Ahrefs Site Audit - Detailed Review
SEO Tools
Ahrefs Site Audit - Product Overview
Introduction to Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs Site Audit is a powerful SEO tool designed to help website owners and marketers identify and fix various issues that could be impacting their website’s performance in search engine results.Primary Function
The primary function of Ahrefs Site Audit is to conduct comprehensive technical SEO audits. It uses a crawler to scan your website, analyzing its content and design to identify technical, on-page, and off-page SEO issues. This tool helps you understand the overall health and performance of your site, including areas such as crawling errors, meta tags optimization, duplicate content, and backlink profile analysis.Target Audience
Ahrefs Site Audit is targeted at website owners, marketers, and SEO professionals who want to improve their website’s visibility and performance in search engines. It is particularly useful for those looking to optimize their site for better organic traffic and user experience.Key Features
Crawler and Audit Reports
The tool crawls your website to identify over 170 pre-defined technical and on-page SEO issues. These issues are categorized into errors (critical), warnings (important but less critical), and notices (suggestions for improvement).Issue Classification
Issues are classified based on their level of importance. For example, errors include critical issues like 404 pages and broken redirects, while warnings might include missing or duplicate HTML tags. Notices serve as suggestions for further improvement.Crawling Errors
Ahrefs Site Audit helps identify and rectify crawling errors such as 404 errors and redirect issues, ensuring optimal crawling and indexing by search engines.Content Audit
The tool performs a content audit to evaluate the quality and relevance of your website’s content. It identifies duplicate, thin, or outdated content and provides insights on keyword usage, readability, and engagement metrics to optimize content for search engines and your target audience.SERP Performance Monitoring
Ahrefs Site Audit allows you to track your website’s performance in search engine result pages (SERPs) over time. You can analyze keyword rankings, monitor organic search traffic, and compare your performance against competitors.Scheduled Audits
The tool enables you to run scheduled technical SEO audits, providing a log of all your crawls along with historical graphs for various categories. This feature helps you monitor and improve your site’s health and performance regularly.By using Ahrefs Site Audit, you can make data-driven decisions to enhance your website’s visibility, user experience, and overall SEO performance.
Ahrefs Site Audit - User Interface and Experience
User Interface Overview
The user interface of Ahrefs Site Audit is designed to be intuitive and comprehensive, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced SEO professionals.Initial Setup and Project Management
When you start using Ahrefs Site Audit, you begin by creating a new project for your website. This involves adding your site, verifying ownership, and setting up the scope of the audit. You can schedule daily, weekly, or monthly crawls, which the tool will run automatically, saving each crawl’s data for future reference.Overview and Dashboard
The main dashboard provides a clear overview of your website’s health, including a health score, URL crawl data, errors, and issues distribution. This gives you a quick snapshot of the current state of your website’s SEO health.Issue Identification and Categorization
Ahrefs Site Audit scans your website for over 170 pre-defined technical and on-page SEO issues. These issues are categorized based on their importance into errors (red), warnings (yellow), and notices (blue). This categorization helps you prioritize the most critical issues first.Detailed Reports and Data Explorer
The tool generates detailed reports on various aspects such as internal pages, indexability, links, redirects, content, visuals, social tags, and sitemaps. You can click on any issue to see a list of affected pages and use the Data Explorer to slice and dice the data in various ways, including filtering and exporting to CSV.Customization and Flexibility
Ahrefs allows you to modify the pre-configured SEO issues, remove those you don’t agree with, and add custom ones. This flexibility ensures that the audit is tailored to your specific needs and can be adjusted for different projects.Ease of Use
While Ahrefs Site Audit is rich in features, it can have a learning curve, especially for those new to SEO. However, the interface is generally user-friendly, with clickable reports and a handy filter system that allows you to quickly focus on specific subsets of pages. The tool also provides historical graphs and audit logs, making it easier to track changes over time.Overall User Experience
The overall user experience is enhanced by the tool’s speed and integration with other Ahrefs features, such as backlink and traffic metrics. This integration means you have all the SEO metrics you need in one place, making it more efficient to manage and improve your website’s SEO health.Conclusion
In summary, Ahrefs Site Audit offers a user-friendly interface that is packed with features to help you identify and fix SEO issues. While it may require some time to get familiar with all its capabilities, the tool is highly effective for both technical SEO audits and improving the overall user experience of your website. Ahrefs Site Audit - Key Features and Functionality
Ahrefs Site Audit Overview
Ahrefs Site Audit is a comprehensive tool within the Ahrefs SEO suite, designed to help website owners and SEO professionals identify and fix various issues that can impact a website’s performance and search engine rankings. Here are the main features and how they work:
Crawler Functionality
The tool uses a web crawler to scan a website, analyzing its content, structure, and design. This crawler identifies technical and on-page issues that could affect the website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and its ability to attract organic traffic.
