Semrush MCP

MCP Server & CLI for keyword research, domain analytics, backlinks, traffic analysis, and competitive intelligence.

A community-maintained, self-hosted tool that provides Semrush API data through two entry points: an MCP server for AI assistants like Claude Desktop and Cursor, and a semrush CLI for direct terminal use — ideal for developers and AI coding agents like Claude Code that can run shell commands on your behalf. One install gives you both.

Quick Start

npm install -g github:mrkooblu/semrush-mcp
export SEMRUSH_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

After installing, you have two commands:

• semrush — CLI for terminal and agent use
• semrush-mcp — MCP server on stdio for AI clients

CLI:

semrush domain semrush.com           # Domain overview
semrush kw "seo tools"               # Keyword overview
semrush backlinks semrush.com        # Backlink analysis

MCP server (add to your AI client config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semrush-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:mrkooblu/semrush-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SEMRUSH_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Features

• Domain Analytics — Overview, rank tracking, rank history, organic/paid keywords, competitors, ads history, shopping, unique pages
• URL Analytics — Organic/paid keywords, rank, rank history per URL
• Subdomain Analytics — Rank, rank history, organic keywords per subdomain
• Subfolder Analytics — Organic/paid keywords, rank, rank history, unique pages per subfolder
• Keyword Research — Overview, related keywords, broad match, questions, SERP organic/paid results, ads history, difficulty
• Backlink Analysis — Backlinks, referring domains, overview, pages, anchors, TLD distribution, categories
• Traffic Analytics — Summary, sources, destinations, geo, subdomains, subfolders, top pages, rank, social media (requires .Trends)
• Audience Intelligence — Audience insights, demographics, purchase conversion, interests (requires .Trends)
• Projects API — List, create, update, delete projects
• Site Audit — Audit info, snapshots, issues, pages, history, launch crawls
• Keyword Gap Analysis — Compare two domains' keyword profiles side by side (CLI only)
• API Units Balance — Check remaining API credits

All capabilities are available through both the MCP server (77 tools) and the CLI.

Installation

Install globally from GitHub

npm install -g github:mrkooblu/semrush-mcp

Or clone and link locally

git clone https://github.com/mrkooblu/semrush-mcp.git
cd semrush-mcp
npm install && npm run build && npm link

Set your API key in the environment or a .env file:

export SEMRUSH_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

MCP Setup

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "semrush-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:mrkooblu/semrush-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SEMRUSH_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

1. Go to Settings > MCP Servers > Add Server
2. Configure:
   • Name: Semrush MCP
   • Type: command
   • Command: node
   • Arguments: /path/to/semrush-mcp/dist/index.js
   • Environment Variables: SEMRUSH_API_KEY=your_api_key

Other MCP Clients

Any MCP-compatible client can connect using stdio transport. Point it at semrush-mcp or node dist/index.js with the SEMRUSH_API_KEY environment variable set.

CLI Usage

The semrush CLI is built for both human use and AI coding agents like Claude Code that can invoke shell commands directly. All commands support -d, --database <db> (country code, default: us), -l, --limit <n>, and -f, --format <text|json>.

Quick Overview

Auto-detects keyword vs domain:

semrush q "seo to

... [View full README on GitHub](https://github.com/mrkooblu/semrush-mcp#readme)