When we buckled down to the development of the Backlinks API, we knew it would be a wide-scale and long-term work. And now we are pleased to announce that its beta version is ready and waiting for your first API calls.
DataForSEO Backlinks API will give you access to the live index and will always deliver you up-to-date stats. This API has numerous amazing features that we’ll tell you about here, but you can also see them visualized in our guide to developing a backlink checker.
If you want to go from the basics on backlink data to pulling it through API and applying advanced parameters to your call, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll cover:
What backlink data holds for SEO analytics
How backlink data empowers an SEO tool
What DataForSEO Backlinks API is capable of
How to get backlinks with DataForSEO API
How much Backlinks API costs
What backlink data holds for SEO analytics
While Google’s algorithm has long gone beyond the PageRank calculation alone, it still remains a vital part of how the search engine works. Alongside many other criteria, Google continues evaluating websites and webpages based on their incoming links from other websites, aka backlinks.
We look for sites that many users seem to value for similar queries. For example, if other prominent websites link to the page (what is known as PageRank), that has proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted. Aggregated feedback from our Search quality evaluation process is used to further refine how our systems discern the quality of information.
In other words, a backlink is used as a trust signal about the value of content on the referenced page. At the same time, it helps Google to understand the trustworthiness of the page content and judge if it deserves to be shown in organic search results. So, for as long as PageRank stays a part of Google’s algorithm, link-building will remain one of the crucial components of search engine optimization.
In simple terms, link-building in SEO is the process of gaining quality links from reliable and relevant websites to secure your content more trust signals (and the likelihood to rank organically).
However, the emphasis should be put on quality, not quantity. There are a bunch of factors that help establish whether a backlink can be relied on and if it will pass any trust signals. We’ll list the main points below.
- High DA of the referring domain. The domain authority metric helps to evaluate if getting a backlink from this domain will benefit your website.
- Dofollow/nofollow. Dofollow links do pass authority, nofollow ones don’t.
- Link location. Backlinks located within the main content on the referring site are much more valuable than those placed in other page sections. Also, the higher up in content a backlink is, the more authority it will pass compared to links placed lower.
- Contextual relevance. You should aim for gaining trust within your industry and niche. Basically, if the majority of your links come from real estate websites, Google might suppose you are one too. Besides that, the anchor text that people are using to refer to your site will also give Google a hint about the topic of your content.
- Spam signals. For example, links from PBNs, forums, and any form of link trading are all considered link schemes and they will get you a Google penalty sooner rather than later. Check out Google’s full list of link schemes to avoid.
As a rule, the first step in developing a link-building strategy is analyzing the backlink profiles of organic search competitors against the points above. Researching your competition will help to gain insights into the industry’s best practices to power your own link-building campaign.
However, analysis of a website’s backlinks and their value is a time-consuming process given all the associated details to go into. That is why SEO experts usually turn to software with backlink analytics functionality or pull backlink data into their preferred analytics platforms directly through APIs.
Below, we’ll quickly name the benefits backlink data gives to any SEO software and will show you how to get backlink data through API with DataForSEO.
How backlink data empowers an SEO tool
While backlink data matters a lot in SEO analytics, it accordingly strengthens the functionality of SEO software products. With backlink data, you can give users a bigger picture of aspects impacting the arrangement of organic results, and what’s no less important, gain a competitive advantage over the tools that don’t have this data.
So, here are several features you can deliver with backlink stats.
1 Calculate the “keyword difficulty” metric for your keyword research functionality. It will give users a quick way to evaluate how difficult it is to win an organic ranking for a certain keyword. On the screenshot below, keyword difficulty is represented by Score.
Note that there’s no standard formula for calculating keyword difficulty. However, there are several known factors that the majority of tools include into their calculation methods. These factors are the average number of backlinks among the top-10 ranking websites, domain and page authority of these websites, and quality of content on the corresponding pages in SERP.
