Ahrefs Review: One of the Best SEO Tools

Do you want to know what Ahrefs can do for you?

I’ve covered it all for you in this exhaustive Ahrefs review.

Ahrefs offers a suite of SEO tools that you can use to optimize your website or your client’s website.

Ahrefs is trying to emulate what Semrush did for the SEO industry, but its style and functionality are worth noting. Ahrefs doesn’t offer a 14-day free trial like Semrush, nor is it designed for modern agencies, but many of Ahrefs’ features make it stand out.

Well, in this mega review of Ahrefs, you’ll learn:

• Notable Ahrefs features and how to use them
• SEO Site Audit with Ahrefs
• Ahref's Hidden Gem
• How can Ahrefs help you grow your online business?

If you haven’t tried Ahrefs until now, I recommend signing up for a 7-day trial account and adding your domain to see your rankings and the keywords you rank for.

[Get a 7-day trial of Ahrefs for only $7](http://127.0.0.1:85/visit/ahrefs)

Let me help you learn more about Ahrefs as it scans your domain and provides you with reliable information about your rankings and standing.

• Also Read: Semrush Review: Why It’s the Best SEM Tool

What is Ahrefs and why is it popular?

Ahrefs is a SaaS-based SEO suite that lets you check domain rankings, keyword rankings, backlink profiles, website structure, and more for any domain (including your competitors).

Ahrefs was launched in 2011 as a backlink analysis tool and is currently headquartered in Singapore. Over the past few years, Ahrefs has added all the features that modern digital marketers need to perform various SEO campaigns.

At the time of writing this Ahrefs review, you can use the following tools in Ahrefs:

• Keyword Research: (We’ll dive deeper into this later)
• Find search traffic for any website
• Keyword Gap Tool
• Backlink Gap Tool
• Backlink Analysis Tools
• Internal Link Audit
• Website SEO Audit (Cloud-based)
• Rejection Tool
• Content Explorer

Before we jump into the review section, let’s first understand some Ahrefs terminology:

Ahrefs Terminology

Clicks: Find expected click-through rate from Google searches

This is part of Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer feature. Using clicks, you can estimate how many clicks you’d expect to get if you were ranked #1 for your target keyword. Let’s take an example:

This is the search query I used: "warren buffet net worth"

Ahrefs shows that this keyword has about 3.4K monthly searches, but if you look at the “Not Clicked” column below it, it shows 85%, while the “Clicked” column only shows 15%. This means that 85% of searchers are unlikely to click on this result, as they would have likely found it in the SERP.

Here are the results for the same query in Google SERP:

This is an important piece of information to keep in mind when you are doing keyword research.

See also: How to improve your CTR on Google Search and get more clicks

Ahrefs Ranking

Ahrefs has its own metric called Ahrefs Rank, which is based on the strength of a website’s backlinks. In addition to Ahrefs Rank, you can also view Domain Rating and URL Rating for any domain and webpage.

Domain Rating (DR)

Domain Rating is Ahrefs’ proprietary metric that displays the score of a domain’s backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100. DR is measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being the strongest.

URL Rating (UR)

UR is similar to DR, but for a single page. Interestingly, UR takes both internal and external backlinks into account to give a score. Additionally, UR takes into account a dampening factor and considers the “Nofollow” attribute when calculating UR.

[](https://ahrefs.com/blog/ahrefs-seo-metrics/)You can find all of Ahrefs’ SEO metrics and terms on the official page here .

Ahrefs Review: Top Features You Should Use

Okay, now it’s time to learn about some of the great features of Ahrefs. Remember, Ahrefs is not just a tool, but a suite of SEO tools. I’m only going to cover a few of them here, and the rest will require you to experience Ahrefs yourself to discover them.

here we go:

What is Ahrefs Keywords Explorer ?

Keyword Explorer allows you to perform keyword research on the following platforms:

• Google
• YouTube
• Amazon
• Bing
• Yahoo
• Yandex
• Baidu

The Keyword Browser is complemented by a Keyword List feature that allows you to save keywords while you are doing research.

