Ahrefs: Analyze your backlinks and dominate SEO

What is Ahrefs?

Ahrefs is a search engine optimization (SEO) tool designed to optimize websites for search engines.

Launched in 2010 by Dmitry Gerasimenko, it has become one of the most recognized SEO tools, used by renowned companies such as Netflix, LinkedIn, Uber, and Facebook.

• Keyword Research: Ahrefs helps you discover what people are looking for on Google and other search engines, offering keyword suggestions for creating powerful web content.
• Content Optimization: Helps to adjust technical aspects of content for better ranking in search results.
• Competition Analysis: Provides data on how difficult it is to rank for specific queries and suggests strategies for getting backlinks.
• Technical SEO Audit: Ahrefs makes it possible to assess and improve the technical aspects of the site to optimize SEO.
• Domain analysis: one of the many features offered by Ahrefs, allowing a complete evaluation of the SEO performance of a domain.

The Ahrefs software stands out as a comprehensive and versatile tool for SEO professionals, offering a wide range of features to improve the visibility and ranking of websites in search engines.

Features

1. Domain analysis

Dive into the heart of SEO with in-depth domain analysis. This is the key to understanding the strength and potential of your site in the digital ecosystem.

• Domain Quality Assessment: Get a complete overview of the quality of a domain, including its ranking for certain phrases and its traffic.
• Site Explorer Tool: A detailed analysis of a domain's backlink profile and search performance.
• Key indicators: Domain Rating, estimated total traffic, total number of backlinks, and keyword rankings.

This feature is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy, offering essential insights into the health and growth potential of your site.

2. Keyword Research

Dominate your SEO campaigns by discovering the most lucrative keywords. Finding the perfect balance between popularity and competition is an art.

• Keywords Explorer: Access to detailed keyword data from a variety of search engines.
• Keyword Difficulty Assessment: Analysis of the difficulty of ranking for targeted keywords.
• Alternative Keyword Suggestions: Generating keyword ideas based on initial research.

Ahrefs software transforms the complexity of keyword research into a simplified and strategic approach.

3. Rankings monitoring

Stay ahead of the curve by monitoring how your keywords perform over time. It's a barometer of your SEO success.

• Technical Analysis: Identification of technical problems affecting SEO.
• Problem Identification: Detect issues like slow loading content, missing alternative texts, etc.
• SEO improvements: Use of audit results to optimize the site.

Ranking tracking is a vital tool, keeping you up to date with the changing dynamics of search engines.

4. Site Audit

Site auditing is your guide to navigating the maze of technical SEO. It identifies gaps and paves the way for significant improvements.

• Overview of Backlinks: Understanding the influence of backlinks on SEO.
• Link Quality Assessment: Analysis of the quality of backlinks to identify new opportunities.
• Link History: Monitoring the evolution of backlinks over time.

It is an invaluable tool for keeping your site in optimal shape and at the top of the search results.

5. Backlink analysis

Backlink analysis is the seismograph of SEO, measuring the influence and quality of incoming links.

• Backlink profile: Discover the impact of each link on your site.
• Backlink strategy: Find new opportunities to enrich your link profile.

The Ahrefs software excels at this feature, providing accurate data to strengthen your backlink strategy.

6. Competitor Tracking

Decipher the secrets to the success of your competitors and use this information to sharpen your own SEO strategy.

• Competitor Analysis: Understanding competitors' SEO strategies.
• Comparison of Backlink Profiles: Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your backlink profile compared to those of competitors.
• Strategic Monitoring: Using insights to adapt your SEO strategy.

The competitor monitoring tool is a major asset, allowing you to constantly adapt and improve your strategy according to market trends.

7. Alert tool

Always stay up to date with alerts from Ahrefs. Whether it's for new backlinks or keyword mentions, this tool keeps you up to date with SEO news.

• Real-Time Alerts: Notifications for new backlinks and keyword mentions.
• Competitor Monitoring: Instant information on the progress of competitors.
• Business Intelligence: Stay up to date with significant changes in the SEO landscape.

The software is essential for rapid responsiveness and adaptability in a constantly changing SEO landscape.

8. Integrations

Maximize the effectiveness of your SEO strategy by integrating Ahrefs with other marketing and SEO tools.

• Connection with Other Tools: Synchronization with various marketing and SEO tools.
• Consistent Campaign Management: Improving the management and analysis of SEO campaigns.
• Data Flexibility: Integrating Ahrefs data into other platforms for more comprehensive analysis.

Ahrefs' integrations offer undeniable added value, by facilitating more consistent and integrated management of marketing efforts.

9. Advanced Features

Discover a world of possibilities with Ahrefs' advanced features. From customizing reports to in-depth analysis, these tools are designed to provide a deeper understanding of your SEO strategy.