2 Indicate Domain Rank, Page Rank, backlink count, and the number of Referring Domains for organic results in SERP analytics for a keyword. These details about the top-ranking websites will help users to get a more precise understanding of the competition they will be facing if they target this keyword organically. At the same time, they will be able to evaluate if their performance metrics can beat SERP competitors.
3 Extend competitor overview to backlink data and give users deeper insights into their rival’s performance and strategies. For example, users can quickly grasp the amount of effort put into link-building and spot employment of shady techniques based on the total counts of a website’s backlinks, referring domains, and IPs. These stats displayed alongside competitor’s organic search performance will also help to evaluate how their link-building campaigns pay off.
These are just a few small examples, but we can also offer you a complete illustrated guide that explains multiple features of a backlink checker and specs on implementing them with DataForSEO Backlinks API. Jump on to view the guide here.
To learn more about the functionality of the DataForSEO Backlinks API, keep on reading.
What DataForSEO Backlinks API is capable of
Backlinks API is a fire-new data retrieval solution in the DataForSEO offering. It is a fast and flexible way to get quality data on inbound links, referring domains, and referring pages.
Currently, Backlinks API is available in the beta version, but we’ve already enriched it with powerful functionality, and now we want to introduce you to it.
First off, this API supplies data based on the live index. We crawl the web each second nonstop, so the stats you get are always up to the moment. Further to this, we wanted the backlink data API to be lightning-fast, so all of its endpoints work in the Live mode, and provide data in real-time straight in the responses to your POST requests.
Each endpoint in the DataForSEO Backlinks API is geared towards a specific objective. Here’s what they will help you to do:
- Obtain a summary of a target’s backlink profile
- Explore the history of the target’s past link-building performance
- Examine the target’s backlinks in vivid detail
- Inspect the target’s backlink anchors and stats
- Discover domain pages with the highest and lowest amount of backlinks
- Go through the domain pages summary with all backlinks and related metrics for each page
- Research domain intersection – domains pointing to the specified targets (or one of them)
- Delve into page intersection – pages pointing to the specified targets (or one of them)
- Review backlink data broken down by referring domains
- Uncover data on the target’s referring networks
- Scan website pages for content duplicates
- Detect the target’s backlink competitors
- Get a timeseries summary of the target’s backlink stats
- Retrieve new & lost timeseries for the target’s backlinks and referring domains
- Analyze backlink profiles in bulk. Read more >>
Using any endpoint, you can specify the number of results you want to retrieve, filter, and sort them. We do not charge any fees for using data filtering or sorting rules. If that isn’t enough, DataForSEO Backlinks API allows applying custom filtration to the datasets that will be retrieved.
In the next part, we’ll walk through the process of configuring the main parameters and filtering rules before making a call to the DataForSEO Backlinks API.
How to get backlinks with DataForSEO API
Working on the Backlinks API, the DataForSEO team spared no effort to create a reliable and customizable solution that would perfectly fit the needs of any researcher or project. In line with this, we equipped our backlink data API with the capability to work for any target scope, and supply highly granular data according to custom requirements. Let’s review everything step by step.
Target scope
When setting a task to any of the Backlinks API endpoints, you’ll first need to define a “target” field (or “targets” array). Using this parameter, you can indicate if data should be retrieved for a domain, subdomain, or webpage. Additionally applying a filter, you can even get data for a specific path, and we’ll show you how to do it in step 4 below.
Note: domain/subdomain/webpage can be indicated for Summary, Anchors, Domain Intersection, Page Intersection, Referring Domains, Referring Networks. The Domain Pages endpoint supports only domain/subdomain as a “target”, however, you can further refine the data for a path or particular URL using filters. The History endpoint allows indicating a domain only and does not support data filtration.
1. To get data for the whole domain with all of its subdomains, you should specify the domain name in the “target” field/”targets” array (without https:// and www.) and set the “include_subdomains” parameter to true.
2. To retrieve data for a particular URL, you should specify an absolute URL with https:// and www. in the “target” field/”targets” array.
