Last week, I announced some big personal news: Detail was acquired by Ahrefs and I joined the company to work alongside their marketing and product teams.
Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal was kind enough to cover the storybefore sharing my own updates on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) And Facebook.
If you’re an SEO Blueprint member, I’ve also written a separate update on the Dashboard page after you log in.
Across all three platforms, I received thousands of likes and comments, for which I am sincerely grateful.. I tried to answer as many as possible.
If you emailed me, this is next on my list. I promise to respond to everyone.
I hope it’s clear how obsessed I’ve been over the years with understanding (and sharing) what works in the world of SEO, and those behind Ahrefs’ success are no different.
I haven’t been in my new role very long, but I definitely feel like I’m in the right place.
I first signed up for Ahrefs as a paying customer in 2012, and in three months my account there will technically become a teenager. It is without a doubt the company I am most loyal to as a customer, thanks to the mass of useful data it offers, with an incredible user interface to manage it all.
I used their tool sporadically at first, but have now been paying monthly since May 2019.
They didn’t ask me to say nice things about them, nor was I asked to write this article. I just hope to explain why I am very excited to join the company as well.
I started writing about SEO on a website called “ViperChill” when I was 15, and twenty-one years later, I’m still just as committed to finding what works.
Our industry has seen significant upheaval over the past 18 months, driven primarily by AI. The changes have been both devastating for some and an incredible opportunity for others.
HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah recently said that response engine optimization (or AI SEO as I prefer to call it) is “the new emerging discipline.” This is a good description of the areas where attention shifts.
I see it as my responsibility to continue to understand and share ideas about what works and what happens next.. What businesses should do to grow their audience through all facets of SEO and digital marketing.
Even though I have incredible data and countless smart people to exchange ideas with, it is imperative for me to continue to do the job and build and promote our own assets. Only then can you truly stick to the advice you give.
The detailed SEO extension will remain free and I will still write the newsletter here
In just over five years, the Detailed SEO extension now has more than 450,000 weekly users on Chrome and 7,000 on Firefox.
I never checked the numbers too often and always tried to create something that people would enjoy using, so I’m glad this turned out to be an effective “strategy”.
The plan is that the extension and all current features will remain free for all users.
We may add additional features using Ahrefs data in the future, but don’t expect anything immediately, and not at the expense of what’s already in place.
I will continue to publish the newsletter here and keep relevant reports up to date. So I hope you will continue to follow my work.
You can subscribe to the detailed newsletter at the bottom of any page in our footer, or on our home page.
I’ve received many offers for the detailed SEO extension over the years, but they almost always came from people who were neither involved nor interested in SEO. This made their requests a simple “Thanks, but no thanks” on my part.
With Ahrefs, I’m a true fan of the company, have been a paying customer for years, and they’ve built what is (by far) my favorite search platform in the industry. I have no doubt that this will continue to be the case.
Finally, I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has read and shared my work over the years.
I’ve never had much time to market myself, so none of this would have been possible without You amplify what I have built. It is sincerely appreciated.
Let’s go…
