Ahrefs Beginner's Guide: How to Use Every Key Feature

Ahrefs is one of the most widely used paid tools among SEO professionals, particularly for backlink analysis, keyword research, and competitor intelligence. Its large, frequently updated index makes it stand out for backlink tracking and content gap analysis in particular. This guide walks through Ahrefs' core modules and explains which report answers which question.

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Core Modules in Ahrefs

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Ahrefs' main menu contains five core modules:

• Site Explorer: Analyzes the organic traffic and backlink profile of any domain or URL.
• Keywords Explorer: Used for keyword research, including search volume, difficulty, and SERP analysis.
• Site Audit: Crawls your site and reports technical SEO issues.
• Rank Tracker: Monitors the search rankings of your target keywords daily or weekly.
• Content Explorer: Lists the most-shared and most-linked content for any given topic.

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Each module answers a different SEO question — where you start depends on your goal.

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Competitor Analysis with Site Explorer

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Site Explorer is Ahrefs' most powerful feature. Enter a competitor's domain or a specific URL to access:

• Estimated organic search traffic (filterable by country)
• Organic keywords and rankings
• Backlink profile: total backlinks, referring domains, anchor text distribution
• Top Pages: the pages attracting the most backlinks

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The "Organic Keywords" report is especially valuable for competitor analysis. It lets you find keywords your competitor ranks for that you haven't targeted yet. Use the "Content Gap" feature to directly list keywords where a competitor ranks but you don't appear at all.

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Keyword Research with Keywords Explorer

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When you enter a keyword in Keywords Explorer, you'll see the following data:

• KD (Keyword Difficulty): A difficulty score from 0–100. For newer sites, prioritize keywords with KD below 20.
• Volume: Average monthly search volume. You can filter by country.
• TP (Traffic Potential): The total organic traffic potential of a page ranking for that keyword — this gives a more realistic picture than raw search volume alone.
• SERP Overview: Domain Rating (DR), backlink count, and traffic data for the competing pages on page one.

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The "Parent Topic" feature shows the broader topic that encompasses your target keyword. Use it to identify opportunities to rank for multiple related keywords with a single page.

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Backlink Auditing

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Ahrefs' backlink database is one of the most comprehensive in the industry. When you navigate to the "Backlinks" report in Site Explorer, use these filters:

1. Select "Do Follow" to see only links that carry SEO value.
2. Use the "New" tab to review links acquired in the last 30 days.
3. Use the "Lost" tab to track links you've lost — and act before losing high-value ones for good.

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The "Referring Domains" report summarizes link sources at the domain level. A diversified backlink profile — links from many different domains — carries more weight with Google than dozens of links from a single source.

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Technical SEO Crawling with Site Audit

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The Site Audit module crawls your site and lists technical issues. Broken links, missing meta descriptions, pages with low Core Web Vitals scores — you can see all of these in one place.

Once the crawl is complete, the "Health Score" gives you an at-a-glance view of your site's overall technical condition. Address critical errors first, then work through warning-level issues.

At Blakfy, we use Ahrefs Site Audit alongside Google Search Console for client technical SEO reviews. Cross-referencing data from both tools ensures you catch issues that either tool alone might miss. Learn more about our technical SEO audit service.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Is there a free version of Ahrefs?

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) provides free access to Site Audit and basic backlink reporting for verified sites you own. Competitor analysis and Keywords Explorer require a paid plan.

How reliable is Ahrefs data for low-volume keywords?

Generally reliable, but for long-tail keywords with fewer than 100 monthly searches, you may occasionally see gaps. Cross-checking with Google Keyword Planner is a good practice in those cases.

What does Domain Rating (DR) mean?

DR is an Ahrefs-specific metric that measures the strength of a site's backlink profile on a scale of 0–100. It's not an official Google metric, but it's widely used as a proxy for a site's authority level.

Which is better, Ahrefs or SEMrush?

Both are powerful tools. Ahrefs excels at backlink analysis and content research, while SEMrush offers richer PPC and advertising data. For a detailed comparison, see our Ahrefs vs SEMrush comparison guide.