3. To analyze a domain without its subdomains, or to get data on a particular subdomain, you should specify the name of the domain/subdomain in the “target” field/”targets” array (without https:// and www.) and set the “include_subdomains” parameter to false.
4. To extract data for a specific path, you should indicate the domain name in the “target” field/”targets” array (without https:// and www.) and additionally apply the following filter: ["url_to","like","%/path/%"].
When setting tasks to Summary, Anchors, Domain Pages, Referring Domains, Referring Networks, you should specify this filter in the “backlinks_filters” array.
If you set a task to the Backlinks endpoint, use the “filters” array.
For Domain Intersection, specify the number of the corresponding target before the URL parameter in “backlinks_filters”: [“1.url_to”,”like”,”%/path/%”].
For the Page Intersection endpoint, specify the number of the corresponding target before the URL parameter in “filters”: [“1.url_to”,”like”,”%/path/%”].
Filters and sorting
By using filters, you can effortlessly get exactly the data you need. One of the use cases is already illustrated above – when you can indicate a specific path you want to retrieve backlink data for. However, the actual count of use cases for data filtering is probably going as far as your imagination can take you. So, we’ll just briefly name the most popular practices.
1. Count stats for dofollow backlinks only. Summary endpoint.
"backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true]
2. Get only dofollow backlinks. Backlinks endpoint.
"filters": ["dofollow", "=", true]
Sort the data by backlink rank.
"odrer_by": ["rank,desc"]
Sort the data by the rank of referring domains.
"odrer_by": ["domain_from_rank,desc"]
3. Get a list of new backlinks. Backlinks endpoint.
"filters": ["is_new", "=", true]
Get a list of lost backlinks. Backlinks endpoint.
"filters": ["is_lost", "=", true]
Sort the data by the rank of referring pages.
"odrer_by": ["page_from_rank,desc"]
4. Get a list of dofollow broken backlinks. Backlinks endpoint.
{
"filters": [
[
"dofollow",
"=",
true
],
"and",
[
"is_broken",
"=",
true
]
]
}
5. Get backlink stats by specific anchor text. Anchors endpoint.
"filters": ["anchor","like","%seo%"]
Sort the data by backlink count.
"order_by": ["backlinks,desc"]
As you can see, the logic behind filtering and sorting rules in DataForSEO Backlinks API is pretty straightforward. If you want to get more information on supported filtering options and review more examples, please refer to Filters in Backlinks API.
Making an API call
Now, let’s configure an API request and retrieve data on dofollow backlinks of anchor type pointing from .com and .net domains. We’ll also sort the dataset by the rank of referring domains in descending order.
POST: https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/backlinks/live
[
{
"target": "cnn.com",
"limit": 10,
"mode": "one_per_domain",
"filters": [
[
"dofollow",
"=",
true
],
"and",
[
"item_type",
"=",
"anchor"
],
"and",
[
[
"tld_from",
"=",
"com"
],
"or",
[
"tld_from",
"=",
"net"
]
]
],
"order_by": [
"domain_from_rank,desc"
]
}
]
And here’s the response from the API server with the dataset refined according to the set rules.
