For over six years now, Ahrefs has been my go-to tool for all SEO needs. I have used it to find golden keyword opportunities, analyze competitor strategies, and build backlinks for my business and clients.
Ahrefs has built quite a reputation and I can’t deny the fact it helped me build my business from scratch. But here’s the kicker – I am not here to give you a sugar-coated sales pitch. This is going to be my unfiltered, no-holds-barred review of Ahrefs.
In this review, you will learn exactly how we at Demandsage use Ahrefs for everyday SEO tasks. I’ll also show you the complete picture – the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly.
Ahrefs Review (2024): In A Nutshell
Here’s a quick overview table of Ahrefs. This will help you know about this tool on the go.
| Feature | Overview |
|---|---|
| Keyword Database | 28.7 billion keywords across 217 locations |
| Backlink Database | 57.3 trillion (Internal + External) |
| Site Audit | Technical SEO audit, 170+ pre-built issue checks |
| Rank Tracking | Track up to 10,000 keywords |
| Content Explorer | Searchable database: 15.9 billion web pages |
| Pricing | Plans start at $129/month |
| Free Trial | No free trial |
| Free Plan | No (Access free tools through Webmaster Tools) |
| Core Strength | Backlink analysis and technical SEO |
Ahrefs is not just another SEO tool; it is so much more than that. It helps you optimize your websites for search engines so that they can rank higher for certain keywords.
With Ahrefs, you can find out the keywords people are searching for on different search engines, create the best content that will attract traffic to your website, find backlink opportunities, and so on.
When this tool was first launched, it was only known for its backlink index, but over time it introduced new features making it a complete suite of tools for digital marketers.
Note: Semrush is the talk of the town in the SEO industry, and it is a direct competitor to Ahrefs. I have done a detailed Semrush review that you should check. What’s more, you should also check out my detailed Semrush vs Ahrefs comparison here.
Now I will explain all the tools of Ahrefs in detail and how you can use them to your advantage. Let’s get into it.
Projects Dashboard Of Ahrefs
The project dashboard of Ahrefs is the command center of all the operations you can handle for your projects.
You can add as many verified projects as you want in the projects dashboard. It will show you an overview of all of your projects. You can directly see the health score of your website.
Additionally, it also shows you some metrics, such as domain rating, referring domains, backlinks, organic traffic, organic keywords, and the number of tracked keywords. You can click any of these metrics, and it will show you a detailed overview of them.
When you click on the GSC Performance, it will show you the search console overview of all the projects.
You can see all the details in the below screenshot.
You can see the total number of clicks, total impressions, average CTR, and average position. It will also show you the graphical representation of total impressions and the number of clicks.
Site Explorer
The next tool on Ahrefs is the Site Explorer. The tool allows you to spy on your competitors and get a complete overview of their websites.
To use the Site Explorer tool, you just need to enter the domain URL in the search box and hit the search button. It will show you a complete overview of the website. For example, I have run a search on my website, and here is what the result looks like.
They used to have an “Overview 2.0” feature that allowed you to see a glimpse of traffic share of the website by country. But with the new update, they removed this feature.
However, everything lies within the available features. Here’s what the Site Explorer shows:
- Domain Rating (DR): DR indicates the overall strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100. A higher DR suggests a more authoritative site.
- URL Rating (UR): UR measures the strength of a specific page’s backlink profile, also on a scale of 0 to 100.
- Backlinks: Shows the total number of incoming links to the website, including recent changes.
- Referring Domains: Indicates how many unique domains are linking to the site, with recent changes noted.
- Organic Search Metrics: Shows organic keywords and traffic data
- Paid Search Metrics: Provides data on paid keywords and traffic if the site uses paid advertising.
- Traffic by Location: Breaks down organic traffic by country, showing the site’s global reach and performance in different markets.
- Performance Graphs: Visual representations of various metrics over time, allowing for trend analysis.
As I have entered my domain into the Site Explorer, you can also add competitors and compare their organic traffic.
These metrics help you understand how competitor’s performance stands against your website.
