Ahrefs

Connecting Ahrefs

1. Open Connections from the account menu.
2. Click Connect next to Ahrefs.
3. Paste your Ahrefs API key (generate one at app.ahrefs.com/user/api).
4. Select your project from the list, or enter a domain manually.
5. Click Enable — data syncs immediately.

Getting Your API Key

1. Go to app.ahrefs.com/user/api.
2. Click Generate API Key (requires an Ahrefs subscription with API access).
3. Copy the key and paste it into the Ahrefs connection form in Meaning.

Your API key is stored securely and only used to fetch your SEO data.

Available Data

Table	Key Columns
Site Metrics	Organic keywords, top-3 keywords, organic traffic, organic cost, paid keywords, paid traffic
Domain Rating	Domain Rating (0-100), Ahrefs Rank
Backlinks Stats	Live backlinks, all-time backlinks, live referring domains, all-time referring domains
Organic Keywords	Keyword, position, search volume, traffic, CPC, keyword difficulty, URL, intent flags
Top Pages	URL, keyword count, traffic, traffic value, top keyword, URL Rating
Referring Domains	Domain, DR, dofollow links, links to target, traffic, first/last seen, spam flag
Site Audit Health	Health score (0-100), total URLs, URLs with errors, warnings, notices
Site Audit Issues	Issue name, severity (Error/Warning/Notice), category, affected URLs, change vs previous crawl

Key Metrics

• Domain Rating (DR) — 0-100 score measuring the strength of a domain's backlink profile.
• Keyword Difficulty (KD) — 0-100 score estimating how hard it is to rank in the top 10.
• CPC — Stored in USD cents (divide by 100 for dollars).
• Health Score — Percentage of internal URLs without errors.
• Traffic — Estimated monthly organic visits.

Example Questions

• "What's our domain rating?"
• "Top 10 organic keywords by traffic"
• "Show me our backlink growth over time"
• "What SEO errors does our site have?"
• "Which referring domains have the highest DR?"
• "What's our site audit health score?"
• "Show me keyword difficulty distribution"

Ahrefs vs Search Console

• Ahrefs provides estimated metrics from its own crawler and index — useful for competitor analysis, keyword research, and backlink monitoring.
• Search Console provides actual click and impression data from Google Search — the ground truth for your own site's search performance.
• Use both together: Search Console for real performance, Ahrefs for competitive intelligence and site health.

Notes

• API keys don't expire — no need to reconnect.
• Data syncs daily at 06:00 UTC with a retry at 12:00 UTC.
• Organic keywords are limited to the top 500 by traffic per sync.
• Top pages limited to top 100 by traffic.
• Referring domains limited to top 200 by traffic.
• Site Audit data requires an active Site Audit project in Ahrefs for the connected domain.