Setting Up and Configuring the Audit
Users can set up a Site Audit by entering their website’s URL and configuring various settings. This includes choosing the number of pages to be crawled, setting custom limits for the crawler, excluding specific sections of the website, and setting up authentication if necessary. Users can also adjust the crawling frequency, maximum number of parallel connections, and JavaScript rendering options to ensure accurate analysis.
Comprehensive Reports
The Site Audit provides detailed reports on various aspects of the website, including:
- Broken Links: Identifies broken internal and external links that need to be fixed.
- On-Page SEO Issues: Detects problems such as duplicate content, poor keyword optimization, and meta tag issues.
- Technical Errors: Highlights issues like page load speed problems, mobile optimization issues, and other technical SEO problems.
Issue Classification
The tool categorizes issues based on their level of importance:
- Errors (Red): Critical issues that need immediate attention.
- Warnings (Yellow): Important issues that should be addressed but are not as critical as errors.
- Notices (Blue): Less critical issues that serve as reminders but can still improve the website’s performance.
Customization and Control
Users have several options to customize the audit:
- Exclude Unnecessary Pages: Save resources by excluding pages that are not relevant to the audit.
- Custom User-Agent String: Imitate different search engine crawlers to see how they interact with the site.
- Custom Headers and Robots.txt: Define custom headers for requests and instruct the crawler using a custom robots.txt file.
Recurring Audits and Alerts
The tool allows for scheduled recurring audits to regularly check for changes and keep the website up-to-date. Users can also set up email alerts to receive notifications about critical issues or changes.
AI Integration
While the specific details of AI integration are not extensively outlined in the sources, the tool’s ability to analyze and categorize a wide range of SEO issues and provide actionable insights suggests that AI and machine learning algorithms play a role in processing the large amounts of data collected during the audit. This helps in identifying patterns and issues that might not be immediately apparent to human analysts.
Benefits
Conducting a comprehensive site audit with Ahrefs helps in several ways:
- Improved User Experience: By identifying and fixing issues related to page load speed, mobile optimization, and broken links, the tool helps enhance user experience.
- Better Search Engine Rankings: Addressing technical and on-page SEO issues can improve the website’s visibility in search results.
- Competitive Analysis: The tool provides insights into competitors’ strategies, helping website owners make informed decisions and stay competitive.
Overall, Ahrefs Site Audit is a powerful tool that helps website owners maintain and improve their site’s health, ensuring it remains optimized for both users and search engines.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Performance and Accuracy
Evaluating the Performance and Accuracy of Ahrefs Site Audit
Evaluating the performance and accuracy of Ahrefs Site Audit involves several key aspects that highlight its strengths and limitations.
Performance
Ahrefs Site Audit is highly regarded for its comprehensive and efficient performance in identifying various SEO issues. Here are some key performance features:
Bulk Analysis
Unlike tools like PageSpeed Insights, which can only check one page at a time, Ahrefs Site Audit can analyze the performance of multiple pages in bulk. This includes checking for slow pages, Core Web Vitals scores, and other performance metrics.
