Thinking whether to go for Ahrefs vs MOZ? Choosing the right link audit software is critical for SEO agencies these days.
This article is going to dive into the Ahrefs vs MOZ debate and try to answer a key question.
Which is the better tool for link audit, as well as other use cases? Which one offers the best value for money, and will be most appropriate for a company of your size, with your resources?
Let’s find out! In the post below, we’ve covered all the common use cases and done an in-depth analysis of the key features of Ahrefs and MOZ – as well as compared it to an alternative solution that may be better in some situations.
TL;DR:
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- Ahrefs and MOZ are popular link audit tools for SEO agencies, but they have differences in execution and pricing.
- Ahrefs for link audit: Analyze backlink profile, identify low-quality links, export them, create a disavow file, and monitor backlink profile.
- MOZ for link audit: Analyze backlink profile, identify low-quality links, export them, create a disavow file, and monitor backlink profile.
- BacklinkManager is a better alternative for link audit: Provides efficient monitoring and auditing of specific links, custom reports, and backlink monitoring.
- Ahrefs and MOZ offer similar features for link building, while BacklinkManager provides a comprehensive solution with features like link exchanges, broken link building, guest posting, link partnerships, and link monitoring.
Ahrefs vs MOZ – similarities and differences
Ahrefs and MOZ are both applications for link audit, link building, and broken link building with several areas of overlap. Both Ahrefs and MOZ are popular SEO tools used mostly for link audit in SEO agencies. Both products have several similar features.
However, there are several details about the way these particular features are “executed” in both products that may make a substantial difference for the buyer.
They also have very different pricing plans. Let’s look at the details.
Ahrefs vs MOZ for link audit – differences
In this section of the article, we’re really going to dig into the nitty-gritty of each area of product functionality. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Ahrefs or MOZ – is the best option depending on your use case.
Ahrefs for link audit
Conducting regular link audits is vital for maintaining a healthy backlink profile and ensuring your website’s credibility and search engine rankings. Ahrefs provides a robust set of tools to help beginners perform comprehensive link audits. Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for link audits:
- Create an account: Sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their suite of SEO tools designed to help with link audits and more.
- Analyze your backlink profile: Use the Site Explorer tool to gain insights into your domain’s backlink profile, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and their quality.
- Identify low-quality or toxic links: In the Site Explorer, navigate to the ‘Backlinks’ tab and use filters to find low-quality or toxic backlinks, such as those with low Domain Rating (DR), high Spam Score, or coming from unrelated or spammy websites.
- Export toxic links: Export a list of toxic backlinks by clicking the ‘Export’ button in the Site Explorer. This will provide you with a CSV file containing the data required for further analysis or disavowal.
- Create a disavow file: Use the exported list of toxic backlinks to create a disavow file, following Google’s disavow guidelines.
- Submit the disavow file to Google: Submit the disavow file to Google Search Console to request Google to ignore the low-quality or toxic backlinks, thereby preventing any potential negative impact on your website’s rankings.
- Monitor your backlink profile: Regularly monitor your backlink profile using the Site Explorer and set up Ahrefs Alerts to receive email notifications about new or lost backlinks, ensuring you stay up to date on any changes.
- Learn more: Enhance your knowledge of link audits by leveraging the educational resources available through Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog.
MOZ for link audit
Continuing our discussion on leveraging Moz for SEO, let’s dive into how to conduct a link audit using Moz’s powerful tools. Regular link audits are essential for maintaining a healthy backlink profile and ensuring your website’s search engine ranking remains strong. Here’s a step-by-step guide that even a beginner SEO can follow:
- Step 1: Log in to your Moz dashboard and navigate to the “Link Explorer” tool, which can be found under the “SEO” tab in the top menu.
- Step 2: Enter your website’s domain in the search bar, then click “Analyze Domain.” This will provide you with an overview of your backlink profile, including Domain Authority (DA), number of backlinks, and referring domains.
- Step 3: Click on the “Inbound Links” tab to view a comprehensive list of all the backlinks pointing to your website.
- Step 4: Analyze your backlinks, paying close attention to the quality and relevance of each link. Use Moz’s Spam Score metric to help identify potentially harmful or low-quality links.
- Step 5: Export your backlink data to a spreadsheet for further analysis and organization. In the spreadsheet, create columns for the website name, URL, DA, Spam Score, and any relevant notes.
- Step 6: Review your spreadsheet and identify any links that need to be removed or disavowed due to low quality, high Spam Score, or irrelevance to your niche. Highlight these links for easy reference.
- Step 7: Reach out to the website owners or editors hosting the harmful links, politely requesting link removal. Keep track of your communications in your spreadsheet.
- Step 8: If link removal is unsuccessful or not possible, create a disavow file using Moz’s Disavow Tool. Upload this file to Google Search Console to inform Google that you do not want these links to impact your website’s ranking.
- Step 9: Regularly monitor your backlink profile using Moz’s “Link Explorer” tool to ensure your link audit efforts are effective and to identify any new links that may require attention.