Backlink Analysis
Ahrefs is the world’s largest index of live backlinks, more than Semrush. It refreshes its data every 15-20 minutes and uses its backlink data to determine other website metrics, such as domain rating, Ahrefs rank, and URL rating.
As of writing this review, they have already crawled 208.6 million domains and indexed almost 325 billion pages. After indexing these pages, the recent number of external backlinks (with historical records) and internal backlinks is 35 trillion and 22.3 trillion.
To check the backlink profile of any website, you need to click on the backlink profile from the left side of the site explorer tool. It can show you live backlinks, referring domains, broken backlinks, internal backlinks, anchors, referring IPs, and link intersect.
As soon as you click on the backlinks option, it will show you all the backlinks that are coming to that website from different domains. Here is an overview of DemandSage’s backlink profile.
You can use this backlink data to “reverse engineer” your competitors’ backlink strategy for your own website. By having:
- Sources of incoming links
- Anchor text used in these links
- Types of linking domains
- Presence of broken links
You can gain quality links to increase your site authority and page rankings in the search results.
Keywords Explorer Tool
Keyword research is an essential part of any online business, and for that, you will need the best keyword research tool; what’s better than the Keywords Explorer tool of Ahrefs? The keyword index database of Ahrefs is huge. Their database already has 28.7 billion keywords from different search engines across 217 locations.
To do keyword research on Keywords Explorer, you just need to enter one or multiple keywords separated by commas in the search box and select your preferred country.
Ahrefs recently added an “Ask AI” feature to the Keyword Explorer tool. This option has plenty of fixed templates that you can choose to find relevant keywords for your niche. Then, you can manage those keywords manually and hit the search button to get their data.
You can also just upload CSV or TXT files, import keywords from there, and hit the search button.
On the results page, it will show you different metrics such as traffic potential, global volume, keyword difficulty, the volume of the keyword in the country you’ve selected, different keyword ideas, position history, Ads position history, and SERP overview.
Site Audit Feature
If you want to see your website’s on-page SEO performance, then the Site Audit tool of Ahrefs is best. After using this tool, you don’t need to keep guessing, and you will be able to create a crystal clear strategy so that your website can rank easily on the search engines for any keyword.
The Site Audit tool also does an exhaustive analysis of your website, and based on that, it shows the health score, possible SEO issues, key data in charts, and ways to fix the SEO issues.
To do a site audit, you need to add a project on Ahrefs, which requires you to verify that you own that website. You can audit your website for its on-page SEO performance after verifying your ownership. The above screenshot is the result of running a site audit on DemandSage. You can see the graph of URLs crawled, Health score over time, total issues, and all previous crawls I have run on my website.
Once you are done site-auditing all of your websites, you can just open the tool and see the status of all your websites. Along with that, it shows the total URLs crawled and the number of URLs with errors.
The scheduling option is cherry on top for users with multiple websites. This option allows users to set a schedule for site audits for specific websites, and it is done when the time arrives. This saves a lot of time and users don’t have to manually audit all the websites one by one since it takes hours to audit a website.
Rank Tracker For Tracking Keywords
The Rank Tracker of Ahrefs allows you to track the rankings of your keywords. You can monitor the rankings of the keywords over time and get detailed reports of that directly to your email. You can monitor the Google rankings of your keywords for mobile and desktop across 190+ countries.
To set it up, you just need to enter the keywords or import your list of keywords, select a country or countries, enter the URL of your competitors, and voila!
When you click on your project to see the performance of your keywords, it will show you different metrics such as SERP features, positions, average position, traffic coming from those keywords, and visibility. As you scroll down, it will show you the keywords you’ve selected to track.
It will show your keywords’ current position, volume, traffic, KD, SERP features, URL, location, and last update.
You can follow this process for all of the projects added to your dashboard. After adding a tracker on specific keywords, you will be able to see the performance of those keywords right on the “Rank Tracker” dashboard.
This gives a quick overview of all keyword performance for all your projects.
Content Explorer
The content explorer tool helps you discover and analyze top-performing content of your niche. In this tool, you just need to enter any word or phrase, and it will show you relevant pages with useful social and SEO metrics.