Health Score
The tool provides a Health Score, which reflects the proportion of internal URLs on your website that do not have technical SEO errors. This score is updated each time AhrefsBot finishes crawling your website.
Detailed Reports
Ahrefs Site Audit generates detailed reports on various aspects such as indexability, on-page SEO, content quality, and performance. These reports are easy to understand and provide actionable insights.
Accuracy
The accuracy of Ahrefs Site Audit is generally high, but there are some considerations:
Data Reliability
Ahrefs is known for its excellent accuracy, but like any third-party tool, there can be slight deviations in data compared to direct sources like Google Search Console. However, the data is reliable enough to make informed decisions.
Algorithmic Limitations
While Ahrefs Site Audit highlights specific issues based on its algorithm, it is important to manually review these issues to ensure they are indeed problems that need fixing. Not all identified issues may be critical or relevant.
Contextual Understanding
The Health Score, for example, cannot reflect the importance of each error in the context of your website. It is a general metric that needs to be interpreted with some judgment.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
Manual Review
Some issues identified by the tool may require manual review to determine their actual impact. For instance, pages with low word counts are not always low-quality, and titles or descriptions need to be judged for their compelling nature rather than just their length.
Mobile and Usability Issues
While the tool identifies usability and performance issues such as viewport settings and tap target sizes, fixing these often requires web development work. Users need to follow the instructions provided by the tool carefully.
Integration with Other Tools
For a more comprehensive audit, users may need to integrate Ahrefs Site Audit with other tools like Google Analytics or Search Console to prioritize pages based on traffic or conversion value.
In summary, Ahrefs Site Audit is a powerful tool that offers detailed and actionable insights into various SEO aspects. While it is highly accurate and performant, it does require some manual oversight to ensure that the identified issues are indeed critical and need fixing. By leveraging its strengths and being aware of its limitations, users can significantly improve their website’s SEO health and performance.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Pricing and Plans
Pricing Plans
Ahrefs provides four main pricing plans:Lite Plan
- Cost: $99 per month (or $83 per month if paid annually, totaling $990 per year).
- Features: This plan includes essential SEO tools such as Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, and Site Audit. Specifically for Site Audit, you get:
- Unlimited browsing data
- 100,000 crawl credits per month
- Maximum of 25,000 pages per project.
Standard Plan
- Cost: $199 per month (or $166 per month if paid annually, totaling $1990 per year).
- Features: This plan includes everything in the Lite plan plus additional features. For Site Audit:
- Unlimited browsing data
- 500,000 crawl credits per month
- Maximum of 50,000 pages per project.
Advanced Plan
- Cost: $399 per month (or $333 per month if paid annually, totaling $3990 per year).
- Features: This plan includes all features from the Lite and Standard plans, with enhanced limits. For Site Audit:
- Unlimited browsing data
- 1.5 million crawl credits per month
- Maximum of 250,000 pages per project.
Enterprise Plan
- Cost: $999 per month (or $833 per month if paid annually, totaling $9990 per year).
- Features: This plan includes all features from the previous plans with the highest usage limits. For Site Audit:
- Unlimited browsing data
- 5 million crawl credits per month
- Maximum of 5 million pages per project.
Free Options
Ahrefs also offers some free tools that can be useful for basic SEO audits:Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT)
- This is free for website owners who can verify their ownership. It includes tools to monitor your website’s SEO health, check for SEO issues, view backlinks, and see keyword rankings. However, it is limited to your own website and does not allow you to analyze competitors.
