This guide is intended to ease the process of modeling your Backlinks software with DataForSEO Backlinks API.
This dashboard provides the growth dynamics of referring domains and backlinks, while also estimating the ranking score of the target domain and URL. In a nutshell, the Backlink Profile Overview is intended to showcase the backlink profile of any target – i.e., domain, subdomain, or webpage.
A good overview dashboard is one of the features differentiating a comprehensive solution from a half-handed MVP. SEO software users need dashboards to have a quick glance at the most important aspects of a project’s data and identify points that require urgent action and purpose available resources properly.
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Performance Indicators
Referring Pages & Backlinks
New vs Lost Backlinks
TLDs and Link Attributes
Performance Indicators
Immediately after logging in, Backlink Profile Overview will provide a user with the backlink profile’s progress indicators and walk them through the most impactful components. If that isn’t enough, this dashboard also includes important information about the target website’s IP, CMS, and the number of crawled pages.
DataForSEO Backlinks API provides all the data required to build this dashboard. What’s more, using this API you will be able to facilitate the development and shorten the delivery cycle’s time frame.
Keep scrolling to find out more about each feature built into this dashboard
Components
- Domain Input
- Domain Rank / URL Rank
- Backlinks and Referring domains
- Broken Backlinks
- Organic Traffic
- Dofollow/Nofollow
- Referring domains over time
- Website info
- Top referring domains
Domain input
To display performance indicators for a target you need to know the target’s scope. With DataForSEO Backlinks API you can get data on a whole domain or just a part of it by using one of the options below.
- To get data for the whole domain with all of its subdomains, you should specify the domain name in the “target” field (without https:// and www.) and set the “include_subdomains” parameter to true.
- To retrieve data for a particular URL, you should specify an absolute URL with https:// and www. in the “target” field.
- To analyze a domain without its subdomains, or to get data on a particular subdomain, you should should specify name of the domain/subdomain in the “target” field (without https:// and www.) and set the “include_subdomains” parameter to false.
- To extract data for a specific path, you should indicate the domain name in the “target” field (without https:// and www.) and additionally apply the following filter: ["url_to","like","%/path/%"]. When setting tasks to the Summary, Anchors, Domain Pages endpoints, you should specify this filter in the "backlinks_filters" array. If you set a task to the Backlinks endpoint, use the “filters” array.
Here’s an example of the cURL request to return 1,000 dofollow backlinks for DataForSEO Blog:
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/backlinks/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "dataforseo.com",
"mode": "as_is",
"filters": [["dofollow", "=", true], "and",["url_to", "like", "%blog/%"]],
"limit": 1000
}
Domain Rank/URL Rank
Domain Rank and URL Rank indicate how well-connected a website or URL is and consequently predict their ranking ability. These scores are calculated similarly to the original Page Rank algorithm, which relied on backlinks to determine the reputation of URLs and rank them accordingly. Rank values range from 0 (no backlinks detected) to 1,000 (highest rank).
In order to obtain both Domain and URL Rank values, you’d have to make two consequent requests to the Summary endpoint of Backlinks API: with a domain and exact URL accordingly.
1. To obtain a Domain Rank, specify a domain name (e.g., example.com) in the target field.
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/summary/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "example.com",
"internal_list_limit": 10,
"include_subdomains": true,
"backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true],
"backlinks_status_type": "all"
}
]"
2. To obtain a Page Rank, specify a page URL (e.g., https://example.com) in the target field.
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/summary/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "https://example.com",
"internal_list_limit": 10,
"include_subdomains": true,
"backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true],
"backlinks_status_type": "all"
}
]"
The Rank value is returned in the eponymous field of the “result” array:
{
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3804 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [...],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "explodingtopics.com",
"first_seen": "2019-08-18 09:32:39 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"rank": 244,
"backlinks": 1837,
"crawled_pages": 2073,
"info": {...},
"internal_links_count": 22805,
"external_links_count": 4815,
"broken_backlinks": 66,
"broken_pages": 111,
"referring_domains": 868,
"referring_main_domains": 835,
"referring_ips": 747,
"referring_subnets": 631,
"referring_pages": 1696,
"referring_links_tld": {...},
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
}
]
}
]
}
Backlinks and Referring domains
Knowing the number of backlinks and referring domains a user can estimate the authority of the website or webpage and benchmark them against competitors.
What’s more, this dashboard also provides the numbers of new/lost backlinks and referring domains, thus allowing to quickly measure the progress of link-building campaigns or identify a potential website issue.
