seo-ahrefs-new-links

Installation

$npx skills add lionkiii/claude-seo-skills --skill seo-ahrefs-new-links

Summary

This skill allows the agent to fetch and analyze recently acquired and lost referring domains from Ahrefs over the last 30 days, enabling quick identification of new link opportunities and potential losses for a given domain.

SKILL.MD

Ahrefs New and Lost Links

Fetches referring domain history from Ahrefs, filtered to show recently acquired domains (last 30 days) and any lost referring domains.

References

@skills/seo/references/mcp-degradation.md @skills/seo/references/ahrefs-api-reference.md

Inputs

  • domain: The bare domain to analyze (e.g., example.com). Strip https://, http://, and trailing slashes before passing to Ahrefs tools.

MCP Check

Before proceeding, verify Ahrefs MCP is available:

  1. Use ToolSearch with query +ahrefs
  2. If tools are returned → Ahrefs MCP is available, proceed to Execution
  3. If no tools returned → display the Ahrefs MCP error template from references/mcp-degradation.md and stop

Execution

Step 1 — Call Referring Domains

Call mcp__claude_ai_ahrefs__site-explorer-referring-domains with:

  • target: the bare domain (e.g., example.com)

Returns per referring domain: domain, domain_rating, backlinks count, first_seen date (ISO 8601), and optionally lost_date for domains no longer linking.

Step 2 — Filter by Date (Client-Side)

The tool may not support native date filtering. If no native date filter exists:

  • Compute the cutoff date: current date minus 30 days
  • Filter entries where first_seen >= cutoff_date → these are new referring domains
  • Separate entries where lost_date is present → these are lost referring domains

Step 3 — Sort and Summarize

  • New referring domains: sort by domain_rating descending (highest DR new links first)
  • Lost referring domains: sort by domain_rating descending (highest DR losses first)
  • Calculate net change: new count minus lost count

Output Format

## Ahrefs New & Lost Links: example.com (Last 30 Days)

### Net Change Summary
| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| New Referring Domains | +12 |
| Lost Referring Domains | -3 |
| Net Change | +9 |

### New Referring Domains (Last 30 Days)

| Domain | DR | Backlinks from Domain | First Seen |
|--------|----|-----------------------|------------|
| highdr-news.com | 71 | 1 | 2026-02-18 |
| industry-blog.io | 58 | 3 | 2026-02-10 |
| partner-site.com | 44 | 2 | 2026-02-05 |

### Lost Referring Domains

| Domain | DR | Lost Date |
|--------|----|-----------|
| old-partner.com | 52 | 2026-01-28 |

### Observations
- Gained 12 new referring domains this month — healthy link velocity
- Lost 3 domains — investigate whether content was removed or sites changed focus
- Highest-DR gain: highdr-news.com (DR 71) — strong editorial link

No New Links

If no referring domains have first_seen within the last 30 days:

## Ahrefs New & Lost Links: example.com

No new referring domains detected in the last 30 days.

**Suggestions:**
- Run `/seo ahrefs backlinks example.com` to review the full backlink profile
- Consider outreach or PR campaigns to build new referring domains

Error — Ahrefs MCP Not Available

If MCP check fails, display the Ahrefs error template from references/mcp-degradation.md:

## Ahrefs MCP Not Available

The `/seo ahrefs new-links` command requires the Ahrefs MCP, which is not
currently connected.

**What you can do:**
- Use `/seo audit <url>` for a full static SEO analysis without live Ahrefs data
- Use `/seo technical <url>` for technical SEO issues without backlink/keyword data

**To connect Ahrefs MCP:**
- Ensure the Ahrefs MCP is registered at user scope in ~/.claude/mcp.json
- Verify with: cat ~/.claude/mcp.json | grep -i ahrefs
- Ahrefs MCP must be registered at user scope (not project scope) to work in subagents