Going into this study, I suspected that domain-level link metrics would not be a good predictor for mentions. I was expecting Google AI Overviews to show more of a correlation since they may use some of the traditional search signals, whereas the other systems may not. For traditional search, usually the page-level metrics are more…
With Google’s AI mode developments, we’re heading toward a future where search results could eventually roll up into one big AI Overview. Soon it won’t be a case of “Should I, or shouldn’t I optimize for AI Overviews?” If you want any chance of search visibility, you’ll need to understand how to rank in Google’s…
We analyzed 900,000 newly created web pages in April 2025 and found that 74.2% of them contained AI-generated content. At Ahrefs, our machine learning team has built an AI content detector (codenamed bot_or_not). We’re about to release the AI content detector for Ahrefs customers to use, so we decided to put it through its paces…
AI is reshaping search optimization—it’s no longer just about ranking in search results, but about earning visibility in AI-generated answers. We’re moving from chasing traffic, to competing for brand visibility. We’re thinking about how AI crawlers view our site–not just search engine bots. We’re trying to follow the breadcrumb trail through an entirely new kind…
New to all things domain management? We’ll take you under our wing with our beginners’ guide to why it matters, plus some handy tips. Hey there, curious about domain management? You’ve come to the right place. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll dive into what domain management is all about and why it matters for your…
Managing PPC campaigns means juggling more than just keywords and budgets. From creative production and landing page optimization to fraud detection and competitor research, the marketer’s toolbox needs to be practical and scalable. To help you with that, I looked at some of the best PPC tools and picked nine that stand out for their…
Lately, we’ve heard murmurings that Google’s March Core Update has led to an uptick in AI Overviews¹ ² This chimes with what we’re seeing in Ahrefs Brand Radar, our new marketing intelligence tool which lets you track your brand presence in AI search. We analyzed 25M AI overview keywords in the two-month window of our…
PPC keyword research is the process of finding the exact words or phrases people type into Google when they’re looking for something related to your product or service. It helps you target the right audience, avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks, and attract people who are actually ready to buy. When I asked experts for their…
Share of search (SoS) is the percentage of all brand-name searches in your market that mention your brand. To find it, count how many times people searched for your brand name, add up the searches for every competing brand, then divide your number by that total and multiply by 100. For example, let’s say your brand…
Developers and marketers are being told to add llms.txt files to their sites to help large language models (LLMs) “understand” their content. But what exactly is llms.txt, who’s using it, and—more importantly—should you care? llmstext.org. In a nutshell, it’s a text file designed to tell LLMs where to find the good stuff: API documentation, return policies,…
Most marketers approach competitor analysis with the wrong mindset. They see a successful ad and think, “I should do exactly that!” This is a recipe for mediocrity. Competitors don’t always know what they’re doing. Their campaigns might be underperforming, and blindly following them could land you in the same hole. You also don’t want to…
URLs are vital to your online brand identity. But when and how should you be using link masking? Allow us to explain. Table of Contents Link masking is used by heaps of websites to show content on the web under a different URL than the one that actually hosts it. There are tonnes of reasons…
