Welcome to Cyberg’s Ahrefs Review, where we talk about different aspects of the software. Ahrefs is a renowned SEO tool for experienced content marketers and web developers. In This article, we discuss what the Ahrefs tool is; then, we give you a user testing walkthrough; later on, we scrutinize Ahrefs top features and best SEO tools; after which, we talk about Ahrefs free and paid subscription; then, we overview the SEO software competition; and in the end, we point out the positives and negatives of using the Ahrefs marketing software.
What is Ahrefs?
Ahrefs is a company that provides SEO and digital marketing products and applications. In addition, Ahrefs educates people on how to grow their digital footprint. Thus, their products include search engine optimization metrics, traffic analytics, keyword research, and optimization, along with other tools. The SEO brand claims to make SEO easy for non-professional users; in this Ahrefs Review, we examine whether they can deliver that promise.
Ahrefs user testing
Many SEO tools are available these days; many of them offer sophisticated tools and meticulous algorithms; however, a practical content marketing tool has to be user-friendly and flexible. Hence, his part of the Ahrefs Review examines how the Ahrefs User Experience is.
Home page and graphics
The significance of the first impression has compelled me to dedicate a whole section to the Home page and Ahrefs graphic design. Lets’ take four items into consideration:
- Ahrefs overall graphic design
- Website headers and menus
- Website footers and sitemap
- Marketing evaluation
Ahrefs Graphics
First, the logo with a pixelated ‘a’ takes me back to DOS. The primary color on the landing page is a vibrant blue representing creativity, fun, education, and programming. The same orange used in the Ahrefs logo is used to spice the designs, and shades of grey are used to complement the design.
Second, the graphical elements used, such as emoji-like icons and weird photos of Ahrefs employees that look like an 80’s collage bullet, give the users a feeling of playfulness and creativity. In short, the design makes me feel like a young Steve Jobs in the ’80s, which is fantastic.
Evaluation of Ahrefs headers, footers, and sitemap
The menus are clear and proportionate; Ahrefs logo is at the top left next to the tool menu. There are also our data, resources, pricing, and enterprise menus on the toolbar. You can sign in or start the Ahrefs trial using the buttons on the right of the header.
The footer contains copyrights and registration and the Ahrefs sitemap, which includes main tools, Free Ahrefs SEO tools, Extra tools & features, Product, Resources, Company, and Social categories. Ahrefs sitemap is extensive yet neat, offering most of the SEO tool features at a glance.
Ahrefs Review: Website navigation
Next, we want to check how easy it is to use one of the Ahrefs features. So let’s try to find relative keywords for the phrase ‘software review.’ But first, you have to create an account because even the trial version costs 7 dollars for seven days. The sign-up process is easy; there are links to the trial version all over the Ahrefs landing page. I clicked the one shown in the picture, then chose the standard plan to test all features for a thorough review. After creating an account, you will be directed to your workspace, where the digital marketing company offers tutorials. Then, the keyword tool struck me in the middle of the toolbar. So it is safe to say that Ahrefs has one of the smoothest navigations in the SEO industry.
As I mentioned before, I searched for ‘software review’ keywords to find keyword opportunities. I got the keyword analytics with just one click on a page like this:
The features shown to me were practical and also organized in a user-friendly fashion. First of all, Keyword difficulty, one of the results I wanted, was right at the top; however, to find my second objective or find suitable related keywords, I had to scroll down to the Ahrefs Keyword Idea section.
The section is divided into terms match, questions, keywords also used by top SERP pages with my keyword of choice, and finally, talk about. Let’s assume I want a related term match, so I clicked on the view all link, then Ahrefs matching terms table pops up, where you can sort the relevant keywords by the order you want. I sorted the Keywords by their volume metric, and the results are shown below:
Now I can group my preferred keywords to a list to later use for web page optimization.
I have to admit that Ahrefs user interface is excellent because I could do what I wanted to do in less than a minute, and this is the first time I’m using Ahrefs software. Ahrefs is a great SEO tool so far.
