This post is about keyword research for SEO. Whether doing affiliate marketing, adsense, ecommerce, it really doesn’t matter, choosing the right keywords is vital.
To help you with this process, I’m about to tell you about a new tool that I’ve recently started using called AHref’s. This tool is very impressive and it’s only in Beta version too.
The thing I like about this thing, is that it shows you the anchor text of the backlinks that websites have, AND it’s super fast, the fastest I’ve ever come across. The reason knowing the anchor of the backlinks of a site is so helpful, is because you can get a much clearer picture of what that webpage is really targeting.
The best way to demonstrate how I use this tool when doing keyword research for SEO is with an example.
Let’s say I go through the Google keyword tool, and I’m looking for keyword in the acne niche. Once I find potential keywords, I need to then analyze these to see how competitive they are. So carrying on with the example, if I’m looking at the phrase “vitamins for acne” the site in position 1 in Google is this one: www.acne-vitamins.com
Now if I was to use a backlink checking tool like SEO Quake (see image below) you can see that the URL has 500 backlinks. However what I cannot tell from this number, is what the anchor text of these backlinks are. If I know the anchor of these links, I can work out if this phrase of “vitamins for acne” is their primary agenda for this page or not.
This is where ahrefs.com comes in. There is a paid and a free version of this tool, however I think the paid version is the one that allows you to see anchor text. When I placed this URL, it allows you to plugin exact URL’s not just the home page, ahrefs shows me the anchor text count in decending order for the page.
As you can see in the image above, the top anchor for the links coming into this page are infact “vitamins for acne”, however only 302 of them are this exact phrase, so not all 500 as we might have first thought if just looking at SEO Quake.
Now this is still pretty competitive, and not a keyword I would recommend targeting, as the search volume is not that high. However what you’ll often find when using this tool, is that pages ranking at the top of Google often are not even targeting the keyword phrase they are ranking for. When you look at the results, you’ll see the phrase way down the list, sometimes not even in the first 20. What this tells us is that that particular phrase is not their priority for the page, which makes them less difficult to outrank.
One thing to keep in mind is that if the sites at the top are hard core authority sites, like PR 6+, then be careful, because even if they are not trying to rank for a phrase but Google is giving it to them anyway, it is usually because of their authority on the general topic and they still can be hard to beat.
I am not an affiiate for this tool either, I just wanted to share something cool I am doing that I hope will help you also.
Regards
Matt Carter
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Thanks Matt for the expert advice and tips. Just getting started with this IM endeavor and I find it very helpful when I can get insight from those that “know the ropes”.
That’s a useful tool to give additional insights. Thanks for sharing!
Wow that is excellent it will be really easy to outrank your competitors with that tool A hrefs. I quite agree that we need to be careful when it comes to competing with authority sites, like PR 6+that is just hard word competing with authority sites better go for the low hanging fruits Thanks once again .Matt looking forward to test the tool.Cheers!
Hi Matt, thanks for the info I just cheked the site but could not figure out how it works but I agree it is a useful tool for easy SEO
Thank You.
Nice post Matt. I picked up ahrefs a short bit ago and taking a test ride for a month for just under $12. They have a price program ranging from Free to $99 per month. I also see ahrefs as an excellent tool for building authority sites. Knowing how your competition is structuring their sites can easily get you there weeks and months sooner when chasing the big guys.
Matt, I use opensiteexplorer.org and it gives me tons of backlinks and anchor text for my competitors. What do you think of this tool instead of ahrefs that you mention?
Thanks,
Mark Shaw
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 11:21 am
I find Ahrefs is the fastest tool for doing this, and I have tried a lot of them, but if you prefer another, then by all means use what works for you!
Regards
Matt
Ice Watches Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
The other thing that should be pointed out Matt is the fact that Open site explorer’s paid version is $99 where as Ahrefs paid version starts at $11.99 and both have a free version.
Thanks for the great blog using a tool like this certainly opens up more opportunities.
Regards
Owen
Thanks Matt!
Anything that will help me with keyword research is a GOOD thing as that’s where I seem to fail the most.