{
"version": "0.1.20210907",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "12.0677 sec.",
"cost": 0.0203,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "09081509-1535-0269-0000-98a2591158a3",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "12.0299 sec.",
"cost": 0.0203,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"backlinks",
"backlinks",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "backlinks",
"function": "backlinks",
"target": "cnn.com",
"limit": 10,
"mode": "one_per_domain",
"filters": [
[
"dofollow",
"=",
true
],
"and",
[
"item_type",
"=",
"anchor"
],
"and",
[
[
"tld_from",
"=",
"com"
],
"or",
[
"tld_from",
"=",
"net"
]
]
],
"order_by": [
"domain_from_rank,desc"
]
},
"result": [
{
"target": "cnn.com",
"mode": "one_per_domain",
"total_count": 337089,
"items_count": 10,
"items": [
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "blog.twitter.com",
"url_from": "https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/a/2011/introducing-the-follow-button",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "www.money.cnn.com",
"url_to": "http://www.money.cnn.com/",
"url_to_https": false,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 237,
"domain_from_rank": 912,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "104.244.42.195",
"page_from_external_links": 91,
"page_from_internal_links": 27,
"page_from_size": 52633,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Introducing the Follow Button",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-06-14 12:17:20 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-06-23 14:42:17 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-09-04 16:59:50 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "CNNMoney",
"text_pre": "AOL.com, AOL Phoenix, About.me, All Time Low, Justin Bieber, bnet.com, Britney Spears, CBS Interactive, CBS News, cbs.com, cbssports.com, chow.com, cnet.com,",
"text_post": ", Condé Nast, EL PAÍS, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Gameone.de, gamespot.com, Glamour, GQ, Greyson Chance, IMDb, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, LMFAO, MarketWatch, maxpreps.com, moneywatch.com, MTV.co.uk",
"semantic_location": null,
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 11,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 301
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "www.google.com",
"url_from": "https://www.google.com/finance/quote/HD:NYSE",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "edition.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/17/investing/home-depot-earnings-housing-market/index.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 149,
"page_from_rank": 319,
"domain_from_rank": 883,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "142.250.186.132",
"page_from_external_links": 15,
"page_from_internal_links": 33,
"page_from_size": 1126179,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Home Depot Inc (HD : NYSE) Stock Price & News - Google Finance",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-08-27 20:42:21 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-08-27 20:42:21 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-09-08 11:23:21 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": [
"noopener",
"noreferrer"
],
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "CNN3 weeks agoFewer people are going to Home Depot. That could be a bad sign for the \nhousing market",
"text_pre": null,
"text_post": "LOW0.40%",
"semantic_location": "main",
"links_count": 2,
"group_count": 5,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": null
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "about.instagram.com",
"url_from": "https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-founders-receive-esteemed-awards",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "money.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/companies/1110/gallery.40_under_40.fortune/39.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 0,
"domain_from_rank": 866,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "52.22.152.92",
"page_from_external_links": 12,
"page_from_internal_links": 29,
"page_from_size": 78473,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Instagram Founders receive Esteemed Awards | Instagram Blog",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2020-09-27 17:09:24 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-01-16 02:52:28 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-04-11 21:13:37 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "Fortune’s 40 under 40",
"text_pre": "We’re happy to announce that Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were recently honored with spots on",
"text_post": "and",
"semantic_location": null,
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 2,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 200
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "careers.linkedin.com",
"url_from": "https://careers.linkedin.com/ResourceLibrary",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "www.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/success/linkedin-paid-week-off/index.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": true,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 0,
"domain_from_rank": 834,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "13.107.42.14",
"page_from_external_links": 53,
"page_from_internal_links": 10,
"page_from_size": 245530,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Resource Library",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-06-19 03:29:21 +00:00",
"prev_seen": null,
"last_seen": "2021-06-19 03:29:21 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": true,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "Read More",
"text_pre": null,
"text_post": null,
"semantic_location": "article",
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 2,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 302
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "newsroom.pinterest.com",
"url_from": "https://newsroom.pinterest.com/en/node/5601",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "www.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/06/world/2018-global-temp-hottest-year-noaa-nasa/index.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 98,
"domain_from_rank": 829,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "151.101.0.84",
"page_from_external_links": 39,
"page_from_internal_links": 25,
"page_from_size": 51380,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "How Pinterest inspires people to live a more sustainable lifestyle | Pinterest Newsroom",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2019-02-21 05:56:15 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-01-17 09:26:50 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-05-18 16:45:58 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "recent reports",
"text_pre": ". With",
"text_post": null,
