28+ must-have content marketing tools
Want to step up your content marketing? Then our guide has all the tools you need to help with everything from generating content ideas and competitor analysis through to content creation, promotion and analysis.
Ahrefs: Analyse your rivals’ pages & content
Overview
Ahrefs is a direct competitor to Semrush and the two tools have a lot in common. However, both have their strengths and weaknesses – for example, Ahrefs pulls in data from most of the major search engines while Semrush only uses Google data.
Both systems are capable of analysing your competitors’ pages and content but Ahrefs has a slight edge here, too. Aside from seeing which keywords your rivals are generating most traffic from, the “traffic potential” metric helps you prioritise opportunities.
You’ve also got the Link Intersect tool that highlights domains linking to your rivals but not your site.
Key Features
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Site explorer:
Get an in-depth look at the organic search traffic and backlink profile of any website or URL – and compare against your own.
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Keyword analysis:
See what keywords your competitors are ranking for and generating the most traffic from.
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Page analysis:
Identify your competitors’ top pages for generating traffic, backlinks and social shares.
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Backlink checker:
See which websites link to your competitors’ sites and gauge the quality of their backlink profiles.
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Link Intersect:
Find the sites that link to your competitors but don’t link to you (yet).
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Outbound links:
See which websites your competitors are linking out to.
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Content analysis:
Discover top-performing content in your niche and find thousands of link prospects.
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Publishing frequency:
Keep track of how often your competitors are publishing content.
Semrush Fig. 1
Benefits & Costs
Pros
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Website analysis:
Discover your rivals’ top keywords, pages and content to inform your own strategy.
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Link analysis:
Ahrefs provides extensive insights for link analysis, including inbound links, outbound links and social shares for any page.
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Search data:
Unlike Semrush, Ahrefs provides data across 10 different search engines.
Cons
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Pricing:
Ahrefs is marginally better than Semrush for competitor analysis but you get less data for your money.
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Paid search insights:
If you want an all-in-one competitor analysis system for organic and paid search, you might need to look elsewhere.