Using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer

For an efficient SEO roadmap, understanding and selecting the right keywords is important. This can be done using Ahrefs. Not only does Ahrefs help you find relevant keywords, the tool also gives you insights for improving SEO strategy, whether for new or already existing websites.

Tools and techniques for information on specific search terms

I use various tools and techniques to gather more information about specific search terms. This way I learn more about search volume and competition and discover trends and patterns. In addition, I am learning how trends develop over multiple time periods. All of this information is useful in determining an SEO strategy that targets the target audience.

The Google Search Console gives the visitor a lot of data that is often accurate, but the Keywords Explorer is less accurate. However, this tool does provide a lot of different data. For additional data around CPC, the Keyword Planner is appropriate.

Google Search Console

To gain insight into a Web site’s performance in search results, Google Search Console is a useful tool. Google Search Console provides insight into the search terms that attract visitors and about how pages are ranked in search results. In this way, an SEO specialist knows which aspects of a website are working well and which parts it still needs to work on. This allows the specialist to better tailor the content to the target audience.

Keywords Explorer from Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer goes deeper into the specific search terms. The tool helps gain insights into keyword difficulty, search volume and expected click rate for terms.

In particular, I find the traffic potential of search terms interesting. Especially with declining CTRs (worldwide), this is becoming increasingly important to keep an eye on in your selection.

Google Keyword Planner

In addition to Google Search Console and Keywords Explorer, Google Keyword Planner is very important to use in an SEO strategy. This planner helps the website rank higher in Google. Google Keyword Planner provides insight into competition and search volumes. Advertising strategies are based on this data, and the insights also help tailor content to target audiences.

Benefits of Keywords Explorer

Keywords Explorer performs in-depth analysis of keywords, providing information on the difficulty level and potential number of visitors. That way you know which keywords are relevant to the website. Good keywords not only lead to more users on the website, but also to more conversion.

The Basics of Keywords Explorer

For proper SEO optimization, it is important to first gain basic knowledge of the Keywords Explorer. Keywords Explorer is relatively easy to use. Enter a general keyword related to the product or service being offered and then let the tool analyze the keywords.

A comprehensive list of related search terms follows. In addition, useful metrics such as keyword difficulty and search volume can be found. The CTR ratio is also displayed. This information is very useful in determining keywords to increase website visibility and CTR ratio. So look not only at the search volume, but also at the relevance of the terms and the possibility of a higher ranking in the search engines.

What are the right keywords?

Finding the right keywords may seem challenging, but Keywords Explorer’s advanced filters make this fairly easy. Set the filters by criteria such as keyword difficulty, search volume and search intent.

In addition, research what keywords competitors are using. Competitors may be using keywords that are not obvious. Use this inspiration when coming up with keywords. There is a reason that competitors choose these keywords, so chances are that visitors are searching for them as well. A combination of the above methods will further optimize your SEO and the website will rank higher in search results.

Analyze keyword difficulty and search volume

Keyword difficulty is a measure that predicts how difficult a particular search term is to rank for in the search engines. Search volume, on the other hand, indicates the popularity of a term.

Both methods are essential to improve SEO. Find the right balance between high search volume terms and low competition words. Only in this way will a website rank high in Google’s rankings and will a website attract more visitors.

Long-tail keywords

Longtail keywords are specific search terms, which often contain lower search volume. However, long-tail keywords do bring more targeted visitors to the website and have lower competition. This moves the website up in the rankings.

Not only are long-tail keywords good for countering competition, but it is also useful to look at the questions your target audience has about the topic of your website and respond to them by creating content that answers those questions.

Competitive Analysis

To have a good overview of what keywords competitors are using and what they are ranking high for, the Keywords Explorer can perform a competitive analysis. This also involves checking the quality of competitors’ backlinks.

Not only does this help you learn more about competitors; certain keywords they use also apply to your website. See which keywords can be adopted in order to rank higher. Take advantage of competitor knowledge by approaching SEO strategy in a way that puts you one step ahead of competitors.

Continue reading about Ahrefs?

Continue reading about Ahrefs? Check out all my articles below about how I use Ahrefs on a daily basis for my clients.

Valuable keywords in content

Always integrate keywords naturally into the content and make sure that the texts are written in a natural way and are easy to read. To avoid harming the readability and ranking of the website, keyword stuffing should be avoided.

Users appreciate well-written content and therefore stay on the website longer. Moreover, they come back sooner. Good structure improves readability. Use headers with titles and divide the page in a logical way. Not only is this positive for users, search engines also understand and value content better this way.

Summary

Tools like Google Search Console, Keywords Explorer and Google Keyword Planner provide a deeper understanding of how search terms are presented and which keywords are best used for an efficient SEO strategy. The tools also recognize trends.

In addition, the tools help optimize content. The valuable information provided by the tools helps in coming up with new ideas and seeing new opportunities to optimize SEO even further.

The visibility of the website will be increased, thus attracting more users, and the website will become a success faster.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
Five stars
My clients give me a 5.0 on Google out of 78 reviews

I have been working for 10 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 22 March 2024. The last update of this article was on 22 March 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.