Ahrefs is a powerful SEO and digital marketing tool favored by content marketers and SEO professionals. The platform offers essential features including keyword research, backlink analysis, and comprehensive site audits through a modern, intuitive interface.

While its traffic estimation capabilities stand out for accuracy compared to analytics data, its core strength lies in helping users track their website's SEO performance, analyze competitors, and discover content opportunities. The tool uses a credit-based system for managing usage allowances.

Here's a candid, opinionated review of Ahrefs within the specified constraints:

Ahrefs stands out from the crowd in its backlink analysis and site audit capabilities. We at Toksta use it ourselves, and find the intuitive interface, especially for seasoned SEO professionals, makes identifying broken links and monitoring backlink profiles relatively straightforward. Businesses can leverage Ahrefs' website audit tool to improve site health, and boost organic traffic. The traffic estimation feature, while imperfect, is somewhat useable.

By contrast, Ahrefs' keyword research isn't perfect. It feels clunky, and may miss out on some keywords. The credit-based system is also a significant drawback, potentially leading to unexpected costs.

Despite these limitations, Ahrefs remains a valuable tool for serious SEO work, particularly for backlink analysis and technical site audits. If those are your priorities, Ahrefs might work for you.

Identify and reclaim lost link equity by regularly using Ahrefs' "Backlink Profile" tool within the "Site Explorer" section. Input a competitor's URL and navigate to the "Backlinks" report, filtering for "Lost" backlinks.

This reveals links your competitor previously had but are now broken or removed. Analyze these lost links for relevance to your own business, then reach out to the linking websites and offer your content as a replacement, potentially capturing valuable backlinks and boosting your own site's authority.