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If you're new to Ahrefs and want to run your first SEO audit, the fastest path is: open Site Explorer, enter your target URL, review the Overview for a health snapshot, then dig into Organic Keywords, Top Pages, and Site Audit to find specific problems. From there, build a short prioritized to-do list instead of trying to fix everything at once.

This tutorial walks through that workflow using a realistic starting scenario, explains what the numbers mean, and shows how to turn findings into actions.

Before You Start: Pick a Narrow Scope

A common beginner mistake is auditing an entire large website on day one. The reports become overwhelming, and you can't tell which issues matter.

Instead, choose one of these starting points:

• A single important page (your homepage or a key product/service page)
• A small site (under ~50 pages, e.g., a personal blog or small business site)
• One section of a bigger site (e.g., /blog/)

For this tutorial, assume you're auditing a small business site with about 30 pages. The same steps scale up later.

You'll need an Ahrefs account to follow along. Ahrefs offers paid plans, and pricing and feature limits change over time, so check the current Pricing page for what's included in each tier before committing.

Step 1: Enter Your Target in Site Explorer

Site Explorer is Ahrefs' core tool for analyzing any website or URL.

1. Open Site Explorer from the top navigation.
2. In the search box, paste your domain (e.g., example.com).
3. Choose the Exact URL or Domain mode depending on scope. For a full-site view, use Domain or Prefix; for a single page, use Exact URL.
4. Press Enter.

You'll land on the Overview report. Don't try to absorb everything — focus on four numbers first.

Reading the Overview Snapshot

Important caveat: Ahrefs' traffic and keyword numbers are estimates based on its own data. They won't match Google Search Console or your analytics exactly. Treat them as directional, not absolute.

Step 2: See What You Already Rank For

Go to Organic Keywords in the left sidebar. This shows queries where your site appears in search results.

Sort by Traffic (descending) to see which pages bring the most estimated visitors. Then look for:

• Keywords ranking in positions 4–15 — these are often the easiest wins. A small content or on-page improvement can push them onto page one.
• Keywords with high volume but low position — potential opportunities if the topic is relevant.
• Irrelevant keywords — if you rank for something off-topic, it may signal thin or mismatched content.

Write down 5–10 of the position 4–15 keywords. These become your first optimization targets.

Step 3: Find Your Best and Weakest Pages

Open Top Pages. This ranks your URLs by estimated organic traffic.

Look for two things:

1. Your top performers — understand what topics and formats work. Can you create more content like this?
2. Pages with traffic but poor rankings — these may need on-page fixes (title, headings, internal links).

If a page gets zero traffic and targets a topic you care about, it's a candidate for a rewrite or consolidation.

Step 4: Run a Technical Site Audit

Now move to Site Audit. This crawls your site and flags technical and on-page issues.

1. Click Site Audit → New project.
2. Enter your domain and set crawl settings (default is usually fine for a small site).
3. Start the crawl and wait for it to finish.

Once complete, you'll see a Health Score and a list of issues grouped by category.

Which Issues to Fix First

Not all issues are equal. Prioritize in this order:

Ignore low-impact warnings (like minor meta description length) until the big items are handled.

Step 5: Turn Findings Into a To-Do List

You now have raw data. Convert it into a short, actionable list. Example:

1. Fix 3 broken links found in Site Audit.
2. Rewrite title tags on 5 pages with duplicate titles.
3. Improve 4 pages ranking in positions 6–12 by adding missing subtopics and internal links.
4. Remove or update 2 thin pages with no traffic.

Keep the list to 5–10 items max for your first audit. Finishing a short list beats starting a long one.

Common Beginner Mistakes

• Chasing every red flag. Site Audit flags many minor issues. Fix what affects rankings and users first.
• Trusting estimates as exact numbers. Ahrefs data is modeled, not measured from your analytics.
• Auditing a huge site too early. Start small to learn the interface.
• Ignoring search intent. A page can be technically perfect but still fail if it doesn't match what searchers want.
• Forgetting to re-crawl. After fixes, run Site Audit again to confirm improvements.

Where to Go Next

Once your first audit is done:

• Compare with competitors using Site Explorer's Competing Domains and Content Gap reports.
• Track keyword rankings over time with Rank Tracker.
• Explore backlink opportunities in the Backlinks and Link Intersect reports.
• Set up recurring Site Audit crawls so new issues surface automatically.

Your first audit isn't about perfection — it's about building a repeatable habit: enter a target, read the key reports, pick the highest-impact fixes, and act. Do that once a month and your site's health compounds.

