How Accurate are Ahrefs Estimates?

[bobnewbie]

I was wondering if anyone had an idea of how accurate the ahrefs ranking difficulty estimates are. On my main keyword, ahrefs suggests it should only take 6 links to get to number 1 on this keyword (from 100+ currently). For what it's worth, these should be low-competition keywords.

Given that the packages on the marketplace offer 100+ links for $50, this seems really quite low to me...


Apologies if I've put this in the wrong place - I'm new to the forums!

 

[Lunaaa]

Well it depends on the links. Anybody can get backlinks using blog comments.

If might take 30 pbns to rank something but only 2 links from huffington instead. So different links have different powers. But 100 links for $50 probably isn't good

 

[Lunaaa]

And always evaluate the keyword manually your self

 

[bobnewbie]

So higher quality links are super useful then. That makes total sense to me. much appreciated!

 

[Pinktoe]

Things are not that straight forward

Ahrefs KW difficulty only takes into account of the quantity of links each page in the top 10 has. Not the quality.

It also doesn't take into account of how strong the domains are. A page full of amazon links etc might have 0 kw difficulty.

Such metrics are only useful for filtering out the KW's that are really difficult.

Looking at the competitor's links, and building better links, while also mimicking their average anchor ratios is the best bet.

You get what you pay for. I suggest building your own pbn. There are some services that can help you with that. I get my domains through @Nargil 's domains and @luc1f3r.n008 saves me countless hours through heping me set up the websites for $10 each

 

[bobnewbie]

Yeah... the number 1 and 2 links are both highly relevant .gov domains. Everything below that seems to be non-optimized, though (and from no-name companies). For what it's worth, this is for enterprise software - so perhaps a little different from what most people on here work with.

Thanks Pinktoe!

 

[Nargil]

Do not rely on any automated tools. They serve to go through large amounts of keywords to help you sort them out easier. But for one particular keyword, always do it by hand. Always.

Read this - https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/s...ilding-step-by-step-blueprint-9-parts.825593/

 

[mbreezy]

I'm a big Ahrefs fan but I honestly don't think it is accurate at all.

All links are not created equal. Instead of looking at link count, focus on the DR and cross check the competitors on-page/content.

 

[jacker818]

No software will ever be accurate.

 

[kr200]

Anyone knows how to check avg Search volume in keyword planner nowadays because it shows loke 1k-10k or something

 

[tiiberius]

I use Ahrefs daily and consider it a great backlink analysis tool, however, when it comes to the competition analysis isn't not very accurate.

Any other tool as well for that matter.

I always check the competition manually using various back-linking tools and eyes for on-page.

 

[terrycody]

Use ahrefs.com to get a rough idea, then check the top 10 results by your hand, and decide.

 

[bobnewbie]

Cheers guys! I'll make sure to check everything manually. I appreciate the guidance!

 

[Fus3d]

As above ahrefs gives some guidance but isn't accurate, I also do a free check on kwfinder and of course the manual browse

 

[jon_xx_x]

As above ahrefs gives some guidance but isn't accurate, I also do a free check on kwfinder and of course the manual browse

Exactly. All of these services should be used as rough guides and you should investigate sites individually to really see what the competition is like.
I think ahrefs is best of the bunch but it is flawed. You can do blog comments, article directories, etc and get good metrics. They also heavily favor blogpsot for some reason, which is annoying.