vidpackit.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.

VidPackit compresses MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V, and MPEG files entirely inside your browser — your video is never uploaded to a server. To use it, drop in a file, pick a compression level (original, high, medium, or low), optionally change the format or resolution, then encode and download the smaller result. It runs on desktop Chrome and Edge; other browsers may fail or run much slower because their WebCodecs support is incomplete.

Before you start

• Browser: Use the desktop version of Chrome or Edge. VidPackit itself warns that incomplete WebCodecs support elsewhere can cause conversion to fail or drag.
• File types accepted: Video in MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V, or MPEG. Audio-only output is also available in MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, or OGG.
• Privacy: Decoding and encoding happen on your own device. No part of the file goes to a server, so there is no upload queue.
• No account needed: There is no sign-up and no watermark on the output.

Step-by-step: compress a video

1. Load your video

Drag a video onto the drop box, or click to select a file from your disk. VidPackit reads the file's size, duration, resolution, codec, and audio track, then displays what it found so you can confirm it picked up the right clip.

2. Choose a compression level

Pick one of four levels: original, high, medium, or low. Each level shows the video and audio bitrate it will target before you start, so you can see the trade-off rather than guessing. Each level aims at a fixed share of the source bitrate, which means the output is never larger than the file you dropped in.

3. Optionally change format or resolution

• Container/format: Switch the output to MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V, or MPEG. Audio-only output covers MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and OGG.
• Resolution: Keep the original, or drop to 720p (1280×720), 480p (854×480), or 360p (640×360). Lowering resolution is the most direct way to cut file size further when a level alone isn't enough.

4. Encode and monitor progress

Press the convert button. Your browser encodes the file locally, and a progress bar with a remaining-time estimate shows how far along it is. You can cancel mid-conversion if needed. Nothing is uploaded at any point.

5. Download the result

When encoding finishes, download the converted file. The page then offers to convert another video if you want to repeat the process.

Verifying that nothing was uploaded

If privacy is your reason for choosing a browser-based compressor, you can check the claim yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and start a conversion. You should see no video data leaving your device. This is a concrete way to confirm the "files never leave your device" behavior rather than taking it on faith.

Common snags

Quick reference

• What it does: Re-encodes a video at a lower bitrate so the same clip takes less storage and uploads faster.
• Where it runs: Entirely in your browser, on your own device.
• Levels: Original, high, medium, low — each targeting a fixed share of the source bitrate.
• Best browser: Desktop Chrome or Edge.

VidPackit is a free browser-based video compressor that shrinks MP4, WebM, MOV, and MKV files by re-encoding them locally on your own device. Nothing gets uploaded to a server, no watermark is added, and no sign-up is required. It works on desktop Chrome and Edge, where the browser's WebCodecs support is complete enough to handle the encoding.

How it works

A video compressor makes a file smaller by re-encoding it at a lower bitrate, so the same clip takes up less storage and uploads faster. VidPackit does this entirely inside your browser: your file is decoded, re-encoded, and written back on your machine. No part of the video is sent anywhere.

You pick one of four levels — original, high, medium, or low — and each targets a fixed share of the source bitrate. That means the output is never larger than the file you dropped in.

What you can control

Each level shows the video and audio bitrate it will aim for before you start, so you can see the trade-off before committing to a conversion.

Step-by-step: compressing a video

1. Drop in your file. Drag a video onto the box or click to select one from your disk. VidPackit reads its size, duration, resolution, codec, and audio track, then shows you what it found.
2. Choose a level and format. Pick one of the four compression levels and, if you want, drop the resolution or switch the container format.
3. Encode on your device. Press the button and your browser encodes the file locally, with a progress bar and a remaining-time estimate.
4. Download the result. When it finishes, download the smaller file. Nothing was uploaded at any point.

Why the local approach matters

Because decoding and encoding happen in the page itself, your files stay on your machine. If you open the Network tab in your browser's developer tools before you start, you'll see no video data leaving your device. For anyone working with private or sensitive footage, that's the main reason to use a tool like this instead of a cloud converter that requires an upload.

Supported formats and requirements

• Input: MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV (per the site's supported formats)
• Video output: MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V, MPEG
• Audio-only output: MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, OGG
• Browser: desktop Chrome or Edge

Common snags to expect

The site itself warns that if your browser's WebCodecs support is incomplete, conversion may fail or run much slower. If you hit that, switch to the desktop version of Chrome or Edge. Encoding also happens on your own hardware, so a long or high-resolution clip will take longer than a cloud service would — the progress bar and time estimate are there to set expectations.

When to use it

VidPackit fits well when you want a quick size reduction without handing your file to a third party, when you need a specific output format or a lower resolution, or when you just want to see the target bitrate before you commit. It's less suited to very large projects where you'd rather offload the processing to a server, or to browsers without full WebCodecs support.