A holiday file in MyPhoneExplorer is a plain-text file with the .dat extension that lists holidays so the program can recognize them. Each line defines one holiday, and a flag marks whether it is an official holiday (markets closed) or just another observance. You create the file in a text editor, save it in the program's holiday folder, and then select it in MyPhoneExplorer's options dialog.

What the file contains

Every line in the file represents one holiday and has three values separated by a | character:

For example, the site's own sample line for New Year's Day is:

New Years Day|1|0101

How date values work

The date value is made of up to three parts separated by spaces.

• Base date (required). This can be a fixed day and month (0101 for 1 January, 0507 for 5 July), a movable date such as ES for Easter Sunday or EES for Orthodox Easter Sunday, or a full date with a year (03052006 for 3 May 2006). A full date is only parsed for that one year, so use it only for holidays that can't be calculated any other way.
• Day counter (optional). Shifts the date by a number of days. For example, Easter Monday is ES +1.
• Weekday (optional). Pins the holiday to a weekday using MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, or SU.

The site gives these examples:

Ash Wednesday|0|ES -46
Martin Luther King Day|1|0101 +3 MO

The first is 46 days before Easter Sunday. The second is the third Monday in January. The same rules produce the second Sunday in May (0105 +2 SU) or the last Monday in November (3011 -1 MO).

Step by step

1. Open an existing holiday file in Notepad to see the file structure, as the site suggests.
2. Add one line per holiday using the Name|1 or 0|datevalue format.
3. Save the file with the .dat extension, named after your country.
4. Place it in the holiday folder, which the site says is usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays.
5. Open the options dialog in MyPhoneExplorer and select your holiday file.

Things to watch for

• Test across several years. The author asks contributors to check that a calendar file works correctly for a few years before sending it in.
• Unsupported holidays. If a holiday in your country can't be expressed with these date values, the site invites you to contact the author so a calculation method can be found.
• Sharing files. The author welcomes finished holiday files for inclusion in future versions of MyPhoneExplorer.

The same page also covers language files: these are .ini-style files with the .lng extension, and the author recommends editing them with IniTranslator rather than Notepad. Before starting a translation, send a short email so the author can check whether someone else is already working on that language.

To create a language file for MyPhoneExplorer, email the author ([email protected]) before you start translating, then edit or build an INI-style file with the .lng extension — the author recommends the free tool Initranslator over Notepad. The email step exists so the author can check whether someone else is already working on your language, which prevents two people from producing competing translations of the same file.

Before you start

• Contact the author first. Send a short mail stating which language you intend to translate. The author checks for an existing translation in progress and replies before you invest time.
• Know the file type. A language file is an INI file whose extension is .lng.
• Choose your editor. Notepad can technically open and edit .lng files, but the author explicitly recommends Initranslator for the job.

Step-by-step

1. Send the coordination email. Write briefly to [email protected] with the language name. Wait for confirmation that no one else is assigned to it.
2. Obtain a base file. Start from an existing language file so the key structure is already in place; you translate the values rather than inventing keys.
3. Open the file in Initranslator. Load the .lng file into the tool. Its interface is built for editing translation strings, which is why it is preferred over a plain text editor.
4. Translate the values. Work through the entries, keeping the INI structure intact — section headers and keys stay as they are; only the displayed text changes.
5. Save with the .lng extension. Preserve the INI format exactly; a renamed or reformatted file will not be read as a language file.
6. Test in MyPhoneExplorer. Select your language file in the program's options and check that the interface displays your translations correctly.

What to watch for

• Do not skip the email. Starting without it risks duplicating work that the author already knows about.
• Keep the INI structure. Editing with Notepad makes it easy to break a section header or key by accident; Initranslator reduces that risk.
• Verify before submitting. Load the file in the application and scan the interface for untranslated or truncated strings before sending it back.

Related file: holiday files

The same page documents holiday files, which follow a different format and are worth knowing if you are also localizing calendar behavior:

• Holiday files use the extension .dat and are stored in the holidays folder (typically C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays).
• Each line is one holiday with three |-separated values: name, 1 for an official holiday (markets closed) or 0 otherwise, and a date value.
• Date values support fixed dates (0101), Easter-relative dates (ES, EES), year-specific dates (03052006), day offsets (ES -46 for Ash Wednesday), and weekday rules (0101 +3 MO for the third Monday in January).
• The author asks that completed holiday files be sent in so they can be included in future versions, after checking they work across several years.