I’ve been involved in affiliate sales off and on since 2003. Thus, you can imagine the number of internet marketers who’ve signed my informational dance card. Only recently did I stumble upon your teachings, and have to say your generosity in sharing tools such as the one found at http://www.ahrefs.com, without immediate expectation, is like a warm breeze on a mid-summer’s day.
Thank you for reminding me that honor and integrity still exist in today’s competitive world.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Your welcome!
Thaks Matt,for the useful tips of anchor text and backlinks thanks for sharing.really appreciate your help.
Beautiful work, Matt. Thanks for sharing your insight 🙂
I use market samuria to do the same job!
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 11:18 am
Yeah Market Samurai is supposed to do this, but it is slow as anything and often doesn’t work I have found, so I find this tool way smoother.
Regards
Matt
Thanks for sharing that Matt. I have signed up to take it for a test drive 🙂
Cheers
Great tip Matt. I have just signed up so let’s hope you gain some link love from the shreds guys in return. Franke
Just had a quick look and it seems like a pretty cool little tool. Appreciate you taking the time to share this Matt. 🙂
This is a great tip matt! Will use it on my new niche blog.
Matt, this is off topic, just wanted to thank you for the video with the guy who has the Betta fish sight, I’m having a ball finding new keywords and writing articles for my sites with his method. You’re the best! jw
i thinks ahref is god and free,
we can check whats page has the backlink
Hi Matt I noticed you don’t have approve my comments as you don’t show them I am not spamming your website.as this has happened on several occasions I am still a newbie who is learning I feel safe practising my linking skills with you .
I am just trying to get links for my different websites as you have taught me in your Rapid Profit Formula and Rapid Rewriter which I have purchased both by the way .
I am really disappointed as all I am doing is practising what you have taught in your products
The little time that I get I use the opportunity to build links I am in the UK people are sleeping at this time I feel that my time is wasted I think you wont publish this as well .However Thanks for all
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Not sure what you are referring to, but I only delete comments that I don’t feel are adding to the conversations, or relevant, so if you comment well you will get your comment approved.
Regards
Matt
Loseweightfast Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Cheers!I appreciate that
Excellent keyword advice.
Matt,
Always appreciate you giving out great information, thanks
for taking the time to keep us all in the loop. Your # 1.
Hi Matt, thanks for another great post on SEO. I will try the free version and if it works well for my SEO, I will upgrage to the paid version.
Thanks, Ken
Hi Matt,
Previously I have tended to stay away from sites with as many as 5oo backlinks, they were just too hard to outperform, especially if they were above a PR3 rank. So the tool you suggest http://www.ahrefs.com is really good, and as you point out really fast.
So if a site with 500 backlinks shows 450 of them are off topic it may not be so hard to beat to the top ..
Wahooooo thats great Matt.thanks heaps
regards Jeff
Exceptional information Matt. It will make my initial niche keyword research much more productive.
Hi Matt
This is a really cool tool, much better than opensiteexplorer which I have been using.
Neil
As Always,
Excellent information my friend. With the yahoo site explorer services set to come to a halt, people will be scrambling for an alternative. It is great to have found it thanks to Matt 🙂
peace be unto you
Matt, thank you for your recommendation! I checked out AHrefs and signed up for the free version. This looks like a really useful SEO tool. Thanks again for sharing!
~Nat
Nice tip. Market samurai allows you to do this as well.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Hey Mike
It does, but it doesn’t do it very well, it is slow, clunky and inaccurate I find, but I find this tool way smoother
Regards
Matt
Ice Watches Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I have Market Samurai but I didn’t realise it showed you the source of the back links. I stopped using it because it was so slow and I had it crashing quite a lot. I use Traffic Travis now What do use Matt for keyword research?
Regards
Owen
Matt, an excellent keyword tool to find anchor keywords. I will try this shortly. I might find it useful as I am having a couple of websites difficult to rank and I can now find out the competing website’s anchor keywords that they are ranking for and hopefully tweak my website. Thanks again for this great tip.
Hi Matt,
Thanks heaps for all your help! I consider myself very lucky to have stumbled upon your program and the very generous free info you provide, especially as there seems to be an overwhelming presence of fake people on the net. A quick question if you will, it may be stupid so please forgive me – with the 500 links you refer to in the above article, why do you site yahoo links instead of google?