By following these actionable steps, you can effectively use Moz to perform a link audit and maintain a healthy backlink profile for your website, ultimately improving your search engine ranking.
Better alternative for link audit – BacklinkManager
While BacklinkManager is not a typical link audit tool like ScreamingFrog, or even Ahrefs and SEMrush, it provides an efficient solution for monitoring and auditing the links that really matter to link building agencies and clients, rather than *all* links. By monitoring links built in specific campaigns and partnerships (or acquired from specific vendors), and notifying you when a link disappears or the page is 404, it ensures your hard-earned links don’t rot. It can also help with reporting to your clients on this via Custom Reports.
Here are some of BacklinkManager’s link-audit related features:
- Link Audit: BacklinkManager enables users to ensure their backlinks’ quality with its dedicated Link Audit feature. This feature allows users to maintain control over their link profile’s quality and integrity.
- Custom Reports: With BacklinkManager’s Custom Reports feature, users can generate and share detailed reports on the status of their backlinks. These reports assist in identifying and rectifying any backlink-related issues promptly, ensuring the effectiveness of their SEO strategies.
- Backlink Monitoring: In addition to audit and reporting tools, BacklinkManager provides constant backlink monitoring, which allows users to stay up-to-date with the status of their backlinks at any given time.
As a comprehensive solution for link-building operations, BacklinkManager goes beyond traditional CRM functionalities to offer powerful tools like link monitoring, custom report generation, and goal setting. By providing these resources, BacklinkManager supports SEO professionals and agencies in maintaining the quality of their backlinks and conducting efficient link audits.
Ahrefs vs MOZ for link building – similarities and differences
In this section of the article, we’re really going to dig into the nitty-gritty of each area of product functionality for link building. That way, we’ll be able to figure out which tool – Ahrefs or MOZ – is the best option depending on your use case.
Ahrefs for link building
Link building is a crucial component of a successful SEO strategy, as it helps improve your website’s credibility and search engine rankings. Ahrefs offers numerous features to assist beginners in executing effective link building campaigns. Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for link building:
- Create an account: Sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their wide range of SEO tools and resources.
- Find link prospects: Use the Content Explorer and Link Intersect tools to discover potential link opportunities by identifying relevant websites, articles, and resources in your niche.
- Analyze competitors: Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles using the Site Explorer tool to uncover their link-building strategies and identify valuable link prospects.
- Broken link building: Use the Broken Link Checker to find broken links on relevant websites, create replacement content, and reach out to site owners with a suggestion to replace the broken link with your content.
- Guest posting: Identify guest posting opportunities by searching for relevant websites in your niche using the Content Explorer. Pitch high-quality, unique articles that provide value to their audience.
- Monitor link progress: Keep track of your link building efforts by monitoring your website’s backlink profile using the Site Explorer tool, and set up Ahrefs Alerts to receive email notifications for new backlinks.
- Outreach: Find contact information for potential link partners using Ahrefs’ email finder feature, and manage your email campaigns with the Outreach tool to track your communication and responses.
- Expand your knowledge: Enhance your link building skills by leveraging the educational resources available through Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog.
MOZ for link building
MOZ offers a range of tools and features to help users effectively implement link building strategies for their websites. Here are some actionable steps for beginners to use MOZ for link building:
- Link Explorer: Utilize MOZ’s Link Explorer tool to analyze your website’s backlink profile and discover valuable link opportunities. You can also research your competitors’ backlinks to identify potential link sources.
- Keyword Research: Use the Keyword Explorer to find relevant and high-traffic keywords that will help you create valuable content, making it more likely for others to link to your site.
- On-Page Optimization: Take advantage of MOZ’s on-page optimization guidelines to improve your content’s quality and relevance, increasing the chances of earning organic backlinks.
- Broken Link Building: Find broken links on relevant websites using MOZ’s Broken Link Building guide, and offer your content as a replacement, thereby creating valuable backlinks.
- Link Building Resources: Access MOZ’s extensive library of link building resources to learn more about effective strategies, best practices, and outreach techniques to help you build a strong backlink profile.
Better alternative for link building: BacklinkManager.
BacklinkManager is a versatile tool designed to cater to all your link-building needs.
- Link Exchanges: Users can set their niches and Domain Rating (DR) expectations to find and connect with like-minded link exchange partners automatically.
- Broken Link Building: With 24/7 link monitoring, BacklinkManager notifies users instantly when a link’s status changes, aiding in efficient broken link building.
- Guest Posting: BacklinkManager enables users to keep track of guest post opportunities and monitor the links obtained from these efforts.
- Link Partnerships: This tool facilitates the management of link partnerships, tracking who has built more links, and maintaining clear communication with partners through live chat and comments.
- Link Audits: With BacklinkManager’s custom reports, users can conduct thorough link audits to ensure the quality of their backlinks.
- Link Building CRM: BacklinkManager serves as a dedicated CRM for link-building operations, managing relationships with clients, freelance link builders, and vendors.
