Ahrefs is a great tool for SEO professionals. It can be used for keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink monitoring.
However, there are many other tools in the search engine optimization industry that do essentially the same thing as Ahrefs, and sometimes they’re better suited to your individual needs.
It really depends on what data you need and your digital marketing strategy.
In this article we will review what Ahrefs has to offer, so you can decide if it’s worth the cost or not.
Table of Contents
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is probably the best SEO tool that allows you to monitor keywords, link opportunities, and competitors.
It updates in real-time so you can see who’s talking about your brand or topic at any given moment.
Ahrefs also offers an extensive backlink database of over one billion links with the ability to filter by domain type (do follow/no follow), anchor text distribution, rank value, PageRank value, etc.
The service will cost $79 per month for all its features including research tools like the Ahrefs keyword explorer tool which follows up on keyword suggestions found through its main feature: Keyword Explorer for keyword research and keyword ideas.
It provides detailed information such as search volume and difficulty score.
There are no limits on how many projects you work on simultaneously.
What is Ahrefs Used For?
Ahrefs is often used by SEO professionals because it helps to get an idea of what targeted keywords are generating traffic, how difficult those keywords are to rank for, and the potential number of visitors that could be generated.
It also provides data on your competitors’ backlinks in order to help you outrank them through strategic link building.
In brief, here are some basic pros and cons of using Ahrefs, as compared to other marketing tools.
Pros:
- Provides insider information on competitive domains so that you can “steal” links from them
- There is no limit on projects meaning you’re able to work with a lot at once
Cons:
- Doesn’t provide as much detail or user reviews when compared with other tools like SEMrush and SpyFu which offer more insights into specific industries such as eCommerce stores, health blogs, etc.
Is Ahrefs an Affordable Solution?
For the minimum monthly subscription price of $82, you’ll get an all-inclusive package with a variety of features at your fingertips.
There’s no need for additional fees like data surcharges or commissions on orders placed through the website as that is included in the cost of the service.
For this reason, many believe Ahrefs is worth it because it offers so many different opportunities and tools to increase visibility within search engines without having to pay extra money.
However, many would recommend also using SEMrush and SpyFu which provide more detailed insights into specific industries such as eCommerce stores, health blogs, etc.
Is Ahrefs Better Than SEMrush?
Ahrefs and SEMrush are both SEO tools that offer a variety of features for increasing visibility within search engines.
One advantage Ahrefs has over SEMrush is the ability to follow up on keyword suggestions found through its main feature: Keywords Explore.
Another major pro is that there’s no limit on projects, so you can work with many at once.
Whereas in contrast, SEMrush limits how many times you can use their tool per day which may be limiting if your marketing strategy relies heavily on keywords research or competitor analysis.
Furthermore, while both Ahrefs and SEMrush provide detailed information such as cost per click (CPC) and keyword difficulty score, Ahrefs does not have any hidden fees like data surcharges or commissions.
If you’re running a digital marketing agency, Ahrefs may be the best tool for your business.
On the other hand, if you run a business and have a marketing department in-house, SEMrush is just enough to meet your needs.
Ahrefs’ Backlink Analysis Tool
One of the most helpful features Ahrefs offers is its backlink analysis tool, Site Explorer.
It provides detailed information such as search volume and difficulty score.
There are no limits on how many projects you work on simultaneously since it updates in real-time so you can see who’s talking about your brand or topic at any given moment.
Because of this, many would recommend using Ahrefs for SEO purposes because it allows you to view data from a competitive standpoint to help with link-building strategies that will rank your site higher than other competitors’.
You Can Use Ahrefs to Build Links Strategically
Another major benefit of using Ahrefs is that you can use it to build links strategically.
For example, if your competitor has a recent link from Forbes with an anchor text of “top-rated SEO tools,” there’s potential for ranking more highly in the SERPS when people search for relevant keywords surrounding this topic.
If they also have other sites that are linking back to their sites like SitePoint or Entrepreneur Magazine, then you’ll be able to steal these links.
You’ll be able to find these opportunities by using Keywords Explorer and Link Intersect tool within Ahrefs’ Site Explorer dashboard.
Ultimately, Ahrefs can be used both as a competitor analysis tool and a link-building platform to give you a competitive edge in your industry.
Ahrefs Can Help You See New Websites Linking Back to Your Site
Ahrefs can also be used to find new websites that are linking back to your site, which is crucial for keeping page rankings high.
For example, if you’re a small business and want to increase the number of people finding your website when they search “coffee shops near me,” Ahrefs will help give you an idea of how many other sites on the internet have links with these keywords in them.
This means it’s important not just because it’ll tell you who else has similar content as yours but also where their links come from.
This makes things easier since most SEO tools only analyze pages within specific domains rather than the whole web.
Ahrefs Can Uncover “Lost” Backlinks
Ahrefs can also be used to uncover “lost” backlinks which are helpful when you’re trying to increase your website traffic.
It provides an insight into the links that point back to a domain and will tell you how many of those links are still available or if they’ve been removed from pages on other domains.