Ahrefs discovers almost 40 million new pages every 24 hours and indexes around 11 billion pages daily. You can also use advanced operators to refine your search. This is what the Content Explorer tool looks like.
To give you guys an example, I’ve run a query on “Ecommerce SEO,” and here is the result of that query.
As you can see, it shows you the number of published pages for the same topic over time, top authors, and URLs containing that same topic. In the URLs, you can directly see the DR, referring domains, page traffic, and the value of that page traffic. They also have different filters to help you find what you’re looking for, and these filters refer to domains, website traffic, social shares, page traffic, and so on.
Competitive Analysis
The Competitive Analysis is an improved version of its previous Domain Comparison features. Whereas the Domain Comparison is used to show the backlink gap of your website compared to your competitors, the Competitive Analysis gives you a complete picture of
- Keywords – shows keyword opportunities that your website might rank for
- Referring domains – shows domains linked to your competitor but not yours
- Referring pages – list referring pages linked to your competitor but not yours
To use this feature, you need to enter your website domain in the first box (you can also select from your existing projects). Then, in the next tabs, enter the domains of your competitors. Previously, you could only add 5 competitors at a time but the new version allows you to add 10 competitors at once.
Then, hit the “Show Keyword Opportunities” button (the option will change to show link opportunities in case of referring domains and pages).
After hitting the button, it will list all the number of keywords in table format. All you have to do is click on the number and it will show the keywords that you haven’t covered yet and could possibly rank better in the search results page.
You can follow the same process to find backlinks and referring pages for your website that your competitors have but you don’t.
Ahrefs SEO Toolbar
Ahrefs SEO Toolbar is a Chrome and Firefox Extension that you can free of cost, which pulls important SEO metrics on any page or website you visit. All the top SEO experts use this extension to see on-page SEO reports and SERP positions of any website or page.
Some of its features are a country changer for SERP, a redirect tracer with HTTP headers, a broken link checker, and a link highlighter.
Free SEO Tools Of Ahrefs
Apart from many amazing paid tools, Ahrefs also offers amazing free SEO tools. Here is a quick overview of all the free tools:
1. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
If you want to improve your SEO performance and get more traffic on your website, then Ahrefs Webmaster tools are the best option.
It gives you access to the site explorer tool for your website only. I have created a step-by-step guide to set up Ahrefs webmaster tools on my Ahrefs free trial post.
2. Backlink Checker
The backlink checker tool gives you a glimpse of Ahrefs’ backlink tool. You can check the number of backlinks, referring domains, and domain ratings of any domain.
3. Broken Link Checker
With this tool, you can check your website’s broken internal and external links within a few seconds.
4. Website Authority Checker
This tool allows you to check the authority of any domain. It shows the domain rating of any website, which is based on the backlink profile of the domain.
5. Keyword Generator
The keyword generator of Ahrefs is one of the best free keyword research tools out there. It helps you find thousands of keyword ideas for Google, Bing, Amazon, and YouTube in a few seconds.
6. SERP Checker
The SERP checker allows you to check the top 10 ranking pages of any keyword for any region.
7. SEO Checker
With the SEO checker tool, you can improve any website’s SEO performance, figure out a way to improve it, and attract more organic traffic.
Ahrefs Free AI Writing Tools
Apart from different SEO features, Ahrefs also offers free AI writing tools that you can use to enhance your marketing efforts. Here is a quick overview of all these tools:
- Paraphrasing Tool: With this free paraphrasing tool, you can rephrase sentences. You can also choose the tone of your sentences. You can paraphrase up to 100 words at a time with this tool.
- Outline Generator: This free outline generator can help you turn a completely blank page into blog posts in just a few minutes. You just need to enter a text of 5-100 words to get the best results.
- Title Generator: Using this free title generator, you can create headlines for your blog posts, landing pages, and so on. It will help elevate your click-through rates and rankings in the search engine.
- Meta Description Generator: Writing a meta description for your blog post can be a headache, but with this free tool, you can create meta descriptions for any post in no time. It will also create SEO-optimized meta descriptions that help you rank better on search engines.
