Martin JørgensenAhrefs review – the ultimate SEO tool for backlinks, keywords, and competitor analysis.
If you take SEO seriously, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Ahrefs. It’s not just another SEO tool, but one of the most respected and widely used worldwide—especially for backlinks, keyword research, and competitor monitoring.
As SEO and software experts, we’ve tested Ahrefs extensively to give Download.dk’s users a thorough review. You’re not just getting a surface-level overview, but a practical assessment with tips, tricks, and real-world insights to help you get the most out of the tool.
What makes Ahrefs stand out
Ahrefs isn’t just another SEO suite. What makes it unique is the breadth and depth of features combined in one platform—from link analysis to technical SEO and content strategy. We tested each key feature, and here’s what we found:
Site Explorer
With Site Explorer, you get detailed insights into competitors’ backlinks, top-performing pages, and estimated organic traffic.
- We used it to analyze a Danish webshop and quickly found the domains linking to a competitor’s best-selling category—making it possible to plan targeted outreach.
- The tool also provides an overview of “Top Pages” — the pages driving the most traffic to a competitor. For us, it inspired similar content with a unique angle.
Keywords Explorer
Keywords Explorer is one of the most accurate tools for keyword research. You get search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty (KD), and SERP analysis in multiple languages (including Danish).
- We found strong value in identifying long-tail keywords with low competition, such as “seo tool for small businesses” or “free ahrefs alternative”.
- An extra plus is the “Parent Topic” feature, which shows the broader topic a keyword belongs to—perfect for building content clusters.
Rank Tracker
Rank Tracker lets you track your most important keywords over time and compare them directly with competitors.
- We tested it on a blog targeting Danish keywords, and the results matched almost one-to-one with what we saw in Search Console.
- The smart part is that you can add competitor domains and get a clear graph showing who is winning and losing positions—very useful for ongoing strategy adjustments.
Site Audit
An often overlooked but incredibly powerful tool in Ahrefs. Site Audit crawls your entire site—almost like a mini Googlebot.
- On our test site, we found more than 150 technical issues — including missing ALT tags, duplicate meta descriptions, and pages with low word count.
- Reports are color-coded and prioritized, so you can quickly see what to fix first. Especially helpful for webshops and larger sites where technical issues can quickly cost rankings.
Content Explorer
Content Explorer is worth its weight in gold when you need to find new content ideas.
We also used it to spot “content gaps” — topics competitors have covered that we’re missing.
By searching a topic (e.g., “digital marketing” in Denmark), we could see which articles earned the most backlinks and social shares.
That inspired us to create blog posts that are not only SEO-friendly but also more shareable.
Our experience with Ahrefs
We tested Ahrefs on a mid-sized Danish webshop and a niche blog. In both cases, Ahrefs gave us concrete insights we didn’t get as precisely from other tools.
- On the webshop, we uncovered critical technical issues via Site Audit — including duplicate meta descriptions and broken internal links.
- On the niche blog, we used Keywords Explorer to identify low-competition keywords with high CPC. That let us create content that delivered both traffic and strong ad revenue.
Pricing and alternatives
Ahrefs starts at $99 per month. It’s a high price, but the target audience is professionals.
- For small blogs, Ubersuggest can be a free alternative.
- For agencies wanting an all-in-one suite, SEMrush is the closest alternative — but often even more expensive.
- For technical SEO checks, many still recommend Screaming Frog SEO Spider as a supplement.
Ahrefs vs SEMrush vs free alternatives
To give you a clear overview, we compared Ahrefs with SEMrush and free tools like Ubersuggest and Google Search Console. The table is fully responsive.
| Feature | Ahrefs | SEMrush | Free alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backlink database | ✅ Very large and accurate | ✅ Large, but less detailed than Ahrefs | ❌ Very limited |
| Keyword research | ✅ Super strong — includes Danish data | ✅ Strong — especially for PPC + global data | ⚠️ Basic (volume + trends) |
| Site Audit | ✅ Detailed technical crawl | ✅ Very comprehensive | ⚠️ Limited — e.g., GSC catches only certain issues |
| Content analysis | ✅ Content Explorer with social & backlinks | ✅ Topic Research + SEO Content Template | ❌ No real content analysis |
| Price | 💰 Starts from about $99/mo. | 💰 Starts from about $119/mo. | 🎉 Free (but very limited) |
