If you are looking for SEO tools to improve the overall visibility of your site, then you will have undoubtedly heard of Ahrefs and SEMrush. After all, they are two of the best tools currently available. Of course, you do need to choose one over the other. So, which tool is better than the other?
To get a detailed idea of which tool tops the other, consider the following factors:
An Overview
For the longest time, Ahrefs was strictly considered as a backlink analysis tool. Over the last couple of years, though, Ahrefs has built up on their services. These days, they generate keyword ideas, uncover new keywords, determine traffic estimation, check out ranking history, and more.
Then, there is SEMrush – its main claim to fame is that it allows you to get a sneak peek of what your competitors are up to. This allows you to get the keywords that your competitors rank for without having to come up with the keywords yourself. As with Ahrefs, SEMrush has evolved quite a bit over the years.
SEO Keyword Research
Let’s begin with SEO keyword research.
Now, with Ahrefs, you get access to two main keyword research features. This is keyword explorer and organic keywords. With the keyword explorer, all you have to do is to type in a keyword and then you will get a list of ideas. In addition, the tool shows you keyword volume as well as how many clicks you can expect if you rank for that keyword. With the organic keywords report, you can check out the volume, KD, CPC, traffic, and position for your competitors’ sites.
SEMrush essentially offers you the same features here. The main difference, though, is that SEMrush is a great deal more comprehensive. For keyword data, you also get to see search volume trends, number of results, and more. The average person may not need so much information. However, if you are a keyword analyst, this additional detail will come in useful for you.
As an added bonus, this feature for SEMrush extrapolates data from Google PPC.
Analyzing Backlinks
The performance of a site does depend on the number of backlinks that exist for that site. With both Ahrefs and SEMrush all you have to do is enter a domain name to see the list of the backlinks that each tool can discover.
Now, SEMrush has a much larger domain database than Ahrefs. This means that in most cases SEMrush is able to provide better domain and backlink analysis. Ahrefs isn't completely out of the running. One of the more impressive backlink analysis tools is the anchor text. This shows you the anchor text used to link to your site as well as the text around it. This shows why people are linking to your site.
Site Auditing
Here, the SEO tools go through your site to determine how “healthy” it is. In other words, it determines what the problems with the site are and how you can improve on these.
Now, both of these tools turn out rather identical health scores. However, they do rank the site problems a little differently. For instance, Ahrefs tends to rank minor issues higher. As such, it can take longer for you to fix the problems that really matter.
SEMrush, on the other hand, takes a more straightforward approach. Due to this, you get a clear idea of how to improve your site health faster. Not to mention, it also lets you know how well your internal links are set up for SEO.
In this element, it would appear that SEMrush is better for site auditing.
Rank Tracking
Both Ahrefs and SEMrush track rankings accurately. In this instance, though, SEMrush has more features to offer. They have a visibility score that shows you just how visible your site is. There is also the fact that SEMrush tends to updates the tracked keywords on a more regular basis.
SEMrush updates the keywords on an almost daily basis. With Ahrefs, though, this happens on a less regular basis. Depending on the plan that you have signed up for, they will only track the keywords every 3 days to a week.
Thus, it really depends on what you need. If you don’t need to stay on top of your ranking each and every day, then Ahrefs will work just as well for you.
The Final Verdict
So, which tool comes out on top? Well, the winner really does depend on what you need out of your SEO tool. For instance, if your goal is to have comprehensive keyword data, excellent site auditing, and top-notch rank tracking, then SEMrush would be your go-to option.
On the other hand, if you prefer user-friendly layout, excellent backlink analysis, and progressive features, then Ahrefs would be a better choice for you. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter too much which one you pick – they are both top-notch tools.