11 ways to use Ahrefs for SEO and competitor research

Executive overview

Most SEO tools give you data but not direction. Ahrefs structures its toolset around four core jobs: finding content opportunities, building links, researching keywords, and fixing technical issues.

Each of the 11 use cases below maps to one of these jobs. Used together, they replace guesswork with competitor intelligence.

The fastest path to more traffic is mining what already works for competitors, then closing the gaps.

Finding content opportunities

• Use Site Explorer on a competitor's domain, then open the Top Pages report to see which pages drive the most organic traffic.
• Filter by referring domains vs. traffic to surface low-competition topics — e.g. a page with 4 linking domains and 10,000+ monthly visitors.
• Top Subfolders shows which topic clusters generate the most traffic for a site, revealing useful structural insights.
• Use Content Explorer (1 billion+ page database) with referring domains set to 0 and organic traffic minimum set to 1,000 to find unlinked pages already attracting search visits.
• Click the Organic Keywords tab on any Content Explorer result to see exactly which keywords drive traffic and at what positions.

Analysing competitor backlinks

• In Site Explorer, click through from the Referring Domains count on any top page to see which sites are linking and assess quality at a glance.
• Check the Link Type filter: a high proportion of nofollow links on a page is a red flag for unnatural link patterns.
• Use the Backlinks report with Link Type set to Content to find contextual links only — most relevant for outreach.
• Filter by Link Type = Dofollow to isolate only value-passing links.
• Add a footprint like "Resources" in the Include box to find resource page link building opportunities.

Finding guest blogging sites

• Type a topic keyword into Content Explorer, apply the one-article-per-domain filter, then set a Domain Rating range to match your experience level.
• Domain Rating 30–40: suitable for newer guest bloggers building a portfolio.
• Domain Rating 50–70: targets established, authoritative blogs.
• This approach surfaces sites without a "Write for Us" page that may still accept pitches.

Monitoring competitor links in real time

• Use Backlink Alerts: grab the URL of a top-ranking competitor page and set a new backlinks alert with scope = New.
• Each alert emails you when that page acquires a new link, giving you a timely outreach opportunity.
• Set alerts for the top 3–5 ranking pages, not just number one.

Closing keyword gaps

• Content Gap tool in Site Explorer shows keywords two or more competitors rank for that your site doesn't.
• Set the dropdown to "all of the below targets" and keep the top-10 filter active for the most relevant results.
• Run the same tool at the page level: paste in the top 3 ranking URLs for a target keyword to extract subtopics for your content outline.

Fixing broken pages and building links

• In Site Explorer's Best By Links report, filter by HTTP code 404 to find your own broken pages with existing backlinks — fix or redirect immediately.
• Apply the same method to competitor sites to generate broken link building targets and content ideas simultaneously.

Technical SEO auditing

• SiteAudit crawls for 100+ technical issues; the overview table groups them by category.
• Click any issue to open Data Explorer and see all affected pages.
• For missing meta descriptions, add them directly in SiteAudit and export a to-do list for developers.
• Use dedicated reports for page speed, HTML tags, and internal link issues.

Tracking rankings and SERP features

• Rank Tracker shows desktop and mobile rankings across 170 countries for any keyword set.
• SERP feature tracking covers 13 feature types, including historical ownership data.
• The Competitors Report lets you benchmark up to 5 rivals across multiple ranking categories on a single graph.