Insights

What is Ahrefs? The complete guide to this powerful SEO tool

Key takeaways

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO and marketing intelligence platform trusted by 44% of Fortune 500 companies
It boasts the second most active web crawler in the world, providing some of the most reliable data in the industry
Core features include backlink analysis, keyword research, content exploration, rank tracking, and site auditing
Pricing ranges from $29/month (Starter) to $1,499/month (Enterprise), with various plans for different needs
Ahrefs competes with tools like Semrush but stands out for its superior backlink and keyword data, while being focused on organic growth
The platform offers extensive educational resources to help you maximize your SEO results

1. What is Ahrefs?

Ahrefs is an all-in-one marketing intelligence platform powered by big data. Originally launched in 2010 as a backlink analysis tool, it has evolved into a comprehensive SEO suite that helps marketers make data-driven decisions across digital marketing, SEO, content marketing, PPC, and digital PR.

At its core, Ahrefs crawls the web 24/7, indexing and structuring petabytes of information to give you insights into:

Your competitors' websites and strategies
What your target audience is searching for
Your own website's performance and technical health
Your backlink profile and opportunities for improvement

What makes Ahrefs special is the quality and breadth of its data. Their bot (AhrefsBot) is the second most active crawler on the web after Google, which means they have an enormous database of backlinks, keywords, and content performance metrics.

A brief history of Ahrefs

Ahrefs wasn't always the powerhouse it is today. The platform started as a simple backlink checker in 2010, founded by Dmitry Gerasimenko. Its name comes from the HTML attribute "href" used in hyperlinks, highlighting its original focus on backlink analysis.

Over the past decade, Ahrefs has expanded its capabilities dramatically:

2010: Launched as a backlink analysis tool
2011-2015: Added keyword research and rank tracking features
2015-2020: Introduced site audit, content explorer, and more advanced features
2020-Present: Incorporated AI tools and expanded its data processing capabilities

Today, Ahrefs crawls over 6 billion web pages daily and maintains a keyword database of more than 10 billion keywords across 171 countries.

Why marketers and SEO pros Love Ahrefs

The reason Ahrefs is trusted by everyone from solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies is simple: it transforms complex SEO data into actionable insights.

64% of SEO professionals trust Ahrefs' link data over its competitors (the next closest competitor only had 14% of votes), and 44% use Ahrefs' Domain Rating as their SEO metric of choice.

But numbers only tell part of the story. Marketers love Ahrefs because it:

Simplifies competitor research - See exactly what's working for your competitors
Takes the guesswork out of keyword selection - Identify keywords with the right balance of volume and difficulty
Makes link building more efficient - Find high-quality link opportunities based on your competitors' profiles
Highlights technical SEO issues - Discover and fix problems that might be holding your site back
Tracks progress over time - Monitor your rankings and growth with precise metrics

2. Core features of Ahrefs

Ahrefs isn't just one tool — it's a suite of powerful features designed to give you a complete picture of your SEO landscape. Let's break down the core tools that make Ahrefs so valuable.

Site explorer: Analyze your competitors' websites

Think of Site Explorer as your window into any website's SEO performance. Just enter a domain or URL, and you'll get a comprehensive breakdown of:

Backlink profile - Who's linking to the site, how many links they have, and the quality of those links
Organic keywords - What terms the site ranks for in Google
Organic traffic - How much search traffic the site receives
Top-performing content - Which pages attract the most links and traffic
Traffic value - What that organic traffic would cost if purchased through PPC

Site Explorer is particularly valuable for competitive analysis. You can see exactly what's working for your competitors and replicate their success.

For example, when analyzing a competitor, you might discover that their most-linked content is comprehensive guides on topics relevant to your industry. This insight could inform your own content strategy, helping you create resources that naturally attract links.

Keywords explorer: Find what your customers are searching for

Keywords Explorer helps you discover and analyze the search terms your audience uses. It goes far beyond simple search volume metrics by showing you:

Keyword difficulty - How hard it would be to rank on page one for a particular term
Click data - How many people actually click organic results (versus finding answers in SERP features)
Keyword ideas - Related terms, questions, and phrases to expand your targeting
Parent topics - Broader themes that could help you rank for multiple keywords with one piece of content
SERP analysis - What's currently ranking for your target terms

The real magic of Keywords Explorer is how it helps you prioritize. Instead of chasing high-volume keywords that you'll never rank for, you can find valuable opportunities with lower difficulty scores.

