Big Personal News: Detailed Has Been Acquired by Ahrefs (And I’ve Joined the Company)
Last week I announced some big personal news: Detailed has been acquired by Ahrefs, and I’ve joined the company to work alongside their marketing and product teams.
Search Engine Journal’s Matt Southern was kind enough to cover the story, before I shared my own updates on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook.
If you’re an SEO Blueprint member, I’ve also written a separate update on the Dashboard page after you log in.
Across the three platforms I received thousands of ‘Likes’ and comments, for which I’m sincerely grateful. I’ve tried to respond to as many as I can.
If you sent me an email, that’s next on my list. I promise to reply to every single one.
Hopefully it’s clear how obsessed I’ve been over the years to figure out (and share) what’s working in the world of SEO, and those behind Ahrefs’ success are no different.
I haven’t been in my new role for very long, but it definitely feels like I’m in the right place.
I first signed up for Ahrefs as a paying customer back in 2012, and in three months my account there will technically become a teenager. They’re easily the company I’ve been the most loyal to as a customer, thanks to the mass of useful data they offer, with an incredible UI to work through it all.
I used their tool sporadically in the early days, but have now paid every single month since May, 2019.
They haven’t asked me to say nice things about them, nor was I asked to write this article. I’m just hoping to help explain why I’m super excited to also be joining the company.
I first started writing about SEO on a website called ‘ViperChill’ when I was 15 years old, and twenty-one years later, I’m still as dedicated to figuring out what works as ever before.
Our industry has gone through a considerable shake-up in the past 18 months, primarily thanks to AI. The changes have simultaneously been devastating for some and an incredible opportunity for others.
HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah recently stated that Answer Engine Optimization (or AI SEO as I prefer to call it) is “the emerging new discipline.” That’s a good description of where a lot of focus is shifting.
I view it as my responsibility to continue to figure out and share insights on what’s working, and what’s next. What businesses should be doing to grow their audience via all facets of SEO and digital marketing.
Whilst I have incredible data at my disposal and countless smart people to bounce ideas off, it’s imperative to me that I continue to do the work and build and promote assets of our own. Only then can you really stand by the advice you’re giving.
The Detailed SEO Extension Will Remain Free, and I’ll Still Be Writing the Newsletter Here
In just over five years, the Detailed SEO Extension has grown to over 450,000 weekly users on Chrome and 7,000 on Firefox.
I never checked the numbers too often and always just tried to make something that people would love to use, so I’m delighted that turned out to be a working “strategy”.
The plan is that the extension and all current functionality will remain free for all users.
It may be the case in the future that we add additional features using Ahrefs data, but don’t expect anything immediate there, and not at the cost of anything that’s already in place.
I’ll still be running the newsletter here and keeping relevant reports updated, so I hope you’ll continue to follow my work.
You can join the Detailed newsletter at the bottom of any page in our footer, or on our homepage.
I received a lot of offers for the Detailed SEO Extension over the years, but they almost always came from people who had no involvement or interest in SEO. That made their inquiries an easy “Thanks, but no thanks” from me.
With Ahrefs I’m a genuine fan of the company, have been a paying customer for years, and they’ve built what is (by far) my favourite research platform in the industry. I have no doubt that will continue to be the case.
Finally, I just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who has read and shared my work over the years.
I’ve never had much time to market myself, so none of this would have been possible without you amplifying what I’ve built. It’s sincerely appreciated.
Let’s go…