Cheers
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Yahoo gives a better indication of overall links, although it is not perfect either, but we just have to do the best we can
All the best
Matt
I’ve always thought that looking at the no. of backlinks would be good enough. This stuff is really new to me. Thanks for the wonderful share!
Hi Matt,
Thanks so much for letting me know about ahrefs. This will make things so much easier for me. I have just now signed up.
I follow your blog religiously and want to thank you for all I have learnt from you here and in rapid profit formula.
Kay
Great info again, Matt.
I’ve been trying to take more notice of the page rank of sites I am attempting to compete against.
Until this latest post of yours, I was unaware how important page rank was of the actual backlinks to these sites.
Cheers, Leon
Matt,
Great post! I have been looking for something as clean and more importantly FAST as this for sometime now. Don’t get me wrong MS is cool, but not as cool as this in terms of usability and results pretty much on demand. Thanks for sharing, you are the type of people that the world needs more of. You cant horde every piece of information, the more you give, the more you will receive.
Cheers,
Mike
P.S. Any ideas on how Google + will effect SEO? Sorry if this is not the right place, but I wanted to get your take.
Hello Matt,
What would happen once the yahoo site explorer is pulled off?
Does this tool use yahoo site explorer for links?
Ajith
Matt Carter Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
No its has its own database
Matt
thanks matt ,great share
Thanks Matt, very useful article, Although I believe You can outrank any website using Youtube or Places.
Dear Matt,
For some reason the form on your “Contact Us” page is not working for me so I’m writing here —
As a new R.P.F. member, I thank you most sincerely for granting us the right to download your precious WordPress theme and accompanying plug-ins etc. to make our lives easier!
I am going through the videos for the first time and your course is SO much more intense than “GS 2.0”. I look forward to getting my first RPF site online! Best regards.
As always Matt…great advice…..thank you!!
Hey Matt, I will definitely try this new tool “AHref’s”.
I mean, you sure made this post so easy to understand, and I already have an idea how I will use it.
Thanks again for sharing this:)
I want to report the usefulness of your ADVICE on Ahrefs.
After running on one of my sites I found that the number one anchor text is “link to us” not my main keyword, which happens to be fourth in the list. This is a Big Wake up Call. Thanks a million.
This info has come at the right time for me. I purchased RPF on 18/08/2011. I am learning keyword research right now. I have not yet decided on the right nich. Thanks for your patience in explaining things in your videos. I am from a medical background(Vet).
Please let me know how to login into Rapid rewriter which I purchased through link http://www.goto2.com/rpfbonusclaim. I have good articles. Iwant to see how it works.
Regards,
Dr.Krishna Rao
Hey Matt, this sounds really awesome! But since I’m broke atm … which free service do you recommend? Or is there nothing comparable to ahrefs? Thanks!
John
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:54 am
Actually John the free version of this does allow you to do this technique, so just stick with the free version of Ahefs
Matt
I really appreciate you sharing this new keyword research tool with us. I actually viewed some of my own websites and realized that I have a lot of work to do in the area of backlinks and anchor text for the keywords I’m looking to rank using SEO.
Thanks Matt
Sue
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:53 am
Hey Sue
You’re very welcome!
Matt
Matt, seriously, you are the man. I would have never even thought of looking for a tool like this. So far I have only been using SEO quake, but this new one takes things to a whole new level. Thanks a lot for your work in helping us affiliate marketers. I am definitely going to buy this tool and work on targeting better keywords.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 8:00 am
You’re welcome
Matt
Hey Matt,
This is a great site and tool – thanks for sharing. I’m doing some online marketing for local business as well as working on my own B & M biz. This will be a useful tool. BTW, you can get the top ten anchors with the free version.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:53 am
Hi Mark
Thanks and good to see you getting stuck in!
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the email and info on the keyword tool. I will surely use it in my next keyword and competitor exercise. I am still working on my link building.
Regards
Hennie
Thank you for providing information about this helpful tool. Most other marketers would have sent an email (with an affiliate link) recommending this product. They should take lessons from you if they want to retain the long term confidence of their subscribers and customers. Best regards.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:52 am
Thanks Nicholas!
