BrightEdge vs Ahrefs: Everything You Need to Know

Most businesses know the value of SEO tools.

According to the State of Content Marketing and SEO 2022 report from GrowthBar, 84 percent of respondents report using an SEO tool during their content and SEO processes.

Further, 91 percent say SEO is a top three marketing channel.

What does this tell us? Well, it proves SEO is imperative to online success. It also shows us that using an SEO tool makes the process easier.

Now, instead of discussing every SEO software out there, I’m using this post to focus on BrightEdge vs Ahrefs.

I’ll talk you through a detailed comparison so you can decide which one is right for you.

Ready to join me? Let’s dive in.

At a Glance: BrightEdge vs Ahrefs

Both the BrightEdge SEO tool and Ahrefs are popular solutions providing an extensive range of features to improve your organic search rankings.

Which is the better tool for you? Let’s review some of the key elements of BrightEdge vs. Ahrefs:

Features and Functionality

Both Brightedge and Ahrefs provide an excellent array of SEO tools, but the choice between them ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences.

Brightedge: Notable features include keyword research, backlink analysis, content optimization, schema tagging, vocabulary creator, and more.

Ahrefs: Notable features include keyword research, backlink analysis, site auditing, competitor keyword analysis, rank tracking, and more.

Backlink Analysis

Both platforms offer robust banklink analysis features providing valuable insights into your backlink profile and those of your competitors.

Brightedge: BrightEdge backlink capabilities include analysis, the ability to view full backlink profiles, and backlink management. Its customizable dashboards let you view or track backlink trends over time, tracking, and analysis (available data includes anchor text, category, page score, etc.). You can also track domains and get a notification when backlinks are active.

It also gives you integration with the backlink databases from Majestic and Moz.

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is well known for its extensive backlink capabilities and has an index of 14 trillion websites. This makes it the largest index of live backlinks available, and you have access to seven-plus years of data.

Use the backlink profile to see which sites link to competitors and measure the quality of the links.

Keyword Research

If it’s keywords you’re after, again, both tools perform well.

Brightedge: The BrightEdge software gives you relevant keywords, keyword suggestions, search volume data, and keyword difficulty analysis.

Its keyword report measures changes to the SERPs layout, tracks competitors’ keyword rankings, and provides keyword tracking and performance monitoring.

Ahrefs: Ahrefs is pretty robust, providing keyword suggestions, search volume data, keyword difficulty analysis, and SERP analysis.

It has an extensive keyword database and helps you identify valuable keywords for your SEO campaigns.

In addition, you can use filters to find and prioritize the best keywords.

Cost

Pricing structures differ, and there are no free trials for either platform.

BrightEdge: Pricing for Brightedge is available by custom quote only, as their solutions are tailored to your specific needs and requirements.

Ahrefs: Ahrefs offers more transparency with pricing plans starting at $99 per month for their Lite package ideally suited to small businesses, scaling up in cost through Standard ($199), Advanced ($399), and Enterprise ($999) packages.

Using the BrightEdge SEO Tool

SEO can seem complicated, but you can make your job much easier with the right tools. If you’re looking for features and functionalities that make optimizing your website efficient and effective, BrightEdge for SEO can get you on the right track.

Features

You’ve already got a brief look at BrightEdge vs. Ahrefs. Now, here is a more in-depth look at the key products and features available with BrightEdge:

Keyword Research: BrightEdge helps you find relevant keywords with high search volumes and low competition.

It also gives insights into keyword trends, search volume data, and competitive analysis. In addition, you can search by geographical location by accessing over 70,000 local and global locations with its HyperLocal feature.

Use Keyword Reporting for full analysis and recommendations and StoryBuilder to interpret topic demand and content performance.

You can also look for impressions, clicks, estimated visits, and revenue.

Content Optimization: Use the BrightEdge SEO tool to get recommendations for optimizing your content, such as meta tags, heading tags, and content structure. Reports give you prescriptive optimization instructions and on-page and off-page optimization recommendations.

Additionally, its AI-powered insights can suggest new suggestions when you add fresh target keywords or new, customized SEO rules.

Competitor Analysis: The “Share of Voice” feature helps uncover competitors’ SEO strategies and performance.

You can gain data on competitor rankings, keywords, backlinks, and find content gaps where you can outperform your competition.

Additionally, you can uncover competitor URLs that outperform yours and analyze their content to improve your visibility.

Rank Tracking: Use BrightEdge to get real-time data on keyword performance, track progress, and identify trends.

Reporting and Analytics: Access customizable dashboards and reports to consolidate data from various sources.

Mobile SEO Optimization: Use Content IQ to assess speed, uncover errors, and understand your Share of Voice for mobile.

Other features include optimizing for mobile keywords and a mobile-first dashboard template to monitor your website performance on mobile vs. desktop.

BrightEdge Cost

BrightEdge customizes features individually for each business, and pricing depends on various factors, including business size and required features.

You can discuss pricing info over the phone or online.

BrightEdge Reviews

BrightEdge gets positive reviews for its user support, responsiveness, and software data visualization.