Free SEO Audit Tool
- This tool allows you to find and fix over 170 common SEO issues without needing advanced SEO knowledge. It provides a Health Score, identifies performance and technical issues, and offers suggestions for fixes. However, this tool is not part of the paid plans and has its own set of limitations.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Integration and Compatibility
Ahrefs Site Audit Overview
Ahrefs Site Audit is a powerful tool within the Ahrefs SEO platform, integrating well with other tools and maintaining good compatibility across various platforms and devices. Here are some key points regarding its integration and compatibility:Integration with Ahrefs Tools
Ahrefs Site Audit is deeply integrated with other Ahrefs tools, making it a seamless part of a comprehensive SEO strategy. It uses data from Ahrefs’ backlink and traffic metrics, allowing you to have all your SEO metrics in one place. This integration enables you to analyze your website’s content, backlinks, and traffic performance together, providing a holistic view of your website’s health and performance.Compatibility with Devices and Browsers
The Ahrefs Site Audit tool is cloud-based, which means you do not need to install any software on your computer or manage servers. This cloud-based nature ensures that it can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, regardless of the operating system or browser you use.Customization and Flexibility
The tool offers high customization options, allowing you to configure the site audit settings to crawl exactly what you want. You can specify seed URLs, choose from various URL sources (such as website, auto-detected sitemaps, specific sitemaps, custom URL lists, or backlinks), and schedule crawls at your preferred time and frequency. This flexibility ensures that the tool can adapt to different website structures and needs.Support for JavaScript Rendering and Lighthouse
Ahrefs Site Audit supports JavaScript rendering, which is crucial for modern websites that heavily rely on JavaScript. Additionally, it has plans to integrate Lighthouse, a tool for auditing web pages, to provide more comprehensive performance and accessibility audits.Compatibility with CMS Platforms
While the documentation does not explicitly mention compatibility with specific Content Management Systems (CMS), the fact that it can crawl any website and supports custom URL lists and sitemaps suggests that it can work with most CMS platforms. This flexibility makes it a versatile tool for various types of websites.User-Agent and Crawler Settings
The Ahrefs Site Audit bot respects robots.txt files and crawl delays by default, ensuring that it does not overload website servers. However, website owners can request to override these settings if they need to crawl their sites at higher speeds or ignore robots.txt files, provided they verify the ownership of the website.Conclusion
In summary, Ahrefs Site Audit is highly integrated with other Ahrefs tools, compatible with various devices and browsers, and offers significant customization options to fit different website needs. Its cloud-based nature and support for modern web technologies make it a versatile and effective tool for SEO audits. Ahrefs Site Audit - Customer Support and Resources
Ahrefs Site Audit Overview
Ahrefs Site Audit, a component of the broader Ahrefs SEO toolkit, offers several customer support options and additional resources to help users effectively utilize the tool.
Customer Support Options
Email Support
You can reach out to Ahrefs’ support team via email at support@ahrefs.com. The average response time for emails is approximately 7 hours and 15 minutes.
Live Chat
Ahrefs provides live chat support powered by Intercom. This includes both human and AI-assisted live chat options, ensuring you can get help quickly and efficiently.
Additional Resources
Help Center
Ahrefs has a comprehensive help center available at https://help.ahrefs.com/en/. This resource includes detailed guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips to help you resolve common issues and make the most out of the Site Audit tool.
Developer Docs
For more technical users, Ahrefs provides developer documentation at https://ahrefs.com/api/documentation, which can be useful for integrating Ahrefs tools into your workflow.
Site Audit Guides
The Ahrefs Academy offers an introduction to the Site Audit tool, explaining how to use it, manage projects, and interpret the results. This includes information on the pre-set hierarchy of the audit, how issues are categorized, and how to adjust issue settings based on your website’s needs.
Issue Solutions
There are detailed guides available that explain each technical and on-page SEO issue identified by the Site Audit tool, along with possible solutions. For example, the guide on Sagapixel provides a quick reference to understand and resolve various issues such as performance problems, missing or duplicate HTML tags, and broken links.
Tool Features and Insights
Scheduled Audits
The Site Audit tool allows you to run scheduled technical SEO audits, providing a list of projects, crawl stats, and historical graphs for various categories.
Issue Categorization
Issues are categorized into errors, warnings, and notices based on their importance, helping you prioritize and address critical SEO issues promptly.
