This is a follow-up to our previous evaluation of Ahrefs VS Moz. After thoroughly reviewing the main features of both the big SEO tools, decided to test them on their own in parallel. Testing both against one another proved to be a very insightful exercise. What we found surprised us.
We have seen in previous Moz posts how Ahrefs performs well when ranking for long tail keywords and its inability to gain any traction with the more targeted longer tail keywords. In fact, for the most part, Ahrefs still has some catching up to do. The main reason for this is its poor ability to create meaningful keyword relationships and its poor text-competition score with its nearest competitors. However, what we found from testing Moz and Ahrefs was that Moz actually had better results when using the keywords tool and had better overall keyword difficulty (also called PR).
There are two ways to use Moz and Ahrefs. The core difference is in the way you access each tool. When you use Moz for the full URL, it takes you directly to a comprehensive list of keywords with associated summaries and synonyms. This is ideal for someone just starting out who might be uncertain of the exact keywords they want to target. On the other hand, when you use the handy “extractor” tool within Moz, you can quickly pull all the relevant information from the source pages for each of the 500 most popular keywords in Google.
Now let’s look at the second aspect: domain authority. Domain authority is closely related to search engine ranking. Moz’s text ranking is largely based on a combination of factors including domain name popularity and the presence of internal links. Ahrefs also has some importance here but its impact is somewhat limited since Ahrefs focuses more on relevance than keyword difficulty. This means that a domain name with low competition and low volume may have the same or better effect on your rankings than a high competition and high volume domain name.
In addition to keyword difficulty and competition, we also look at how difficult it is to obtain a high clickthrough rate (CTR). One of the things that Ahrefs looks at is your return rate. Moz offers a metric that measures the percentage of unique visitors vs. unique clicks (the ratio of unique to unique visitors and clicks). A higher CTR means better monetization opportunities for SEO and PPC.
So what does this all-in-one SEO package do? It seems like the Moz package is built to perform all aspects of SEO for webmasters. Ahrefs doesn’t offer quite the comprehensive toolset that Moz offers. However, their basic SEO and link building components are excellent and are definitely worth the price difference.
On the topic of link building, I believe that Moz has the better tool, but both are equally effective. For me, the feature set is a bit overlapping and somewhat redundant within Ahrefs Explorer. However, if you’re just starting out, and you don’t have a lot of money to spend on PPC campaigns, Moz’s solid link builder tools are ideal. For those who have a bit more to spend, the Moz keyword planner can be very powerful, and Ahrefs Explorer lacks in many areas. You get significantly less flexibility within Ahrefs, and the explorer concept seems a bit convoluted.
So in conclusion, while both have strong all-in-one SEO tools, each has advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your budget, and personal needs, the choice between Moz or Ahrefs might be a tough one to make. The key to success online is getting as much valuable link juice as possible, and this is possible with both tools. For those looking to optimize their websites for the PPC world, they can certainly benefit from either tool, but for those looking to capitalize on backlinks, it might be Ahrefs that you should choose.
