If you’ve spent any time at all on the internet, you know there’s a massive shift happening in how we discover and engage with content online. Working in marketing and content means you’ve felt that change even more keenly.
For blogs specifically, when you wanted to get a piece of content out into the world a few years ago, there was a fairly straightforward process to follow. Applying conventional SEO techniques was a solid first step in getting rankings and traffic for your resource. Publishers relied on tactics like keyword density and meta tags. But overnight many of these techniques alone no longer do the job of generating traffic, thanks to Google’s multiple algorithmic updates and AI search answers.
I’ve seen how the raft of changes has completely shattered some of my blogs, and I decided to set out and see what successful companies were doing online. I’m talking about companies that have managed to hold on to, and in some cases, increase their search traffic.
One of them is Ahrefs.
Not only have they managed to maintain strong traffic in an era where generative AI is flooding the web, they’ve also continued to grow.
Here are some key insights based on my content analysis.
Branded Search is Key
As I analysed Ahrefs’ traffic sources, one thing became clear to me: branded search dominates. Their number one keyword is “Ahrefs.”
I don’t think that’s an accident. More and more experts are calling out brand search as a way to stem the loss from search engine updates. In a November 2024 Clearscope webinar, co-founder Bernard Huang explained how Google learns from user behavior. Let’s say someone searches for “best vacuum cleaners” and doesn’t click anything, they might try again. The next time they add a brand they trust, like “Dyson” or “Best Buy.” That second search tells Google the first one didn’t satisfy them.
Multiply that behavior by thousands of users over months or years. You get a strong signal. This brand matters for this. And Ahrefs benefits immensely from this search dynamic. Even generic-sounding searches like “what is SEO” are tied to the brand, e.g. “what is SEO Ahrefs.”
Building branded search also means more opportunities to appear in the ‘People Also Ask’ boxes (like Moz does for ‘What is SEO?’) .
For content marketers, all of this is more than a signal. It’s a strategy. You want to be the brand people retype into the search bar when that initial round of results disappoints them. It’s how you build authority and trust, not just online, but in the minds of your target audience.
Tools Drive Traffic and Engagement
Looking at Ahrefs’ most visited pages, one pattern stuck out to me: usefulness wins. Pages like the Instagram Caption Generator, YouTube Hashtag Generator, and AI Sentence Rewriter consistently outperform classic blog posts. These aren’t just clever add-ons. They are mini-products users share and even bookmark these tools.
What this means to me is a rethinking of what content is supposed to do. Rather than merely inform, successful content performs. And these tool pages serve up backlinks and repeat traffic for Ahrefs.
When it comes to tools, a good approach is to find one that ties in with your brand’s core product and purpose.
Content as a product
Ahrefs’ guides behave less like traditional blog articles and more like lightweight digital products.
Take their updated “What is SEO?” psot. On the surface, it appears to be a classic long-form explainer. But a closer look reveals a layered experience, similar to a tutorial-based SaaS interface:
- Strategic calls to action are woven throughout the piece, offering multiple pathways for users to try a tool, start a free trial, or explore related content.
- Custom graphics, illustrations, and infographics added deeper context and explain ideas visually, much like a tutorial
- Smart internal linking acts like guided navigation, sending users down structured topic clusters, much like an onboarding flow or dashboard. In other words, The article acts as a hub, pointing users to in-depth guides, glossary entries, and free tools. Recent research shows creating topic clusters and pillar content builds a site’s authority and trust.
- Embedded tools and dynamic widgets transform passive reading into active problem-solving.
The result is a page that doesn’t just answer a question, it does something for the user. Ahrefs is essentially turning informational content into an entry-level content product. Content is now treated as part of the conversion funnel — not just a top-of-funnel traffic magnet.
This same article was first published in 2019 and it’s fascinating to review how it’s since evolved to keep pace with current SEO best practice. Originally, the post was crafted with a primary goal: to attract backlinks and shares. This is evident in its structure and content choices.
It featured insights from leading SEO experts, a common tactic designed to encourage those experts to share the piece, thereby amplifying its reach.The content was largely informational, with limited direct promotion of Ahrefs’ tools or services.
As an aside, if you Google “What is SEO?”, you’ll likely be met with an AI-generated summary at the top of the results page. It does the work of defining the term and outlining the basics. Anyone would walk away with a surface-level understanding in just a few lines. But herein lies precisely the challenge and the opportunity. When the fundamentals are increasingly handled by generative AI, your content needs to go deeper. It must deliver what AI alone can’t. Think first-hand experience, strategic insight, and layered interactivity.
Bank on branded search and content tools
Ahrefs didn’t abandon blog content. They evolved it.
Articles alone aren’t enough. People don’t just want to read. They want to try, explore, compare, and interact. They want solutions baked in the content itself. AI can replicate informational content with ease, but it can’t (not yet, anyway), deliver a product in search your audience can use to solve in-depth, real world problems.
Don’t just publish. Think about building your brand and content as a tool. Because in a world where AI can rewrite your blog in seconds, what can’t be replicated is you . Your brand, your trust, and your thoughtful approach to solving real problems.