7 Ways You Can Use Ahrefs Webmaster Tools To Improve the SEO of your website

Last updated connected March 9, 2022.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is simply a escaped instrumentality that allows you to usage immoderate of the functionalities of Ahrefs without being an progressive Ahrefs subscriber.

If you cannot spend to bargain Ahrefs oregon you simply privation to research the ways successful which you tin usage Ahrefs to amended the SEO of your website, you decidedly should springiness AWT a try.

In this guide, I volition amusement you 7 utile ways successful which you tin usage Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to larn much astir your website and get actionable tips to amended it.

Without further due, let’s get started!

1: Get a ace utile SEO overview of your website

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools lets you usage some the Overview and Overview 2.0 reports. 

These reports supply a ace utile overview of however your tract is doing and has been doing successful presumption of:

• The astir important SEO metrics, specified arsenic Ahrefs Rank, UR (URL Rating), DR (Domain Rating), Backlinks, Referring domains, Organic keywords, (estimated) Organic traffic i.e. what your competitors spot regarding your website, and Traffic value.
• The 3 tabs successful the report, specified arsenic Backlink profile, Organic search, and Paid search fto you power betwixt much elaborate overviews of your site’s backlinks, integrated visibility, and paid search.

• Overview 2.0 is a somewhat antithetic practice of the cardinal SEO metrics with a anticipation of overlaying each metrics onto 1 chart. 

How bash I usage the Overview study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools? 

I instrumentality a look astatine the overview reports for each my websites each time to marque definite determination are nary antithetic spikes (in the referring domains oregon pages, for example) oregon downs (especially successful integrated keywords) and trends enactment arsenic expected. 

If you are investigating wherefore your site’s postulation has dropped, cheque my nonfiction connected 15 ways to cheque wherefore your site’s postulation whitethorn beryllium down.

2: Analyze the backlinks of your website

The Backlinks report lets you analyse the backlinks of your website unneurotic with utile metrics, specified arsenic the nexus property (dofollow, nofollow, UGC, sponsored), backlink benignant (in content, image, redirect, canonical), DR, and more.

This study is indispensable if you privation to cognize what is going connected with your website successful presumption of backlinks. 

The disposable filters and sorting options fto you bash the pursuing (but not constricted to):

• Recreate your nexus illustration from time 1 by sorting links from First seen to Last seen.
• Group and export the links by their nexus property similar nofollow, USC, sponsored, oregon dofollow (I cognize determination is nary specified nexus attribute). 

• Group akin links, i.e. amusement lone 1 nexus per domain. This is ace utile if you are doing a nexus audit. 
• Sort links by their type, specified arsenic regular <a href=""> links, links successful contented (the astir invaluable successful presumption of SEO, image links, oregon redirect links (links pointing to your tract via redirects). 

There are besides mode much filters for referring domains, referring pages, or people pages. Playing with them is simply a batch of fun!

How bash I usage the Backlinks study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools?

I usage this study to enactment connected way with however my backlink illustration changes connected a regular basis. I usually benignant the links by Last seen to spot the latest and the freshest links. 

3: Analyze the interior links of your website 

With the Internal Backlinks report, you tin analyse the interior links of your website without the request to usage an outer crawler.  

There are antithetic ways to analyse interior links. The astir fashionable method is astir apt to simply crawl the website with a desktop oregon cloud-based crawler and analyse the crawl information successful Excel oregon successful a predefined nexus study (in Screaming Frog this is, for example, the Incoming Links report). 

But what if you don’t usage immoderate crawler but privation to analyse interior links? Use the Internal backlinks study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools!

• The default view Group similar lets you rapidly preview the interior links connected the pages of your tract unneurotic with the information astir the anchors utilized (super useful) and the day erstwhile the nexus was added and was past seen.
• You tin besides benignant the links by nexus type, specified arsenic dofollow, redirect, nofollow, UGC, sponsored, content, with redirect chain, etc.  

How bash I usage the Internal backlinks study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools?

My favourite usage of this study is to cheque if my tract has interior links with redirect chains. With that report, I tin rapidly get the database of specified links and rapidly get to update them truthful that they constituent to targets directly. 

4: Analyze the integrated keywords your website ranks for

The Organic Keywords study is astir apt the astir utile study for each SEO. It shows you precisely the keywords your tract ranks for (the keywords that are successful Ahrefs database which is ace huge) unneurotic with a batch of ace utile metrics. 

