Ahrefs vs Semrush: pruned 1,400 dead URLs, +31% clicks

Ahrefs vs Semrush: pruned 1,400 dead URLs, +31% clicks

Client had 3,100 indexed URLs, half pulling zero clicks. We ran the audit in both tools side by side.

Ahrefs ($129/mo Lite)
👍 Site Audit flagged 1,412 thin/orphan pages in one crawl, exportable with traffic columns
👎 Lite caps you at 1 project + 100k crawl credits, blew through it mid-job

Semrush ($139.95/mo Pro)
👍 Position Tracking tied each prune to a keyword cluster, easy before/after
👎 Crawl was slower and the UI buries the orphan-page report 3 clicks deep

We noindexed 1,400 URLs over 6 weeks. Result: crawl budget refocused, organic clicks +31% on the surviving 1,700 pages within 90 days.

Verdict: Pick Ahrefs for the cleaner crawl export, Semrush if you also track rankings daily.

Best for: Ahrefs = SEO consultants doing one-off audits; Semrush = teams tracking the same site monthly.

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