Everything you need to know about the use and functionalities of Ahrefs
Are you looking for an online service that offers a powerful and easy to use SEO analysis tool? Do you want to analyze and optimize your site? Ahref makes it possible to analyze backlinks, evaluate keywords, monitor competition, monitor the positioning of a site and much more...! But is it the SEO tool you need? We enlighten you!
- Extensive analysis of incoming links and backlinks
- Advanced keyword research tools
- Paid tool with relatively high cost
- Fewer marketing features other than pure SEO
Why use the Ahrefs tool to audit my website?
Ahrefs may not be the initial tool you think of for a website, but its contribution is interesting for those who want to dive into the heart of the SEO topic. Thanks to Ahrefs, it is possible to dissect the link profile of a site, to identify the keywords relevant to its semantic analysis and to keep a close eye on what the competitors are doing. It's like having a sophisticated radar that not only monitors traffic but also helps you steer your content in the right direction. Useful, isn't it?
So what is the Ahrefs tool exactly?
Ahrefs is an SEO analysis tool that offers in-depth insight into the positioning of a website on the SERP. It allows site owners to understand the profile of their backlinks, to analyze the keywords for which they are positioned, and to examine the SEO strategies of their competitors. Ahrefs is also particularly recognized as the reference for link and backlink analysis, offering detailed data that is crucial for any effective SEO strategy.
This tool is essential for those who want to strengthen their natural referencing, optimize their pages, and understand how the efforts made translate into visibility on the web.
In short, Ahrefs is a valuable software for discovering new link and traffic acquisition strategies, understanding your audience's search behavior, and adjusting your SEO strategies and popular content accordingly.
Les fonctionnalités de cet outil
Identifies who links to your site and with what type of content, providing a clear picture of incoming links and strategies to improve your link profile.
With Ahrefs keyword explorer, you can find data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and estimated clicks to help choose the best keywords for your SEO campaigns.
Ahrefs allows you to monitor the variation in keyword positions over time, offering a clear understanding of the effectiveness of your SEO strategies and the visibility of your site.
Examine the SEO strategies of your competitors, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses to adapt your own strategies.
Evaluate your site to identify SEO issues that could affect your search performance, such as loading speed issues, duplicate content, and redirection errors. +Analysis of your domain or subdomain.
Helps to understand what content is working well in terms of gaining social links and shares, and what improvements could be made.
Details which pages on your site are performing best in terms of organic search traffic, allowing you to understand what content is engaging your audience.
Offers the possibility of generating detailed and personalized reports to meet specific monitoring and analysis needs.
It combines with other tools to provide a more integrated approach to SEO, improving the effectiveness of the analyses and strategies implemented.
1- Link management and analysis: “Inbound links” tab in Ahrefs
Objective:
This tab allows you to view all the incoming links to your site, giving you valuable information about how other websites connect to yours. Using this data strategically can help strengthen your link profile, an important factor in optimizing your search engine results.
Key features are:
- Overview of backlinks
- Link quality assessment
- Historical analysis
- Finding poor or low quality links
- Filters and segments
Practical application:
Let's say you want to increase the visibility of your site in search engines. By using the “Inbound Links” tab, you will be able to identify the sources of the most influential backlinks. By understanding what types of content these high-quality links attract, you can adjust your content strategy to target similar topics, thus increasing your chances of acquiring natural and powerful backlinks.
2- Content optimization based on keyword performance on the SERP: “organic keywords” tab
Objective:
Use the “Organic Keywords” tab to identify low-performing keywords, adjust existing content, and create new content opportunities that will improve your SEO positioning and organic traffic.
Key features are:
- Overview of keywords
- Trend monitoring
- Competitive analysis
- Identifying opportunities
Example of our practices
1. Initial analysis:
- Let's go to the “Organic Keywords” tab in Ahrefs. We add our site's URL to get a list of the keywords our site is currently ranked for. We look at the data provided, such as current position, search volume, CPC, and number of clicks.
2. Identifying gaps:
- Look for important keywords that your site ranks for beyond the first page of the search results. Here we can identify keywords with a high search volume and those with a low click rate, which tells us which content may be poorly constructed according to the user's intention.
3. Optimization of existing content:
- We select pages that rank fairly well for relevant keywords. The content of these pages is reviewed to better meet the search intentions associated with these keywords, by integrating the keywords in a natural way and by improving the overall quality of the content. We don't hesitate to also improve titles, descriptions, and H1/H2 tags to more accurately reflect search terms.
