You can only end up working smart when you have the right tools by your side. Tools that helps you to grow your search traffic, research your competitors and monitor your niche. For example, Ahrefs makes you learn why your competitors are ranking so high and how you can outrank them.
We make use of different tools to aid our SEO. But, not all tools are worth the investment. Are you looking for an excellent SaaS tool to help you with your SEO and content marketing? Then one tool to consider is Ahrefs.
But is the hype about Ahrefs all about?
This comprehensive review will help you understand Ahrefs better and what makes it an SEO tool must-have.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a robust SEO tool that you can use to get better SEO results. Using this tool will help you make the most out of your content and link building efforts. It can help you research for keywords and check your backlinks. It can even explore competitors through competitor analysis, website audit, and more.
It can be hard to think of content that is relevant to your niche. It's even harder to check which kinds of content gets shared the most. What types of content can drive traffic into your money-making website? Ahrefs can help you create new content ideas that you can turn into high-quality and engaging content.
2. Keep A Close Watch On Your Competitions
Ahrefs can help you check the keywords your competitors use. You can also use this to check on the content they make that rank high and gains lots of traffic. This way, you can finally outrun them by getting a headstart before they even make a move.
3. Increase Social Media Shares And Build Links
Ahrefs helps you build better backlinks and increase social media shares. It can tell you which pages are linking to your competitors. It can also show which of their content gets quality backlinks. This data can help you in creating content worth sharing in social networking sites.
4. Multiply Your Network Manifold
Knowing who use your content will help you build your followers. For one, you get to engage with your sharers and influencers. Each influencer already has their followers. Knowing who these audiences are will give you an idea of what content they need. In turn, you get to better cater to their needs through quality content creation.
Ahrefs Terminologies
1. Ahrefs Rank
Ahrefs make use of its metric, which is the Ahrefs Rank. This is your website's rank based on both the quality and size of your backlink profile. Site owners usually make changes to improve their backlink profile. With such changes, you can expect your Ahrefs Rank to change accordingly.
2. Ahrefs URL Rating or URL Ranking
Ahrefs URL Rating gauges the strength and authority of a URL's backlink profile. It also checks the possibility of that URL having a high rank in the Search Engine Results Page. This rating is like Moz's PA or Page Authority Rank metric. However, Ahrefs has a better crawler. It means it is an even more reliable page authority metric.
3. Ahrefs Domain Rating
Ahrefs DR Rating measures the total strength of your backlink profile from a scale of 1-100. The higher your domain rating is, the stronger your backlink profile strength is.
4. Ahrefs Traffic Value Metric
This estimates the organic search traffic value of your website in dollars. Google Adwords COC data or cost-per-click data is the basis of Ahrefs traffic value.
Major Sections And Features of Ahrefs
Ahrefs have three major sections - Site Explorer, Content Explorer, and Keywords Explorer.
1. Site Explorer
This section is where you can find anything and everything there is to know about your website. It shows you graphs, numbers, and reports per day and month. It includes your backlink index as well as your ranking index.
Internal Backlink Audit is Ahrefs' latest feature. It allows you to organize your internal links. It also categorizes link data according to link, type. This helps you understand how to group your content better and provide a better user experience.
The thing is, while all website owners know that every page has internal links. But, not all have an idea of how to use this knowledge. Auditing internal links is an essential part of your on-site SEO efforts. Doing it the right way can help you build a content structure.
Backlink Profile feature shows a comprehensive display of your website's backlink profile. It can show you anything you would want to know about your links. This can be your new link, nofollow links, dofollow links, and even broken links. You can use the following filter when checking on your links.
All Links
Group Similar Links
Languages
Link Type
Platforms
One Link Per Domain
Ahrefs make use of two link updates in your website - the Fresh Index and the Live Index. Fresh Index which updates at a longer time frame. It shows the dead links on your website, giving you the chance to change or reclaim the dead link. The Live Index, on the other hand, makes link updates every 15-30 minutes. This provides you with the chance to see regular link updates on your website.
Referring Domains shows how many websites are linking to a specific domain. It can also show all new and lost referring domains in a calendar view.
Anchor shows all anchor texts used by the referring domains to link back to your website. You can use this to check what domains used what anchor and the backlink's location is. It also helps you find a specific anchor text by tweaking the results using the filters.
Referring IPs show the OP of the referring domains. IYou can use this to check which network the domains belong. Another use of the Referring IPs is that it can show you the number of backlinks every IP contains.
Top Referring Content shows what the most popular page links to your website. These are based on its social shares. This allows you to build partnerships for link-building. In turn, it can help you achieve your goal in improving your backlink profile.