"semantic_location": "article",
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 1,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 302
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "opensource.apple.com",
"url_from": "https://opensource.apple.com/source/WebCore/WebCore-7601.3.8/ChangeLog-2012-05-22.auto.html",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "edition.cnn.com",
"url_to": "http://edition.cnn.com/",
"url_to_https": false,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": true,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 0,
"domain_from_rank": 828,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "17.253.144.10",
"page_from_external_links": 772,
"page_from_internal_links": 1,
"page_from_size": 1048576,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "ChangeLog-2012-05-22",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-07-28 21:20:17 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-07-28 21:20:17 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-07-28 21:20:17 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "http://edition.cnn.com",
"text_pre": "Tested on a website of",
"text_post": ", a new window should be",
"semantic_location": null,
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 4,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 301
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "frmarkdwhite.wordpress.com",
"url_from": "https://frmarkdwhite.wordpress.com/",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "www.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/us/theodore-mccarrick-sexual-abuse/index.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 199,
"page_from_rank": 366,
"domain_from_rank": 822,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"cms",
"blogs"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "192.0.78.13",
"page_from_external_links": 15,
"page_from_internal_links": 218,
"page_from_size": 192688,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Father Mark White Blog – This Troublesome Priest",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-08-28 06:25:18 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-08-28 06:25:18 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-09-08 09:13:05 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "Theodore McCarrick has been charged with a crime",
"text_pre": null,
"text_post": ". By police in Massachusetts. Criminal sex abuse. The incident took place in June, 1974.",
"semantic_location": "article",
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 68185,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 302
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "gs.statcounter.com",
"url_from": "https://gs.statcounter.com/press/open-letter-ms",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "edition.cnn.com",
"url_to": "http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/21/tech/web/chrome-explorer-browser-wars/index.html",
"url_to_https": false,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 0,
"page_from_rank": 107,
"domain_from_rank": 805,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "104.22.52.65",
"page_from_external_links": 19,
"page_from_internal_links": 21,
"page_from_size": 33700,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "An Open Letter to Roger Capriotti, Microsoft | StatCounter Global Stats",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-07-25 23:34:54 +00:00",
"prev_seen": "2021-08-03 05:32:36 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-08-05 11:21:44 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "on record",
"text_pre": "However a spokesman from ComScore is",
"text_post": "as saying that StatCounter browser stats match what he is seeing: \"ComScore, another company that tracks Internet traffic, does not release comparable numbers. But spokesman Andrew Lipsman said in",
"semantic_location": "article",
"links_count": 1,
"group_count": 2,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 301
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "www.tripadvisor.com",
"url_from": "https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g298564-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki-Vacations.html",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "www.cnn.com",
"url_to": "https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/guide-to-kaiseki-cuisine/index.html",
"url_to_https": true,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": true,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 7,
"page_from_rank": 239,
"domain_from_rank": 804,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "192.229.182.189",
"page_from_external_links": 57,
"page_from_internal_links": 194,
"page_from_size": 617981,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": "en",
"page_from_title": "Kyoto 2021: Best of Kyoto, Japan Tourism - Tripadvisor",
"page_from_status_code": 200,
"first_seen": "2021-08-28 02:03:06 +00:00",
"prev_seen": null,
"last_seen": "2021-08-28 02:03:06 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": [
"ugc"
],
"dofollow": true,
"original": true,
"alt": null,
"anchor": null,
"text_pre": null,
"text_post": null,
"semantic_location": "main",
"links_count": 2,
"group_count": 1,
"is_broken": false,
"url_to_status_code": 200
},
{
"type": "backlink",
"domain_from": "sempra.mediaroom.com",
"url_from": "https://sempra.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=19080&item=66440",
"url_from_https": true,
"domain_to": "money.cnn.com",
"url_to": "http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-powerful-women/2011/full_list/",
"url_to_https": false,
"tld_from": "com",
"is_new": false,
"is_lost": false,
"rank": 43,
"page_from_rank": 0,
"domain_from_rank": 799,
"domain_from_platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"domain_from_is_ip": false,
"domain_from_ip": "104.17.30.170",
"page_from_external_links": 4,
"page_from_internal_links": 1,
"page_from_size": 9840,
"page_from_encoding": "utf-8",
"page_from_language": null,
"page_from_title": "Fortune Names Sempra Energy's Debra L. Reed to 2011 List of '50 Most Powerful Women in Business' - Sep 29, 2011",
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"prev_seen": "2021-08-04 07:20:28 +00:00",
"last_seen": "2021-08-04 07:20:28 +00:00",
"item_type": "anchor",
"attributes": null,
"dofollow": true,
"original": false,
"alt": null,
"anchor": "http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-powerful-women/2011/full_list/",
"text_pre": "Fortune's \"50 Most Powerful Women in Business\" list is available online at",
"text_post": ". The list also will be published in the Oct. 3 print edition of Fortune.",
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}
]
}
]
}
]
}
How much Backlinks API costs
DataForSEO provides services based on a pay-as-you-go model without restricted API bundles. This model gives you full control over the cost you’ll be paying and complete freedom to choose the APIs you’ll be using.
