- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) — what it means
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free toolset from Ahrefs that lets you run a Site Audit and review backlinks and incoming keywords, but only for sites whose ownership you have verified. Competitor analysis and keyword research remain paid features.
Hi, I’m Masato — a Webflow specialist who has been expanding into AI website production.
What’s in this article
- A first-hand account of auditing our own site with the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
- The measured jump from the old Webflow site (health score 6) to the AI-built new site (98)
- The holes that remained even at 98 — and how we fixed them
In July 2026 I rebuilt our company site from scratch with AI (Claude Code) over seven days. Twenty-six pages and 62 articles, with exactly one human: me. Once it was finished, one question nagged at me — “it looks tidy, but is it technically healthy?”
So I reached for the free tier of Ahrefs (Ahrefs Webmaster Tools). Short version: it pointed out far more than I expected, and it cost nothing. This article publishes every issue it flagged and exactly how I fixed each one.
How much Ahrefs Webmaster Tools tells you for free
The first surprise was this. Ahrefs is famous as a paid SEO tool (from $129/month as of July 2026), but for sites whose ownership you have verified, Site Audit is free. All you do is connect Search Console or use DNS to prove “this site is mine.”
Here’s what you do and don’t get on the free tier.
- ✓ Site Audit for your own site (the checkup used here — over 100 checks)
- ✓ Your own site’s backlinks, incoming keywords and top pages
- ✗ Competitor analysis (Ahrefs’ real selling point — paid)
- ✗ Keyword research tools and rank tracking (paid)
In other words, for a technical SEO checkup of your own site, it hands you sharper findings than Search Console does, for free. There is no reason not to use it.
Old site 6, AI-rebuilt new site 98
Ahrefs gives you an overall “Health Score” from 0 to 100 — roughly, the share of URLs with no errors. Here’s how my site moved.
- Before the rebuild (old Webflow site): 6 — 236 errors, 230 warnings
- After the rebuild (AI-built new site): 98 (+92) — 19 errors, 167 warnings
An honest footnote. The old site’s 6 was not low because “AI is that much better.” Years of operation had left the old Webflow site with unloadable JavaScript across 224 pages, and that alone dragged the score to the floor. The right reading is that a rebuild with AI cleared out accumulated technical debt in one sweep.
Even so, replacing the entire machinery of a site and landing on 98 is, I think, proof that the URL-preservation and structured-data hand-over design did its job. The full process of that hand-over is written up in the record of the AI rebuild.
Even at 98, holes remained
Now to the real subject. Ninety-eight is high, but it isn’t perfect. Here is every hole Ahrefs said I could still fix, and how I fixed it.
① Dead internal links (404)
Links in older articles still pointed at articles that were never migrated, and returned 404. Three of them. Where there was no plan to bring the target back, I removed the link and kept the text. Simple enough — but finding them by hand across 62 articles is not realistic.
② Broken JavaScript
Some articles migrated from Webflow still carried leftovers from the old CMS export — an unloadable webflow.js. Removed. Without Ahrefs pointing at it, I would probably never have noticed.
③ Images far too heavy
An old tutorial article had a 2.5MB GIF embedded in it. GIFs move, but they are heavy. Converting it to MP4 took it from 2.5MB to 62KB (a 97% cut). It still autoplays on a loop exactly as before, and ffmpeg does it in one command. This is the kind of thing readers feel directly as page speed.
④ Titles too short / ⑤ http and https duplication
Titles on pages such as the company profile were too short, so I added fact-based keywords. At the same time the http:// version was alive without a 301, which made every page count as two URLs, so I switched on HTTPS enforcement in Cloudflare. Unglamorous, but it wipes out “duplication” findings across the audit.
⑥ Structured data errors
The structured data (SoftwareApplication) for our three in-house apps on the app development page reported “missing rating information.” Showing an app with stars in Google requires rating data, but those three apps have zero reviews so far, so there is no rating to publish. You cannot invent information that doesn’t exist, so I removed that structured data and the error went away. The apps are still introduced as before, through App Store links and body copy.
In closing: a free checkup pays off most on AI-built sites
Precisely because we can now build fast with AI, the step of confirming afterwards that the result is technically healthy earns its keep. And the free tier of Ahrefs is entirely enough for it. Here’s what this checkup taught me.
- Even free, it finds technical SEO holes Search Console won’t surface — broken JS, heavy images, structured data
- A site rebuilt with AI sheds the old site’s debt and the score leaps (6 → 98)
- Even then, the holes don’t reach zero. I think “building with AI” includes the step of finding and fixing them
Our measurements on the search-ranking side are collected in the article testing “are AI-built sites weak at SEO?”.
Webharu handles everything from AI-assisted website production through to this kind of post-launch checkup and improvement. We try all of it on our own site before bringing it to client work, so none of it is theory. Consultations are free — do get in touch.
FAQ
Can I use Ahrefs for free?
For sites whose ownership you have verified, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) gives you Site Audit plus your own backlinks and keywords for free. Competitor analysis and keyword research tools are paid (from $129/month).
Do AI-built sites have technical SEO problems?
Building with AI is not itself a penalty. In our own measurements, the AI-rebuilt site scored 98 on Ahrefs’ health score. Problems appear when leftovers from an old CMS or the URL hand-over design are left unattended.
How should I lighten heavy GIF images?
Convert them to video such as MP4. In our case a 2.5MB GIF became 62KB in MP4 — 97% smaller. Use a video element with autoplay, muted, loop and playsinline and it still displays as an automatic loop, just like the GIF.
What should I do about a rating (star) error in structured data?
If you genuinely have no ratings or reviews, the reliable fix is to remove the structured data that depends on them (such as an app’s SoftwareApplication). We did exactly that for apps with zero reviews, and the error cleared.