For example, a local business might discover that "best [service] in [city]" has decent search volume but lower difficulty than broader terms. This insight provides a clear direction for their content strategy.

Content explorer: Discover high-performing content

Content Explorer is like a search engine for the most popular content in your niche. It helps you:

Find trending topics - Discover what's getting shared and linked to right now
Identify content gaps - Spot opportunities your competitors have missed
Research outreach targets - Find websites that regularly publish on your topics
Analyze content performance - See what formats and approaches work best

This feature is invaluable for content marketers looking to create material that resonates with their audience and attracts links naturally.

Let's say you're planning content about sustainable packaging. A quick search in Content Explorer might reveal that "zero-waste packaging alternatives" gets significantly more shares and links than "eco-friendly packaging options." That simple insight could dramatically improve your content's performance.

Rank tracker: Monitor your search engine rankings

Rank Tracker does exactly what it sounds like — it keeps tabs on your rankings for target keywords. But it goes beyond simple position tracking by showing you:

Ranking history - How your positions have changed over time
SERP features - Whether your site appears in featured snippets, knowledge panels, etc.
Competitor comparisons - How you stack up against other sites tracking the same keywords
Visibility scores - Your overall search visibility in your niche

This tool helps you measure the impact of your SEO efforts and identify areas that need attention.

For instance, you might notice that your rankings dropped for several keywords after a recent site update. With this information, you can investigate technical issues that might be responsible and address them quickly.

Site audit: Find and fix technical SEO issues

Even the best content won't rank if your site has technical problems. Site Audit crawls your website to identify issues like:

Broken links - Pages that lead to 404 errors
Missing title tags or meta descriptions - Essential on-page elements
Slow loading pages - Performance issues that hurt user experience
Duplicate content - Pages that compete with each other
Mobile usability problems - Issues that affect smartphone users
Indexation issues - Problems that prevent Google from properly crawling your site

Each issue comes with an explanation of why it matters and how to fix it, transforming complex technical SEO into actionable tasks.

AI-powered tools now give us unprecedented ability to optimize spending in real-time, but you gotta know how to use them properly. Ahrefs has introduced several AI features to make SEO work more efficient:

AI Content Grader - Evaluates your content against top-ranking pages
AI Content Helper - Provides suggestions to improve your content
AI-driven recommendations - Smart suggestions for fixing technical issues

These tools don't replace human expertise, but they do make it easier to identify opportunities and implement best practices.

3. Understanding Ahrefs metrics and terms

To get the most from Ahrefs, you need to understand the metrics it uses. Let's demystify the most important ones.

Domain rating (DR)

Domain Rating is Ahrefs' proprietary metric that shows the strength of a website's backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.

What affects DR:

Number of unique referring domains (more important than total backlinks)
The DR of those linking sites
The nature of those links (follow vs. nofollow)

How to use DR:

Compare your site's authority with competitors
Evaluate potential link building opportunities
Track your site's growing authority over time

Remember that DR is just one metric. A site with DR 50 focused entirely on your niche might be more valuable than a DR 90 general news site.

URL rating (UR)

While DR evaluates entire domains, URL Rating measures the strength of individual pages' backlink profiles.

What affects UR:

Direct backlinks to that specific URL
Internal links from other strong pages on the same site
The DR of linking domains

How to use UR:

Identify your strongest pages (and why they're strong)
Find competing pages you might be able to outrank
Determine which pages need backlink support

UR strongly correlates with Google rankings, making it one of the most useful predictive metrics in Ahrefs.

Backlink metrics

Ahrefs provides several specialized metrics for evaluating backlinks:

Referring domains - The number of unique websites linking to you (generally more important than raw backlink count)
Dofollow vs. nofollow - Whether links pass authority (dofollow) or not (nofollow)
Link type - Text links, image links, form links, etc.
Anchor text - The clickable text used in links (important for relevance signals)
New vs. lost backlinks - Links you've recently gained or lost

These metrics help you understand not just the quantity but the quality of your backlink profile.

Keyword difficulty

Keyword Difficulty (KD) estimates how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 Google results for a keyword on a scale from 0 to 100.