You can use the pre-built filters on the left to populate more keywords. Using the Include feature, you can filter keywords based on Awareness, Consideration, or Transaction Stage .

Keep an eye on the KD (Keyword Difficulty) store to find keywords you can easily rank for.

You should pay close attention to the parent theme feature because you can rank for hundreds of keywords just by targeting one parent theme. I will discuss the full methodology in the next few days.

What is Ahrefs’ Content Gap (Quickly Find Keyword Opportunities)

This feature allows you to find profitable keyword opportunities that have yet to be realized.

You can quickly compare your domain to your competitors’ domains and find out which keywords they rank for and you don’t. This is another great way to find profitable keywords through competitor analysis.

Backlink audit feature

Go to Site Explorer and enter the domain name you want to find the backlink profile for.

There are many things you can do with your backlink profile:

• Broken Link Building
• Internal Backlinks (This is a new feature)
• Link Intersection

How to use Ahrefs’ Link Intersect tool?

This is perhaps one of the most talked about features of Ahrefs.

Using the Link Crossover feature, you can find sites that link to your competitors (or their pages) but don’t link to you (yet). Interestingly, you can compare your domain with up to 10 domains to find those sites that present link building opportunities.

Often, this allows you to find those link building opportunities that are easy to establish.

Ahrefs Content Explorer

Ahrefs Content Explorer is very different from any other content explorer you’ve ever used.

This tool is designed to help you find low-hanging link opportunities and perform competitor analysis. Ahrefs’ Content Explorer also lets you find popular content on any topic or for any website. You can sort content based on social shares or backlinks.

You can type any topic into the search box and it will show you the most shared content from around the web. You can filter the results by date and language or choose from the available filters. You can also include or exclude certain domains from the results to refine your search.

With Ahrefs Content Explorer, you’ll be able to:

• Find republished content from any website
• Find broken links around any topic (link building opportunities)
• Check your posting frequency against your competitors
• See trends on any topic
• Find trending topics on your competitor’s website

Fix keyword cannibalization

This is another lesser-known feature of Ahrefs Suite. You can use the Ranking Explorer feature to find out if there are two or more pages on your domain that are competing for the same keyword.

This is a common SEO problem with large, older websites.

SERP ranking history helps you quickly see which pages are competing for the same keyword. You can then decide whether to prune, merge, or even delete that page.

If you are suffering from keyword cannibalization and need help solving it, please leave a comment below. Depending on the number of responses, we will publish a guide on how to solve keyword cannibalization.

Ahrefs Toolbar: (Chrome and Firefox)

Ahrefs also offers Chrome and Firefox toolbars that let you view important SEO metrics right in the SERP. To download the Ahrefs toolbar, go to this page and download the appropriate extension for your browser.

Now, let’s take a look at Ahrefs’ Site Audit feature. I’ve already covered in depth how Ahrefs’ Site Audit feature works and how to use it for your domain.

How to use Ahrefs’ Site Audit feature?

A site audit is one of the quickest ways to uncover major SEO issues with your site. The Ahrefs Site Audit tool requires you to add your domain, crawl your site just like Google would, and give you actionable recommendations to improve your site’s overall SEO.

• Log in to your Ahrefs account and click on Site Audit at the top to get started.
• Click on "New Project" and add the domain you want to audit. You can use this for your own domains as well as those of your competitors.
• It’s a good idea to check out their help video to get a better understanding of all the features (I’ve marked the help video link with an arrow in the screenshot below).

Verify ownership:

If this is your domain, you should verify ownership using any of the methods listed. This will speed up crawling and is recommended if you are crawling your own site.

For unverified domains, the crawl rate is limited to 1 request every 2 seconds.

Crawl settings:

You can use the default functionality, but it is best to change settings such as Execute Javascript, Maximum number of internal pages, etc. depending on the type of website you have.

Once you’ve got all of this setup, it’s time to run your first crawl. Click “Start Project” and Ahrefs will start working its magic.

Depending on the size of your website and your setup, the crawling process may take a few hours or a few days to complete. Once it is finished, you will be able to browse the crawled data and take necessary actions.