Obtaining the current number of backlinks and referring domains is quite straightforward -- you only need to request the Summary endpoint of Backlinks API. To get the new/lost values, however, you would need to request the History endpoint.
1. Current backlinks and referring domains values. Request /backlinks/summary with a target domain or URL and look into the backlinks and referring_domains fields of the API response to get integers for corresponding counters:
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3804 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [...],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "explodingtopics.com",
"first_seen": "2019-08-18 09:32:39 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"rank": 244,
"backlinks": 1837,
"crawled_pages": 2073,
"info": {...},
"internal_links_count": 22805,
"external_links_count": 4815,
"broken_backlinks": 66,
"broken_pages": 111,
"referring_domains": 868,
"referring_main_domains": 835,
"referring_ips": 747,
"referring_subnets": 631,
"referring_pages": 1696,
"referring_links_tld": {...},
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
}
]
}
]
}
2. New/Lost Backlinks and Referring Domains values. To obtain this data, refer to the backlinks/history endpoint of Backlinks API and specify date_to and date_from along with a target.
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/summary/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "https://example.com",
"internal_list_limit": 10,
"include_subdomains": true,
"backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true],
"backlinks_status_type": "all"
}
]"
You’ll find the required data in the new_backlinks / lost backlink and new_referring_domains / lost referring domains fields of the API response.
{
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.2969 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "07061546-1535-0266-0000-aff2797548db",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.1044 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [...],
"data": {... },
"result": [
{
"target": "cnn.com",
"date_from": "2020-01-01",
"date_to": "2021-01-01",
"items_count": 9,
"items": [
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-01-30 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 594,
"backlinks": 17180922,
"new_backlinks": 0,
"lost_backlinks": 0,
"new_referring_domains": 0,
"lost_referring_domains": 0,
"crawled_pages": 1775912,
"internal_links_count": 62450543,
"external_links_count": 20278599,
"broken_backlinks": 2126,
"broken_pages": 93801,
"referring_domains": 523483,
"referring_main_domains": 402571,
"referring_ips": 189296,
"referring_subnets": 78785,
"referring_pages": 14753676,
"referring_links_tld": null,
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2021-02-01 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 594,
"backlinks": 17180922,
"new_backlinks": 0,
"lost_backlinks": 0,
"new_referring_domains": 0,
"lost_referring_domains": 0,
"crawled_pages": 1775912,
"internal_links_count": 62450543,
"external_links_count": 20278599,
"broken_backlinks": 2126,
"broken_pages": 93801,
"referring_domains": 523483,
"referring_main_domains": 402571,
"referring_ips": 189296,
"referring_subnets": 78785,
"referring_pages": 14753676,
"referring_links_tld": null,
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Broken Backlinks
Noticing broken backlinks pointing to your website is frustrating enough on its own, but the worst part is it can be quite problematic to even notice.
On the flip side, the ability to track broken backlinks across a pool of competitor websites also provides an opportunity to build a sturdy backlinks profile. After all, broken link building is a time-proven and effective technique to increase a website’s rank.
DataForSEO Backlinks API enables SEO software tools to display broken backlinks. The number can be found through the Backlinks Summary endpoint, while all the details are available at Backlinks Backlinks.
In this dashboard, you will only need the number of broken backlinks, which you can find in the “broken_backlinks" field of backlinks/summary.
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3804 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [...],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "explodingtopics.com",
"first_seen": "2019-08-18 09:32:39 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"rank": 244,
"backlinks": 1837,
"crawled_pages": 2073,
"info": {...},
"internal_links_count": 22805,
"external_links_count": 4815,
"broken_backlinks": 66,
"broken_pages": 111,
"referring_domains": 868,
"referring_main_domains": 835,
"referring_ips": 747,
"referring_subnets": 631,
"referring_pages": 1696,
"referring_links_tld": {...},
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
}
]
}
]
}
Organic Traffic
Knowing the organic traffic of a target website can seem a nice-to-have feature, but it can be a deal-breaker for a great share of users.
Consider running a link-building campaign or competitor research without being able to produce even the slightest estimate of monthly visitors. These numbers can mean hours of extra work or, in the worst-case scenario, stand in a way of successful SEO project implementation.
Luckily, DataForSEO has not one, but two different approaches for estimating organic traffic of any website.