By leveraging these support options and resources, users can effectively use Ahrefs Site Audit to identify and fix SEO issues, improving their website’s performance and search engine rankings.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs Site Audit offers several significant advantages that make it a valuable tool for SEO professionals and beginners alike:Comprehensive Technical SEO Audits
Actionable Recommendations
Recurring Audits
User-Friendly Interface
Detailed Reporting
Integration with Other Tools
Disadvantages of Ahrefs Site Audit
While Ahrefs Site Audit is a powerful tool, there are some potential drawbacks to consider:Cost
Overwhelming Data
Customization Needs
Comparison with Other Tools
Ahrefs Site Audit - Comparison with Competitors
Unique Features of Ahrefs Site Audit
Comprehensive Crawl Capabilities
Ahrefs Site Audit uses a powerful crawler that can scan a website quickly, identifying over 170 pre-defined technical and on-page SEO issues. This includes errors, warnings, and notices, categorized based on their level of importance.
Customizable Issues
Users have the flexibility to modify, remove, or add custom SEO issues, allowing for a personalized audit process that fits the specific needs of each project.
Integrated Metrics
The tool integrates Ahrefs’ backlink and traffic metrics, providing a holistic view of SEO performance without the need to cross-reference data from multiple tools.
Historical Data and Comparisons
Site Audit allows users to compare changes between different crawls, monitoring progress over time. This includes comparing changes in page HTML, linked pages, SERP titles, organic traffic, and more.
Potential Alternatives
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
This tool is known for its ability to crawl websites and identify SEO issues such as broken links, duplicate content, and meta tags. While it doesn’t integrate backlink and traffic metrics like Ahrefs, it is highly regarded for its detailed crawl reports and ease of use.
SEMrush Audit Tool
SEMrush offers a comprehensive site audit tool that identifies technical SEO issues, tracks changes, and provides recommendations for improvement. It also integrates with other SEMrush tools, offering a broad range of SEO analytics.
Moz Pro
Moz Pro includes a site crawl feature that identifies issues like crawl errors, duplicate content, and optimization opportunities. It also integrates with other Moz tools, providing insights into link equity and keyword rankings.
Key Differences
Scope of Issues
Ahrefs Site Audit covers a wide range of technical and on-page SEO issues, with over 170 pre-defined checks. Other tools may focus more on specific areas like link equity or keyword optimization.
Integration with Other Tools
Ahrefs stands out with its seamless integration of backlink and traffic metrics, making it a one-stop solution for many SEO needs. Other tools might require more cross-referencing between different platforms.
Customization
Ahrefs allows for significant customization of the audit process, which can be particularly useful for websites with unique SEO requirements.
In summary, while other SEO tools offer robust site audit capabilities, Ahrefs Site Audit distinguishes itself through its comprehensive crawl features, customizable issue lists, and integrated metrics, making it a strong choice for those seeking a holistic SEO audit solution.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions About Ahrefs Site Audit
What is Ahrefs Site Audit?
Ahrefs Site Audit is a tool within the Ahrefs suite that performs technical SEO audits on your website. It crawls all the pages on your site to identify and report on various technical and on-page SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, and slow loading pages.
How do I set up a Site Audit in Ahrefs?
Setting up a Site Audit in Ahrefs is straightforward. You start by entering your website’s URL and configuring the desired crawl settings. You can choose the number of pages to be crawled, exclude specific sections of your website, and set up authentication if necessary. Once the settings are configured, you can start the audit, and Ahrefs will begin scanning your site for issues.
What types of issues does Ahrefs Site Audit identify?
Ahrefs Site Audit identifies over 170 pre-defined technical and on-page SEO issues. These issues are categorized into errors (critical issues that need immediate attention), warnings (less critical but still important), and notices (issues that should be addressed after fixing errors and warnings). Common issues include broken links, duplicate content, slow loading pages, and mobile optimization problems.
How does Ahrefs Site Audit help improve website performance?
The Site Audit helps improve website performance by identifying and resolving technical issues such as excessive HTTP requests, large image sizes, and broken links. It analyzes factors like page speed, crawlability, and mobile optimization, providing actionable recommendations to enhance user experience, reduce bounce rates, and potentially boost organic rankings.
