How to Pull Ahrefs Data Into Excel

The Problem with Getting Ahrefs Data Into Your Workbook

You have a list of domains, keywords, or competitor URLs and you need Ahrefs data sitting next to them in Excel: Domain Ratings, search volumes, backlink counts, referring domain histories, top organic pages. The analysis is real. The path from Ahrefs to a usable workbook is where the morning goes.

Ahrefs is built for exploration, not export. You can view one domain at a time in Site Explorer, one keyword batch in Keywords Explorer, one backlink report at a time. The moment you need metrics for 40 domains side by side, or 200 keywords enriched in a single workbook, or a 24-month trend line for three competitor sites, you are looking at a stack of browser tabs and two hours of copying and pasting.

Below are the four ways people typically pull Ahrefs data into Excel. Only the last one handles real volume.

Method 1: Export CSVs From Ahrefs and Import Them Into the Workbook

The default. You open Ahrefs, run the report, hit Export, download the CSV, open Excel, import the file, clean up headers, and repeat per domain or keyword batch. For one domain, that is five minutes. For 40 domains, it is a morning.

When this works:

• One domain, one report, one time
• You need every available field from the full Ahrefs export
• It is a genuine one-off and will never recur

When it breaks:

• More than five domains to audit at once
• Any recurring report where the domain list changes between runs
• Keyword batches larger than what fits on a single export page
• Any side-by-side comparison across multiple domains in one workbook

The hidden cost is reconciliation. Multiple CSVs with different column orders, inconsistent headers, and blank rows that Excel handles differently depending on how you import. You spend more time formatting than analyzing.

Method 2: Use Power Automate to Trigger Ahrefs Lookups From Workbook Changes

The next step up is automation. Power Automate can watch an Excel workbook on OneDrive or SharePoint and trigger an Ahrefs API call when a new row appears in a column. DR and referring domains come back and get written into the same row.

This works for event-driven moments:

• New competitor domain added to the workbook → auto-enrich with DR
• New prospect uploaded from CRM → fetch backlink count automatically
• New landing page published → trigger an organic traffic estimate

This fails for batch and analytical work:

• Running a 40-domain audit in one pass
• Pulling 24 months of referring domain history for trend analysis
• Building a keyword gap table that requires reading all three domain sheets before writing the output
• Any ranking or sorting logic across the full dataset

Power Automate fires row by row. It does not aggregate, it does not rank, it does not flag which domains crossed a DR threshold. You also pay per flow run, and a 200-keyword enrichment at multiple API calls per keyword adds up quickly.

Method 3: The Previous Generation — SEO Data Connector Add-Ins

Until recently, the best repeatable option for Ahrefs-to-Excel workflows was a category of SEO data connector add-ins. You installed the add-in, authenticated your Ahrefs account, configured a report template, mapped columns, and scheduled a refresh. The data came in automatically and the columns stayed consistent run to run.

That was a real step up from manual CSV imports. The team did not have to remember to run the export, and the workbook stayed reasonably up to date without manual intervention.

But you were still responsible for the configuration layer: picking the right report type, mapping the right metrics, building comparison logic in Excel formulas, and fixing the template every time Ahrefs updated a field name or changed an API endpoint. The add-in got the raw data in, but the analysis was still on you. And anything outside the preset report types — a custom metric, a filtered subset, a trend chart for three domains — required manual work on top.

This is the category we think of as the previous generation. It worked, but it asked a lot of the operator.

The Easy Way: Using SheetXAI in Excel

There is a different way entirely. SheetXAI is an AI agent that lives inside your Excel workbook, both on Excel for the web and Excel desktop. It reads the workbook, understands what you are looking at, and through its built-in Ahrefs integration it can pull domain metrics, keyword data, backlink reports, and trend histories for you. No export, no connector configuration, no formula logic. You just ask.

Example 1: Your Domain List Is Already in the Workbook

You have 40 competitor domains in column A of the Competitors tab and you need DR, backlink count, referring domains, and estimated organic traffic in columns B through E.

Run a batch Ahrefs metrics lookup for all 40 domains in the Competitors tab column A. Write DR to column B, backlink count to column C, referring domains to column D, and estimated organic traffic to column E. Sort by DR descending when done.

SheetXAI reads the domain list, calls Ahrefs for each domain, fills the columns, and sorts the workbook. The competitive matrix is ready.

Example 2: You Need Keyword Data for a Client Report

Your client sent 200 target keywords into the Keywords tab. You need search volume and keyword difficulty before Thursday's content call.

Look up monthly search volume and keyword difficulty for every keyword in the Keywords tab column A using Ahrefs. Write volume to column B and KD to column C. In column D, label any keyword with KD above 70 as "Hard" and below 30 as "Easy."

SheetXAI enriches all 200 keywords, writes the metrics, and adds the difficulty labels. No export, no paste, no manual flagging.

Which Method Should You Use

For a genuine one-off lookup of a single domain or a handful of keywords, the Ahrefs interface is fast enough. For event-driven enrichment where a new domain in the workbook should auto-populate on entry, Power Automate is a reasonable fit.

For batch analysis across more than a handful of rows, SheetXAI is the only option that completes the full job in one prompt. Bulk domain audits, large keyword enrichment runs, historical trend tables, competitive gap analysis — these all require reading the whole dataset and making decisions across it. Power Automate fires row by row and cannot do that. The previous generation of connector add-ins was not built for analytical work either.

If you are running weekly SEO audits, building competitor matrices, or producing client deliverables from Ahrefs data on a recurring basis, the time saved on the second run justifies the first.

Try It

Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any Excel workbook with a domain list or keyword list, then ask it to pull data from Ahrefs. The Ahrefs integration is included in every SheetXAI plan.

For specific workflows, see how to build a competitive SEO matrix for 40 domains in Excel, how to find broken backlinks for link reclamation, or browse the full integrations directory.