Matt,
Really like the tool – but here is my question.
It seems to me that SEO Quake is almost useless. The number of links it show has no correlation as to the real number of links – as shown on ahref or other backlink analysis tools.
Is this true for you too – that SEO Quake is WAY off?
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 8:00 am
I don’t think any tool is that accurate with the number of links, probably majestic SEO is the best at the moment, where Market Samurai gets its data, but ahrefs is building its own, so I think you will see ahrefs do really well over the next few months. And ahrefs is the best for anchor at the moment already and its only in beta still!
Kind regards
Matt
Thanks a lot for the awesome tips man! Great article! 😀
Just trying this Ahrefs tool. Could you explain what the ‘removed’ backlinks are in the graph it shows for External Backlinks and why are backlinks deleted? I thought backlinks stayed so why are some deleted?
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:51 am
Hi Briluki
Backlinks can easily get deleted. If a webmasters decided they don’t want your link on their site anymore they can remove it.
Regards
Matt
Although I have built websites in the past, I’m pretty new at actually trying to market something via the internet. I certainly have not spent much time trying to get top rankings. Now, as I turn my attention to marketing, I can see the value of a powerful keyword research tool. You have shown how an analysis of a competing website’s backlinks could pay dividends in terms of rankings and sales. Thanks.
Matt – this tool will be very helpful in many ways. I will try the free version first. thanks.
btw – what do you think about http://suggest.thinkpragmatic.net/ as a kw tool?
thanks
miles
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:50 am
Hi Miles
Don’t know that tool sorry, but will have a look
Matt
Mat I agree with your comment regarding Market Samurai it has become slow and clunky. I can remember when I could talk to a customer on the phone and be running stats as we talked. No more unfortunately.
But the wealth of other information it gives in the research is really important. I can also determine from the link analysis whether the top results have been achieved by accident or is there a definite SEO plan at work. That gives me more of an idea of what I’m competing against.
I haven’t tried this href tool at all but I would question the value of having to open separate tools to get the info you want rather than have it all in one. Even if it is fast.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:58 am
Well you don’t have to use it, but I have used every tool out there, and I can tell you from experience that this thing is fast and I way prefer it to MArket Samurai and anything else I know of
Regards
Matt
Hello
As usual a very nice and helpful article, although I do wish you would do a little video with these great articles, just to see what you are doing. It is also amazing the amount of information you find when you read the comments from other people. Several had mentioned Market Samurai of which you gave your opinion as to how well it does or does not work. Very honestly I could have been fooled into buying this product because it has been around for quite awhile, and thanks to you I don’t have to concern myself about it. So thanks again, Matt. It is very much appreciated here. Paul
Dear All,
I am gate full to join this team,
I am Angolan 36 years, I am trying to find the good life, because in Our conutry we knwe and we are knowing difficulties .
Hi matt,
I’m a user of rapid profit formula, I highly recommend this product of yours, as your keyword research lessons are second to none. I’ve purchased lots of other training materials for affiliate marketing, but your rapid profit formula course is one of the best I’ve seen.
Many thanks,
Al
Good stuff, thanks… Good to know, you can drill down a keyword down further..
Hi Matt, thanks for sharing this, this is great information. However I’m confused. There are 3 main competitors to a niche I’m working on and they all rank on page one for the keywords I’m trying to target. But only one of them has any external backlinks using the ahrefs tool (208) how do the other two rank on page one with no backlinks?
Thanks
Matt Carter Reply:
August 21st, 2011 at 7:48 am
Hi Elaine
With ahrefs don’t look at the numbers, more like at the priority of the anchor text. Also I would need to see the keyword to really know, but one thing to keep in mind is that if a domain has done a 301 redirect to the domain rankings now, you won’t be able to see any of the backlinks.
Kind regards
Matt
Hi Matt,
This is great. I can see the real value of Ahref. I appreciate the tips. I love every email I got from you, I can always see the substance. Keep up the good work. btw. I bought all your products.
Hi Matt.
