How to Conduct Keyword Research in Ahrefs Like a Pro

Introduction

If you have ever wondered why some websites always show up at the top of Google while others are buried on page five, the answer often comes down to one word: keywords. Choosing the right keywords is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. And when it comes to finding those keywords, Ahrefs is one of the most powerful tools available today.

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolkit trusted by marketers, bloggers, business owners, and SEO professionals around the world. It gives you deep insights into what people are searching for, how competitive those searches are, and what it takes to rank for them. But like any powerful tool, it can feel overwhelming if you do not know where to start.

This guide will walk you through exactly how to conduct keyword research in Ahrefs step by step, in plain and simple language. Whether you are a complete beginner or someone who has done basic SEO before, this article will help you use Ahrefs confidently and find keywords that can genuinely grow your website’s traffic.

What Is Keyword Research and Why Does It Matter?

Before we dive into Ahrefs itself, let us take a moment to understand what keyword research actually is and why it is so important.

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that people type into search engines like Google when they are looking for information, products, or services. These search queries are called keywords.

For example, if someone wants to learn how to bake a cake, they might type:

• “how to bake a chocolate cake”
• “easy cake recipe for beginners”

If you run a baking blog and you write content targeting those exact phrases, your website has a chance of appearing in front of those searchers. That is the power of keyword research.

Why Keyword Research Matters

• It helps you understand what your audience is actually looking for.
• It tells you how much traffic you can expect from targeting a specific keyword.
• It shows you how difficult it would be to rank on the first page of Google.
• It guides your content strategy so every article you write has a purpose.
• It helps you avoid wasting time on keywords that no one is searching for.

Getting to Know Ahrefs: A Quick Overview

Ahrefs was founded in 2011 and has grown into one of the most comprehensive SEO tools on the market. It is used by thousands of businesses globally, from solo bloggers to Fortune 500 companies.

Here are the main tools inside Ahrefs that you will use for keyword research:

1. Keywords Explorer

This is the heart of keyword research in Ahrefs. You can type in any keyword and get a full picture of its search volume, keyword difficulty, click data, related keyword ideas, and much more. It is the tool you will spend the most time in during this process.

2. Site Explorer

Site Explorer lets you look at any website’s organic keyword rankings, backlinks, and traffic. It is extremely useful for competitor research, which we will discuss later in this guide.

3. Content Explorer

Content Explorer allows you to search for content by topic and see what articles are getting the most traffic and backlinks. It is great for discovering new keyword opportunities based on what is already performing well.

4. Site Audit

Site Audit crawls your website and finds technical SEO issues. While not directly related to keyword research, it helps ensure your site is healthy enough to rank once you start targeting keywords.

Step 1 – Define Your Topic and Seed Keywords

Every keyword research session starts with a seed keyword. A seed keyword is a broad, general term that describes your main topic. Think of it as the starting point from which all other keyword ideas will grow.

How to Come Up with Seed Keywords

Ask yourself these questions:

• What is my website or business about?
• What problems do my readers or customers need help with?
• What words would someone use to describe my products or services?
• What topics do I want to write about on my blog?

For example, if you run a fitness website, your seed keywords might be:

• weight loss
• home workout
• healthy eating
• muscle building

Write down at least five to ten seed keywords before opening Ahrefs. This gives you a strong foundation to work from.

Step 2 – Using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Now it is time to open Ahrefs and start exploring. Here is a detailed walkthrough of how to use the Keywords Explorer tool effectively.

Entering Your Seed Keyword

Log in to your Ahrefs account and click on “Keywords Explorer” from the top navigation menu. In the search bar, type your seed keyword and select the country or region you want data for. You can also enter multiple keywords at once by separating them with commas. Then click the search button.

Understanding the Overview Metrics

Once you enter a keyword, Ahrefs shows you an overview panel with several important metrics. Here is what each one means:

Search Volume

Search volume tells you approximately how many times per month a keyword is searched in the country you selected. A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches is more popular than one with 100. However, more popular keywords are usually harder to rank for. Do not just chase the highest volume keywords. Balance is key.

Keyword Difficulty (KD)

Keyword Difficulty is one of the most important metrics in Ahrefs. It is shown as a score from 0 to 100. A score of 0 to 10 means the keyword is very easy to rank for. A score of 11 to 30 is relatively easy. A score of 31 to 70 is moderately difficult. A score of 71 to 100 means it is very hard to rank for and would require many high-quality backlinks. For beginners, it is best to target keywords with a KD score under 20.

