Ahrefs is a search engine optimization analysis tool that we use often. They have a robust offering centered on understanding your website's positioning and SEO components. This includes analysis of your website ranking, backlinks, keyword tracker, and even the health of your website (indexing links, failed links or pages, etc.).
Out of all of their features, we enjoy a few the most. One is the alert email when they index the website that allows us to quickly know if a link is down, redirect isn’t operating correctly, etc. Another email they send out is a weekly update, providing a quick snapshot of traffic, improved keywords' positions, features gained, and lost features. Ahrefs also provides insights into your URLs and meta descriptions (not only broken links but also if something is too wordy/long, slow pages, multiple H1 tags, etc). This information allows us to tackle problems quickly and efficiently.
The best way to work with Ahrefs is to create a “project” for your website so you can continuously track your progress and updates to the site (allowing a view if it’s working or not). Then keywords can be “added to your site” and they will be tracked in regards to your website’s ranking for them. You can also review all your backlinks in one place and ensure that they are linking correctly (such as wanting more “DoFollow”s than “NoFollow”s because the latter provides no authority to your website). Besides learning more about your website, they also analyze and provide profiles of your top 10 competitors. Utilizing this allows you to see where your competitors are ranking, their backlink profiles, where their traffic is coming from, and more.
Ahrefs has a free version as well as multiple paid accounts depending on how much information you want to have access to. For tracking your own website on the free version, ensure you are the verified owner of the website, otherwise you won’t be able to access complete information about the site and track it as a project.
If you are interested in learning more about where your website stands, we can provide you with an SEO audit and explain what all the data and graphs mean so you have a clear idea of your next SEO move.