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How to Use Ahrefs for SEO and Competitor Research
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How to Use Ahrefs for SEO and Competitor Research

Introduction to Ahrefs

This section introduces Ahrefs, an SEO tool that helps improve website traffic and SEO. The speaker discusses the importance of using Ahrefs and how it can benefit businesses.

Getting Started with Ahrefs

  • The speaker highlights 11 ways to use Ahrefs effectively for increasing website traffic and improving SEO.
  • The first feature discussed is finding content opportunities based on competitor's pages that receive high search traffic.
  • Use Site Explorer to enter a competitor's domain and access the "Top pages" report.
  • Analyze the estimated organic search traffic and consider low competition topics with high search traffic versus the number of referring domains.

Researching Competitor Backlinks

  • Another way to utilize Ahrefs is researching competitor backlinks to understand their quality and acquisition methods.
  • Access the "Top pages" report for a specific page on a popular health blog.
  • Click on the number of unique websites linking to a page to open the "Referring domains" report.
  • Evaluate the quality of linking websites, such as authoritative sites like New York Times or CNBC, and identify any potential issues with link quality.

Analyzing Backlink Context

  • To gain further insights into linking pages, navigate to the "Backlinks" report in the sidebar.
  • Utilize filters within this report to narrow down specific subsets of links based on criteria like link type (nofollowed or dofollow).
  • Explore different types of link building opportunities, such as resource page link building.

Finding Low Competition Topics

  • Content Explorer is introduced as a search engine within Ahrefs with a vast database of over one billion pages.
  • Use Content Explorer to search for general keywords related to your niche, such as "backpacks."
  • Apply filters to identify low competition topics with high traffic potential, considering the absence of backlinks and minimum organic traffic thresholds.

Conclusion

The speaker concludes by summarizing the various ways Ahrefs can be used effectively for improving website traffic and SEO.

Finding Traffic Sources and Keyword Data

This section discusses how to find traffic sources and keyword data using Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer tool.

Using Keywords Explorer for Keyword Research

  • Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer is a simple tool for keyword research.
  • Choose a search engine (Google, YouTube, Amazon, Bing, etc.).
  • Enter your keyword and run the search.
  • Get helpful keyword metrics like difficulty, search volume, clicks data, etc.
  • Generate more keyword ideas from the reports or analyze position history and top 10 ranking results.

Finding Guest Blogging Sites

This section explains how to find relevant guest blogging sites using Ahrefs' Content Explorer.

Challenges with Traditional Search Operators

  • Searching for guest posting opportunities using Google search operators has limitations.
  • Lack of SEO metrics makes it difficult to assess the benefits of writing for a site.
  • Filtering through irrelevant results takes time.
  • Limited to sites with "contribute" or "write for us" pages.

Using Content Explorer for Guest Blogging Opportunities

  • Content Explorer solves these problems by providing SEO metrics and relevant results.
  • Type a keyword into Content Explorer.
  • Use filters like "One article per domain" and Domain Rating to refine the results.
  • Set Domain Rating filter based on experience level (30-40 for beginners, 50-70 for seasoned bloggers).
  • Pitch relevant sites and start guest blogging.

Discovering Link Building Opportunities

This section explores how Ahrefs can help find new link building opportunities on autopilot.

Leveraging Backlinks Alerts

  • Higher-ranking pages consistently acquire new links due to their position in search results.
  • Use Ahrefs' Backlinks alerts to track where top-ranking pages are getting their links from in real-time.
  • Enter the keyword you want to rank for in Google and copy the URL of the top-ranking page.
  • Create a new Backlinks alert in Ahrefs, paste the URL, and set the scope to "New."
  • Receive email notifications whenever the page gets a new backlink.
  • Pitch your page when an opportunity arises.

Utilizing Content Gap Tool

This section highlights how Ahrefs' Content Gap tool can help identify keywords your competitors are ranking for that your website isn't.

Identifying Competitors' Keywords

  • Enter your domain into Ahrefs' Site Explorer.
  • Go to the Content Gap tool in the sidebar.
  • Enter a couple of your competitors' domains.
  • Select "all of the below targets" to show keywords where both competitors rank but your site doesn't.
  • Use additional filters like top 10 rankings for more relevant results.

Running Page-Level Reports with Content Gap Tool

This section explains how to run page-level reports using Ahrefs' Content Gap tool.

Creating Blog Posts Based on Top Ranking Pages

  • Use SERP button beside a keyword in Content Gap tool to see top ranking pages for that keyword.
  • Copy relevant ranking results and paste them into the tool's top section (excluding own URL).
  • View all keywords these pages rank for and use them as an outline for content creation.
  • Extract sub-topics from keywords list.

The transcript is already in English.

New Section

This section discusses how to find broken pages on your website using the Best by Links report and fix them.

Finding Broken Pages on Your Website

  • Access the Best by Links report to identify pages with the most backlinks on your website.
  • To find broken pages, apply the HTTP code filter and select "404 not found."
  • Fix the broken page or add a redirect to another relevant page.
  • Additionally, address any internal URLs that point to the broken page.

New Section

This section explains how to leverage competitors' websites to discover broken link building opportunities.