Traffic Potential (TP)

Traffic Potential is different from search volume. It shows how much organic traffic the top-ranking page for this keyword receives from all the keywords it ranks for, not just the main one. This is often a more accurate predictor of how much traffic you can realistically get if you rank for that keyword.

Clicks

Not every search results in a click. Some queries are answered directly on the Google results page through featured snippets, knowledge panels, or other SERP features. The Clicks metric tells you how many of the searches for this keyword actually result in someone clicking on a result. Higher clicks mean more opportunity for you.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

CPC is the average price advertisers pay per click for that keyword in Google Ads. While this is primarily a paid advertising metric, a high CPC often signals that a keyword has commercial intent and could be valuable for businesses. If a keyword costs $10 per click for advertisers, it means people searching for it are likely buyers.

Global Volume

Global Volume shows the total number of monthly searches for that keyword across all countries. This is useful if you are writing content for a worldwide audience.

Step 3 – Exploring Keyword Ideas

The real power of Ahrefs Keywords Explorer lies in its keyword idea reports. After you search for your seed keyword, scroll down to find the “Keyword Ideas” section on the left sidebar. These reports help you discover hundreds or even thousands of related keyword opportunities.

Phrase Match Report

This report shows all keywords that contain your seed keyword somewhere within the phrase. For example, if your seed keyword is “weight loss”, the Phrase Match report might show you keywords like “weight loss tips for women”, “weight loss diet plan”, or “weight loss supplements that work”. This is a great way to find long-tail variations of your main keyword.

Having Same Terms Report

This report shows keywords that contain the same words as your seed keyword but arranged in a different order or combined with other words. It helps you find keywords you might not have thought of on your own.

Also Rank For Report

This is one of the most valuable reports. It shows other keywords that the top-ranking pages for your seed keyword also rank for. In other words, if a page ranks for “home workout”, it might also rank for “workout at home without equipment”, “quick home exercises”, and more. This tells you that one piece of content can target all these related keywords at once.

Also Talk About Report

This report shows topics and terms that frequently appear in content about your seed keyword. It is very useful for understanding the broader subject matter around your keyword and making sure your content is comprehensive.

Search Suggestions Report

This shows keyword ideas based on Google’s autocomplete feature, meaning these are real phrases that people are actively searching for. They tend to be very specific and conversational, which makes them excellent targets for blog posts and FAQ-style content.

Step 4 – Understanding Search Intent

Finding a keyword with good search volume and low difficulty is only half the battle. You also need to understand the intent behind the search. This is called search intent, and it is crucial for creating content that actually ranks.

There are four main types of search intent:

Informational Intent

The person wants to learn something. Examples include “how to lose weight fast” or “what is SEO”. For these keywords, blog posts, guides, and tutorials work best.

Navigational Intent

The person is trying to find a specific website. Examples include “Ahrefs login” or “Nike official website”. These keywords are mainly for brand searches.

Commercial Investigation Intent

The person is doing research before making a purchase. Examples include “best running shoes 2024” or “Ahrefs vs SEMrush comparison”. Reviews, comparisons, and listicles perform well for these keywords.

Transactional Intent

The person is ready to buy or take a specific action. Examples include “buy protein powder online” or “sign up for Ahrefs”. For these, landing pages and product pages work best.

How to Check Intent in Ahrefs

In Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, scroll down to the SERP Overview section. This shows you the top ten pages currently ranking for your keyword. Look at the type of content that is ranking. Are they blog posts? Product pages? Videos? This tells you exactly what format Google wants to see for this keyword. Always match your content type and format to what is already ranking.

Step 5 – Finding Low Competition Keywords

One of the smartest strategies for new websites is to focus on low competition keywords, meaning keywords that are easier to rank for. Here is how to find them in Ahrefs.

Using Filters in Keywords Explorer

At the top of any keyword ideas report, you will see a row of filter options. Here are the most useful filters for finding low competition keywords:

• KD (Keyword Difficulty): Set the maximum to 20 or 30 to only see easy-to-rank keywords.
• Volume: Set a minimum of 100 or 200 to ensure there is enough traffic potential.
• Word count: Filter for keywords with three or more words. These are long-tail keywords and tend to have lower competition.
• Clicks: Set a minimum to make sure people are actually clicking through on results.

The Power of Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases. For example, instead of targeting “weight loss” (very competitive), you might target “how to lose weight fast at home without exercise” (much less competitive). Long-tail keywords typically have lower search volume but much higher conversion rates because searchers are more specific about what they want.

As a newer website, building authority through ranking for many long-tail keywords is far more effective than chasing impossible head terms and getting no traffic at all.