What affects KD:

The backlink strength of current top-ranking pages
The authority of domains in the top results
Historical ranking stability for the term

How to use KD:

Find keywords within your ability to rank for
Balance search volume against difficulty
Identify low-competition opportunities

KD isn't a perfect science, but it's an excellent starting point for keyword prioritization.

Traffic value

Traffic Value estimates what you'd pay for your organic traffic if you were using Google Ads. It's calculated by multiplying:

The number of keywords a site ranks for
Their search volumes
Their estimated cost-per-click values

How to use Traffic Value:

Compare your website's performance to competitors
Track the growing value of your SEO efforts
Identify high-value sections of your site
Make the business case for SEO investments

Even if you never plan to run ads, Traffic Value helps quantify the economic impact of your organic search efforts.

4. Practical applications of Ahrefs

Theory is great, but how do you actually use Ahrefs to improve your SEO? Let's explore the most valuable practical applications.

Competitor analysis

Analyzing your competitors is one of the most powerful ways to use Ahrefs. Here's a simple process:

Identify your true competitors using the "Competing Domains" report
Analyze their backlink profiles to find link building opportunities
Study their best-performing content to inform your content strategy
Uncover their keyword targets and find gaps in your own strategy
Track their growth over time to spot successful tactics

This approach lets you build on what's already working in your industry rather than starting from scratch.

For example, you might discover that your competitor ranks for "affordable [your product] alternatives" — a term you hadn't considered targeting, but that brings them significant traffic.

Backlink analysis and building

Effective link building starts with understanding your current backlink profile and identifying opportunities for growth. Ahrefs makes this process systematic:

Analyze your backlink profile to identify strengths and weaknesses
Use the "Link Intersect" tool to find sites that link to your competitors but not to you
Find broken links on relevant sites that you could replace with your content
Monitor new backlinks to competitors to spot active linking opportunities
Track your link building progress with the "New" backlinks report

Relying only on Google and Meta for your PPC campaigns in 2025 is a rookie mistake. The same applies to backlinks — diversity matters. Ahrefs helps you ensure your backlink profile isn't overly dependent on a few sources.

For example, you might use Ahrefs to find a resource page that links to three of your competitors. Since the site already links to similar businesses, they're more likely to link to you too. This targeted approach is far more efficient than sending random outreach emails.

Keyword research process

Keyword research isn't just about finding terms with high search volume — it's about finding the right terms for your business. Here's how to use Ahrefs for smarter keyword research:

Start with seed keywords related to your products or services
Expand using the "Keywords ideas" report to find related terms
Analyze metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, and clicks
Group keywords by search intent (informational, commercial, transactional)
Prioritize based on your site's authority and content capabilities

The key is focusing on keywords that balance opportunity with achievability. A DR 30 site probably won't rank for "insurance" (KD 98), but might do well with "insurance for freelance designers" (lower KD).

Ahrefs also shows you the "clicks per search" data, which is crucial in 2025's SERP landscape. For example, "weather in Chicago" gets 6,000 searches monthly but only 900 clicks — because Google answers the query directly in the SERP.

Content strategy development

Great design and slick products won't save you if your words don't pull their weight. Content strategy is where Ahrefs truly shines:

Find content gaps using the "Content Gap" tool
Analyze top-performing content in your niche via Content Explorer
Develop data-driven content briefs based on what's ranking
Identify content refresh opportunities by finding declining traffic to your pages
Monitor content performance with organic traffic reports

The first rule of killer web copy: it's not about you — it's about your reader. Ahrefs helps you understand exactly what your reader wants by showing you which content performs best.

For instance, you might discover that "how to" guides consistently outperform listicles in your industry, or that including specific data points correlates with higher backlink acquisition. These insights transform your content from guesswork to strategic assets.

Technical SEO auditing

In today's fast-moving market, your budget should be as dynamic as the campaigns themselves. The same applies to technical SEO — regular audits keep your site competitive.

Ahrefs Site Audit helps you:

Identify critical SEO issues like broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors
Prioritize fixes based on importance and potential impact
Monitor site health over time with regular re-crawls
Compare against competitors' technical performance
Ensure mobile-friendliness and page speed optimization

Many SEO tools find problems, but Ahrefs goes further by explaining why each issue matters and how to fix it. This transforms technical SEO from a specialist skill to an accessible process anyone can manage.

For example, you might discover that your site has 20% of its pages with duplicate title tags

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