Ahrefs tutorials
SEO tools are diverse, and each analytic software uses specific metrics and ranking to evaluate your search engine optimization; therefore, it is vital for solid content creating software to have in-house and walkthrough tutorials.
In-house Ahrefs tutorials
Ahrefs welcomes you to your dashboard when you subscribe with a four-minute Ahrefs Tour video; other tutorial links are also put at the top of your Ahrefs dashboard. For example, you can read the blogs on Ahrefs SEO hub, the dedicated Ahrefs forum, take a course in Ahrefs Academy, or watch tutorials on Ahrefs TV.
External Ahrefs tutorials
Ahrefs YouTube channel offers free SEO tool tutorials; moreover, hundreds of reviews and tutorials about Ahrefs SEO tool.
There are tons of useful content on Ahrefs about SEO terminology, Search Engines, Analytics, etc., for the novice and the elite. Once more, Ahrefs has passed yet another test with flying colors.
Marketing Strategy Assessment
I like to allocate a whole section to the marketing strategy evaluation to give my opinion both as a content creator and an SEO tool prospect. The digital marketing features can be classified as clickfunnels and marketing funnels. Click funnels help you gain domain authority and can be implemented to reinforce the marketing funnel.
Ahrefs provides both in a user-friendly yet effective method. The trial SEO tool links are spread across the page, and there are links scattered across different menus. However, charging for a 7-day trial version is a killjoy because other content strategy tools provide a free trial version; some of them even last 30 days.
Ahrefs user testing conclusion
The content optimization app offers a user-friendly UI; the site is easy to navigate and provides a useful tool. The marketing has a tiny flaw which is charging a bit of money for the trial version. Despite that, the SEO software is intriguing.
Ahrefs tools and products (Ahrefs Review)
First, let’s talk about the most frequently used tools used by a broad range of content creators and web developers. These features include keyword tools, site ranking, web ranking analytics, site audits, and content tools.
How good are Ahrefs Keyword ideas?
As mentioned before in the user testing section, finding and utilizing proper keywords plays an essential role in SEO marketing and gaining a high SERP rank. Ahrefs keyword tool is one of the most diverse yet easy-to-use keyword research tools. You can start with a keyword on your mind, then the application gives you detailed analytics in a matter of seconds.
Ahrefs Keyword Ideas reports
The results shown at the top are the analytic data I would prioritize:
- Keyword Difficulty (KD)
represents how hard it is to make it to the top search engine results page - Volume
is the number of searches with the input keyword in a month - CPC
cost per click is the money earned for each click - Clicks, CPS, and RR
are traffic statistics - Global volume
Search distribution in top countries- this data shows how extensive the Ahrefs database is.
Next, you can find a parent topic and keyword ideas. The keyword ideas is a table that contains relevant search keywords along with data such as KD, volume, clicks, costs, etc.; however, the most beneficial aspect of Ahrefs table is that you can change the order by any data you want.
Managing a project using Ahrefs
When doing a new project, you can import previous works from the Google Search Console, the leading SEO tool that everybody has to use at least from time to time, or you can enter your project data manually.
For illustration purposes, I decided to start a project manually. Ahrefs project manages your domains and subdomains. Let’s see how our Google Docs Review is doing regarding page ranking and competitors. You can audit 1500 keywords a month, and the positive point is that you can run the page audit in several countries at once. Moving on to the Competitors tab, you can enter up to 10 rivals.
After defining a new project, Ahrefs audits your URL, subdomain, or domain. The report includes a health score, Domain Ranking, Referring domains, Backlinks, Organic traffic, organic keywords, and tracked keywords. These statistics are tracked for every scheduled crawl. I had set one crawl for 3 locations, one of which got redirected by our website.
The analytics indicated that neither of the 16 detected keywords was among the top pages. Giving us insight that we need to improve our web and domain authority on Google and get more backlinks.
Ahrefs Site Review
You can enter a domain or subdomain in the URL box for a website audit. Ahrefs web crawler then audits your domain and provides you these metrics: backlink profiles, organic search, and paid search.
