Đoàn Lê Minh Anh
To succeed with SEO, businesses need to understand what customers are searching for, track keyword rankings, and regularly check website health. Serpstat is an integrated SEO platform with tools for these tasks, from keyword research to backlink analysis.
This guide explains how to use Serpstat through four core feature groups: keyword research, rank tracking, site audit, and backlink analysis. Understanding the role of each module helps you choose the right data, prioritize tasks, and turn analysis into a concrete SEO plan.
What is Serpstat, and who is it for?
Serpstat is an SEO and competitor analysis platform that provides data for keyword research, rank tracking, website technical checks, and backlink profile analysis. Instead of compiling everything manually, marketing teams can use reports in one platform to make more informed decisions.
The tool is suitable for SEO specialists, agencies, business owners, and content managers who want a clear workflow. Its usefulness depends on your goals, market, subscription plan, and data requirements. Treat metrics as reference points for identifying trends, rather than assuming they precisely reflect all the data available to search engines.
Before you begin, define your website, target market, competitors, and the business results you want to improve. For example, you might aim to increase organic traffic to a category page, improve rankings for a core product group, or identify technical issues that are preventing pages from being crawled.
Keyword research: find and select valuable keywords
The keyword research module helps you discover queries related to a topic, assess competition, and identify search demand. In Serpstat, you can enter a seed keyword or domain to explore suggested data groups, depending on the features and markets supported by your account.
To get started, enter a keyword that describes a product, service, or issue your customers care about. Then filter the list using relevant criteria such as relevance, estimated search volume, competition, or query type. Don't choose keywords based only on high search volume: a longer phrase that signals a clear intent to buy may have greater business value.
Next, group keywords by search intent and topic. A query may indicate a desire to learn, compare, find a brand, or make a purchase. Grouping keywords helps prevent multiple pages from targeting the same need and informs whether to create a how-to article, service page, category page, or product page.
- Build a seed keyword list: Note your products, services, common customer problems, and the phrases people use when searching.
- Expand your queries: Explore variations, questions, and related phrases to find additional content topics.
- Assess intent: Determine whether searchers want to learn, compare options, or complete a transaction.
- Prioritize based on resources: Consider relevance, competitiveness, conversion value, and alignment with business goals.
When creating your plan, specify the primary keyword, supporting keywords, search intent, and proposed landing page for each group. Compare Serpstat data with sales information, Search Console queries, and customer insights to avoid creating content based solely on estimated metrics.
Rank tracking: monitor rankings and SEO changes
Rank tracking lets you monitor the positions of target keywords over time. It helps you assess whether changes to your content, website structure, or SEO campaigns correspond with ranking shifts. Before setting up a tracking project, select the correct domain, location, language, and device if these options are available.
Add keywords tied to business goals to your tracking list rather than trying to monitor every possible query. Group them by brand, product, service, location, or informational content. This makes reports easier to read and clarifies which areas are growing and which need attention.
Rankings can change when competitors update their content, search demand shifts, search results are personalized, or search engines adjust their algorithms. So don't draw conclusions from a single check. Track rankings on a consistent schedule, note major changes, and compare trends over a sufficiently long period.
If a keyword drops in ranking, check the landing page, search intent, content quality, internal links, and technical issues before making changes. If several keywords in the same group fluctuate, you may need to reassess the entire topic or page structure rather than editing a single section. Combine ranking data with clicks, impressions, and conversions to understand the real-world impact.
Site audit: identify technical website issues
A site audit helps review technical and content factors that may affect crawling, indexing, or user experience. Depending on the tool's configuration and version, reports may flag issues such as broken links, missing titles or descriptions, duplicate pages, redirect errors, or technical signals that warrant review.
To run an audit, create a project for the domain you want to assess, set an appropriate crawl scope, and launch the audit. For large websites, check crawl limits, the sitemap, robots rules, and areas to exclude so you can focus on important pages. Once you have the results, don't work through the list mechanically: verify each alert on the website and assess its actual impact.
Prioritize issues based on severity, the number of affected pages, and the business value of those pages. For example, an issue that prevents a key product page from being indexed usually deserves attention before a low-impact alert on a secondary page. Also distinguish genuine errors from recommendations, since not every suggestion applies equally to every website.
- Assess the impact: Determine whether the issue affects access, indexing, or conversions.
- Check the scope: Find out whether the issue affects one URL or multiple page templates.
- Set priorities: Address critical issues and high-value pages first.
- Run the audit again: After making changes, confirm that the issue is resolved and no new problems have appeared.
Site audits are most effective when repeated regularly, especially after a website redesign, platform migration, or URL structure update. If your team doesn't have a technical SEO process in place, LilyTech can help assess your website, categorize issues, and develop a prioritized action plan.
Backlink analysis: assess your link profile
Backlink analysis helps you review links pointing to your website, identify linking pages, and examine competitors' backlink profiles. This data is useful for assessing your website's visibility in the industry, finding links that may bring referral traffic, and identifying opportunities to create content worth citing.
When reviewing a report, look at referring domains, linked landing pages, anchor text, and the relevance of source websites. A quality profile isn't measured by link count alone. Topical relevance, naturalness, and the potential to bring genuinely interested readers to your website also matter.
To research competitors, select a few direct competitors and compare the pages receiving links and the types of content that are commonly cited. This can reveal content gaps, such as industry topics that lack in-depth guides or original data. Rather than copying competitors' link-building tactics, turn your findings into useful content ideas and transparent outreach activities.
Don't rush to disavow a link just because one metric looks low or unusual. Check the context, link source, relevance, and signs of suspicious activity before deciding. Backlink analysis should be combined with content review, brand considerations, and overall SEO goals—not treated as a race to accumulate backlinks.
Conclusion: turn Serpstat data into an SEO plan
Serpstat can help businesses organize four important activities: keyword discovery, rank tracking, website reviews, and backlink analysis. The tool's value doesn't come from collecting as many reports as possible; it comes from choosing the right data, verifying findings, and turning them into prioritized actions.
Start with your business goals, set up a suitable project, track a focused set of metrics, and review results regularly. Combine tool data with Search Console, website analytics, customer feedback, and your team's knowledge for a more complete picture. This helps ensure your SEO plan aligns with search demand and real-world results.
If your business needs to build an SEO process, improve its website, or coordinate SEO with other marketing activities, contact LilyTech for advice on solutions that fit your goals and resources.
