uxmovement.com

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.

UX design is the end-to-end process of shaping how people experience a product—researching who they are, structuring what they need, testing whether it works, and refining it until it does. It is not the same as UI design, though the two overlap heavily in practice. If you are hiring for UX, evaluating a UX portfolio, or deciding whether your project needs a UX engagement, the sections below cover what the work actually includes, what it produces, and where it stops.

UX design is about the whole experience, not the screens

A common misconception is that UX is "how the app looks and feels." That is closer to UI. UX covers the full arc of a person's interaction with a product: how they find it, what they expect, what they do first, where they get stuck, and whether they come back.

Kevin Woo Designs frames its work as "creating impactful designs with strategic vision, delivering measurable results across every touchpoint"—the phrase every touchpoint is the tell. UX work spans onboarding emails, error states, empty screens, and support flows, not just the polished hero screen.

The core activities of a UX engagement

Most UX projects move through these stages, though the order flexes and stages repeat.

1. User research

Interviews, surveys, analytics review, and competitive audits. The output is not "insights" in the abstract—it is a set of documented user needs, pain points, and jobs-to-be-done that later decisions can be traced back to.

2. Information architecture

Deciding what content and features exist, how they are grouped, and how users navigate between them. Deliverables include sitemaps, navigation models, and content inventories.

3. Wireframes and user flows

Low-fidelity layouts and step-by-step diagrams showing how a user moves through a task. Wireframes deliberately strip out visual design so the structure can be evaluated on its own.

4. Prototypes

Clickable or coded versions of the flow that let someone actually try it. Fidelity ranges from a linked set of screens to a near-functional build.

5. Usability testing

Watching real or representative users attempt tasks, then recording where they succeed, hesitate, or fail. Findings are usually ranked by severity and tied to specific screens.

6. Iteration

Fixing what testing surfaced, then testing again. This loop is where most of the value accumulates.

UX vs. UI: where the line actually sits

In practice the roles blur. At small studios and startups, one designer often does both. Kevin Woo Designs lists "Product UI, UX Design" as a single service line alongside "Design Systems" and "Product Strategy," which reflects how most real engagements are scoped—not as two separate hires but as one continuous effort.

What a UX deliverable looks like

If you are reviewing a proposal or a portfolio, here is what to expect from genuine UX work versus a visual mockup:

UX deliverables

• A research summary with quoted user statements and source
• A user flow diagram with decision points marked
• Annotated wireframes explaining why each element is placed where it is
• A usability test report with task success rates and severity-ranked issues
• A prioritized backlog of recommended changes

Visual mockup (UI)

• High-fidelity screens showing color, type, imagery, and spacing
• Component states (hover, disabled, error)
• A style guide or design system reference

A mockup alone tells you what the product will look like. It does not tell you whether anyone can use it.

How UX connects to strategy and measurable outcomes

UX is not a downstream polish step. It feeds directly into product strategy: research determines which problems are worth solving, and testing determines whether the chosen solution actually solves them.

Kevin Woo Designs describes combining "strategic expertise with hands-on support for sustainable growth" and cites over 380 successful projects and 100+ clients, with more than 80% of work coming from referrals. Referral-heavy studios typically earn that repeat business because UX decisions are tied to outcomes clients can see—conversion, retention, task success—rather than to aesthetic preference.

The concrete link usually looks like this:

• Research identifies a drop-off point in a signup flow
• Wireframes and a prototype propose a restructured flow
• Usability testing measures whether completion improves
• Design system updates lock in the fix so it applies everywhere

That chain is what separates a UX engagement from a redesign.

When you actually need UX work

You likely need a UX engagement if:

• Users complete tasks but slowly, or abandon partway
• Support tickets repeat the same confusion
• You are adding a feature and do not know where it belongs
• You are entering a new market or audience (Kevin Woo Designs notes tailoring experiences that "honored both Eastern nuance and Western expectations" for a global audience—a case where research into user expectations is not optional)
• You have analytics showing a problem but no explanation for it

You may not need a full UX engagement if the structure is validated and you only need visual refinement, or if you are testing a concept too early to have users to research.

FAQ

Is UX design the same as product design? Largely overlapping. Product design usually implies broader ownership—strategy, roadmap input, and business outcomes—while UX is more focused on the user-facing experience. Many studios use the terms interchangeably.

How long does a UX engagement take? It depends on scope. A focused usability study can run in weeks; a full research-to-design-system effort runs in months. Ask for a phased proposal so you can stop after research if the findings change your priorities.

Can UX be done after the UI is designed? It can, but it costs more. Testing a finished visual design usually surfaces structural problems that require redoing the visual work. Testing wireframes catches the same problems earlier and cheaper.

What should I ask a UX designer in an interview? Ask them to walk through a project where testing changed their recommendation. If they cannot name a specific instance where user evidence overrode their initial instinct, you are likely talking to a UI designer with a UX title.