How to Analyze Competitors in Ahrefs
Reverse-engineer competitor SEO strategies in Ahrefs Site Explorer. Traffic, keywords, backlinks, and top pages step by step.
Step-by-step
How to Analyze Competitors in Ahrefs
Enter a competitor domain in Site Explorer
Type the competitor's domain in the search bar and select 'Site Explorer'. You'll see the Overview dashboard with DR, organic traffic, organic keywords, backlink count, and referring domains.
Review organic keywords and traffic
Click 'Organic keywords' to see every keyword the competitor ranks for. Sort by traffic to find their most valuable keywords. Use filters to focus on keywords in positions 1-10 (their strongest content).
Analyze their top pages
Click 'Top pages' to see which URLs drive the most organic traffic. This reveals their content strategy — which topics, formats, and page types work best for them.
Study their backlink profile
Check 'Backlinks' and 'Referring domains' to understand their link building strategy. Look at anchor text distribution and the types of sites linking to them (blogs, news sites, directories, etc.).
Tips
Pro tips
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Use the 'Competing domains' report to discover competitors you didn't know about — Ahrefs finds sites competing for similar keywords
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Check the 'Top pages by links' report to find their most link-worthy content — this reveals what content formats attract links in your niche
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Track competitor organic traffic trends over 6-12 months to spot strategic shifts
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