How to Use Ahrefs for Link Building: A Practical Guide to the Functions That Matter Most
Learn to use Ahrefs for your link building strategy. Site Explorer, Content Explorer, Link Intersect and more — the exact features professionals use to find opportunities and analyze backlinks.
Ahrefs is the preferred SEO tool for link building professionals worldwide. Its backlink database is the largest available (over 35 trillion backlinks indexed) and its features are specifically designed to find link opportunities, analyze competitors, and monitor the backlink profile of any domain. This guide covers the features that are actually used day-to-day in professional link building campaigns.
Site Explorer: The Center of Link Building in Ahrefs
Site Explorer is the main Ahrefs feature for backlink analysis. Enter any domain or URL and access complete data about its link profile.
The most relevant tabs for link building:
- Backlinks: Complete list of all backlinks for the domain with filters for DR, link type (dofollow/nofollow), anchor text, discovery date, and more. Useful for analyzing what type of links a competitor has and which publications they appear in.
- Referring Domains: How many unique domains link to the site and what DR each has. This is the diversity metric of the profile — a site with 500 backlinks from 500 different domains is much stronger than one with 500 backlinks from 10 domains.
- Organic Keywords: What keywords the domain ranks for. Useful for understanding what type of content a competitor uses to build their backlinks.
Link Intersect: Find the Best Outreach Prospects
Link Intersect is one of the most valuable features for link building and many users do not take full advantage of it. Here is how it works: you enter 2-5 competitor domains and Ahrefs shows which domains link to them but do NOT link to your site. Those are your best outreach prospects.
The logic: if a site already links to 3 of your competitors, it has a high probability of linking to you as well if you have equivalent or superior content. These are pre-qualified prospects who are already in your niche and already demonstrate interest in linking to sites like yours.
| Ahrefs Feature | Use in link building |
|---|---|
| Link Intersect | Find prospects linking to competitors but not to you |
| Content Explorer | Find content in your niche with many backlinks (for Skyscraper) |
| Broken Backlinks | Find broken link building opportunities in competitors |
| Best by Links | Which pages on a site have the most backlinks (to analyze what content attracts links) |
| Anchors | Anchor text distribution (to verify if there is over-optimization) |
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Content Explorer is a search engine within Ahrefs that indexes millions of articles and shows metrics for each: backlinks, referring domains, organic traffic, social shares. It is the perfect tool for the research phase of the Skyscraper method.
How to use it for link building:
- Search for a niche term (e.g., "link building for startups")
- Filter by Referring Domains greater than 20 to see only content that genuinely attracts links
- Sort by Referring Domains descending — the top results are the most linked content in the niche
- Analyze what makes that content different (original data, tools, depth) and create something better
Backlink Monitoring: Alerts and New/Lost Backlinks
Link building work does not end when you earn the link. You must monitor that links remain active, do not change from dofollow to nofollow, and that competitors are not gaining links you do not have.
- Ahrefs Alerts: Set up alerts for your domain (new backlink, lost backlink) and for key competitor domains (new backlink to competitor). You will receive an email when Ahrefs detects changes.
- New/Lost Backlinks: In Site Explorer, Backlinks, filter by New or Lost in the last 30 days. Recently lost links are an opportunity for link reclamation.
- Broken Backlinks: In Site Explorer, Pages, Broken — your pages that return 404 but have active backlinks pointing to them. Top priority to redirect.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Ahrefs cost and is it worth it for a small business?+
Ahrefs has plans from $99/month (Lite) to $999/month (Enterprise). The Lite plan is limited in number of projects and crawls, but has full access to Site Explorer and Content Explorer — enough for a small business with 1-2 active projects. Alternatives for budget-constrained businesses: Semrush (similar price, more content features), Moz Pro ($99/month, good for DR/DA analysis), or Ubersuggest ($29/month, basic but functional). For professional link building, Ahrefs is the industry standard — its backlink database is the most comprehensive. If budget is tight, consider sharing an account across multiple projects or using the $7/7-day trial to do a deep analysis.
How do I use Ahrefs to find the best publications for link building?+
Recommended process: (1) Site Explorer, your best competitor's domain, Referring Domains, sort by DR from highest to lowest. Domains with DR 50+ linking to your competitor are candidates for outreach. (2) Content Explorer, search for your niche topic, filter by language and date, sort by Referring Domains. Sites that appear frequently as the source of many links are the most active publishers in the niche. (3) Link Intersect, enter 3-5 competitors, Ahrefs shows which domains link to all of them but not to you. This is your hottest outreach list. For each prospect, verify the DR, organic traffic, and topical relevance before doing outreach.
How do I know if the backlinks I have are quality or junk?+
In Ahrefs, Site Explorer, your domain, Backlinks, apply these filters: (1) DR less than 10 and One page equals yes (a single link from a domain with no traffic or authority — spam signal). (2) Anchor text with exact-match keyword phrases in excess (over-optimization). (3) Referring page has no traffic in the Traffic column — links from pages Google does not rank. (4) Link type equals redirect (links that pass through complex redirections). (5) Links from domains with words like casino, pharma, or adult in the domain URL without being sites in that sector. Any backlink that is highly relevant, from a domain with DR 20+ and real traffic, editorial in content, is quality.
What is the difference between DR (Domain Rating) and DA (Domain Authority)?+
They are third-party metrics that estimate Google's PageRank but calculated differently: DR (Domain Rating) is Ahrefs' metric — calculated exclusively by the quantity and quality of unique domains linking to the domain. DA (Domain Authority) is Moz's metric — includes more signals beyond backlinks. Neither is Google's metric (which is not public). In practice: DR and DA have high correlation with each other and with actual Google positions, but neither is perfectly accurate. For link building, Ahrefs DR is the industry standard reference for its more regularly updated database.
How often should I review my backlink profile in Ahrefs?+
Minimum recommended monitoring: (1) Weekly — review New/Lost Backlinks from the past week (Ahrefs Alerts automates this with daily emails). (2) Monthly — complete profile analysis: total DR, new referring domains, changes in anchor text distribution, lost high-DR backlinks. (3) Quarterly — comparison against competitors with Link Intersect and analysis of where they are gaining links you do not have. For active link building campaigns: weekly review is mandatory to verify that agreed links were published correctly and remain active.
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