugin).

I write on Google Docs and use WordPress, so for me, this is an awesome feature. It also helps if you want team members to be able to add their inputs on the content.

You will have to decide if this feature is significant for you.

How to use ContentShake

Based on the features described above, here are 5 simple steps to use Semrush for the content marketing of your business.

1. Set up your page: Enter keywords that describe your business, select relevant tags, and click “Start writing.”

2. Choose your ideas: Browse the list of topics and select an idea to explore further. ContentShake provides search intent and traffic potential details for each topic.

3. Write: ContentShake generates an outline with a blog post title, subheads, and intro text. You can edit the outline, compose content with AI assistance, and use dynamic questions for further refinements.

4. Optimize: The tool provides a quality score based on readability, SEO, and tone of voice. Users can fine-tune their content by addressing highlighted issues and utilizing AI-based improvements.

5. Share: Once the article is ready, ContentShake allows direct publishing to WordPress via its plugin or sending the article to Google Docs.

ContentShake Pricing

ContentShake offers both a free version and a paid version.

The free version includes basic features, as with most freemium plugins.

The paid version, priced at $60 per month, unlocks additional benefits, including 25 new content ideas weekly, unlimited articles, and unrestricted access to “Compose with AI” and all rewrite features.

The paid version also facilitates one-click WordPress publishing for seamless article sharing.

Here is a detailed breakdown of the differences between the free and paid versions of ContentShake.

While at a first glance it is not easy to make out if the paid version of ContentShake is worth it, here’s an easy way to think about it.

With the free version, you can generate 3 ideas per topic, and 3 topic ideas = 9 ideas for content.

With the paid version, that becomes 5 x 5 = 25 ideas.

Besides, you can enter your custom ideas and use the AI tool to compose and rewrite content as much as you want. That is really what you are looking for, isn’t it?

Remember that because of the limit of topic ideas per week, ContentShake is really more applicable for businesses with a certain niche than for copywriters or content writers who could be creating content for multiple clients frequently.

ContentShake Free Trial

ContentShake only offers a free and paid version, so technically there is no free trial. Your free version is your free trial, and you can test out the tool.

If you want higher limits on your plan, then you will have to sign up for the paid version.

ContentShake Pros and Cons

Pros

1. Personalized topic and content recommendations

The content suggestions you get are very specific to your niche. You can customize them to make them even more specific, giving you an edge over competition.

2. User-friendly interface

ContentShake is a very simple tool to use, catering to writers of all skill levels. Whether you’re a small business owner or part of an in-house marketing team, you can easily make the most of ContentShake’s features.

3. Ask AI

The Compose with AI feature lets you deep dive into the content and structure it and personalize it based on your content objectives.

4. SEO optimization

You can add keywords, improve your structure, and even your readability and user experience with the ContentShake AI writing tool.

5. Easy integration with Google Docs & WordPress

You can structur your content, collect inputs and publish your articles easily.

Cons

1. Currently available only in English

Other key languages could be added eventually, but right now this tool is available only in English.

2. Learning curve to train the AI tool

You need to really work with the right prompts and commands to get the content you want. It takes a bit of time, like all AI tools, irrespective of writing.

3. Ideas can be generated only once a week

I find this to be a bit limiting because I publish content frequently. But if you are not wring that often, this is not such a huge barrier.

Semrush ContentShake review – Detailed summary and conclusion

ContentShake makes it easy for you to write SEO content in a structured way based on competitive posts and user intent. It is better than pure AI content writing tools as it lets you get data from Semrush while writing your data. However, it does not eliminate the need for basic SEO steps like keyword and competition research.

As with other AI tools, it also requires training and understanding to utilize its features effectively. In a nutshell, I would say that this AI tool has potential.

It can work for you right now if you are just getting started with SEO writing and need a tool to help you write search-engine friendly content.

If you are a seasoned, advanced SEO writer, then you should combine this tool with SEO research.

But nothing indicates the value of a product as trying it out for your specific needs and in this case, your content creation process.