Both file types are community contributions coordinated by the author, so the same courtesy applies: check in first, test your work, and share the result.

MyPhoneExplorer holiday files use one line per holiday, with three pipe-separated fields: Name|OfficialFlag|DateValue. The date value combines a required base date (fixed day/month, Easter-based codes, or a full date) with two optional space-separated modifiers: a day offset and a weekday constraint. For example, New Years Day|1|0101 is a fixed date, while Martin Luther King Day|1|0101 +3 MO means the third Monday in January.

The Line Structure

Each line in a *.dat holiday file represents one holiday and has three values separated by the | character:

Base Date Formats

The first part of the date value is required and can take several forms:

• 0101 — a fixed day and month (1st January), valid every year
• 0507 — 5th July
• ES — Easter Sunday
• EES — Easter Sunday in the Orthodox (eastern) church
• 03052006 — a full date (3rd May 2006). Note that in this format the holiday is only parsed for the given year; it is intended only for special holidays that cannot be calculated any other way.

Optional Modifiers

After the base date, up to two optional values can follow, separated by spaces.

Day counter offset

The second value shifts the date by a number of days relative to the base date. For example, Easter Monday is ES +1 (one day after Easter Sunday), and Ash Wednesday is ES -46 (46 days before Easter Sunday).

Weekday constraint

The third value pins the holiday to a specific weekday using these strings: MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU. Combined with the offset, this expresses rules like "the second Sunday in May" (0105 +2 SU) or "the last Monday in November" (3011 -1 MO).

Worked Examples

Creating and Using the File

1. Open an existing holiday file with Notepad to see the structure, or create a new text file.
2. Add one line per holiday using the format above.
3. Save the file with the *.dat extension, named after your country, in the holiday folder (usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays).
4. Select your holiday file in the options dialog of MyPhoneExplorer.

The page author asks that contributed files be checked against a few years of calendars before being sent in for inclusion in future versions. If a holiday in your country cannot be expressed with these date values, the author invites you to contact him so a calculation method can be found.

Create a plain-text file with the extension *.dat, write one holiday per line in the form Name|Official|DateValue, save it in MyPhoneExplorer's holidays folder (usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays), then select it in the program's options dialog. This works for fixed dates, Easter-relative holidays, and rules like "the third Monday in January." You need a text editor such as Notepad and access to the MyPhoneExplorer installation folder.

The line format

Each line is one holiday, made of three values separated by the | character:

Example from the official documentation:

New Years Day|1|0101

Date value rules

The date value has up to three parts separated by spaces. Only the first is required.

1. Base date (required)

Use the full DDMMYYYY form only for one-off holidays that can't be calculated any other way.

2. Day counter (optional)

Add or subtract days from the base date. For example, Easter Monday is Easter Sunday plus one day:

Easter Monday|1|ES +1

3. Weekday (optional)

Constrain the date to a specific weekday using MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU. Combined with the counter, this expresses rules like "the second Sunday in May" (0105 +2 SU) or "the last Monday in November" (3011 -1 MO).

Worked examples from the documentation

New Years Day|1|0101
Ash Wednesday|0|ES -46
Martin Luther King Day|1|0101 +3 MO

• Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter Sunday.
• Martin Luther King Day is the third Monday in January: start at 1 January, add 3 days to reach the first Monday, then the weekday rule picks the matching Monday.

Step by step

1. Open an existing holiday file in Notepad to see the structure in practice — the documentation recommends this as the starting point.
2. Write your holidays, one per line, following the format above.
3. Save the file in the holidays folder, usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays, naming it after your country with the .dat extension (e.g. Austria.dat).
4. Select the file in MyPhoneExplorer's options dialog.
5. Verify it — the author explicitly asks contributors to check that a calendar file works correctly across a few years before sharing it.

Common pitfalls

• Wrong extension. The file must end in .dat; a .txt file won't be picked up.
• Wrong folder. If MyPhoneExplorer is installed elsewhere, the holidays folder sits under that installation path, not necessarily C:\Programs\....
• Full dates used for recurring holidays. A value like 03052006 only applies to 2006. Use DDMM plus counter and weekday rules for anything that repeats.
• Unsupported holidays. Some holidays can't be expressed with these date values. The documentation invites users to contact the author in that case rather than guessing at a format.

When the format isn't enough

If your country has a holiday the date values can't represent, the documented route is to contact the author, Franz Josef Wechselberger ([email protected]), who will try to find a way to calculate it. The same page notes that contributed holiday files are welcome for inclusion in future versions — after you've confirmed they work over several years.