- Ahrefs Rank:
The Ahrefs ranking system uses duplication of Google’s Page Algorithm. Different metrics are taken into account, such as backlinks, authority, and … - UR:
Ahrefs URL rating or UR gives the pages on your domain a score of 0-100. - DR:
Ahrefs Domain rating is a more holistic scale that ranks your overall domain performance - Backlinks:
Gives you a gist of how your backlinks; are performing. Are they rising or dwindling? - Referring domains:
the term is self-explanatory - Organic keywords:
counts the number of keywords you want to make to the top 100 in the SERP - Organic traffic:
estimates your traffic per month based on your scores and Ahrefs rankings - Traffic value
provides an estimation of your income based on traffic
Ahrefs site review also provides diagrams that demonstrate your stats change in time. The SEO tool can give link statistics,
Using the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
The Keyword Explorer is an SEO tool that helps users research and optimizes their keywords for different search engines. Moreover, you can get keyword suggestions using the keyword ideas discussed in the user experience section. The keyword explorer can read your previous CSV data, and you can filter the results for choosing the most powerful keywords in your digital content.
Keyword Search tool
The Ahrefs keyword is undoubtedly one of the best content marketing tools. The SEO tool can filter keywords depending on your marketing strategy. Here’s a list of the filters you can apply to the keyword search application
Ahrefs SEO toolbar
Besides having powerful web application features, it is vital that SEO software companies offer their services on other platforms. Therefore, Ahrefs has developed a chrome toolbar extension that provides the following detail and more:
– Canonical URL;
– Title and Description (and compares them in raw HTML and rendered versions);
– Indexability and crawlability (Robots Meta Tag and X-Robots-Tag);
– Word count;
– Headers and sub-headers;
– Localization (hreflang).
– Social tags (Open Graph Tags and Twitter Cards);
Summary: Ahrefs tools
Ahrefs is one of the top content marketing tools, and it offers various quirks and features. The combination of web crawls, keyword tools, traffic analytics, and other features work in tandem with your software expectations.
Ahrefs account plans: is there a Free Ahrefs version?
I’m about to disclose the usual features of the trial version and software subscription plans. However, since Ahrefs charges 7 dollars for the 7-day trial version, I’ve also decided to reveal a backdoor to acquire Ahrefs trial for free. Then I discuss the features of Ahrefs Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Agency plans.
How to get Ahrefs for free? (Ahrefs secret tip)
When you visit the Ahrefs landing page, you can find many links to the 7-day Ahrefs trial version. If you follow those clickfunnels, you will be charged for the services. However, you can access free features from the free SEO tools in the sitemap. You can apply for an account there; then, after a verification email is sent to you, Ahrefs will grant you a 7-day free trial. Admittedly, the fact that they charge for such a short period of trial is strange, yet that’s how the cookie crumbles.
Ahrefs Review: membership plans
The content optimization software is available on Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Agency plans. According to Ahrefs, the standard plan is the most popular plan for users. Also, 2 months of free membership are rewarded for annual subscriptions.
In this part of the Ahrefs review, we compare these plans and give our opinion. In each plan, the number of offered application runs and report increases. For example, the number of your non-verified projects (competitor analysis), keyword search report limits, site audit and domain crawl limits, keyword rank tracker reports, content explorer, and many other features. Perhaps the most important difference between the standard plans and more advanced SEO plans is the number of seats available for each account. However, you can get an additional seat for every seat by paying an extra 30$ per month.
Best plan According to Cyberg’s Ahrefs Review
In the first place, I would certainly recommend using Ahrefs because both the features and prices are worth it. Secondly, the best SEO tool varies depending on your usage, target niche, campaign size, and many other factors. We would suggest the mainstream users, including content marketers, SEO experts, Content optimizers, Content administrators, freelancers, and such individuals, opt for the standard plan. However, when it comes to paying 1000$ a month for the agency account, I would strongly suggest you check out other Cyberg SEO Tool Reviews, especially the Marketmuse Review, to make a better decision.
