Ahrefs offers one of the most comprehensive SEO tools and resources online including a handy competitive analysis feature. However, starting at US $99 per month, it does not come cheap.
While those with a good budget or agencies with lots of high paying customers can afford to pay Ahrefs monthly payment plan, most of us simple folks would find it tough to keep paying that much money each month.
The good news here is that Ahrefs offers a full service trial at US $7 for a week. So essentially you are paying $7 for 7 days and then you can cancel before the plan converts to the standard monthly payment of at least $99.
It is actually possible to do a lot within those 7 days considering the features remain the same as for regular billed plans.
Note here, since we specifically focus on competitor analysis and PPC competitor keyword research, I am going to confine this article to that scope only. Hence after reading this, you can make most of Ahrefs competitor analysis tools for both SEO and PPC and then cancel your account after the seven day trial.
To begin with, we shall do some prep work and then focus on execution. Prep work is what you do before signing up. Execution is what you need to do after signing up and paying the initial $7. In my mind, it is similar to how a restaurant works. They prep before service and keep everything ready. Once its time to let in customers, they focus on execution so that diners can be fed quickly and on time.
Before you start, you need to know that Ahrefs competitor analysis tools are within their ‘site explorer’ tool. So this is where you need to go once you have signed up.
Prep Work – Build Your Competitor List
This is what you do before signing up. So no need to visit Ahrefs yet.
For our prep work, all that we will do is build our competitor list.
So who exactly is our competitor? We have a dedicated article on how to shortlist competitors for analysis. You can read that or for a quick roundup, it is as follows:
1) Your competitors would firstly include the businesses in your location that provides the same products or services as you. If you are a blog or an informational website, your competitors are other blogs in similar niche.
2) Most importantly, your competitors are those who get the top rankings for your most important or basic keywords in Google.
Hence for PPC competitor analysis, make a note of all those company names and URLs that get the top ad position when you search in Google.
Similarly, for SEO competitor analysis, note down all the company names and URLs that get the top position in organic Google search.
Ideally you should have a list of 10 competitors ready. More than 10 is often not required. However, I do strongly suggest to have minimum 3 competitors in your list. That way you will get a better picture of what is working and what is not in your SEO and PPC competitor analysis via Ahrefs.
Note: Competitor analysis on any online tool starts with the domain name. Noting down company names is not enough. You need their website URL as well. You just need the top level URL. This means for example just searchspook.com – No need for any internal URLs even if they show up on Google search.
This is the only prep work you need to do. However, the quality of your competitor list will dictate the quality of your competitor analysis. Hence please take some time and make a list the combines businesses who are your direct competitors and websites that show up on top for both paid ads and organic search in Google.
Once you have completed this step, you may move on to actual signup.
Execution – After signing up for the Ahrefs 7 days trial
After the prep work stage, it is time for execution. Just follow these steps and it will allow you to make the most of the 7 days trial.
1) Sign up for Ahrefs and pay the $7 fee.
2) When your account is active, immediately go to the ‘Site Explorer’ tool.
3) You will see a search bar where you can enter any URL. Over here, enter the URL of your competitor from the list created earlier.
4) Once you enter the URL and search, the results that you get is for organic search or for SEO. You will see a table show up with a number of metrics such as keywords, volume etc.
On the top right of this table, you will see an “export” button. Click on that and save the results on your laptop or desktop computer.
5) After this click on “Backlinks Profile” on the left menu. As the name suggests, this shows the backlinks profile for that particular domain. Once again, click on the export button and save the file.
6) Now click on ‘Paid Search’. This is available on the left menu as well. You may have to scroll down a little to get the paid search link in the menu.
The results that you get here, are for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. These are the keywords, average cost-per-click etc being used by your competitors for their campaign on Google Ads.
Once again, click on the export button on the top right of the table and save this information.
Ensure you use proper file names ideally something like “Competitor1-SEO” and “Competitor1-PPC” so you know which saved file contains what information.
7) Repeat step 3 to 6 again for each of your competitors in your list.
In the end, you should have SEO + PPC competitor analysis metrics saved on your computer for all of your competitors.
8) In case you want to use the other tools within Ahrefs, you can do so now. Just visit each of the other resources such as “Keyword Explorer”, “Site Audit” etc. You can even stay at the site explorer tool and go through each of the links on the left menu to get more in-depth information about your competitors.
For the other tools, you have to enter your own URL as these study your website and provide valuable information on your SEO campaign.
Whenever you get any kind of results, immediately hit the export button and save to your computer.
That way you will have all the information you need saved with you for further analysis and research.
9) The above steps can be completed within a day. If you need to revisit Ahrefs again, do so in the next six days before the trial period is over.
Ensure to cancel your membership at least a day in advance. Otherwise you may risk paying the entire amount for the first month which starts at $99.
Final Thoughts
With a bit of prep work and quick execution, you can get a lot of information from the Ahrefs 7 day trial worth $7.
Of course if you wish and have the need, you can continue further with their standard monthly plans for as long as you need.
However, if your budget does not permit you to continue with a monthly plan or you simply do not have the continued need for the Ahrefs SEO tools and resources, just use the steps listed in this article to make the most out of their 7 day trial which is of excellent value.
