I mainly do SEO for my own projects, not for clients, so the yearly $990 cost of Ahrefs feels high.
Do you think it makes sense to start with a different tool to learn SEO basics, and then upgrade to Ahrefs in a few months?
Are options like Mangools and Screaming Frog close to Ahrefs in features?
I know SEMRUSH costs more, so it’s not an option.
A lot of people just use Ahrefs for a month at a time. Sign up, gather the data you need, cancel, then come back to it a few months later. You don’t have to buy a full year.
TomHenry said:
A lot of people just use Ahrefs for a month at a time. Sign up, gather the data you need, cancel, then come back to it a few months later. You don’t have to buy a full year.
How did I not think of this before? Thank you for showing me the obvious solution I needed!
@Lawson
You can also find folks on Fiverr who offer these reports without needing a subscription.
TomHenry said:
A lot of people just use Ahrefs for a month at a time. Sign up, gather the data you need, cancel, then come back to it a few months later. You don’t have to buy a full year.
I can confirm that Ahrefs is hard to replace with other tools. It’s really effective.
TomHenry said:
A lot of people just use Ahrefs for a month at a time. Sign up, gather the data you need, cancel, then come back to it a few months later. You don’t have to buy a full year.
That’s a great tip.
It depends on what you need from Ahrefs.
If you’re looking at keyword research, the Keyword Surfer plugin, Google suggestions, and maybe an ads account with minimal spend can be a good combo.
For keyword tracking, Search Console with some Excel can work, though it involves manual updates.
To check site health, use Core Web Vitals in Search Console along with Screaming Frog.
@Zachary
Thanks for the ideas 
@Zachary
Which Excel formulas do you use?
If you download your Search Console data with rankings and click-through rates each week or month, you can use Excel to track changes over time. You can set it up to calculate the difference between each period.
@Zachary
Great idea, thank you!
@Zachary
Any video tutorials on this? I’m new to SEO, and this sounds complex but interesting.
Gunnar said:
@Zachary
Any video tutorials on this? I’m new to SEO, and this sounds complex but interesting.
Send me a message if you want a one-on-one explanation 
@Zachary
What’s New Bing?
Colton said:
@Zachary
What’s New Bing?
Bing now has an AI-powered chat feature integrated with ChatGPT. It’s designed for search with built-in fact-checking. They’re currently testing it in beta. I learned about it at a recent search marketing event.
@Zachary
Bing didn’t buy ChatGPT
Lawson said:
@Zachary
Bing didn’t buy ChatGPT
Actually, Microsoft holds a 49% share in OpenAI.
Lawson said:
@Zachary
Bing didn’t buy ChatGPT
Actually, Microsoft holds a 49% share in OpenAI.
Yes, and OpenAI uses Microsoft Azure for server infrastructure as part of that partnership.
@Zachary
I’m curious how Bing will handle the computing demand for this. Will it rely on cached responses?
@Zachary
Interesting!