Insights From Ahrefs’ Default Blocklist for Small Businesses SEO in 2025

As the owner of Central Coast SEO, I spend my days helping small business clients understand—and often demystify—the intricate world of SEO. And one topic that has recently generated a lot of buzz is Ahrefs’ introduction of a Default Blocklist in 2024, which continues to shape the digital landscape in 2025. This move has huge implications for content marketers, digital agencies, and especially small business owners who rely heavily on SEO tools to guide their online strategies.

Ahrefs, a major SEO software suite, has taken a bold step by filtering out what it deems “low-quality” or “manipulative” backlinks by default. This is meant to improve the accuracy of its link metrics like Domain Rating (DR) (Or DA, Domain Authority) and URL Rating (UR). But if you’re running a local plumbing service, an ecommerce store, or a law firm, what does this mean for you?

What Is the Ahrefs Default Blocklist?

At its core, Ahrefs’ blocklist is a curated set of domains that are excluded from link calculations. The company believes these sites don’t add genuine value to the web or to the authority of the pages they link to. Think of spammy directories, auto-generated scraper sites, or link farms. In the past, these domains might have artificially inflated a website’s backlink profile. Today, Ahrefs simply pretends they don’t exist.

For small business owners using Ahrefs to audit their own sites or those of competitors, this changes the landscape. You might notice your Domain Rating suddenly dip. Or maybe a backlink you were excited about no longer appears. It’s not necessarily bad—it’s just a cleaner, more realistic representation of your link profile.

How This Affects Your Link Building Strategy

From where I stand as an SEO consultant, this shift is a welcome one—but it does require a mindset adjustment. If your digital agency previously promised link-building services that relied on sheer volume rather than quality, you might find that strategy no longer holds water.

The emphasis now must be on authenticity. Local citations, industry-specific blogs, genuine guest posts, and relationships with credible websites should be the foundation of your backlink strategy. The blocklist essentially tells us: shortcuts don’t pay off anymore.

If you’re not sure whether your existing backlinks are helping or hindering you, now’s the time to conduct a full audit. At SEO North Sydney, we help businesses filter out noise and focus on links that actually deliver value—not just vanity metrics.

What Small Business Owners Should Do Next

First, shift your mindset away from chasing vanity metrics like high DR or DA backlinks. Focus instead on relevance and quality. A link from a niche blog in your industry, even with a modest DR, may carry far more value than a link from a generic high-DR directory.

Second, get familiar with your backlink profile. If you’ve been relying on a digital agency that hasn’t explained where your backlinks come from—or why—you need to ask more questions. Transparency is everything.

Lastly, consider running a backlink audit at least once per quarter. At SEO North Sydney, we use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic to give our clients a clear picture of what’s working, what’s hurting, and what’s being filtered out altogether.

A New Era for Smarter SEO

The SEO landscape is constantly evolving, and the introduction of Ahrefs’ Default Blocklist is part of a broader trend towards quality, transparency, and genuine value. For small business owners, this is an opportunity—not a threat.

By focusing on ethical link-building and long-term content strategies, you’re doing more than just chasing metrics. You’re building trust, authority, and relevance in the eyes of both users and search engines. And if you’re unsure where to begin, Central Coast SEO is always here to help guide you through the noise.