To use DataForSEO Backlinks API, you’ll need to sign up for a Backlinks API access and top up your account for $100 once a month. Basically, it is not a charge for access to this API alone since the funds will remain on your account balance and you can spend them on API usage. This sum is just a small commitment we ask for not to overload our evolving backlink infrastructure.
Importantly, you can spend the funds from your account balance on Backlinks API or on any other of our APIs. For example, if you’d like to obtain SERP data or get some keyword ideas in addition to backlinks, you’re welcome to do so. Roughly, on $100 you can analyze over 660,000 backlinks, get over 44,000 SERPs using the standard queue, and check metrics in real-time for over 440,000 keywords altogether.
The pricing of Backlinks API is based on the charge per API request ($0.02) and per each retrieved data row ($0.00003). Note that you can extract a maximum of 1,000 rows with one API request. You can review the total cost for different volumes of requests and data rows in the table below.
| API requests | 1 | 1 | 100 | 1,000 |
| Rows | 1 | 1,000 | 100,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Cost | $0.02 + $0.00003 = $0.02003 |
$0.02 + $0.03 = $0.05 |
$2 + $3 = $5 |
$20 + $30 = $50 |
In addition to explaining our pricing model, we also wanted to give you a realistic comparative view of market prices on backlink data. To make the comparison as fair and clear as possible, we’ve taken similar volumes from all reviewed data providers.
| DataForSEO | Ahrefs | Moz | Semrush | |
| Access | Free | Free | Free | $449.95/mo |
| 500,000 rows | $25 per stated volume | $500/mo | $500/mo | $1,000 per stated volume |
| Additional rows | $0.05 for 1 request + 1,000 rows | $1.00 per 1,000 rows | $10 per 10,000 rows | From $2 for 1,000 rows |
Note that DataForSEO’s $25 here includes the cost of making the required number of API calls to extract 500,000 rows.
As you can see, DataForSEO and Semrush only charge for the retrieved volumes and do not have fixed plans like Ahrefs and Moz. Yet, Semrush requires making regular monthly payments of $449.95 just to get API access. At the same time, with DataForSEO you can secure access to Backlinks API by topping up your account for just $100 a month. As we’ve already mentioned, this sum will remain on your balance and you can spend it on any of our APIs.
In the end, when it comes to estimating the cost-benefit of a particular API, it’s always better to consider the total price for the API stack one data provider can give you. In this way, you’ll be able to minimize overall expenses and simplify data integration.
Here at DataForSEO, we offer a variety of SEO APIs that you can use to power up your digital analytics or software solution. Check out our pricing page to review all data options and prices.
Conclusion
On a final note, DataForSEO Backlinks API is still a work in progress. We continue evolving our crawling infrastructure and working towards enlarging our index. Nonetheless, we know that the best products are not created by vendors alone, they are created together with customers. Your much-appreciated feedback will help us to tweak and refine Backlinks APIs. So, we’re inviting you to give it a try and share your experience. Let’s create something outstanding together!