How to Perform AIO Research Using Ahrefs

Why bother with SEO or a spot on the first page when Google and other search engines are relentlessly fueling zero-click search through AIO, AI mode, featured snippets, and “people also ask” features?

With AIO in context, SEO giants like Ahrefs have already cracked the code and have tweaked their service offering to extensively cover AIO optimization from start to finish. In fact, Ahrefs has made making businesses discoverable in broader AI search its main business.

While there are a multitude of reasons to question the potency of SEO in the midst of an increasingly popular AIO, forward-thinking digital marketers and SEO experts are already adapting their strategies to meet modern SERP demands.

Even Google developers have indicated that there is nothing to fear: SERPs have changed, but foundational SEO best practices still apply.

This article examines how Ahrefs features, such as Brand Radar, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Content Explorer, help websites break into AIO in three steps.

Step 1: Find AIO Ownership Gaps Using Brand Radar

With the emergence of AIO in March 2025, Ahrefs introduced Brand Radar as a complementary tool to help businesses probe both competitor keywords and AIO. When coupled with Ahrefs Site Explorer, were the go-to tool for businesses looking to identify which keywords their competitors’ SEO strategies target.

Use Brand Radar to first identify true competitors, then explore opportunities for AIO visibility. Here’s how:

Identify True Competitors

Go to the Brand Radar page, and:

• Select target country: In the dropdown menu for locations, select a target country for the AIO research.
• Filter dataset: Select “filter dataset” and set the fields to research “keyword or AI overview.”
• Set the scope of research: In the next dropdown menu, select “contains” and in the field that follows, fill in your website’s major service or product offering. For example: “fresh fruits,” “NYC chic restaurant,” “gym wear,” etc.
• Find mentions of brand, products, or services: In the next field, fill in the name of the business, then click “suggest” for the page to automatically populate the field with other similar brands. For niche or localized research, you may choose to fill out the field with target brands.
• Click explore to start the research.

The result reveals a highly detailed chart showing how your brand compares with the major competitors for AIO ownership in your target market over time, accounting for market share, competitive share, reach, mentions, and impressions.

Below the chart, a keyword results table is provided from the search.

Explore Opportunities for AIO Visibility

The next step is to explore AIO visibility by identifying which keywords are driving competitors, but not your brand, to a seat in the AIO space.

In the keyword results table for the search:

• Select the AI overview in the first filter
• In the next filter, select “does not contain”, then fill in your brand’s name.
• Click “add rule” to open another line of similar filters, but this time:
  • Select “contains”
  • List all competitors

The result shows all keywords and citations (sites) that trigger AIO algorithms, even when your brand is not mentioned.

Step 2: Deep-Dive AIO-Relevant Keywords Using Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

Successful AIO keyword targeting focuses on long-tail, informational queries with low keyword difficulty (average KD of 12). Before beginning, take note of some important AIO keyword findings from Ahrefs’analysis of 300,000 keywords:

• AIO keywords are generally long-tailed, averaging four words per phrase.
• Average keyword difficulty for AIOs is 12.
• Websites need fewer backlinks (13 vs. 41 for non-AIO SERPs) to rank for AIO results.
• Keywords with informational and navigational intent far outrank keywords with commercial or transactional intent.
• Compared to non-AIO SERPs, AIO SERPs feature 849% more featured snippets and 258% more discussions.
• Organic ranking still plays a crucial role in AIO visibility, with up to 60% cited links appearing on the first page.

With these findings in mind, the barriers to entry for AIO SERPs are lower than for non-AIO SERPs. Use keyword explorer to find keywords that hit the mark. 

Choose a Seed Keyword

For this, you can use the same term used in the Brand Radar search or pick a seed keyword from the AIO keywords results table.

Go to Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, then type in the seed keyword and select the target country for the research. The result highlights all the relevant keywords.

Identify Potential Long-Tailed, Informational Keywords

Since long-tailed keywords fare better with AI overviews, take the following steps to surface the strongest matches:

• On the results page, click on presets, then select “questions” under keyword modifiers to filter in keywords with informational intent. Additionally, click on the “Intents” filter and select “informational.”
• Under the SERP features dropdown filter, select “AI Overviews” to show keywords that trigger AI search.
• For word count, select 4 and then start exploring.

The keyword result table reveals long-tailed keywords that have strong potential to appear in AIO SERP.

Target Keywords With Low Keyword Difficulty

About 70% of AIO keywords have difficulty below 30, with the average keyword difficulty (KD) being 12. Therefore, it makes sense to scan the result page and select keywords that meet this criterion. These keywords will serve as the basis for future content that triggers AI search, including an AI overview and an AI mode.

Step 3: Design Winning Content Strategy With Ahrefs Content Explorer

Fundamentally, content gaps and backlink opportunities can be identified by quickly reviewing the citations highlighted in the Brand Radar results, assessing keywords in context, and conducting a deep dive into relevant high-traffic websites.

For better outcomes, use the Ahrefs Content Explorer tool to further analyze the winning keywords from Keyword Explorer or the initial seed keyword.

Find Content Gaps Using Ahrefs Content Explorer

Enter your preferred keyword or topic in Content Explorer, then select your target location for the search.

The results page indicates the topic’s trend over time, as well as all the pages relevant to the keyword, including website and social traffic.

To find high-yield content gaps, adjust the filters on the page to identify low KD topics with potentially high search traffic:

• Setting the page traffic filter to 1000 or higher, depending on content goals.
• Setting the referring domains filter to up to 10.

Click the traffic box on the listed pages to find the exact keywords driving traffic to the websites. Focusing on low-competition keywords in content can boost AIO visibility.

Use Ahrefs Content Explorer to Find Backlink Opportunities

Still on the same page, you can find active, high-traffic websites that are likely to allow guest posts by setting the:

• Publication date filter to the past 90 days.
• Domain rating to 30-60
• Website traffic filter to a minimum of 5000 to narrow down to websites that receive regular traffic.

In the results page, click the “websites” tab to see websites that are most likely to accept guest writers.

The higher the number of authors, total traffic, and posts in the past 30 days, the more likely it is to be a great backlink opportunity.

Adapt Your Strategy for AIO

AIO research is a strong first step toward staying ahead of search engine algorithms, especially as AI becomes increasingly integral to every aspect of SERPs.

Traditional SEO best practices still work, but often aren’t enough to guarantee a spot in AIO SERPs and associated features, including Featured Snippet and People Also Ask.

321 Web Marketing helps businesses make sense of and dominate AIO and non-AIO SERPs by taking a top-down approach to create an overall SEO strategy that places your business at the fore of all search algorithms, even as they evolve.