- Instagram Caption Generator: Using this AI-driven caption generator, you can create engaging Instagram captions for your posts, reels, and stories.
- Social Media Bio Generator: Are you bored with having a normal bio on your social media profiles? Use this AI-driven bio generator tool to generate bio for your social media profiles and attract the audience with your content.
What Is Ahrefs Academy?
Ahrefs gives you everything you will need to start optimizing your website for search engines, but it will be all for nothing if you don’t know how to use those resources. That’s where Ahrefs Academy comes in.
It teaches you how to use all the tools of Ahrefs properly and also how to get better digital marketing. They have multiple courses on “How To Use Ahrefs,” “SEO Course For Beginners,” “Advanced Link Building,” and so on.
The instructors of these courses are Sam Oh, VP Of Marketing at Ahrefs, Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs, and Si Quan, Marketer at Ahrefs. If you want more resources on all these topics, you can also check out Ahref’s blog, where they have covered everything related to SEO, Blogging, and Digital Marketing.
Ahrefs also has an amazing YouTube channel that I’m personally a fan of. There are plenty of free Ahrefs courses on SEO and digital marketing that you can check out either on YouTube or their website here.
Who Is Ahrefs For?
Ahrefs is pretty much for everyone who wants to attract visitors and increase the traffic of their website. Everyone can use it, whether it is a small business owner, a big brand, or even an individual. Ahrefs was launched as a backlink analysis tool first, but over the years, it became a complete SEO toolkit, and now I can’t live without using Ahrefs every day.
It helps me find content ideas, keywords, and backlink opportunities that my site is missing, track the keywords, and audit my websites without any hassle. This tool is so powerful that it can fulfill the needs of big SEO agencies and enterprises.
However, Ahrefs has a learning curve, and it takes a while to understand the ins and outs of the tools. That’s why it is crucial for beginners to get started with Ahrefs Academy and juggle with the free tools first.
Ahrefs is a preferred tool for many organizations, and they rely on its proficiency to analyze competition and form strategies.
Ahrefs Review: Pros & Cons
Here are the benefits & drawbacks of using Ahrefs.
Pros
- You can use Ahrefs’ keyword explorer tool to research keywords for different search engines, including Amazon and YouTube.
- With every Ahrefs subscription, you get access to all the core tools that you will need for any SEO project.
- You can easily analyze any broken link on Ahrefs compared to other tools.
- With the domain verification system, you can work with unlimited websites on Ahrefs at an affordable cost compared to other SEO tools.
- Ahrefs offers an invaluable metric called traffic potential, which allows you to find future traffic potential keywords.
- The platform offers different pricing tiers for users with specific needs and budgets.
Cons
- There used to be a 7-day trial on Ahrefs, but they have discontinued this offer.
- All the Ahrefs plans only offer one user access, and to add users, you need to pay more.
Ahrefs Pricing Explained
Ahrefs recently introduced a new pricing structure to their users. Now the pricing is even higher and there’s no option for the Enterprise monthly plan.
Here is a complete overview:
| Feature | Lite | Standard | Advanced | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $108 | $208 | $374 | N/A |
| Annual Price | $1,290 | $2,490 | $4,490 | $14,990 |
| Projects | 5 | 20 | 50 | 100 |
| History | 6 months | 2 years | 5 years | Unlimited |
| Users Included | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Additional Users | Up to 2 at $40/mo per user | Up to 5 at $60/mo per user | Up to 10 at $80/mo per user | Unlimited at $1,000/yr per user |
| Credits per User | 500 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Tracked Keywords | 750 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| Best For | Small businesses and hobby projects | Freelance SEO and marketing consultants | Lean in-house marketing teams | Agencies and enterprises |
With their pricing increase, I was furious at first. Then, I found the bright side of this pricing – removing the credit system with premium plans. Now, you can use unlimited credits with Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans (not Lite). They used to charge $35 for an additional 500 credits, which usually adds more spending to the subscription.
There’s also a Starter plan that costs $29/month. This gives you limited access to Site Explorer, Site Audit, and Keyword Explorer.
