The digital marketing world changed significantly this week. If you are reading this, you are probably aware of the news: Adobe is buying Semrush. The announcement has sparked conversations and discussions on social media and Slack channels in agencies globally, making many professionals wonder what it means for them and their tech stacks.
For years, the SEO industry has existed as a separate smaller planet in the greater marketing universe, an industry that was important but was usually using its own technology, and not part of the creatives and data analytics giants. As a result of this acquisition that distance has just collapsed.
To help you sort through the news, we have rounded up the discussion while answering the few most important questions directly to give you the clarity you need on the Adobe Semrush acquisition.
Why did Adobe acquire Semrush?
Adobe acquired Semrush to connect the content creation and content performance worlds. By having Semrush's huge keyword and search intent data, Adobe can now tell creators not only how to create content, but also what to create to rank.
For over a decade, Adobe has specialized in two areas of the "Content Supply Chain":
- Creation: (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro)
- Experience & Measurement: (Adobe Analytics, AEM)
They were missing the key middle piece: Intelligence. There was no native way to tell a user why they should create a specific piece of content. This is where the keyword Adobe Acquire Semrush is important.
Semrush is the "intent" data, the billions of search queries that demonstrate what human beings are actually wanting. With this data, Adobe is shifting from being a tool provider, to a strategic partner. It allows them to stream real search data back into their generative AI models (Firefly), and potentially allow users to create assets that have already been optimized for current search trends.
We see this as Adobe's way to now "own" the entire lifecycle of marketing, from that first idea spark (keyword research) to the last pixel (design).
What does this mean for the future of Adobe SEO tools?
The acquisition represents the launch of a new generation of Adobe's SEO tools that to be sure will now be AI-first and enterprise-centric. Together, we expect a robust rollout of Semrush capabilities incorporated directly into the Adobe Experience Cloud for seamless data flow between SEOs, designers, and data analysts.
This might be the most exciting aspect of the deal. Today, SEO tools and Creative Tools exist in isolation. An SEO exports a content brief from Semrush. Then the SEO passes it along to a writer. The writer sends a request to a designer using Adobe.
The future of Adobe SEO Tools might look like a cohesive experience:
- In-App Insight: Imagine opening Adobe InDesign and on the panel of the sidebar it shares semantic keywords and alt-text suggestions in real-time using Semrush data.
- Predictive Performance: Adobe's AI suggests performance for a design layout or image for Search before you even publish.
- Consolidated Reporting: No more stitching together stories from Semrush and Adobe Analytics. A single source of truth for ROI.
At Digital Zeroz, we are closely monitoring this integration because it validates that SEO is no longer an afterthought, it is now being baked into the very software used to build the web.
Will Semrush pricing increase under Adobe?
Although no official pricing restructuring has yet been made known, the history of previous Adobe acquisitions tends to point toward enterprise licensing bundles (thus raising costs), which leaves freelancers and smaller businesses standing with the short stick.
This is the number one fear we are seeing in the community.
The biggest threat around the Adobe Semrush acquisition is the "Adobe Tax." Currently, Semrush has flexible tiers for freelancers and boutique agencies while Adobe focuses a ton on the Enterprise market.
There are two potential outcomes:
- The Segmentation Strategy: Adobe keeps a "Semrush Classic" for SMB's that are similar in price to keep the existing user base (which provides the clickstream data), then creates a super-powered "Semrush Enterprise" for business inside the Adobe Cloud.
- The Bundled Strategy: Semrush becomes a "pricing product feature" solely inside of expensive marketing cloud subscriptions and the "little guy" is out of the game.
If this happens, it will inevitably create a vacuum that will be filled by competing tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SE Ranking.
How does this impact the SEO industry and agencies?
It asserts that the SEO industry can be viewed as a key business function, worth billions to the big tech companies. But it may force agencies to change their tech stack if the tool pivots to enterprise-only capabilities.
For many years, SEO would be regarded as "hacky" and a satellite offering in the greater universe of marketing. Big tech companies (Google, Microsoft, and Adobe) rarely built or purchased tools devoted to SEO. This acquisition definitely changes that narrative. It shows its the age of AI we live in, that data is king and that SEO data is the highest fidelity signal of user intent that is available.
For agencies, this is a "wait and see" moment.
- The Upside: If the product works well, there may be workflows that are ten times faster than what is currently available. A single platform having design and data together may deliver better results for clients.
- The Risk: If this tool becomes bloated or overpriced, then we will be one of many that will migrate to another platform - the SEO community is loyal to results and not to companies.
Is the Adobe-Semrush deal related to Generative AI?
Yes, that makes total sense. The deal is a strategy to fuel Adobe's AI models with a data source consisting of high-quality, human-verified search data to play in the Generative Engine Optimization Capture era (GEO).
AI models are only as good as the data they are trained on. Adobe Firefly is awesome at generating images but it doesn't know what is being searched now in the world. Semrush does.
This means Adobe capabilities can combine with Semrush trend data to create a loop:
- Spot a trending trend (Semrush data).
- Auto-generate content to keep with that trend (Adobe Firefly).
- Measure the performance and refine (Adobe Analytics).
This becomes a self-driving marketing engine. By the time we roll into 2026, the winners will not just have the best AI, but the best data to inform the AI.
Final Thoughts
The acquisition of Semrush by Adobe marks an important point in time. It signifies the end of the "wild west" era of SEO tools and the beginning of the integrated era.
While there are valid concerns about pricing and consolidation in the market, there is also nothing but optimism about the technology. At Digital Zeroz, the combination of creativity and data is what we get up for every day, and seeing the world’s largest creative company double down on SEO data only tells us we are all moving in the right direction.
What do you want to ask about the future of search? Get in touch with the team at Digital Zeroz!