How to Use Ahrefs for Free: 3 Ways to Use Their Keyword Research Tool
Keyword research is an essential part of SEO. Your SEO efforts will be more productive and more targeted if you can analyze massive volumes of data and make informed decisions.
Ahrefs is one of the most popular tools for keyword research. It is a user-friendly and feature-rich keyword research tool that provides detailed data and analysis about keyword trends, advertising costs, and competition levels.
We'll share 3 ways to use Ahrefs for free in this post.
SEO has become more competitive as Google updates its algorithm regularly. Therefore, an SEO campaign needs to have an SEO audit. An SEO audit is a detailed analysis of a website's existing SEO factors to identify strengths and weaknesses.
A properly executed SEO audit will allow you to create a more effective and targeted SEO strategy.
So what are you waiting for? Let's get started!
Sign up for an Ahrefs account
Ahrefs is a must-have tool for your SEO toolbox if you are serious about keyword research.
There are two options for signing up for an Ahrefs account. You can either sign up for their pricing plan or use their free trial.
You'll want to use their Planner tool for the most effective keyword research. Their Planner allows you to build your keyword research strategy by importing your Google Analytics and website crawl data.
Use Ahrefs' Keyword Explorer
Keyword Explorer is one of Ahrefs' most popular features, and it's easy to see why. It lets you see detailed data and trends for any keyword, including how much traffic that particular keyword is driving to your website, how much revenue you could generate from it, and more.
If you want to perform a quick keyword analysis of a particular website, you can easily do so in Ahrefs with a few clicks. Select the website in question and click the "Keywords" tab in the top menu bar.
Install the Ahrefs Chrome Extension
If you are a frequent user of Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, you'll likely appreciate the ease of adding a shortcut to it in the Chrome browser.
Click the "Add to Chrome" button to download the Ahrefs Chrome Extension. Once installed, you can launch it from the Extensions tab on the Chrome browser and then perform your keyword research precisely the same way you do.
Use the Ahrefs' Content Explorer
If you are interested in exploring your website's backlink profile or analyzing your site's keywords from a geographical perspective, you may want to try Content Explorer.
You can find the Content Explorer in the "Advanced" section of the main menu in Ahrefs.
When you click the Content Explorer link, a new tab will open with your content analysis results organized by location.
You will notice that "Keywords" and "Competitor Backlinks" are also two of the content analysis reports available.
Analyze your website's keyword competitiveness
One of the most important aspects of keyword research is determining your website's keyword competitiveness. This will allow you to understand where you're targeting your potential keywords and your chances of success.
Ahrefs has a handy feature to make just that: Keyword Difficulty.
Open up the "Keywords" report and click the "Analysis" button next to the "Keyword Competitiveness" field.
You will see a graph and table showing each keyword's difficulty or competitiveness. This will determine if you have a better chance of ranking for more niche or general keywords.
Identify your website's main keywords.
The above reports also contain a "Main Keywords" section at the bottom of the results. This section will tell you which keywords are driving the most traffic, revenue, and potential for your website.
You can use this information to further your keyword research and create a more focused strategy.
If you'd like to get a broader view of your website's keywords, you can also look at the "All Keywords" report. This report contains a list of every keyword your website is ranking for.
Analyze your site's backlink profile
Now that you have a better understanding of your top-performing keywords, it's time to look at your backlink profile.
In the backlink section of the "Keywords" report, you will see a list of your website's backlinks organized by the websites linked to you.
This will allow you to understand better what types of backlinks your website is receiving and the quality of those links.
Additionally, you can click on any website in this list and see their backlink profile in detail. This includes the number of backlinks, the location of those backlinks, and the IP addresses of the linking sites and the linking users.
Wrap up - The Importance of keyword Research
Keyword research is an integral part of both SEO and online marketing. It is important to remember that keywords are not the only factor in determining the success of your online marketing efforts.
Many other factors go into the equation, such as the quality of your content, the timing of your content, the volume of your content, and how you distribute your content.
But without a solid foundation in keyword research, you will find it much more challenging to achieve success in any of these other areas.