However, its plans do not offer a free trial or refund policy. That means you cannot try the platform’s advanced features before subscribing. This is Ahrefs’s biggest downside, I will say.
Ahrefs Customer Support
Unlike other SEO tools in the market, Ahrefs is quite complex and has a learning curve. That’s why Ahrefs offers a plethora of ways to get your issues fixed. They offer two support methods: Self Help and Assisted Support.
Self-help support has two options:
- Ahrefs Academy: Ahrefs Academy contains long-form articles and video tutorials to use their tools like a pro. The academy is designed to educate beginner users on best SEO practices and how to maximize the use of Ahrefs’ features.
- Help Center: Ahrefs Help Center is the knowledge base of the platform where users can find answers to common questions, troubleshooting guides, and detailed explanations of various features. It’s a self-service resource that allows users to quickly find information without needing to contact support directly.
Assisted support also has two options, but they are members-only resources:
- Ahrefs Community: Ahrefs has a private Facebook community. Only members with an active subscription can join the community. Users are allowed to post their issues, and community members with experience will step forward to provide an actionable solution.
- Chat with Us: Ahrefs provides direct, real-time communication with Ahrefs support staff. Users can likely ask specific questions about their accounts, report issues, or get personalized assistance with using the tool. As a members-only resource, it ensures that paying customers have priority access to direct support.
Both of these options are only accessible within the Ahrefs dashboard. You can click on the question sign on the bottom right corner to access them.
Ahrefs Alternatives
Although Ahrefs is a great tool, not everyone will still love it, and for those, I have also listed some of the best Ahrefs Alternatives here.
| Alternative | Best For | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush | Handling Your SEO & Marketing Needs | $139.95/mo |
| SpyFu | Affordable SEO Tool | $39/mo |
| Ubersuggest | Free Keyword Research Tool | Free |
| Serpstat | Growth Hacking Tool | $59/mo |
| Google Search Console | Detailed SEO Reports | Free |
In my opinion, Semrush is the best and most cost-effective alternative to Ahrefs. It handles all the SEO aspects and provides other innovative features for different aspects.
Well, I use Ahrefs and Semrush both to get the best results. But you can get started with our exclusive 14-day Semrush trial offer and try the platform features for free before investing directly into it.
Customer Testimonials
As someone who’s been using Ahrefs for over six years, I can attest to its power. But don’t just take my word for it. Ahrefs has mixed reviews across various review platforms.
Here’s what other SEO professionals and digital marketers have to say about Ahrefs:
One user, Sahana B., stated:
“My overall experience is great. Ahrefs offers all the crucial data needed for SEO analysis. It gives a detailed study on backlink analysis, competitors analysis, site audits, Rank tracker also. For doing competitor research it is one of the best tool.”
(Source: G2)
While another user, Dennis Forssten, is getting frustrated with its increasing price:
“Ahrefs keeps getting more expensive each month. Now, they’ve also added a “credit” system, so if you pay around $150-160 per month, you can only use their search bar a maximum of 500 times. This, combined with poor customer support and consistently lagging behind on rankings, makes it ridiculous for the amount of money they charge. I’m not supporting Ahrefs anymore.”
It is obvious that users get annoyed when an expensive tool becomes more expensive. But you can’t deny the fact that it also offers unparalleled efficiency and newly updated tools.
Conclusion: Ahrefs Is An Essential Competitive SEO Tool Despite The High Price And Learning Curve!
So that’s it from my side on my Ahrefs review. Now, the only question remains: Is this the right tool for your business?
My overall verdict is yes. Ahrefs is single-handedly one of the best SEO tools on the market. That said, it can’t be considered the cheapest or most affordable option. It also comes with a deep learning curve, which is why it is not “the” tool for everyone.
Despite its high price and complexity, it still provides a wealth of data and features that many SEO providers don’t. The quality of data, backlink analysis, and keyword research have been a boon for marketers needing organic traffic over the years. That’s why it is worth considering giving a chance.
I would suggest you try its free tools and features with a free Ahrefs account before subscribing to one of its paid plans.
