Backlinks are vital SEO assets, but they are volatile. If you’ve ever checked your backlink profile only to realize that some of your best links are gone, you’re not alone. Backlinks disappear all the time, eroding your site’s authority. To combat this issue, SEO consultant Mykolas Bartkus created a super approachable no-code automation that helps to keep track of which links are still live, which are lost, and which have turned into nofollow. With it, he automatically monitors 500+ backlinks!
Mykolas’ setup uses n8n, Google Sheets, and DataForSEO On-Page API, which provides real-time link status in bulk. Basically, to run the workflow, you only need to authenticate with each platform’s credentials.
Below is a summarized guide to setting everything up. If you’d like to get full visuals and additional tips, refer to the original tutorial from Mykolas.
Step-by-Step Guide
Before you begin, make sure you have the following ready:
➤ n8n cloud account or self-hosted instance
➤ DataForSEO account
➤ a Google Sheet that contains the backlinks you want to monitor
Note that your Google Sheet should have these three columns:
➤ Backlink URL — URL of the page containing the backlink;
➤ Landing Page — URL of your website page for which you’re checking the backlink;
➤ Status — leave blank, it will be filled automatically with Live / Lost / Nofollow.
Add at least a few rows of URLs for testing.
1 Copy the Workflow Template in n8n
Open the prebuilt workflow and click “Use for free.” If you don’t have an n8n account yet, select “Get started free with n8n cloud” to start a free trial with full access for 14 days. If you are self-hosting n8n, you can just copy the template in JSON format and paste it into a new workflow in your local instance.
2 Connect Your Google Sheet
On a local n8n instance, you will need to create and use a Google Cloud credential and enable Google Sheets and Google Drive APIs. Then, sign in with your Google account in n8n.
When launching the workflow on n8n cloud, you will be immediately prompted to connect your Google account.
Either way, make sure to use the same account that owns the spreadsheet you created earlier.
In your node settings, select the “Document” and “Sheet” with your data. Under “Options”, in “Data Location on Sheet”, define your data range explicitly (e.g., A1:D) to accurately fetch the necessary columns.
3 Connect DataForSEO API
After you have registered at DataForSEO, go to your account Dashboard and open the API Access section to copy your API login (paste it in “User” in n8n) and API password (paste in “Password”).
4 Confirm Data Mapping
Go to the last Google Sheets node and select the same “Credential”, “Document”, and “Sheet” as in step 2. Double-check that the output to Google Sheets is mapped correctly. This ensures the automation accurately updates your spreadsheet after each run.
5 Test the Workflow
Click “Execute Workflow” or “Test Workflow” in the n8n editor. You can also test the execution of each separate node to verify its setup.
When everything works correctly, the workflow will:
➤ Fetch the list of backlinks from your Google Sheet
➤ Call DataForSEO On-Page API to check each backlink’s status
➤ Write the results (Live / Lost / Nofollow) back into the Status column in your Sheet.
That’s it!
Wrap up
With just a few simple tools — Google Sheets, n8n, and DataForSEO API — you can build a fully automated lost backlink checker in under 10 minutes. This setup will help you protect your link-building investments and stay alert to link rot and lost authoritative backlinks before they impact your SEO performance.
For a complete walkthrough with visuals and additional tips, we recommend reading the full article by Mykolas Bartkus.
Note that some links may show as “Lost” if the page cannot be scraped (due to bot protection, errors, or redirects). The processing time of your data depends on the number of links you have in the spreadsheet.