How an AI marketer uses Ahrefs
An AI marketing agent uses Ahrefs to answer one of the oldest questions in search: who links to whom, and why does it matter for the results you're trying to win? Ahrefs is an SEO platform that runs one of the largest crawlers of the web. Its backlink index records which sites link to a domain or page, the page each link sits on, and the words used in the link.
Kite uses that index to explain why a competitor outranks you or gets cited in AI answers where you don't. It reads the links pointing at your site, your competitors' sites, and the sources AI assistants rely on. Then it decides what to do about the gap, whether that's a page worth building, a site worth pitching, or a competitor page worth answering.
Marketing jobs Kite can do with Ahrefs
Ahrefs gives Kite the link picture behind search and AI visibility. Kite uses it to explain why certain brands win, to find the sites that could link to you next, and to learn what kind of content earns links in your market. The jobs below follow that order.
Compare the backlinks of brands AI answers cite
Kite uses Ahrefs to show whether the brands AI answers favor have a stronger link profile than yours. It starts with its own tracking. Kite runs your buyers' questions through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude and records which brands appear and which pages each answer cites. Then it reads the referring domains for each of those brands and for your site, meaning the distinct websites that link to each one.
Say you sell scheduling software for dental practices, and ChatGPT keeps naming two competitors when buyers ask for the best dental scheduling tools. Kite pulls the referring domains for both of them and for you. One competitor has links from dozens of dental trade publications and practice-management blogs, and you have a handful. That tells Kite the gap is about who vouches for each brand, so it proposes getting your product covered by the trade sites the competitor already has. The other competitor has a link profile much like yours. It's cited because it has a clear comparison page, so Kite proposes building a better one on your site.
Links are one reason a brand gets cited, and Kite weighs them that way. It also reads the cited pages, so each recommendation rests on what those pages say as well as who links to them.
Find sites that link to competitors but not to you
Kite reads the referring domains of each competitor and of your site, then compares the lists. The sites that link to two or three of your competitors and never to you are your best prospects for a link. They already cover your category, and they've shown they're willing to point readers at products like yours.
Kite can also ask Ahrefs for a single backlink per referring domain, choosing the strongest link from each site. That turns a list of thousands of links into a clean list of linking websites, each with the page that carries the link and its title. Kite ranks those sites by how often they show up across your competitors and by how closely they match your audience. Then it drafts a pitch for each one that names the page it would fit on and the reason your product belongs there.
Learn which pages earn a competitor its links
Kite reads the individual backlinks pointing at a competitor's domain, one section of their site such as a blog folder, or one exact URL. Each backlink comes with the page it sits on, that page's title, and the anchor text, which is the clickable wording the linking site chose.
That shows Kite what kind of content gets a competitor referenced and how other sites describe it. If most of a rival's links point to an annual benchmark report and the anchor text reads like "2026 patient no-show statistics," you know what the market wants to cite. Kite proposes your own version of the asset with the best chance of earning links. Then it writes the page and publishes it on a site Kite hosts or through your connected CMS.
Check who links to you
Kite reads your own backlinks and referring domains the same way it reads a competitor's. It sees which of your pages earn links, which sites send them, and what anchor text those sites use. That helps Kite pick the pages worth strengthening and spot the pages that deserve more links than they have.
After a link-building push, Kite reads your referring domains again to see which new sites now link to you. Ahrefs adds a new link once its crawler finds it, so this check reflects what Ahrefs has seen so far. You can ask Kite to run it on a schedule and report new linking sites in Slack.
What Kite reads in Ahrefs
Information Kite can read
- Referring domainsThe websites that link to a domain, subdomain, folder, or single URL. Kite uses these to compare link profiles across your site, your competitors, and the brands AI answers cite.
- BacklinksThe individual links pointing at a target, with the linking page, its title, and the anchor text. These show which content earns links and how other sites describe it.
- The strongest backlink from each linking siteOne link per referring domain, picked by the strength of the linking page. This is how Kite builds a clean list of link prospects without wading through every duplicate link.
How Kite connects to Ahrefs
Connect your Ahrefs account through OAuth. Kite then works with the data your Ahrefs account can access. When a task needs Ahrefs and it isn't connected yet, Kite sends you a link in Slack to connect it.
From there, you can start with a goal rather than a list of URLs. Ask Kite why a competitor keeps showing up in ChatGPT's answers instead of you, or which sites you should pitch for links this quarter. Kite already knows your competitors and your category from its research on your business, so it chooses which domains and pages to read and comes back with a plan.
How-to guides using Ahrefs
- How to compare backlinks for brands cited in AI answers with Ahrefs Coming soon Kite records which brands ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude name for your buyers' questions, reads each brand's referring domains in Ahrefs, and shows where a link gap explains why you're missing and where better content would close it.
Where Ahrefs fits in Kite's marketing work
Kite's own tracking shows where you're missing from AI answers, and Ahrefs adds the link picture behind the brands that appear instead. Kite uses both to decide whether the next move is a better page on your site or coverage on the sites that already vouch for your competitors. Once the change ships, it runs the same questions again to measure the difference.
Kite finds the roundups, review sites, and articles that AI answers lean on in your market. Ahrefs shows who links to each of those sources and which of them already link to your competitors, which helps Kite decide which sources to pitch first.
Ahrefs adds its own backlink index to Kite's backlink research on any domain, including sites you don't own. Kite uses it when your team already works from Ahrefs data and wants Kite's findings in the same terms.
Ahrefs shapes who Kite pitches. Kite builds the prospect list from the sites that link to your competitors but not to you, drafts a pitch for each site that names the page it would fit on, and reads your referring domains later to see which new sites link to you.
Limits and product-specific details
- Kite works with Ahrefs' backlink data. Through this connection, Kite reads referring domains and backlinks from Site Explorer. Other Ahrefs tools such as Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, and Brand Radar aren't part of it. Kite's built-in search data covers keyword research, rankings, and AI-answer tracking.
- You need your own paid Ahrefs account. Each request Kite makes draws on your Ahrefs plan's API allowance, and the plan decides how much data the connection can return.
- Kite changes nothing in Ahrefs. It doesn't create projects, reports, or alerts inside your Ahrefs account. The work Kite does with the data happens on your website and in your outreach.
Common questions
Do I need Ahrefs for Kite to research backlinks?
No. Kite comes with search data built in through DataForSEO, including backlink and referring-domain profiles, without a separate subscription. Connect Ahrefs when your team already relies on its index or reports on its metrics and wants Kite's recommendations to match.
Does Kite use Ahrefs' AI features, like Brand Radar or the AI Content Helper?
No. Kite reads Ahrefs' link data and doesn't operate the AI tools inside Ahrefs. Kite's view of AI answers comes from its own tracking of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude, and Ahrefs' backlink data helps explain why the brands in those answers get picked.