Leveraging Competitors' Websites for Broken Link Building

  • Change the URL in the search bar to a competing website.
  • Set the HTTP code filter to 404.
  • Explore new topics for content creation and reach out to people through broken link building.

New Section

This section introduces Ahrefs' Site Audit tool for conducting technical SEO analysis.

Technical SEO Analysis with Ahrefs' Site Audit Tool

  • Use Ahrefs' Site Audit tool to scan your website for over 100 common technical SEO issues.
  • After running a crawl, access the Overview report and review the table displaying identified technical SEO issues.
  • Clicking on specific issues like "404 page" opens Data Explorer, revealing all broken pages found on your website.
  • Remove internal links pointing at these broken pages.

New Section

This section focuses on identifying and resolving technical SEO issues using Ahrefs' Site Audit tool.

Resolving Technical SEO Issues

  • Utilize dedicated reports within Site Audit for specific technical categories such as page speed and HTML tags.
  • Accessing the HTML tags report may reveal missing meta description tags on various pages.
  • Add meta descriptions by clicking the plus button and entering the desired text.
  • Export the results from the "to-do" report to share with your developer for implementing changes.

New Section

This section highlights additional features of Ahrefs' Rank Tracker for measuring ranking performance.

Measuring Ranking Performance with Ahrefs' Rank Tracker

  • Use Rank Tracker to monitor page rankings in Google across desktop and mobile devices in multiple countries.
  • Explore unique features within Rank Tracker, such as SERP feature tracking.
  • Track 13 SERP features and view their historical data to assess visibility and ownership.
  • Another useful feature is the Competitors report, which allows you to compare your performance against up to five competitors.

New Section

This section concludes by encouraging viewers to share their preferred Ahrefs feature or express interest in specific features.

Engaging with Viewers

  • Encourage existing Ahrefs users to share their most utilized feature.
  • Prompt non-users to indicate which feature they would like to use if they were to start using Ahrefs.
  • Invite viewers to leave comments, like, share, subscribe, and explore related videos in the playlist below.
Video description

Learn how to use Ahrefs for SEO and to get more traffic to your website. Try Ahrefs SEO tools ► https://ahrefs.com Ahrefs provides premium SEO tools for keyword research, competitive analysis, website traffic, backlink checking, and more. While these are some of the more “popular” things that our toolset is known for, there is a lot more to Ahrefs than this. In this basic tutorial, you’ll learn 11 powerful ways to use Ahrefs effectively. 1. Find content opportunities based on your competitor’s pages that get the most search traffic. How to Find Pages That Send Your Competitors Organic Search Traffic ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J6qdRsRjg4&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP&index=2 2. Research the quality of your competitors backlinks and get an understanding of how they got them. Backlink Analysis and Link Building Video Series ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io4ugroDedo&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vQNygbg5Uo1sMDs8aqRc4z 3. Find low competition topics with high traffic potential. How to Find Guest Blogging Sites and Easy Keyword Targets with Content Explorer ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKurQTHDcDc&index=4&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP 4. Find keyword data from 10 different search engines. How to Do Keyword Research in Ahrefs ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zLBu_NfOaQ&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2tIF-QrFD854Mnb8D4Av5vx 5. Find a ton of relevant guest blogging sites Guest Posting at Scale: Get Tons of High Quality Backlinks ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQK1Vbgb-RY&index=5&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2tjUTuAHpHidz5e2hAedP_m 6. Find new link building opportunities on complete autopilot. How to Find High Quality Backlink Opportunities (in Real Time) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC7ruFris0A&index=5&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP 7. How to do a content gap analysis How to Do an Effective Content Gap Analysis for SEO ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-kxOhnSH-Q&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP&index=10 8. Preserve “link juice” from your broken pages. 9. Find broken link building opportunities from your competitors’ websites Broken Link Building in Action (Strategies, Outreach Emails and Stats Revealed) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOSrx95e4lo&index=7&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2tjUTuAHpHidz5e2hAedP_m 10. Perform a technical SEO audit on your website SEO Audit: How to Fix Your Website’s Technical SEO Issues (Tutorial) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9-AkZch4k&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP&index=7 11. Track your keyword rankings across 170+ countries Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker Overview and Tutorial ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wjvguG27tg&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2vX2RVxjEjBmYoeX6LmJFGP&index=6 Timestamps: 0:43 Find content opportunities from competitors’ pages with high traffic 2:01 Research your competitors’ high-quality backlinks 4:09 Find low-competition topics with high traffic potential 5:06 Find keyword data from 10 different search engines 5:42 Find a ton of relevant sites for guest blogging 7:17 Find new link building opportunities on autopilot 8:15 Perform a content gap analysis 9:44 Preserve “link juice” from your broken pages 10:24 Find broken-link building opportunities 10:55 Perform a technical SEO audit on your website 12:13 Track your keyword rankings across 170+ countries Be sure to subscribe for more actionable marketing and SEO tutorials. https://www.youtube.com/AhrefsCom?sub_confirmation=1 STAY TUNED: Ahrefs ► https://ahrefs.com/ YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/AhrefsCom?sub_confirmation=1 Facebook ►https://www.facebook.com/Ahrefs Twitter ►https://twitter.com/ahrefs