Introduction
Navigating the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) can be tricky for most people. Even the most experienced and skilled digital marketers find it hard to keep track of all the crucial metrics that influence their websites’ online visibility. This is where Ahrefs becomes so valuable. This is a powerful suite that comes with an arsenal of tools every digital marketer needs. If you haven’t used this software before, you need to start using it ASAP.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a powerful SEO software suite that helps businesses and online marketers increase their websites' visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and others. The suite contains tools for link building, competitor analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, and more. A majority of these features are designed specifically for marketing professionals. Ahrefs provides almost all the data and insights you may need to optimize your SEO strategy and drive more organic traffic to your websites. It also lets you track your online store performance over time and identify the areas that require improvement. Some of the most useful features of the software suits are backlink tracking, keyword ranking monitoring, and website traffic data analysis. It is an essential tool for online store owners who want to stay ahead of the competition and improve their online visibility. Whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, Ahrefs has an array of tools and features you can use to succeed in today’s competitive environment.How Much does Ahrefs Cost?
Ahrefs's pricing varies depending on the subscription plan you choose. They have several plans, ranging from $99 per month (Lite plan) to $999 per month (Enterprise plan). Each plan comes with a different set of features and capabilities. You can choose the one that fits your digital marketing needs and budget. At the moment of writing this blog, Arhefs offers four different plans:- Lite: This plan costs only $99 per month. It provides limited access to the SEO dashboard, site explorer, and keyword explorer. It does not offer fresh SERP updates, broken links or backlinks tracking, or site portfolios. This plan is ideal for small businesses that are just starting with SEO.
- Standard: This plan is available at the rate of $199 per month. You get everything that is available in the Lite plan. Some of the critical features of this plan include content explorer, batch analysis, and web mention alerts. It does not offer Look Studio integration, Web Explorer, or no HTTP authentication crawling. It is ideal for freelance SEO professionals and marketing consultants.
- Advanced: This plan costs $399 per month. In addition to the standard plan's features, it offers critical features like Looker Studio, Web Explorer, and AI content grader. However, it lacks features like unlimited historical data, invoicing capabilities, and audit log. Therefore, it is ideal for in-house marketing teams.
- Enterprise: This is the top Ahrefs plan, available at the price of $999 per month. In this plan, you get all the features available in the previous plans. Additionally, you get some critical features like API capabilities, directory listing, and 5 million crawl credits. Unfortunately, you miss out on features like unlimited API units, unlimited keyword lists, and predefined user and credit limits.
5 Ahrefs Tools to Help Your SEO Plan
As mentioned, Ahrefs has an array of tools that can help you with your SEO activities. Some of the most useful Ahrefs tools are discussed below:1. Site Explorer
This tool offers you a comprehensive overview of a website’s SEO performance. Some of the crucial features of this tool are:- Overview: You get a summary of the website’s organic search traffic, referring domains, backlink profile, and top organic keywords.
- Organic Search: This feature offers you detailed information about the website’s organic search performance. You can learn about its top-ranking keywords, estimated organic traffic, and more.
- Backlink Profile: With this feature, you can analyze the website’s backlinks, anchor text distribution, and referring domains. You can also identify new and lost backlinks over time.
- Competing Domains: This feature lets you discover other websites that compete for similar keywords in search results.
2. Content Explorer
As the name suggests, this tool helps you discover and analyze popular content in your niche. You can use this tool to ideate content. Moreover, you can identify what resonates with your target audience. Some of the significant features of this tool include:- Search for Content: This feature allows you to find popular articles and pages by simply entering a related keyword or topic.
- Content Overview: This feature allows you to examine the social shares, backlinks, and other crucial metrics for a particular piece of content.
- Top Pages: This feature allows you to discover the top-performing pages on a particular website based on backlinks and other metrics.
3. Keyword Explorer
The keyword explorer tool is designed to help you research and analyze keywords to improve your SEO strategy. Here are some of the critical features of this Ahrefs tool:- Keyword Research: By entering a keyword or topic to get access to the related keywords, their search volume, clicks, difficulty, and more.
- Keyword Overview: Here, you get access to the specific keyword’s metrics, including keyword difficulty, search volume, difficulty, clicks, and more.
- Keyword Difficulty: This option lets you figure out how difficult it might be to rank for a specific keyword based on its backlink profile and competition.
- SERP Analysis: This feature allows you to analyze the search engine results page (SERP) for a keyword to discover the top-ranking pages, backlink metrics, and more.