Let’s get right into it.

Click Projects again, and then click the Status column for the project for which you want to view data.

This will take you to the data overview page, which looks like this:

Depending on which part of your technical SEO you want to fix first, you can start exploring various options. I'm not very happy with the performance report because I don't think it's accurate enough. However, this may be normal because there are many factors to consider to get the right performance report.

If you are someone who understands technical SEO, you should explore the data exploration page and use existing presets or create your own to get meaningful data.

Even when exploring data, filters are of the greatest help. I recommend you to start experimenting with Data Explorer and Filters from day one to get the most out of them.

To improve technical SEO, you should first do the following things:

• Identify pages with long loading times and fix them
• Find out where on your site you are taking up a lot of images and find ways to optimize them
• Find broken links (internal + external) and fix them
• Find orphan pages and link to them if necessary (this can also be done using the Yoast SEO plugin)
• Find pages missing HTML tags

Ahrefs also has a feature called To-Dos that I find very useful. With this feature, you can mark any issue as a task and then export it to Excel format. You can then collaborate with your team or even freelancers to solve the problem.

For any existing Ahrefs user, this site audit feature is extremely useful if used correctly. The clean interface and helpful videos make this tool user-friendly for both new and experienced users. With technical SEO becoming more important than ever, this will be a great tool to have on hand.

Ahrefs Plans, Pricing, and Trials

Ahrefs offers 4 different plans, namely:

• Lite version: $99/month
• Standard: $199/month
• Premium: $399/month
• Agency: $999/month

You can save 20% by purchasing the annual plan. However, before purchasing the annual plan, it is recommended to try it for 7 days for only $7. If you need features such as broken pages, daily brand monitoring, etc., then the standard plan is your lowest choice.

[Start your Ahrefs trial for $7](http://127.0.0.1:85/visit/ahrefs)

If you want to cancel your account before 7 days, you can send an email to support[at]ahrefs.com. You can also upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time by sending an email to their support team.

Available payment methods:

You can pay by credit card or PayPal.

Ahrefs Trial Account

A trial account gives you access to Ahrefs Lite and/or Standard without any limitations. If you are looking for discounts or promotions on Ahrefs, unfortunately, there are no such offers at the moment.

However, the 7-day trial is more than enough to explore all the amazing features of Ahrefs, and once you get familiar with it, you can go ahead and use Ahrefs for your website or client websites.

Get a 7-day trial of Ahrefs

See also: Semrush 14-day trial

Conclusion: Ahrefs Review

Ahrefs is always adding a lot of new features, and since its development cycle is fast, you can expect a ton of features to be rolled out in the coming days.

Another feature of Ahrefs that has received a lot of attention is its user interface. Moreover, this SEO suite is designed to be user-friendly, which you can see right from the start.

The best thing you can do is to get an Ahrefs trial, create a new project, and add your site to do the heavy lifting of an SEO audit. Once that’s done, just start fixing your site, such as:

• Popular pages with broken links
• Find the page with the most UR and pass the link juice to other important pages of your website
• Exploiting content gaps to find new content ideas
• Find link opportunities using the Link Crossover Tool
• Use the Site Audit feature to fix site elements, as described above
• Competitor Analysis

Overall, Ahrefs is an upcoming SEO suite that you should consider using.

Start Ahrefs trial

Ahrefs vs. Semrush, which one is better? This may require a detailed comparison. However, at present, I find Semrush to be better in terms of features and value for money. From the user interface, Ahrefs does look modern, but Semrush's features are more popular and loved by SEO professionals.

Does Ahrefs offer a trial? Unfortunately, Ahrefs does not offer a trial, which is standard practice in the SEO tool industry. However, you can try their tool for 7 days for $7.

now you:

• Have you used Ahrefs before?
• What is your experience using them?
• Please let us know the pros and cons of Ahrefs?
• What do you use Ahrefs for?

I look forward to reading your informative comments. Please share this Ahrefs review with others on your favorite SEO forum.

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