This feature in Ahrefs’ helps find websites that might have recently updated their content but forgot to remove outdated URLs linking back to them.
This means it’s important for competitors as well since this could give you an idea of where else there may be opportunities for link-building campaigns involving your keywords (and by extension, boosting site rankings).
Ahrefs Provide a Bunch of Helpful Data About Keywords
A very helpful feature of Ahrefs is that it provides a bunch of data about keywords such as search volume, difficulty score, and keyword difficulty and competitiveness.
For example, you can enter “coffee shops near me” into the site explorer dashboard to see how many results there are for this query in any given month–as well as what type of people are searching for these terms.
The home page will tell you if your website ranks at all (and where) on Google or Bing when someone types “coffee shops near me.”
You’ll also get information about other websites ranking highly so that they’re easy to compete with should you want to start link-building campaigns.
Ahrefs Can Help You Identify Featured Snippet Opportunities
Another helpful feature of Ahrefs is that it can help you identify opportunities for featured snippets.
Featured snippets are brief information sections on Google that provide immediate data based on specific results from various keyword research tools.
For example, if you searched “when was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr born?”, you’d like to see a featured snippet with his birth date and other biographical information.
Manually finding featured snippet opportunities can be difficult because many popular keywords have snippets and less-popular keywords don’t bring in enough traffic to make the opportunities worth it.
With Ahrefs, you can find these opportunities much quicker.
Just enter the keyword into Ahrefs and it will show you if there are any featured snippets available for that term.
In addition, you can also use the Link Intersect tool to compare the potential of your content to other competitors.
Link Intersect works by scanning through domains to look at all links pointing back to each domain–including those of your competitors.
This feature is helpful when trying to increase website traffic because it lets you know who else has similar content as yours on the internet, so you’ll know where their links come from (and whether or not they’re still active).
Finding featured snippet opportunities and spying on competitors also fighting for snippets is a great way to win the long-term war in SEO.
You Can Use Ahrefs to View the History of Ahrefs
As a user, the ability to view data on your website’s history is one of Ahrefs’ major benefits.
This allows you to see how changes in content affect rankings and traffic–plus it helps identify any errors made in optimization campaigns that may have resulted in ranking drops or lower-quality links.
Ahrefs also lets customers create alerts so they’re notified when something happens with their site (which can be helpful if there are issues during ongoing SEO processes). One example would be an alert for a new link pointing back at your domain from another page online.
Ahrefs Provides Keyword Research for Other Search Engines
In addition to providing a highly valued keyword research tool for Google and Bing, Ahrefs can also provide data about other search engines like Yahoo.
This is helpful because it provides information on the popularity of your keywords with different audiences. Plus, it helps identify opportunities that you may have missed while only targeting one or two search engine crawlers.
This means if you’re targeting other search engines like Bing and even YouTube, you can browse keywords and create a wholesome SEO strategy.
With Ahrefs You Can See How You Stack Up Against Competitors
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool allows you to compare your website’s performance versus competitors’ websites.
Site Explorer will show how many backlinks each domain has, where they rank on Google and Bing for keyword ideas that are important to them (and whether or not they’re ranking for any of these terms), as well as social media metrics like Facebook Likes, Tweets, and Pinterest pins.
This is helpful because it gives insight into what types of content work best with certain audiences, as well as what sites should be targeted in future link-building campaigns. The Ahrefs Content Explorer tool is particularly helpful for this type of SEO analysis as well.
It can also help identify other opportunities such as competitor weaknesses so you know who to go after next if you want an advantage over competitors.
Ahrefs Can Help You Gauge the Monetary Value of Your Website Traffic
Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool is one of the most popular features.
Site Audits will assess your website for any potential problems, such as duplicate content, broken pages, or errors in metadata.
It also tells you how valuable your site’s traffic may be to advertisers because it estimates what percentage of visitors are likely shopping around for products or services like yours online. This can help determine a baseline value to work with when setting up advertising campaigns so that they’re worth their cost.
In short, it’s a great value for money spent.
Ahrefs Can Be Used to Find Highly-Shared Content
Ahrefs will help identify any content on your website that’s been shared across social media sites, which can be helpful if you want to promote certain pieces and bring in more traffic.
This feature also shows where each piece was published, which may not have been included when it first went live (or it could indicate where new audiences might find this content).
The idea here is to use what works best for your audience so they’re sharing your content like crazy down the line.
Ahrefs is an Ideal Tool for Digital Marketing Agencies and SMBs
Ahrefs’ SEO tool suite is a great option for marketers working on behalf of clients.
It’s also ideal if you’re a small business owner who doesn’t have the time to do everything yourself or wants more insight into what your site needs in order to be successful online.
Its range of tools means it can be used as part of an ongoing strategy, which makes it easier to provide reports and recommendations over time that are much more valuable than just showing performance from one month ago or even one year ago (which may not tell you enough about how well your website is doing today).
Want to Start Using Ahrefs?
As you can see, there are a lot of great benefits of using Ahrefs for SEO. If you’d like to begin using the SEO tool for your website, contact us today to speak to a member of our team.
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