- Link Monitoring: BacklinkManager offers comprehensive link monitoring services, including a reliable link crawler, link status notifications, and management of link-building targets, goals, and target groups.
BacklinkManager is more than a CRM—it’s a complete solution for your link-building operation. With its powerful features and tools, you can monitor links, create reports, set goals, and share interactive dashboards to streamline your SEO efforts.
Try BacklinkManager today and elevate your link-building strategy to new heights!
Ahrefs vs MOZ for broken link building – similarities and differences
Finally, most SEO agencies considering Ahrefs vs MOZ want to look at their functionality for broken link building. Let’s dive into it in more detail.
Ahrefs for broken link building
Broken link building is an effective technique for acquiring high-quality backlinks while simultaneously helping website owners fix broken links. Ahrefs offers powerful tools to help beginners implement successful broken link building campaigns. Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for broken link building:
- Create an account: Sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their comprehensive set of SEO tools and resources.
- Find broken links: Use the Site Explorer to analyze a target website’s backlink profile and identify broken outbound links. Alternatively, you can use the Broken Link Checker tool to find broken links on any website.
- Verify broken links: Double-check the status of the identified broken links using Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool or a third-party tool like HTTP Status to ensure they are indeed broken.
- Create replacement content: Develop high-quality, relevant content that serves as a suitable replacement for the broken link. Ensure that your content provides value to the target website’s audience.
- Find contact information: Locate the website owner’s contact details using Ahrefs’ email finder feature, social media profiles, or the website’s contact page.
- Reach out: Craft a personalized email to the website owner, kindly informing them of the broken link and suggesting your content as a valuable replacement. Keep your message concise, professional, and focused on providing value.
- Follow up: If you don’t receive a response within a week or two, consider sending a polite follow-up email to remind the website owner of your previous message.
- Expand your knowledge: Learn more about broken link building strategies and best practices by exploring the educational resources available through Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog.
MOZ for broken link building
As we continue to explore Moz’s powerful SEO tools, let’s dive into how to use Moz for broken link building. Broken link building is a valuable SEO strategy that involves finding and replacing broken links on websites with your own relevant content. Here’s a step-by-step guide that even a beginner SEO can follow:
- Step 1: Log in to your Moz dashboard and navigate to the “Link Explorer” tool, which can be found under the “SEO” tab in the top menu.
- Step 2: Enter the domain of a competitor or a website within your niche in the search bar, then click “Analyze Domain.” This will provide you with valuable insights into their backlink profile.
- Step 3: Click on the “Inbound Links” tab to view a comprehensive list of all the backlinks pointing to the target website.
- Step 4: Filter the results to show only broken links by selecting “404 Not Found” from the “Status” dropdown menu.
- Step 5: Analyze the list of broken backlinks to find opportunities for your own content. Look for links related to your industry or niche that you can replace with high-quality content from your website.
- Step 6: Create a spreadsheet to manage your broken link building outreach efforts. Include columns for the website name, URL, contact information, outreach status, and any relevant notes or communications.
- Step 7: Reach out to the website owners or editors hosting the broken links. Inform them of the issue and offer your content as a suitable replacement. Make sure to keep your outreach email personalized, polite, and professional.
- Step 8: Track your progress and monitor the results of your broken link building campaign using Moz’s “Link Explorer” tool. Regularly review your backlink profile to measure success and identify new opportunities.
By following these actionable steps, you can effectively use Moz to implement a broken link building strategy and improve your website’s search engine ranking. Happy link building!
Better alternative for broken link building – BacklinkManager
BacklinkManager offers an innovative approach to managing broken link building tasks. It provides users with constant link monitoring and real-time notifications in case of lost or no-followed links, which are essential for efficient broken link building in SEO.
- Backlink Monitoring: BacklinkManager comes with a reliable link crawler that keeps track of your backlinks’ status (do-follow, no-follow, 404) round the clock.
- Link Crawler & Linkbuilding Goals Tracker: The tool offers consistent monitoring of your clients’ backlinks, promptly notifying you whenever a purchased link is removed.
- Link Status Notifications: Users are immediately informed via in-app notifications or email when a link’s status changes, helping to safeguard your link building investments.
- Linkbuilding Targets, Goals & Target Groups: BacklinkManager allows you to easily manage your link-building efforts by setting goals for target pages and grouping these pages based on projects, domains, or clients.
- Reliable link crawler: With a two-factor check system, BacklinkManager ensures accurate crawling of your links, providing trustworthy data about your link-building campaigns.
As a comprehensive solution for link-building operations, BacklinkManager provides more than just CRM functionalities. It enables users to monitor links, create insightful reports, set goals, and share interactive dashboards, contributing to more effective and streamlined link building strategies.
Conclusion – which tool is better for your SEO, Ahrefs or MOZ?
Hopefully, this post helped you decide whether MOZ or Ahrefs is more appropriate for your company. As you can see – both have many upsides and downsides.
Undeniably, BacklinkManager provides a better value for money and is a better choice for a mid-market SEO , especially when it comes to link audit and broken link building.
If you’re interested in finding more book a demo with our team here!
