Ahrefs New and Lost Links

Fetches referring domain history from Ahrefs, filtered to show recently acquired domains (last 30 days) and any lost referring domains.

References

@skills/seo/references/mcp-degradation.md @skills/seo/references/ahrefs-api-reference.md

Inputs

• domain: The bare domain to analyze (e.g., example.com). Strip https://, http://, and trailing slashes before passing to Ahrefs tools.

MCP Check

Before proceeding, verify Ahrefs MCP is available:

1. Use ToolSearch with query +ahrefs
2. If tools are returned → Ahrefs MCP is available, proceed to Execution
3. If no tools returned → display the Ahrefs MCP error template from references/mcp-degradation.md and stop

Execution

Step 1 — Call Referring Domains

Call mcp__claude_ai_ahrefs__site-explorer-referring-domains with:

• target: the bare domain (e.g., example.com)

Returns per referring domain: domain, domain_rating, backlinks count, first_seen date (ISO 8601), and optionally lost_date for domains no longer linking.

Step 2 — Filter by Date (Client-Side)

The tool may not support native date filtering. If no native date filter exists:

• Compute the cutoff date: current date minus 30 days
• Filter entries where first_seen >= cutoff_date → these are new referring domains
• Separate entries where lost_date is present → these are lost referring domains

Step 3 — Sort and Summarize

• New referring domains: sort by domain_rating descending (highest DR new links first)
• Lost referring domains: sort by domain_rating descending (highest DR losses first)
• Calculate net change: new count minus lost count

Output Format

## Ahrefs New & Lost Links: example.com (Last 30 Days)

### Net Change Summary
| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| New Referring Domains | +12 |
| Lost Referring Domains | -3 |
| Net Change | +9 |

### New Referring Domains (Last 30 Days)

| Domain | DR | Backlinks from Domain | First Seen |
|--------|----|-----------------------|------------|
| highdr-news.com | 71 | 1 | 2026-02-18 |
| industry-blog.io | 58 | 3 | 2026-02-10 |
| partner-site.com | 44 | 2 | 2026-02-05 |

### Lost Referring Domains

| Domain | DR | Lost Date |
|--------|----|-----------|
| old-partner.com | 52 | 2026-01-28 |

### Observations
- Gained 12 new referring domains this month — healthy link velocity
- Lost 3 domains — investigate whether content was removed or sites changed focus
- Highest-DR gain: highdr-news.com (DR 71) — strong editorial link

No New Links

If no referring domains have first_seen within the last 30 days:

## Ahrefs New & Lost Links: example.com

No new referring domains detected in the last 30 days.

**Suggestions:**
- Run `/seo ahrefs backlinks example.com` to review the full backlink profile
- Consider outreach or PR campaigns to build new referring domains

Error — Ahrefs MCP Not Available

If MCP check fails, display the Ahrefs error template from references/mcp-degradation.md:

## Ahrefs MCP Not Available

The `/seo ahrefs new-links` command requires the Ahrefs MCP, which is not
currently connected.

**What you can do:**
- Use `/seo audit <url>` for a full static SEO analysis without live Ahrefs data
- Use `/seo technical <url>` for technical SEO issues without backlink/keyword data

**To connect Ahrefs MCP:**
- Ensure the Ahrefs MCP is registered at user scope in ~/.claude/mcp.json
- Verify with: cat ~/.claude/mcp.json | grep -i ahrefs
- Ahrefs MCP must be registered at user scope (not project scope) to work in subagents