Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO software suite that offers a range of tools for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and site audits. The majority of its features are tailored to meet the needs of marketing professionals.
In summary, Ahrefs is an SEO tool that aims to assist users in achieving higher Google rankings.
What are the Uses of Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is primarily utilized for analyzing a website’s link profile, SEO health, and keyword rankings. Additionally, it can be used for conducting keyword research across Google, YouTube, and Amazon. Many individuals also rely on Ahrefs to identify high-performing content related to a specific topic, in terms of social shares and links.
Originally launched in 2011 as a backlink analysis tool, Ahrefs has since expanded its feature set.
Today, Ahrefs is primarily utilized by a diverse range of users, including small business owners who manage their own website’s SEO, SEO agencies that handle multiple clients, in-house marketers responsible for their employer’s site marketing, affiliate marketers who run multiple sites, and SEO consultants who provide guidance on clients’ SEO strategies.
How much does Ahrefs cost?
The cost of Ahrefs varies depending on the plan you select and whether you opt for monthly or annual billing. However, their pricing structure can be a bit complex. To help clarify, here is a breakdown of Ahrefs’ pricing.
Common Ahrefs Terms
1. Domain Rating (DR): A proprietary metric that measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 0-100.
2. URL Rating (UR): A proprietary metric that measures the strength of a specific page’s backlink profile on a scale of 0-100.
3. Backlinks: Links pointing to a website or webpage from other websites.
4. Referring Domains: The number of unique domains that are linking to a website or webpage.
5. Organic Search: Traffic that comes to a website from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
6. Keyword Difficulty (KD): A score that estimates how difficult it would be to rank for a specific keyword based on the strength of the current top-ranking pages.
7. Content Explorer: A tool that allows users to search for popular content in a specific niche or topic.
8. Site Explorer: A tool that provides a detailed analysis of a website’s backlink profile, organic search traffic, and top-performing pages.
9. Top Pages: A report that shows the most visited pages on a website based on organic search traffic.
10. Broken Backlinks: Links pointing to a website or webpage that no longer exist or return a 404 error.
Backlink Analysis
Similar to Semrush, Ahrefs boasts a vast link index that is frequently updated. The platform offers a plethora of features, including competitor backlink analysis and identification of harmful links that may be impacting your website’s search engine rankings.
Here are some of the key features of Ahrefs’ backlink analysis tool:
1. Backlink profile overview: A quick snapshot of your website’s backlink profile, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and organic search traffic.
2. Referring domains: A list of all the websites that link to your website, sorted by the number of backlinks they provide.
3. Backlinks: A detailed list of all the backlinks pointing to your website, including the anchor text, domain authority, and page authority of the linking page.
4. Anchor text: A breakdown of the anchor text used in your backlinks, which can help you identify potential issues with over-optimization or spammy links.
5. New and lost backlinks: A report on the new backlinks that have been added to your website, as well as any backlinks that have been lost.
6. Competitor analysis: A comparison of your backlink profile to your competitors, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and organic search traffic.
7. Toxic link detection: A tool that helps you identify potentially harmful backlinks that could be hurting your website’s search engine rankings.
Overall, Ahrefs’ backlink analysis tool is a powerful resource for anyone looking to improve their website’s search engine rankings through link building and link management.
Keywords Explorer
Similar to Semrush, Ahrefs boasts a vast link index that is frequently updated. With this tool, users can perform a variety of tasks, such as analyzing a competitor’s backlinks and identifying harmful links that lead to their own website.
Ahrefs also offers a keyword research tool called Keywords Explorer. Although it may not be as comprehensive as Semrush’s array of keyword tools, it certainly gets the job done.
In addition, Ahrefs also allows you to search for keyword data specific to different search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, and Amazon. This can be helpful if you’re looking to optimize your content for a specific platform or if you’re running ads on a particular search engine. Ahrefs also provides a range of keyword metrics, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and click-through rate (CTR) estimates, to help you identify the best keywords to target for your content or advertising campaigns.
You can utilize Keywords Explorer for various search engines, such as YouTube, Amazon, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and Baidu. Therefore, if you are conducting SEO for any of these non-Google search engines, you are well-equipped.
Organic Keywords and Organic Search Traffic
The Ahrefs feature of Organic Keywords and Organic Search Traffic is designed to extract data from millions of Google results to identify the websites that are ranking for specific keywords. By simply entering a domain or URL into Ahrefs, users can access a comprehensive list of the terms that the website ranks for and their respective positions.
This feature is incredibly useful for comparing your website’s performance against that of your competitors. Additionally, it can be used to monitor your own website’s progress, as the data is updated frequently, making it a reliable alternative to traditional rank tracking methods.
Content Explorer
The Content Explorer by Ahrefs is specifically crafted to display content that garners high social shares, rather than focusing solely on backlinks. In essence, it functions as a condensed version of BuzzSumo.