Several people including your good self have made reference to SEO quake in this thread but I’ve noticed that it no longer works with the latest firefox browser. However. SEO book still seems to work which is also a freebie for anyone experiencing the same issue with SEO quake and actually provides more data.
I haven’t looked at ahref’s yet but I agree with you and others on the slow decline of Market Samurai which was my main stay for keyword research, but alas seems to be dying which is pity considering all the work the MS people have put into it over the years.
Matt Carter Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:37 am
Hi Gerry
Thanks for the tip. I always wait for 6 months before I update firefox, as it takes a while for plugins to catch up with changes, but I’m sure they will.
Regards
Matt
Matt, you frickin’ ROCK! This tool is REALLY going to help out with my keyword research and it’s affordable.
What I really love about your blog Matt is that you take the time to ONLY share what’s important in affiliate marketing and how it will benefit your readers. A lot of marketers that have a blog will write just to write. You don’t and this is what makes your readership so high.
Thanks for continuing to provide us with solid marketing information
THANK YOU! How refreshing to read a blog with simple to the point, without hyperbole information. I read about #SEO all the time and I am happy when I get a nugget. You have given much more than a nugget. I have walked away and instant fan.
Thank you for teaching me something valuable today!
Matt Carter Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:36 am
Hi Karen
You’re welcome!
Matt
This is great Matt,
This is very like Majestic SEO, but looks so much more affordable and maybe easier to get the data in a usable format. I’ll be seriously looking at this to save some money over Majestic SEO.
Market Samurai is supposed to do get the anchor text, but for this part of MS I’m sure they still use Yahoo explorer to get this data, which don’t feel is particularly accurate compared to others. They use majestic SEO for the number of backlinks only.
Thanks again Matt
Richard
Thanks for sharing this. Always learn from your blogs.
Just to say..thank you..!
Hai Matt,
I have a question to you. Is it really important to buy domain name for each of my Products?
Can I use a general name for similar type of products?
Ex: If i promote weightloss products can i use something like weightlosstips.com type domain?
Is it important to keep my perticular product name on my domain name? Ex: meratol-review.com(meratol is a weight loss product)
Please help me Matt
Cheers
Hey Matt!
Very cool tool indeed. This service is also offered by majestic SEO, but they are pretty expensive so I hope Ahrefs.comes at a better price.
Thanx again for sharing the love 🙂
Cheers, Andi
Hey Matt,
thank you for the tip, seems to be a powerful tool. Gotto check it out.
My best,
Tim Pond
Matt Carter Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:01 am
Hi Tim
Nice to hear from you
Yeah it is a good tool and its only in beta too!
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt ,
Thanks for this info . You probably know Market Samurai can do the same thing and I was wondering if this is not a better deal in the long run + you get the extra Samurai features ? I tend to keep my marketing costs as low as possible at all times but if you plan to do lots of analyses on websites and backlinks then I think Market Samurai is worth the extra buck or am I missing something ?
thanks matt for your tips n adventoris.
I very much agree with what you write is the most important part of online business is marketing seo with keyword selection is very appropriate, as we have a nice house but the people did not know we’re a nice house, that’s what happens with an online business today.
Great tool. the free version also give you anchor text. I think that for test it is a great option. Howeber, if you work in SEO, you need more number of results that the free verssion show you.
Really, I believe that the price is very competitive.
Thanks for sharing Matts
Hi Matt,
I have to agree with some of the other comments, as a user of Market Samurai and with that I have access to Majestic SEO reports I see very similiar benefits without having to pay additional monthlu fees.
However I will check “ahref ” out and open their free account to see if their reports are better.
These are very interesting information on backlinks structure and very helpful tool discovering it. Thank you, Matt.
This is a really cool strategy. I think I might get this AHref’s, because it sounds like a really useful tool when doing seo. Thanks for sharing this great content Matt.
Wow thank you so much for such a useful info. I signed up and tested it. For me it’s now gonna replace yahoo site explorer and MS. I agree MS is so sloooow. Just getting it started takes ages!
Thank you so much. I need to check your blog more often. You really give free quality info.
Thanks Matt,
The screenshot of ahref anchor text stats is too wide using chrome and is messing with your sidebar btw.
Otherwise thanks 4 the heads up – cooool tool!