How to check dofollow referring domains and backlinks with DataForSEO API?

Monitoring and analyzing your referring domains and backlinks is crucial for improving website authority and search engine rankings. Using DataForSEO’s powerful Backlinks API, you can effortlessly access our 2,8 trillion index to obtain the list of your dofollow referring domains and backlinks. These valuable insights can then be leveraged to refine and optimize your SEO and link-building strategies.

But first, let’s clarify some key terms.

What is a Referring Domain?

A referring domain is a website that sends a link or multiple links to your website. These links send signals to search engine bots about your website’s authority and credibility in the digital landscape, and can potentially help you rank higher in search results.

What is a Dofollow Referring Domain?

A dofollow referring domain is a website that points to your website with at least one dofollow backlink or multiple such links.

What is a Dofollow Backlink?

A dofollow backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another that allows search engine bots to follow the link and pass authority signals (Backlink Rank, also known as “link juice”) from the referring page and website to the referenced source.

See also: What’s the difference between referring pages and backlinks?

Technically, the dofollow links do not have a special dofollow attribute and are considered dofollow simply if the nofollow, UGC or sponsored attributes are absent. The nofollow attribute means it’s a link the referrer doesn’t want search engines to follow and pass authority to. The sponsored attribute functions similarly and is intended for paid links. The UGC is reserved for links within user-generated content, such as comments or forum posts.

Examples of a dofollow link:

<a href="https://dataforseo.com/">DataForSEO</a>

Examples of a nofollow link:

<a href="https://dataforseo.com/" rel="nofollow">DataForSEO</a>
<a href="https://dataforseo.com/" rel="ugc nofollow">DataForSEO</a>
<a href="https://dataforseo.com/" rel="sponsored">DataForSEO</a>

Note: Google says it treats nofollow, UGC, and sponsored attributes only as hints when crawling the web and distributing authority.

Now, let’s explore how you can check your dofollow referring domains and backlinks with a few simple calls to the DataForSEO Backlinks API.

How to Check Your Dofollow Referring Domains using Backlinks API

DataForSEO’s Backlinks API allows you to retrieve a comprehensive list of domains that are linking to your domain, subdomain, or page as well as to extract dofollow referring domains and obtain information about the number of domains linking to multiple targets in bulk.

The Bulk Option to Get the Number of Live Dofollow Referring Domains

To collect live data in bulk, use the Bulk Referring Domains endpoint.

POST https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/bulk_referring_domains/live

In the request body, indicate your targets (up to 1,000 domains, subdomains, or webpages) as in the example below.

[
   {
     "targets": [
         "forbes.com",
         "cnn.com",
         "bbc.com",
         "yelp.com",
         "https://www.apple.com/iphone/",
         "https://ahrefs.com/blog/",
         "ibm.com",
         "https://variety.com/",
         "https://stackoverflow.com/",
         "www.trustpilot.com"
     ]
   }
]

Don’t forget to specify your credentials (API login and password) in the Authorization tab. Your API login and password are indicated in the DataForSEO Dashboard.

Once you send the request and obtain the results, you’ll see the following data for each of your targets.

          
           {
             "target": "forbes.com",
             "referring_domains": 938837,
             "referring_domains_nofollow": 96596,
             "referring_main_domains": 787233,
             "referring_main_domains_nofollow": 78071
           }

The referring_domains field will show you how many main domains (root domains, like site.com) and their subdomains (e.g. blog.site.com) link to the target with any type of live backlink. That is, if site.com points 1 link to the target and blog.site.com points 1 link to the target, this metric will count them as two referring domains.

The referring_main_domains will show data on the number of main domains pointing to your target. That is, if site.com points 1 link to the target and blog.site.com points 1 link to the target, the referring_main_domains metric will count them as one referring domain.

Now, each of these metrics has a supporting metric with a _nofollow added at the end of its name. In DataForSEO Bulk Referring Domains endpoint responses, we include links with rel="ugc" and rel="sponsored" in the calculation of referring_domains_nofollow and referring_main_domains_nofollow metrics.

So, using these metrics, you can easily calculate the number of domains or main domains sending dofollow links to the target. Just subtract the value in referring_domains_nofollow or referring_main_domains_nofollow from the total count of referring_domains or referring_main_domains accordingly.

The In-Depth Option to Get Data on Dofollow Referring Domains

If you want to dive deeper and collect comprehensive data on your dofollow referring domains, use the Referring Domains endpoint.

POST https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/referring_domains/live

Using this endpoint, you can indicate one target at a time and obtain up to 1000 referring domains in the results. If you want the results to include only dofollow domains, you should specify so with an appropriate filtering parameter in the request body. Here’s an example.

[
   {
       "target": "backlinko.com",
       "limit": 1000,
       "order_by": ["rank,desc"],
       "backlinks_status_type": "live",
       "backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true]
   }
]

You can use additional parameters in the request body to set a different results order, indicate if the subdomains of the target should be included in the calculation, and whether or not to include data on lost links or indirect links. Learn more in our documentation.

Once you have all the necessary fields in the request body and have authorized using the API login and password from the DataForSEO Dashboard, send your request.

The results will provide you with a detailed overview of referring domains pointing to the target domain you specified, including Domain Rank, Spam Score, the number of the domain’s backlinks, referring domains, and more. The total_count parameter will show you how many live dofollow main referring domains your target has.

How to Check Your Dofollow Backlinks using Backlinks API

To collect the number of live dofollow backlinks for your domain, subdomain, or webpage along with detailed information about each backlink, we should complete similar steps as we previously did to get referring domains.

Use the Backlinks endpoint: POST https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/backlinks/live

In the request body, indicate your target and filter as in the example below.

[
   {
     "target": "forbes.com",
     "filters": ["dofollow", "=", true],
     "backlinks_status_type": "live",
     "limit": 1000
   }
]

By default, the API returns all backlinks, but you can modify the grouping and one backlink per domain or one backlink per anchor by specifying the mode parameter. You can also modify the limit of results (from 1 to 1000), set a different results order, indicate if the subdomains of the target should be included in the calculation, and more. See the details in our documentation.

Next, authorize using your API login and password from the DataForSEO Dashboard, and submit your request.

The response to the request above will provide you with the list of unique live dofollow backlinks from the referring pages; if a page contains more than one backlink pointing to your target, the link with the highest rank will be returned; the number of duplicate backlinks from the referring page will be indicated in the links_count field. The total_count parameter will show you how many live dofollow backlinks your target has.

Similarly, you can collect a Summary of your target’s dofollow live backlink data or obtain information based on live dofollow backlinks for your Domain Pages. Just use the appropriate parameters in your request body and modify their values as necessary following our Backlinks API documentation.

In conclusion, DataForSEO’s Backlinks API is an accessible tool for collecting data on your website’s dofollow referring domains and backlinks. By analyzing this data, you can measure the quality and quantity of your backlink profile and identify areas for improvement in your link-building strategy.

See also:
How to indicate a domain/subdomain/page/path as a target?
A Kickstart Guide to Using DataForSEO APIs
What are broken backlinks / broken pages?
How do I find my backlink competitors?