The disposable filters and sorting options fto you presumption lone the information you are specifically funny in. Some of the disposable filters see Position, Volume, KD (keyword difficulty), CPC, Traffic SERP features, oregon Word count. You tin besides benignant keywords by Volume, KD, CPC, Position, and more.

You tin besides see oregon exclude definite words from keywords oregon URLs. Super useful! 

How bash I usage the Organic keywords study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools?

I personally usage this study to look for speedy SEO wins, i.e. the keywords for which my tract ranks connected the bottommost of leafage 1 oregon connected the 2nd page. I filter the keywords by presumption (from 7 to 15) and cheque if I tin enactment connected improving my pages’ optimization for these topics, update them, oregon adhd much content.

I besides usage this instrumentality to cheque what keywords make featured snippets for my site. 

5: Discover the apical 10 competing domains oregon pages

The Competing Domains and Competing Pages reports are ace utile if you request a spot much inspiration regarding keywords (topics) you tin constitute astir connected your website. The study shows you the websites oregon pages which fertile successful the apical 10 hunt results for the aforesaid keywords arsenic your website. 

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools lets you spot the 10 apical competing domains and pages.  However, successful reality, you tin spot adjacent much competing domains if you usage the disposable filters (Volume, KD, CPC, or Word count) oregon benignant the domains by Keywords unsocial to target oregon Common keywords.  

If you privation to beryllium capable to spot precisely the keywords that are unsocial to your competitors and which are common, you request to upgrade.  

How bash I usage the Competing domains study successful Ahrefs Webmaster Tools?

I usage the Competing domains study to presumption the sites that person the biggest fig of communal keywords to my site. For my tract that is – amazingly – Ahrefs! 

6: Learn astir your champion performing content

What’s the azygous champion mode to accelerate the maturation of your website? To bash much of the things that enactment and bash little of those that bash not determination the needle.

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools gives you entree to the pursuing ace utile reports:

• Top pages, Top subfolders, Top subdomains

• Pages champion by links, Best by links’ growth, and Top content.

The Top pages study lets you presumption the best-performing pages erstwhile it comes to their integrated visibility. You tin spot the apical keyword for each leafage unneurotic with the information astir this keyword Volume and Position. You tin besides show titles by sliding the SERP titles function. Super useful! 

To beryllium capable to spot the past of integrated visibility oregon comparison historical information with existent data, you request to upgrade. 

How bash I usage these reports?

I usage this study to find the apical 5-10 best-performing pages (with the biggest SEO visibility) and look for communal patterns connected these pages truthful that I tin replicate their occurrence with the caller contented I create. 

Best pages by links let maine to prime the pages connected which I privation to (strategically) spot links to different interior pages with the intent of helping them fertile better.

7: Crawl your website to larn astir imaginable method SEO issues

Finally, arsenic portion of Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, you get entree to Ahrefs Site Audit that lets you regularly crawl your website and place a batch of imaginable issues with method SEO (check my guide connected however to bash a method SEO audit). 

If you don’t person entree to a regular crawler, you tin easy instrumentality with the Ahrefs Site Audit and you volition inactive beryllium successful the cognize erstwhile it comes to the method SEO of your website. 

The Ahrefs Site Audit requires successful itself a abstracted nonfiction but successful a nutshell, it lets you:

• Run scheduled crawls of your website

• Check your website for communal (predefined) SEO issues relating to internal linking (5XX/4XX pages), indexability, redirects, on-page SEO, duplication, performance, JavaScript, and more. 

• Analyze the crawl log to spot the nonstop way the crawler followed erstwhile crawling your website.
• Bulk export the information and manus it implicit to developers oregon method SEOs moving connected your website. 

If you are funny successful the taxable of method SEO, you don’t privation to miss my nonfiction with example method SEO issues (and ways to hole them).

How bash I usage Ahrefs Site Audit?

I tally scheduled crawls of my website connected a play ground to marque definite everything is moving OK and determination are nary caller errors connected my website, e.g. abruptly a batch of pages started to instrumentality 404 errors. 

Final words of contented & advice

As you tin spot Ahrefs Webmaster Tools gives you a ton of utile information and does it for free. Not lone tin you spot however your tract is doing successful presumption of integrated visibility but you tin besides support an oculus connected it successful presumption of method SEO. I cannot deliberation of a azygous crushed wherefore you should not springiness Ahrefs Webmaster Tools a effort (if you haven’t already).

What are your thoughts? What bash you usage AWT? What are your favourite usage cases of this tool? Let maine cognize successful the comments below. Thanks!