The keyword research feature, trending tool, and tracking and analysis earn points with users, too.

However, some feel the software has a bit of a learning curve, and other Brightedge SEO reviews say it’s a bit pricey.

Using Ahrefs for SEO

Looking for BrightEdge alternatives? Ahrefs could be just what you’re searching for!

Using Ahrefs simplifies the process of optimizing websites, uncovering keyword opportunities, analyzing backlinks, auditing sites, creating engaging content, and tracking performance.

Below is a detailed overview of the main features:

Features

Keyword Research: Use Ahrefs to explore keyword ideas, search volume, and keyword difficulty, allowing you to identify high-potential keywords to target.

The keyword explorer has a massive database of 7 billion keywords that it updates monthly, and you can save and segment keyword lists. Ahrefs uses nine different sources to gain data, like Google, Amazon, and YouTube.

Additionally, you can find keyword difficulty scores, estimated number of clicks on keywords, and accurate search volume.

In-depth Backlink Analysis: With Ahrefs’ backlink tool, you can explore your website’s backlink profile, analyze competitors’ backlinks, and identify valuable link-building opportunities.

The “Site Explorer” tool lets you see any URL’s organic traffic and backlink profiles. In addition, you can analyze paid traffic performance and website structure.

Site Audit and Technical SEO: Discover common technical and on-page SEO errors, such as broken links, duplicate content, or slow page speed. Enter your domain and click “start audit” to find potential ranking issues and suggestions to fix them.

Content Explorer and Topic Research:. Ahrefs’ Content Explorer tool lets you discover popular and trending topics and identify linking opportunities from a mega database of 14.1 billion web pages. You can analyze content performance metrics such as social shares and backlinks and filter by SEO or social metrics.

Rank Tracking and Competitor Analysis: Track keyword rankings over time with the rank tracking feature to monitor your desktop and mobile rankings for 190 countries. Just add the keywords you want to track. Use Ahrefs to analyze your competitors’ strategies, keywords, and backlink profiles.

Ahrefs Cost

Ahrefs has plans ranging from Lite to Enterprise with varying limits on features such as the number of projects, keywords, and backlink analysis. Pricing plans start at $99.

Ahrefs Reviews

As you can see from the reviews, many Ahrefs customers are impressed with its results. Ahrefs gets positive reviews for features like backlinks, keyword research, and insightful data.

Negative reviews are mainly around pricing, but you can use Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which is a free plan.

Choosing the Right SEO Tool for Your Needs

For SEO, BrightEdge and Ahrefs are well-known platforms, but to get the best software for you, it’s worthwhile considering Brightedge competitors and Ahref alternatives.

In this post, I’ve covered Ahrefs as a notable alternative to Brightedge’s software, but there are options, including Ubersuggest, Moz, and Semrush.

Ubersuggest

I know, but I can’t not mention it.

My tool, Ubersuggest, has a user-friendly interface and provides comprehensive keyword research, competitive analysis, site audits, and content ideas.

You can also track ranking, find keyword difficult scores, and view the similar website finder, making it a worthy alternative to Brightedge and Ahrefs.

Best for: Keyword research, competitor analysis, and insights for SEO optimization.

Pricing: Ubersuggest offers a free version with limited features if you don’t have the budget for paid SEO software. Otherwise, paid subscriptions for additional tools start at $29 per month.

Moz

Moz provides all the basics you’d expect, like keyword research, on-page optimization suggestions, and backlink analysis. Its free features include keyword and link explorers, competitive research, and domain analysis.

Other free tools are the Moz Bar Chrome extension for social, search, and page metrics.

Moz Pro has additional tools like crawling and auditing sites, page optimization, and link-finding opportunities.

Best for: Rank tracking, the organic visibility boost, and technical SEO analysis.

Pricing: You can start with a 30-day free trial; paid subscriptions start at $79 monthly when you pay yearly.

Semrush

Its site auditing, competitor analysis, and keyword research features make Semrush a strong competitor to other SEO tools, and you might want to consider it as a BridgeEdge alternative.

Semrush has over 20 tools covering SEO, advertising, content, social media, and market research.

You can pick from competitor SEO, marketing, competitor analysis, content marketing and creation, and PPC keyword research, among others.

Best for: Competitor research, site audits, and content optimization.

Pricing: Semrush offers a free trial. After that, prices start at $129.95 monthly.

Conclusion

It would be difficult to argue that an SEO tool isn’t essential for your strategy.

Whether you’re an online marketer or a business owner, you need help measuring your SEO metrics. Keeping tabs on performance with the right tools helps you see if you’re working toward your goals or if it’s time to reset and try another track.

Hopefully, this BridgEdge vs Ahrefs post has helped you narrow your search for an SEO tool.

However, you shouldn’t feel that you must make a choice immediately. If you find that BrightEdge does the job, that’s fantastic! But you can always take advantage of free trials to analyze the SEO basics, learn your way around, and find out which tool works for you.

Which is your favorite SEO tool? Tell us below!