Ahrefs, which is one of the leading Site explorers, and SEO tools have expanded its horizon with newly added content explorer. You might have experienced content explorer before at BuzzSumo, which is one of the best in this area. Â (You can learn more about BuzzSumo on Ileane interview here).
Ahrefs Content Explorer comes with many features that a content marketer and blogger would love. The practical implementations are numerous and in this post, I will share the features of this newly launched tool.
Ahrefs Content explorer Features & Usage:
Content Explorer by Ahrefs let you find the most popular content around any topic or from any website. You can sort content based on social shares or backlinks. Unlike BuzzSumo, this s not a free tool. You need to have a paid subscription to make the most out of it and the free version let you see only a limited amount of data. If you are an existing paid user of Ahrefs, you would love this newly added feature.
You can start exploring their content explorer feature by going to this link.
The homepage will display the top 10 shared content in the last 24 hours. Surprisingly there are no filters here, and you can’t sort the results based on language (Which should be there) or any other parameter.
In the search box, you can type any topic, and it will show you the most shared content. You can filter the results by date and language. You can also include or exclude certain domains from the results.
Search operators for extensive research:
You can also use search operators to refine your search. For example, you can use the site search operator (Site:domain.com) to see results from a specific site. You can also search like
WordPress SEO site:shoutmeloud.com
To see all trending results from a particular keyword from ShoutMeLoud. Beneath search, you can click on Advanced search to use the advanced search operator. You also have the option to export the data. Since I’m on a  free plan of Ahrefs, these are the features that I could explore.
How to use Content Explorer for your benefit:
You can use this content Explorer feature in various ways. Here are some of the practical usage:
- Find the most shared content related to any topic or in your niche. Share it on your social media profile to get more CTR & engagement.
- Find popular posts from any blog (your competitor blog) and craft content around that topic.
- Use content explorer for your content planning. (Same as above)
You also have the option to see referring domains, which will give you an idea about what content can get more links to your website. If you are an existing Buzzsumo user, you will have no problem understanding how Ahrefs content explorer works. Though right now this tool doesn’t show top influencers that is a big difference between Ahrefs & BuzzSumo.
I won’t say it’s a perfect BuzzSumo alternative, but it offers the feature that you would need in a content explorer tool. Moreover, having more such tools in the market will increase competition and as a content marketer, it would be beneficial for us.
Do give this tool a shot and let me know your opinion about it.
Fantastic article, Harsh!
AHREF’s content explorer is a marvellous tool but I think it’s a tad overpriced. You can try Social Animal which has most of the features of Content Explorer. The tool is relatively cheaper and quite affordable. Let me know what you think.
And thanks again for sharing a great article.
Very well told harsh. I was so far using buzzsumo. I have heard a lot about ahefts tool but also it is a completely paid tool. Will give it a try as my subscription of buzzsumo is still ramaining…. thanks for informative post as always harsh.
thanks.
Very helpful Article. I am trying to compare Ahref with Moz. Both are Good.
Hello Harsh,
Your article helped me clarify my understanding of these tools, thank you.
I have signed up for free trials of buzzsumo, ahrefs, and moz. I need both a site explorer and content explorer, and I’d like to find them both in one tool.
It’s possible I am doing something wrong (I am still figuring these tools out), but so far buzzsumo has repeatedly told me that it could not find backlinks that ahrefs has been able to find. For this reason, I will almost certainly not be going with buzzsumo at the end of my exploration.
I really like ahrefs, but it is on the pricey side. Might be worth it. We shall see.
In any case, thanks again!
~Katharine
Hello Harsh,
I using this tool and no doubt at all that it is best tool in this industry for content explorer and keyword ranking checking. After using this tool i am getting information about the nofollow and dofollow link
Awesome, Harsh. A great alternative to Buzzsumo indeed.I use this tool to spot the characteristics of highly shared contents. It helps a lot in the learning process.
But they could have provided with the top influencers who shared a particular content.I could not find any feature like that. That would have been most useful IMO.
Neil
Hi Harsh,
No doubt that Ahrefs is great SEO tool and site explorer. I oftenly use this tool for both purposes. And happy that Ahrefs also launch his content explorer. Ahrefs is also shows a trend graph of that keyword, which is helpful to know abut that keyword.
Harsh@ I have used BuzzSumo and It is really a Great tool and worth the money but as you specified Ahrefs content Explorer, Am definitely going to check it now. They help us to figure out what type of content is playing well in our niche so we can plan our Content Strategy in better and fool proof way. Thanks sir.
AHREFS is best in it’s Industry. I’m using this tool (Site Explorer) from a long time and it’s results are awesome. I hope the new tool by this company will also works great. Well, I don’t have any experience with this new Content Explorer but will share my thoughts on my blog after using it.
Thanks for sharing Harsh
Gaurav