• Custom reports: Create custom reports for specific and in-depth analysis.
• Customization and Flexibility: Adapt Ahrefs' features to your specific needs for a targeted SEO strategy.
• Deep Analysis: Use advanced tools for a detailed understanding of your SEO performance.

Ahrefs' advanced features offer valuable flexibility and depth of analysis for SEO specialists looking for specific, detailed data.

Pricing

Ahrefs offers four main pricing plans:

• Lite - $99 per month
• Standard - $199 per month
• Advanced - $399 per month
• Business - 999 dollars per month.

These fees are fairly comparable to those charged by major competitors Moz, Semrush, and Majestic.

Customer support

SEO tools like Ahrefs can be quite complex to understand, so the availability and format of customer support is often a key consideration for users.

You have two customer support channels with Ahrefs: email and chat. This is in positive contrast to some competing products (Moz and Majestic), which only offer email support; but the lack of telephone support contrasts negatively with Semrush, which offers it.

On the other hand, Ahrefs makes sure that its contact details are easy to find: a live dialog box is visible at the corner of each page, and the estimated waiting times are also indicated there.

Access customer support in Ahrefs - the chat window is available anytime in the dashboard.

There's also no obligation to search our help pages before showing you a phone number - help is usually immediate.

Ahrefs support is available in multiple languages. You can use a language selector at the bottom of the interface to switch to the language that's right for you.

However, if you are on the Ahrefs Help Portal - help.ahrefs.com - it is not easy to find help in another language, or to see what languages are available.

Alternatives to Ahrefs

There are a lot of SEO tools out there, and choosing the right one can be a daunting task. Here are three alternatives to Ahrefs that can help you improve your SEO and keep up with your competitors.

1. Semrush

Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that offers a variety of features for keyword analysis, ranking tracking, and site auditing.

• Keyword and Domain Analysis: In-depth analyses to understand the performance of keywords and domains.
• Ranking Monitoring and Site Audit: Track the ranking of your keywords and identify the technical improvements needed.
• Backlink Management: A detailed view of your backlink profile and opportunities for new links.

Pricing

• Pro: Starting at $99.95/month for basic features.
• Guru: Starting at $199.95/month for advanced features.
• Business: Starting at $399.95/month for more advanced reporting and project management options.

SEE MORE: Try Semrush Now

2. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is a versatile SEO solution offering tools for keyword analysis, ranking tracking, and site audit.

• Keyword Analysis Tool: Get valuable keyword information to improve your SEO strategy.
• Ranking monitoring: Precise monitoring of the performance of your keywords on various search engines and websites.
• Site Audit: Detailed reports to identify and correct technical issues.

Pricing

• Essential: Starting at $23.40/month for basic features.
• Pro: Starting at $53.40/month for additional features.
• Business: Starting at $113.40/month for advanced SEO analysis and reporting.

SEE MORE: Try SE Ranking now

3. Serpstat

Serpstat offers a suite of SEO tools for keyword analysis, ranking tracking, and backlink management.

• Keyword Analysis: Detailed analyses to optimize your keyword selection.
• Netlinking Management: Evaluate and improve your backlink profile for a better ranking online and for each competitor
• Ranking monitoring: Monitoring the position of your keywords in the search results.

Pricing

• Lite: Starting at $69/month for individual users.
• Standard: Starting at $149/month for small teams.
• Advanced: Starting at $299/month for businesses with greater needs.

SEE MORE: Try SerpStat now

Each tool brings its own strength and particularities. Semrush stands out for its versatility and advanced features, SE Ranking for its simplicity and value for money, and Serpstat for its comprehensive suite of SEO tools at a competitive price. Selecting an alternative will depend on your specific SEO needs, team size, and budget.

FAQs

What is Ahrefs?

Ahrefs is a tool that helps you optimize your website for search engines. It does this by providing you with information that allows you to determine what people are looking for in your niche, identify opportunities to create links between other sites and yours, and improve the technical SEO of your website.

What is the best alternative to Ahrefs?

Based on the tests we've done and the SEO products we've reviewed to date, we've found that Semrush is probably the best Ahrefs alternative. It beats Ahrefs when it comes to providing project management tools and keyword intent data; but Ahrefs is stronger when it comes to the number of search engines for which data is provided (Ahrefs provides data from 10 search engines, while Semrush only provides data from Google).

Final Verdict

Overall, Ahrefs is a great solution for most SEO projects.

It gives you access to a wealth of information that, when used wisely, can help users significantly increase organic traffic levels to their websites and blogs.

It is easy to use, works with more search engines than the main competing products, and thanks to its “domain verification” system, it allows you to work on a large number of projects at a lower cost.