VidPackit converts video locally in your browser using the WebCodecs API, so failures and slowness almost always trace back to browser support or your own device's processing power — not the site. The page itself warns that "your browser's WebCodecs support is incomplete, so conversion may fail or be much slower," and recommends the desktop version of Chrome or Edge for the best experience. If a conversion stalls, errors out, or crawls, switch to desktop Chrome or Edge first, then check the factors below.

Why the browser is the first thing to check

VidPackit does not upload your file. It decodes, re-encodes, and writes the result back on your own device, which means the browser has to expose the right encoding APIs for the job to work at all.

• WebCodecs support varies by browser. Some browsers implement only part of the API, or none of it. When support is incomplete, the page states conversion "may fail or be much slower."
• Desktop vs. mobile matters. The recommended environment is the desktop version of Chrome or Edge. Mobile browsers and less common desktop browsers are more likely to hit missing or partial support.
• No server fallback exists. Because nothing is uploaded, there is no remote machine to pick up the slack if your browser can't handle the encode.

If you see a failure, treat it as a browser-compatibility signal before assuming the file is broken.

Why conversion can be slow even when it works

Since the entire encode runs on your machine, speed depends on your hardware and the job you asked for.

• Your CPU/GPU does all the work. A local encode competes with every other tab and app you have open.
• Higher resolution and quality settings take longer. Dropping to 720p, 480p, or 360p reduces the pixels that must be processed; the lower quality levels target a smaller share of the source bitrate.
• Longer or higher-bitrate source files take more time. A large 4K clip re-encoded at "original" quality is a much heavier task than a short 1080p clip at "low."
• The progress bar and remaining-time estimate are your signal. If the estimate keeps climbing, the bottleneck is device performance, not a hang.

What to try, in order

1. Switch to desktop Chrome or Edge. This is the single most likely fix, since the page names these as the best-supported browsers.
2. Update the browser. An older version may lag behind on WebCodecs support.
3. Close other tabs and heavy apps. Freeing CPU and memory speeds up a local encode.
4. Lower the resolution to 720p, 480p, or 360p.
5. Choose a lower quality level (medium or low) to target a smaller bitrate.
6. Try a shorter clip or a different source format to confirm the file itself isn't the problem.
7. Retry the conversion. Transient browser issues sometimes clear on a second attempt.

Quick reference

What stays the same regardless

Whatever you change, the privacy model doesn't: your file is decoded and re-encoded on your own device, and no part of it goes to a server. There is no upload queue, no watermark, and no sign-up, and the output is never larger than the input because each level targets a fixed share of the source bitrate. Supported video outputs are MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V, and MPEG; audio-only outputs are MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and OGG.

If conversion still fails after switching to desktop Chrome or Edge and lightening the job, the limitation is most likely your browser's WebCodecs support or your device's encoding capability rather than anything you can fix inside VidPackit.

VidPackit accepts MP4, WebM, MOV and MKV files as input, and can output video as MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, M4V or MPEG — or strip the video entirely and export audio as MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC or OGG. You can also drop the resolution to 720p, 480p or 360p during compression. The catch: it runs entirely in your browser using WebCodecs, so it works best on desktop Chrome or Edge, and the page itself warns that incomplete WebCodecs support can make conversion fail or run much slower.

Input formats

VidPackit reads four container types when you drop a file in:

• MP4 — the most common format for phone and camera footage
• WebM — typical for screen recordings and web-sourced clips
• MOV — standard for iPhone and many mirrorless cameras
• MKV — common for downloaded or archived video

When you load a file, the tool reports its size, duration, resolution, codec and audio track before you commit to any settings, so you can confirm it parsed the file correctly.

Output formats

Video output

You can keep the result as video in any of six containers:

Audio-only output

If you only need the soundtrack, you can export audio with no video track in MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC or OGG. This is useful for pulling a voice memo, interview or music bed out of a clip without carrying the video weight.

Resolution options

Beyond format, you can downscale during compression:

• Original — keep the source resolution
• 720p (1280 × 720)
• 480p (854 × 480)
• 360p (640 × 360)

Lowering resolution compounds the savings from the quality level, which matters if your goal is a small file rather than a faithful copy.

What to check before you start

The format list is broad, but the browser is the real constraint. VidPackit does all decoding and encoding locally through WebCodecs, and the page states plainly that incomplete WebCodecs support means conversion may fail or be much slower. For the best experience, use the desktop version of Chrome or Edge.

Two practical implications:

1. Test with one file first. If your browser can't decode the input codec, the job fails regardless of the container being "supported."
2. Expect format support to vary by codec, not just extension. An MP4 using an unusual codec may behave differently from a standard H.264 MP4.

If a conversion fails, try a different browser, or re-export the source from your editing tool into a mainstream codec before compressing.