Step 6 – Competitor Keyword Research Using Site Explorer

One of the most effective ways to find great keywords is to spy on your competitors. Ahrefs makes this incredibly easy through its Site Explorer tool.

How to Analyze a Competitor’s Keywords

Follow these steps:

1. Click on “Site Explorer” in the top menu.
2. Type in a competitor’s website URL in the search bar.
3. Click on “Organic Keywords” from the left sidebar.
4. Browse through the list of keywords your competitor is ranking for.

You will see every keyword that drives traffic to their website, along with the ranking position, search volume, and traffic estimates. This is a goldmine of keyword ideas because these are proven keywords that someone in your niche is already ranking for.

Content Gap Analysis

Ahrefs has a brilliant feature called Content Gap, found inside Site Explorer. This tool compares your website with up to three competitors and shows you keywords that your competitors rank for but you do not. These are keyword opportunities you are currently missing out on.

To use it:

5. Enter your own website URL in Site Explorer.
6. Click “Content Gap” from the left sidebar.
7. Enter two or three competitor URLs in the “Show keywords that these targets rank for” section.
8. Click “Show keywords” and review the list of gap keywords.

Step 7 – Analyzing the SERP and Keyword Difficulty More Deeply

Just because a keyword has a low KD score does not automatically mean it is easy to rank for. You need to manually check the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) to understand who you are competing against.

What to Look for in the SERP Overview

In Keywords Explorer, scroll down to the SERP Overview. For each result, Ahrefs shows you:

• Domain Rating (DR): A score from 0 to 100 that reflects how strong a website’s backlink profile is. If all the top results have a DR of 80+, it will be very hard for a new site to compete.
• URL Rating (UR): The strength of the individual page, not just the domain. A page with UR 50+ has many backlinks pointing to it.
• Backlinks: The number of links pointing to each ranking page. More backlinks usually means more authority.
• Referring Domains: The number of unique websites linking to the page. This is more important than total backlinks.
• Organic Traffic: Estimated monthly organic visitors to that page.

Signs a Keyword Is Actually Winnable

• Some of the top results are from low DR websites (under 40).
• Some pages have very few referring domains (under 10).
• The top pages do not directly address the search query very well.
• There are forum posts, Reddit threads, or Quora answers in the top results, which signals low quality competition.

Step 8 – Building a Keyword List and Organizing Keywords

Once you start finding good keywords, you need a system to organize and manage them. Here is a simple process for doing that.

Saving Keywords in Ahrefs

Ahrefs allows you to save keywords directly into lists within the tool. You can create different lists for different topics or content types. For example, you might create a list called “Blog Post Ideas” and another called “Product Page Keywords”. To save a keyword, simply check the box next to it and click “Save” at the bottom of the page.

Exporting to a Spreadsheet

For deeper analysis, you can export your keyword data to a CSV file and open it in Excel or Google Sheets. This allows you to add additional columns, color code keywords by priority, and share the list with your team.

How to Organize Your Keywords

A simple and effective way to organize your keywords is by grouping them into clusters. A keyword cluster is a group of related keywords that share the same search intent and could be targeted by one piece of content. Here is how to organize your spreadsheet:

• Column 1: Keyword
• Column 2: Search Volume
• Column 3: Keyword Difficulty
• Column 4: Traffic Potential
• Column 5: Search Intent (informational, commercial, transactional)
• Column 6: Content Type (blog post, product page, guide)
• Column 7: Priority (high, medium, low)

Step 9 – Using Ahrefs for Local Keyword Research

If you run a local business, you need to target local keywords. Local keywords include a location modifier such as a city, region, or neighborhood name. Ahrefs makes local keyword research very straightforward.

Selecting the Right Country

When searching in Keywords Explorer, always select the country your target audience is in. This ensures the search volume and competition data reflects your actual market.

Finding Local Keywords

Here are two ways to find local keywords:

9. Search for your service or product plus the location name as your seed keyword. For example, “plumber in London” or “best pizza New York”.
10. Use the Phrase Match report and add a filter for keywords that include your city or region name.

Local keywords often have lower search volume but extremely high conversion rates because the person searching is ready to act. A search for “emergency plumber in Birmingham” is far more valuable to a local plumber than a generic search for “plumbing tips”.

Step 10 – Prioritizing Your Keyword List

By this point, you might have hundreds of keyword ideas. The next challenge is deciding which ones to target first. Here is how to prioritize effectively.

