Ahrefs Organic Keywords

The Ahrefs Organic Keywords node reads the keywords a domain ranks for in one country, with position, search volume, landing page and estimated traffic, under a row budget that caps the API cost.

What does the Ahrefs Organic Keywords node do?#

The Ahrefs Organic Keywords node reads the keywords a domain ranks for in one country, with position, search volume, landing page and estimated traffic. It supports an Ahrefs filter expression, an ordering and a row budget.

This is the most expensive node of the connector, and the reason the cache exists. Ahrefs bills organic-keywords per returned row and per selected column, so a careless read of a large domain is the single biggest line on the bill.

Three defaults keep that in check — five columns, a limit of 100 rows and a 24-hour cache window — and the node reports what it actually spent, so the trade-off is visible rather than theoretical. A read that was truncated says so: a keyword list that looks complete and is not is how a report understates a site by an order of magnitude.

Common use cases:

• Finding the keywords that bring a site its traffic.
• Auditing a competitor’s keyword footprint.
• Extracting the top landing pages by organic traffic.
• Building a quick-win list from keywords ranking between positions 11 and 20.
• Feeding a content plan with real search volumes.

Quick setup#

Configuration parameters#

Required fields#

Optional fields#

Default columns#

Column	What it holds
keyword	The search term
best_position	Best position the domain holds on that term
volume	Monthly search volume
best_position_url	The page that ranks
sum_traffic	Estimated monthly visits from that keyword

Those five answer “which keyword, at which position, how big, on which page, for how much traffic”, which is the question a report asks. Others are available and billed per row, among them keyword_difficulty, cpc, is_branded, is_commercial, is_informational, is_navigational, is_transactional, is_local, serp_features, words, language, last_update, sum_paid_traffic, volume_desktop_pct and volume_mobile_pct.

What does the node output?#

Anchor	Contents
Keywords	The keyword rows on their own, ready for a list, a sheet or a Loop Node
Summary	Counts, the truncation flag, the columns read and the units spent

{
  "target": "example.com",
  "mode": "domain",
  "country": "us",
  "date": "2026-10-21",
  "columns": ["keyword", "best_position", "volume", "best_position_url", "sum_traffic"],
  "keywords": [
    {
      "keyword": "best seo tools",
      "best_position": 3,
      "volume": 12000,
      "best_position_url": "https://example.com/seo-tools",
      "sum_traffic": 2400
    }
  ],
  "keyword_count": 100,
  "complete": false,
  "truncated": true,
  "hit_row_cap": false,
  "requested_limit": 100,
  "truncation_notice": "Read 100 of the matching keywords and stopped at the requested limit of 100. Ahrefs bills per returned row, so the read does not continue on its own: raise the limit, or narrow the set with a filter.",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-10-21T16:04:11Z",
  "source": "Ahrefs API v3 (Site Explorer)",
  "cache": { "requests": 1, "cached_requests": 0, "units_cost": 150 }
}

Usage examples#

Example 1: Top keywords of a domain#

Workflow:

1. A Url node provides the domain.
2. Ahrefs Organic Keywords with Country us, Sort by sum_traffic:desc, Row limit 100 and Cache window 7d.
3. The Keywords anchor is written to a Google Sheets tab.

Example 2: Quick-win list#

Keywords ranking just off the first page, where a small gain in position is worth the most.

Workflow:

1. Ahrefs Organic Keywords with a Filter keeping best_position between 11 and 20, Columns keyword, best_position, volume, keyword_difficulty, best_position_url, Sort by volume:desc, Row limit 200.
2. The Keywords anchor feeds an LLM asked to prioritise the list.

Filtering upstream is cheaper than filtering downstream: rows Ahrefs never returns are never billed.

Example 3: Competitor footprint#

Workflow:

1. A Text node lists the competitors.
2. A Loop Node feeds the Target input.
3. Ahrefs Organic Keywords with Row limit 50 and three columns.
4. A Merge With Template node assembles the comparison.

Example 4: Content plan from real demand#

Workflow:

1. Ahrefs Organic Keywords returns the keyword list.
2. A Loop Node iterates over the Keywords anchor — the rows alone, with no envelope to unwrap first.
3. An LLM writes a brief per keyword.
4. A Google Docs node stores them.

Common issues#

`complete` is false and the result looks short

Cause: The read filled its row budget. It does not continue on its own, because every further row would be billed.

Solution: Raise Row limit, or narrow the set with a Filter so the rows you want fit inside the budget. truncation_notice says which.

`hit_row_cap` is true

Cause: A hard cap of 10000 rows per run stopped the read, whatever the configured limit.

Solution: Split the read — by country, by path prefix, or with a filter. The cap exists so that a mistyped target cannot turn into a five-figure bill.

`Ahrefs organic-keywords has no column ...`

Cause: A column name that does not exist on this endpoint, usually a near-miss like position instead of best_position or url instead of best_position_url.

Solution: The error lists every available column. Nothing was called, so nothing was billed.

`The Ahrefs keyword limit is capped at 10000 rows per run`

Cause: The configured limit is above the hard cap.

Solution: Lower it, and split the read if you genuinely need more rows.

The run reports a 402 or a 429

Cause: A 402 means the unit balance is exhausted; a 429 means too many calls in too short a window.

Solution: Check the balance in the settings panel. The node never retries a call, because a call that reached Ahrefs may already have been billed. Lower the limit, narrow the columns, or widen the cache window.

Best practices and pitfalls#

How does it fit into a workflow?#

graph LR
    Url[Url<br/>target domain] --> Keywords[Ahrefs Organic Keywords]
    Keywords -->|Keywords| Loop[Loop Node]
    Loop --> LLM[LLM<br/>brief per keyword]
    Keywords -->|Summary| Check{complete?}
    LLM --> Docs[Google Docs]

Related nodes#