4. Creating new content:
- Use of the “keywords” tab to identify untapped keyword opportunities or questions frequently asked by users. You can also use the part of the Ahrefs software called ”Keyword Explorer“ which allows you to generate keywords for free. We are then making new items or pages that target these keywords, ensuring that the content is informative, engaging, and aligned with user expectations.
These analysis steps will allow you to improve your SEO positioning and your organic traffic but also tend to increase the engagement of your users.
3- Ahrefs rank for monitoring the progress of the link profile (domain rating etc)
Objective:
Use “Ahrefs Rank” to monitor the evolution of the power of your site and compare it to market leaders in order to implement an SEO strategy.
Key features:
- Global ranking of websites
- Live comparison
- SEO progress indicator
Practical case in stages:
Let's assume that we want to monitor the progress of our Netlinking strategy, here's what we can do:
First of all, you need to understand the usefulness of this feature: Ahrefs Rank ranks sites according to the quality and quantity of their backlinks. The positioning is updated regularly, allowing changes to be monitored over time.
In stages, the different uses:
- 1) Checking your Ahrefs Rank : Go to “Site Explorer” and enter your site URL. Ahrefs will show your current Ahrefs Rank as well as other relevant metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and the number of backlinks.
- 2) Trend analysis : See how your Ahrefs Rank has changed over time. This can help you understand if your SEO and netlinking efforts are paying off by improving the quality of your link profile.
- 3) Comparison with competitors : Compare your Ahrefs Rank with that of the biggest competitors on the market or your main direct competitors. This gives you a point of reference for evaluating the performance of your site in a larger context and identifying areas where you might need to strengthen your efforts.
If you notice that your Ahrefs Rank is stagnating or decreasing, this could indicate a need to review your netlinking strategy, either by acquiring better quality backlinks or by eliminating links that are toxic to your SEO.
Otherwise, based on the comparison with your competitors, adjust your content, site structure, and keyword strategies to improve your positioning and visibility.
2 points that we don't like about the ahrefs tool
1- Its relatively expensive cost
One of the big problems with Ahrefs is its price. It's quite expensive, especially if you're a small business or a freelancer who doesn't have a big budget. Even though Ahrefs offers lots of super useful features and lots of valuable data, its cost can really be a drag for those who are just starting out or who need to be careful about their expenses.
2- Fewer features than other tools like SEMrush
Although Ahrefs is a fairly comprehensive tool for SEO, it offers fewer built-in features compared to competitors like SEMrush, especially in areas of digital marketing other than pure SEO, such as PPC analysis (Pay-Per-Click), social media monitoring (social networks and Meta Ads) and content marketing tools. When we look at the SEO part, we also notice that some metrics are not offered (such as search intent for a keyword) or that the reliability of the data is lower. So the scale is tilting.
Conclusion: Ahrefs, an essential SEO tool despite some limitations
Ahrefs stands out as an essential SEO tool for anyone looking to improve the online visibility of their site. Its flagship features, such as in-depth backlink analysis, advanced keyword research, and accurate competition monitoring, make it an ally for developing effective SEO strategies! Ahrefs not only allows you to understand how a site is perceived by search engines, but also to identify optimization opportunities that can make all the difference in terms of organic traffic.
Of course, the tool comes at a cost, which could be a hindrance for small businesses or freelancers. Compared to some competitors like SEMrush, Ahrefs may seem less comprehensive in terms of marketing features beyond pure SEO, like PPC analysis or social media tracking. However, these aspects should not distract those whose main objective is to strengthen their SEO presence, because Ahrefs excels in this area.
In summary, for SEO professionals, Ahrefs is a well worth the investment. Despite its few limitations, we fully validate Ahrefs for its ability to provide accurate and actionable insights, essential for any SEO strategy.
Is the Ahrefs API free? What is its price?
Ahrefs is unfortunately not a free tool. However, it offers a 7-day trial version at an affordable price per day, which allows you to test all of its features.
There are several price and subscription formulas according to your needs and your budget:
- The plan Lite which is suitable for small businesses and leisure projects at 119€/month.
- The plan Standard, ideal for freelance SEOs and marketing consultants at 229€/month.
- The plan Advanced For more demanding users with higher rates.
There are also specific offers for large teams with, for example, a rate of €469 per month for three users. It should be noted that discounts are offered for annual payments.