Ahrefs alternative tools for content marketing
There are SEO tools from tech giants such as Google or new small business SEO application startups. Our Ahrefs Review deems the content optimization tool worthy; however, the following 10 SEO tools are the most powerful SEO tools of 2021. If you think the price of using Ahrefs, 180$ a month, is too much, you can use one of these apps at a lower price.
2021 Top SEO tools
- Google Search Console:
No one can possibly claim to better understand Google Spider tools and the Page algorithm than Google Corporation. Google Search Console offers free valuable tools as well as special paid services. Moreover, the Google Search Console optimization tool is in tandem with other digital marketing tools such as Google AdWords. You can read more about other Google products and services at Cyberg Reviews, for example, the Google Docs Review. - Marketmuse:
Marketmuse SEO tool is an AI solution to your optimization needs which offers various plans starting from 80$ per month. It is my personal favorite paid SEO tool. Read the Marketmuse Review to find out why. Nevertheless, I can’t help but tell you that Marketmuse Pro can generate automated text using your chosen keywords and questions! - SEMrush:
The SEO marketing software improves visibility, provides comprehensive data analysis, competitiveness evaluations, and much more. SEMrush tools cost you at least 120$ per month. If you’re an independent business owner or a freelancer, SEMrush Guru is a viable option. Click this link to read our SEMrush review. - Moz Pro:
Moz Pro is a user-friendly SEO tool with different analytic tools. The Moz Pro medium plan seems a viable option for small businesses and freelancers. However, if you would like a more feasible plan, you can try SEMrush Pro and combine the free features of Google Search Console. Read Cyberg’s Moz Review to discover Moz quirks and features.
Other strong content marketing tools:
- Surfer:
Surfer is a content optimization tool that merges content creation, content strategy, and content optimization. The services cost from 60$ a month and have been used by many marketing specialists satisfied with the Surfer application tools. Read our Surfer Content optimization tool review for more detail. The best feature of the Surfer SEO tool is the NLP (Natural language Processing) analysis. - SE Ranking:
The SE ranking SEO tool provides keyword and other content analytics at a relatively lower price. The basic subscription fee is 31$ per month; moreover, at only 71$ a month, you can have 3 user seats for the SE Ranking Pro service. Remember that an extra seat in SEMrush costs at least 40$! Discover the SE Ranking Review to evaluate its capabilities. - Alexa internet:
Alexa SEO tool is a part of the Amazon Web Service Corporation. Therefore, we would expect it to use AI tools, NLP, and other advanced technologies; nevertheless, the Alexa platform is far behind other rivals such as SEMrush, Moz, and Marketmuse. Click the link to read the Alexa Review. - SpyFu:
a Cyberg Review will be released soon on this SEO tool - Conductor:
Conductor SEO tool uses AI to promote your content and achieve higher marketing ROI. - Keywordtool:
Keywordtool is an SEO optimization assistant that provides better keyword use. a Cyberg Review will be released soon on this SEO tool.
Which of these programs is the best content marketing tool? Some are good at providing comprehensive search analytic data, some are more easy-to-use, and some are just cheaper. We try our best at Cyberg to give you valuable data to choose your ideal SEO assistant tool.
Ahrefs pros and cons
In the end, it all comes to the advantages and disadvantages of an app. Ahrefs provides excellent features, and it is really hard to point to any weaknesses. Here is what we consider as strengths and weaknesses of Ahrefs web application:
What are the positive points of Ahrefs?
- positive user experience and navigation
- Ahrefs keyword Search is easy and effective
- The Ahrefs SEO toolbar is available on Firefox and Chrome
- Working with Ahrefs is easy, and lots of tutorials are available
- The Ahrefs Standard plan is a good content optimizing package
What are the negative points of Ahrefs?
- Paying for the trial is annoying
- Ahrefs is a relatively expensive option in the SEO tools niche
2021 Ahrefs Review Conclusion
Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tools of the year. The service includes a set of valuable tools at a reasonable price. We encourage you to use the trial version to determine if Ahrefs can satisfy your content marketing requirements.
