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I’m getting completely different results from SEMrush, Ahrefs, and other SEO tools – which one should I trust?
Posted by on January 23, 2026 at 1:18 amHey everyone,
I've been trying to improve my site's SEO, but I'm honestly getting more confused the deeper I go.
SEMrush tells me my site is doing pretty bad, like, a score of 19/100, and a laundry list of "critical issues" I supposedly need to fix. Then I go to Ahrefs, and it shows different metrics and a totally different set of suggestions. Other tools like Moz or Ubersuggest show yet another perspective.
Some say I have tons of broken links. Others say that's not really an issue. Some say my site speed is horrible, others say it's decent. It's like every platform has its own definition of what matters and what doesn't.
I’m not sure which one to rely on. Should I pick one tool and stick with it? Or is there a better way to get an accurate view of my site's actual SEO health?
Appreciate any advice or personal experiences with this kind of situation
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1 Reply
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Fix your site speed. Fix your links. Solved. Minimum viable SEO is weak. Own it.
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These are vanity metrics. Try page speed insights for responsiveness suggestions, and regular old good site hygiene for ‘better SEO health’.
Backlinks are an important consideration but beyond scope of this thread. Etc etc
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They’re all gonna have variance, so just use it for directionality instead of “truth”
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SEO is technical and in technology, the devil is in the details.
>SEMrush tells me my site is doing pretty bad, like, a score of 19/100
Score for what though? Health score? Not sure which report this is coming from
>critical issues”
It depends – a lot of SEMrush’s errors are invented. The key is- do the pages you need ranking work? and do the links between your most important pages work? Thats really the most important thing.
I still have no idea why some people keep insisting on PageSpeed – Google will simply never rank a fast page over a more relevant page. I’m not interested in the strawman about “usability” – and as many other SEOs have noted on Reddit – many sites fail CWVs and theres isn’t even corrrelation for PageSpeed and ranking
You need to manage – aka “shape” – authority across your site.
Here’s a set of what I think the top pages to get started are:
You need to focus on PageRank – which is fundamental to SEO (Google SEO Starter Guide)
[SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
[{Sticky Discussion} Creative Link building techniques for SEO Providers : r/SEO](https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1mcc2vk/sticky_discussion_creative_link_building/)
[A Few Things That Finally Clicked About Authority, Topics, and How Google Actually Ranks Pages : r/SEO](https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1p06nk4/a_few_things_that_finally_clicked_about_authority/)
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{Sticky Discussion} Creative Link building techniques for SEO Providers
byu/WebLinkr inSEO -
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Why don’t you use Google? I mean, that’s where you’ll want to rank and it doesn’t guess, it tells you the real data. For free.
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If it is a WordPress website, a simple broken link plugin will do.
The only reporting tool you need is Looker Studio reports making use of Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 data as a source.
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The data these tools provide needs someone with experience to interpret.
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There’s a reason why you have webmaster tools. I only look at that. Plus screaming frog. Bing webmaster tools, Search console and screaming frog.
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