The Business Potential Score

Ahrefs recommends thinking about the business value of each keyword. They suggest scoring keywords on a scale of 0 to 3 based on how naturally you can mention your product or service in content about that keyword.

• Score 3: Your product is the core solution to the problem the keyword describes.
• Score 2: Your product is closely related and can be mentioned naturally.
• Score 1: Your product can be mentioned but it feels somewhat forced.
• Score 0: Your product has no real connection to the keyword.

Balancing Difficulty and Volume

For most websites, the ideal keywords to start with are:

• KD under 20
• At least 100 to 500 monthly searches
• Clear search intent
• Relevance to your business or website topic

Advanced Keyword Research Tips in Ahrefs

Once you are comfortable with the basics, here are some advanced strategies to take your keyword research to the next level.

Finding Question-Based Keywords

In Keywords Explorer, use the “Questions” tab under the keyword ideas reports. This shows you all the keywords that begin with question words like “how”, “what”, “why”, “where”, and “when”. Question keywords are perfect for informational blog posts and FAQ pages, and they often trigger featured snippets in Google which can dramatically increase your click-through rates.

Tracking Keyword Positions Over Time

Once you have published content targeting your keywords, use Ahrefs Rank Tracker to monitor where your pages are ranking. Add your target keywords to a project and Ahrefs will track your position changes over time. This helps you identify which keywords are improving, which are dropping, and where you need to focus your optimization efforts.

Using Content Explorer for Keyword Discovery

Go to Content Explorer and search for a broad topic. Sort the results by Organic Traffic or Social Shares. Look at the titles and topics of the highest-performing articles. Each of those titles often represents a valuable keyword or content idea. You can then take those topics into Keywords Explorer to get the exact data you need.

Identifying Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your website target the same keyword, causing them to compete with each other. Ahrefs can help you identify this by showing you all the pages on your domain that rank for the same keyword. If you find cannibalization, you should either merge those pages into one comprehensive piece or redirect one to the other.

Common Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid

Even with a great tool like Ahrefs, it is easy to make mistakes in keyword research. Here are the most common ones and how to avoid them.

Chasing High Volume Without Checking Difficulty

Many beginners see a keyword with 100,000 monthly searches and immediately want to target it. But if the KD is 90, it would take years and thousands of backlinks to rank. Always check difficulty before committing to a keyword.

Ignoring Search Intent

If you write a product page for a keyword that has informational intent, Google will almost never rank it because it does not match what the searcher is looking for. Always align your content format with the intent behind the keyword.

Targeting Too Many Keywords in One Article

Each piece of content should have one primary keyword and a few closely related secondary keywords. Trying to target dozens of different keywords in one article dilutes your focus and confuses search engines about what the page is really about.

Not Revisiting Your Keyword Strategy

SEO and search trends change over time. A keyword that was difficult to rank for six months ago might be easier today, or a keyword that had good volume might be declining. Make keyword research a regular part of your content strategy, not a one-time task.

Putting It All Together: A Simple Keyword Research Workflow

Here is a simple, repeatable workflow you can use every time you do keyword research in Ahrefs:

11. Brainstorm five to ten seed keywords related to your topic.
12. Enter them one by one in Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.
13. Check the Phrase Match and Also Rank For reports for each seed.
14. Apply filters: KD max 20, volume min 100.
15. Review the SERP overview for promising keywords.
16. Check search intent and confirm the right content type.
17. Analyze one or two competitors using Site Explorer.
18. Run a Content Gap analysis to find missing keyword opportunities.
19. Save or export your final keyword list.
20. Organize by priority and start creating content.

Conclusion

Keyword research does not have to be complicated or intimidating. With Ahrefs, you have all the data you need to make smart, informed decisions about which keywords to target. The key is to follow a systematic approach: start with seed keywords, explore the data Ahrefs provides, understand the intent behind searches, assess the competition realistically, and prioritize keywords that give you the best chance of ranking.

Remember that keyword research is not just about picking words with the highest numbers. It is about understanding your audience, finding topics that genuinely interest them, and creating content that answers their questions better than anyone else. When you do that consistently, the rankings and traffic will follow.

Ahrefs is your map, but you are the navigator. Use this guide as a reference every time you sit down to do keyword research, and over time you will develop a strong instinct for finding the keywords that can truly move the needle for your website.

Now go ahead, open Ahrefs, and start exploring. Your next great keyword is just a few clicks away.

About the Author

Jay Patel is the Founder of XSquareSEO, a full-service SEO agency with experience in on-page SEO, eCommerce SEO, link building, technical SEO, SaaS SEO, and local SEO. For more information, feel free to contact us. 

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