Ahrefs Left in the Dust as Google Update Renders Its SEO Data Unusable

Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool, has failed to adequately address Google's recent update that rendered its traffic and rankings data unusable. The update, which swapped direct URLs for server-side redirects through google.com/goto, was rolled out in July but has now been widely implemented across residential IPs.

Most SEO tools and rank trackers were able to patch the encryption almost immediately, but Ahrefs has not responded to requests for comment on why it took so long. The tool's data is now especially inaccurate for news sites, attributing all traffic coming from Top Stories/Google News carousel features to Google.com rather than the respective publishers.

As a result, many news sites have lost 99% of their traffic in just one week, according to Ahrefs' estimations. However, in reality, their traffic has remained stable and Ahrefs is simply unable to track traffic or ranking keywords with any level of accuracy.