Organic Search focuses on keyword tracking and management. In the US alone, Ahrefs monitors more than 150 keywords. This gives more than enough coverage for accurate organic search traffic of websites. You can filter your keyword research based on transaction stage, consideration, and awareness.
Organic Keywords. The movement buttons are where you can check the movements of your targeted keywords. If you ever have lost links, it will also show up in this section.
Content Gap. This feature lets you check which of your competitor's keywords are ranking. It allows you to overtake your rivals since you already have an idea on which target keywords they focus on.
Competing Domains and Pages. This section shows a comparison of the keywords you share with your competitors. This report also displays the unique keywords you and your rivals use. You get to have an edge of knowing which keywords matter the most to get ahead of your competitors.
Export Tool. It allows you to export all data in your Site Explorer via downloading them in a PDF or CSV file.
Monitoring Features
Ahrefs can monitor different aspects of your page, such as the following.
"Best By" Pages. It shows the ranking of a page based on the number of social media shares and backlinks attracted.
Outgoing Links. It shows the reports concerning your anchor texts, broken links, and linked domains.
Paid Search. It lets you monitor all of your paid campaigns such as Ads and PPCs.
Top Content Pages. It shows the top content based on their social media shares across major social media sites.
Top Landing Pages. It details the ranks of your site's landing pages.
Top Pages. It shows the ranking of the pages on your website based on how much traffic they bring.
2. Content Explorer
Content Explorer is a tool used for content research. It is an excellent tool for content marketing and creation. You can use this to skyscrape, generate topics, and even search for content trends and topics. Whenever you use the content explorer tool, the results are shown almost immediately.
You have the power to control the results depending on the different filters you want to use. For every data it displays, you can check the keywords targeted, the anchors used, and even the referring domains.
One can use Content Explorer for the following:
Curate content that are high-quality, relevant and engaging
Search for new content ideas based on your target keywords
Search for anyone who shared your content
3. Keywords Explorer
The great thing about Ahrefs Keywords Explorer Tool is that it accurately shows the keywords by location. Here, you can check the top countries by volume. This makes it easier for you to filter keywords per site. It can perform keyword research on many platforms, including:
As you use the keywords explorer, the keyword list feature allows you to save the keywords while you do your research. This means no unsaved data, letting you check your searched keywords as you please. It allows users to enter up to 10,000 seed keywords through six research options.
Rank Tracker
If you're looking for Ahrefs newest tool, then it is no other than the Rank Tracker. The Rank Tracker tool displays your keyword ranking overview after you enter your keywords. It has the following four tabs.
Competitors - This tab keeps track of your competitor's ranking. It lets you check and compare your progress against your rivals.
Grossing - This focuses on how your keyword improved after a couple of days (7 days, 30 days, and 90 days).
Metrics Credit or SERP Update - This tab allows you to measure advanced data for every keyword research you make.
Pages - This shows the corresponding pages of the keywords you track in Ahrefs.
Other Ahrefs Features
Ahrefs have tons of other features you can use in achieving a higher Google Rank. These are the following.
Ahrefs have a support team you can chat or email 24 hours a day from Mondays through Fridays.
2. Full Access To Learning Materials
Ahrefs Academy invites you to learn all there is to know about its tools, features, and functions.
3. New Features Release and Updates
Ahrefs make regular feature releases and updates for better functionality and ease of use.
4. Private FB Community
You get to enjoy insights from a group of customers-only community, comprised of accomplished digital marketers.
Cons of Using Ahrefs
This tool may not fit every digital marketer's budget. Ahrefs offers a 7-day free trial. If you wish to cancel, you can do it before the 7-day trial ends. One only needs to send Ahrefs an email to Ahrefs support team.
One can choose between four monthly subscriptions options.
Lite at $99 per month
Standard at $ 179 per month
Advanced at $ 399 per month
Agency at $ 999 per month
You can also choose the annual billing option and save up to 20%. This lets you enjoy up to a 2-month free subscription. One has the option to upgrade or downgrade subscriptions, depending on your needs.
Conclusion:
Ahrefs is an excellent tool for SEO and Content Marketing. However, it may not fit those who have a low budget, are casual bloggers or those trying to start a new niche. This is also not for webmasters who don't do frequent updates. Ahrefs is not cheap. But, with its ability to replace many tools and its unique functions, it can be worth the investment.
It makes updates and releases new features regularly. This makes it the ultimate tool for serious SEO and content marketers. It can help you generate traffic, create content that get more shares, and rank high in SERPs.
Sawaram Suthar (Sam) is a Founding Director at Middleware. He has extensive experience in marketing, team building and operations. He is often seen working on various GTM practices and implementing the best ones to generate more demand. He has also founded a digital marketing blog - TheNextScoop.
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