Can I customize the crawl settings for Ahrefs Site Audit?
Yes, you can customize the crawl settings for Ahrefs Site Audit. You have the option to exclude specific sections of your website, set custom limits for the crawler, and configure authentication if necessary. This allows you to focus on the areas of your website that are most important.
How often should I run a Site Audit?
It is recommended to run site audits regularly to track progress and ensure your website remains in optimum condition for search engines and users. Ahrefs allows you to schedule audits, so you can set up recurring audits to monitor your site’s health over time.
What kind of reports does Ahrefs Site Audit provide?
Ahrefs Site Audit provides comprehensive reports on various aspects of your website, including broken links, on-page SEO elements, and overall health scores. The reports are detailed and include historical graphs and logs, allowing you to see the progress and changes over time.
Does Ahrefs Site Audit help with competitor analysis?
While the primary focus of Ahrefs Site Audit is on your own website, the broader Ahrefs toolset includes features for competitive analysis. However, the Site Audit itself is more focused on identifying and fixing issues on your own site rather than comparing directly with competitors.
How does Ahrefs Site Audit impact user experience?
Ahrefs Site Audit helps improve user experience by identifying areas such as slow page load times, mobile optimization issues, and navigation problems. By addressing these issues, you can provide a faster and more user-friendly experience, leading to increased engagement and higher conversions.
Are there any discounts available for Ahrefs Site Audit as part of the Ahrefs plans?
Yes, Ahrefs offers discounts for annual subscriptions compared to monthly billing. Additionally, there are occasional free trials, special discounts during promotional periods, and educational discounts for students, educators, or non-profit organizations.
Which Ahrefs plan includes the Site Audit feature?
The Site Audit feature is included in all Ahrefs plans: Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise. Each plan offers varying levels of access and usage limits, but all include the essential Site Audit tool.
Ahrefs Site Audit - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Ahrefs Site Audit
Ahrefs Site Audit is a comprehensive and highly beneficial tool in the SEO tools category, particularly for those looking to improve their website’s technical and on-page SEO performance.Key Benefits
Thorough Audits
The Site Audit feature crawls all pages of your website, checking for over 170 pre-defined technical and on-page SEO issues. This includes links, keywords, and other critical elements, providing a detailed report of errors, warnings, and notices based on their level of importance.
Efficient Crawling
Despite the thoroughness of the audits, Ahrefs’ crawling speed is fast, ensuring you get precise information quickly without significant downtime.
Customization
You can exclude specific pages from the crawl if needed, making the process flexible and efficient.
Scheduled Audits
The tool allows for scheduled technical SEO audits, providing historical graphs and logs to track changes and improvements over time.
Who Would Benefit Most
SEO Professionals
Marketing experts and SEO specialists will find Ahrefs Site Audit invaluable for identifying and fixing SEO issues, tracking keyword positions, and analyzing backlinks.
Small to Large Businesses
From individuals and small businesses to larger teams and enterprises, Ahrefs offers various pricing plans that cater to different needs and budgets. The Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans ensure that businesses of all sizes can benefit from the tool.
Content Marketers
Those involved in content marketing can use the tool to track consumer preferences, improve customer engagement, and optimize their content for better search engine rankings.
Overall Recommendation
Ahrefs Site Audit is a must-have tool for anyone serious about improving their website’s SEO. Here’s why:
Comprehensive Reporting
It provides detailed reports on SEO issues, helping you address critical problems promptly.
User-Friendly Interface
The tool is easy to use, even for those who are not deeply technical, with clear categorization of issues and historical data for tracking progress.
Integration and Customization
It integrates well with other Ahrefs tools and allows for customization, such as excluding certain pages from the audit.
Given its extensive features, efficiency, and the value it adds to SEO efforts, Ahrefs Site Audit is highly recommended for anyone looking to enhance their website’s performance and online visibility.