I’ve been using Ahrefs for almost 10 years now.

I can tell you with high confidence that most people don’t nearly squeeze nearly as much out of it as they could (and should).

To give you taste, I want to share my 3 favorite Ahrefs tips with you.

The problem: most SEOs use tools for the same tasks everyone else uses them for.

Keyword research, link research, site analysis.
That's nice but not creative! Ahrefs is full of helpful data.
As a result, they come to the same conclusion as everyone else.

That doesn't fly because SEO has become very competitive.

Anybody can create content (and does)
Google's algorithm is more complex than ever
More companies lean on organic as paid is becoming more expensive

Doing things the same way as everyone else = not competitive.

So, let's make you more competitive!

𝐓𝐢𝐩 𝟏: 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭

Most SEOs never look at search volume (or impressions) over time. They don't know if their market grows or shrinks.

Ahrefs is one of the few tools that let you export historic search volume.

Here's how:
Go to keyword explorer
Type in a target keyword
Click on the 3 dots under “volume”
Export as CSV
Sum up in Google Sheets

Et voila! You now know if you invest in a growing or shrinking market.

𝐓𝐢𝐩 𝟐: 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

Content clusters are a great way to organize content and show Google that you cover a topic from A to Z (important)!

But it's not always obvious what keywords the pillar page should/could rank for.

Here is a smart way to find out:
Define your target keyword
Search for it in Google’s search bar
Don’t hit enter, see what suggestions Google shows
Pick the relevant ones
Add them to Ahrefs keyword explorer

(continued)
In keyword explorer, go to "traffic share by pages”
Seek out the page that has the highest traffic share and ranks for most keywords in the top 10

That's it! Build your pillar based on that page. You now know a single pillar can rank for those keywords.

𝐓𝐢𝐩 𝟑: 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬
I recently ranted about people obsessing over DR (domain rating) or DA (domain authority).

Those are imperfect metrics - not helpful in isolation.

Traffic is a much better proxy. Good link targets get and send traffic.

In Ahrefs, you can see how much traffic a linking page gets:
Type a page that ranks for your target keyword into site explorer
Go to "backlinks"
Sort by page traffic
Get links from the top page(s)

The best metric to evaluate link quality is traffic coming through a link to your site, looking at traffic to a potential link source is a good proxy. https://twitter.com/Kevin_Indig/status/1478026422740525056

The best way to find new ways to use an old tool is to look at it from different angles and play around with it.

Step out of your routine and take the time to fully explore it.