Ahrefs’ Digest #194: Best marketing books, competitor analysis tools, and more

Welcome to another edition of the Ahrefs’ Digest.

Have you been watching the Olympics? What are the events you’re keeping an eye out for? Does your country win medals? (Mine barely does, sadly.)

I’m a b-boy, so I’m looking forward to the breakdancing event. It’s the first time it’s been included in the Olympics. Incredible leap forward for the dance, to be honest.

Alright, our newsletter. First up, memes!

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Meme of the week

I mean… I did an interview for a job with a dog once. He was the CEO.

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Quick SEO news

• Reddit blocks major search engines from recent content, except Google.

• OpenAI launches SearchGPT, an AI-powered search prototype offering direct answers with citations.

• Bing is rolling out a new version of Generative Search that displays information that encourages exploration but also prioritizes clicks from the search results to websites.

• A new study by American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) finds that AI boosts search satisfaction.

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Best of the week

10 Best Competitor Analysis Tools Under $300: Here’s a selection of excellent tools that offer the same functionalities as enterprise-level solutions for under $300 or even for free. Mateusz personally tested them too.

SEO Automation Tools: My 10 Favorites to Boost Productivity: These are Joshua’s favorite SEO automation tools, how they can help with common tasks, and how you can take SEO automation to the next level to automate anything.

I Asked 26 Marketers for Their Best Marketing Books. Here’s What They Recommend: Look for the next great read? Here are 24 to consider. Most of them aren’t even about marketing—they’re about psychology, storytelling, productivity, business, and even statistics.

Nike: An Epic Saga of Value Destruction: Nike recently lost 25B in market cap in a day and their shares hit their lowest since 2018. Massimo Giunco, ex-Senior Brand Director at Nike, analyzes why. Check out this excerpt: "Nike invested a material amount of dollars (billions) into something that was less effective but easier to be measured vs something that was more effective but less easy to be measured. In conclusion: an impressive waste of money." Just because you’re measuring something doesn’t mean you’re improving it.

Attribution is Dying. Clicks are Dying. Marketing is Going Back to the 20th Century: Strong words from Rand: “What I’m suggesting to you is that digital marketing in 2024 is a lot like marketing in 1964. It is getting the right message that appeals to the right people in the right places and at the right time to the right audience.” (Pair this with the Nike post above.)

Three Productivity Tips For The Restless (Like Me): Some productivity tips from the psychologist Paul Bloom. I like the first tip: To write (or do some creative pursuit) for an hour, first thing in the morning. It has worked for me—I just need to be consistent.

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Latest from our podcast

This week’s podcast guest is Glen Allsopp, founder of Detailed and the MrBeast of SEO. Here’s what we covered:

• How Glen makes money (with actual numbers)
• The business model behind his Detailed.com project
• $40 website audits" — Why does he offer such a cheap service?How he writes those incredible "SEO research" articles (that shake the entire industry)
• "iPhone link building" — A tactic you've never heard before
• What Super Pixels are and why you should add some to your website

Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

See you next week,
Si Quan

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