1. Domain Analytics - SimilarWeb API. It will provide you with SimilarWeb data on traffic. However, you won’t be able to obtain it for websites with less than 5,000 monthly visitors due to SimilarWeb data aggregation restrictions.
Here we will use a Live method for real-time results, but this method also supports a Standard with separate POST and GET requests.
Upon specifying a target website and sending a request, you will get a results array containing all the traffic info in the eponymous object.
{
"version": "0.1.20220216",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "14.1072 sec.",
"cost": 0.02,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "03201924-1535-0003-0000-24ae07536329",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "14.0403 sec.",
"cost": 0.02,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"domain_analytics",
"similarweb",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "domain_analytics",
"function": "live",
"se": "similarweb",
"target": "indeed.com"
},
"result": [
{
"site_url": "indeed.com",
"company_name": "Indeed, Inc.",
"site_description": "with indeed, you can search millions of jobs online to find the next step in your career. with tools for job search, resumes, company reviews and more, we're with you every step of the way.",
"global_rank": {
"rank": 37
},
"country_rank": {
"rank": 27,
"country": "United States"
},
"category_rank": {
"rank": 1,
"category": "jobs_and_career/jobs_and_employment"
},
"headquarters": {
"country": "United States",
"state": "Texas",
"city": "Austin"
},
"revenue": {
"revenue_min": 1000000000,
"revenue_max": null
},
"employees": {
"employees_min": 10001,
"employees_max": null
},
"audience": {
"visits": 606867923,
"time_on_site_avg": "00:06:16",
"page_views_avg": 7.738058610189683,
"bounce_rate": 34.71,
"top_categories": [
{
"title": "Jobs and Employment",
"category_id": "jobs_and_career/jobs_and_employment"
},
{
"title": "Programming and Developer Software",
"category_id": "computers_electronics_and_technology/programming_and_developer_software"
},
{
"title": "Other Computers Electronics and Technology",
"category_id": "computers_electronics_and_technology/computers_electronics_and_technology"
},
{
"title": "News and Media",
"category_id": "news_and_media"
}
],
"other_visited_websites": [
"linkedin.com",
"mail.google.com",
"facebook.com",
"quora.com",
"glassdoor.com"
],
"top_topics": [
"news",
"jobs",
"google",
"business",
"search"
]
},
"traffic": {
"value": 606867923,
"percent": 100,
"countries": [
{
"country": "United States",
"value": 273207299,
"percent": 45.02
},
{
"country": "United Kingdom",
"value": 52516544,
"percent": 8.65
},
{
"country": "Canada",
"value": 50655674,
"percent": 8.35
},
{
"country": "France",
"value": 24012856,
"percent": 3.96
},
{
"country": "India",
"value": 21406213,
"percent": 3.53
},
{
"country": "other",
"value": 185034029,
"percent": 30.49
}
],
"sources": {
"direct": {
"value": 273871596,
"percent": 45.13
},
"search_organic": {
"value": 263399126,
"percent": 43.4,
"top_keywords": [
{
"keyword": "indeed",
"value": 114507417,
"percent": 43.47
},
{
"keyword": "indeed jobs",
"value": 11341451,
"percent": 4.31
},
{
"keyword": "indeed.com",
"value": 2141490,
"percent": 0.81
},
{
"keyword": "indeed login",
"value": 1850483,
"percent": 0.7
},
{
"keyword": "indeed canada",
"value": 1703608,
"percent": 0.65
}
]
},
"search_ad": {
"value": 17080340,
"percent": 2.81,
"top_keywords": null
},
"referring": {
"value": 6353652,
"percent": 1.05,
"top_referring": [
{
"site": "",
"value": 802692,
"percent": 12.63,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "",
"value": 672452,
"percent": 10.58,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "jobs.smartrecruiters.com",
"value": 494334,
"percent": 7.78,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "click.appcast.io",
"value": 298293,
"percent": 4.69,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "recruiting.adp.com",
"value": 178536,
"percent": 2.81,
"percentage_change": 0
}
]
},
"referral_destination": {
"top_destinations": [
{
"site": "",
"value": 935121,
"percent": 14.72,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "",
"value": 686847,
"percent": 10.81,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "recruiting.ultipro.com",
"value": 107473,
"percent": 1.69,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "jobs.lever.co",
"value": 93266,
"percent": 1.47,
"percentage_change": 0
},
{
"site": "governmentjobs.com",
"value": 89324,
"percent": 1.41,
"percentage_change": 0
}
]
},
"social": {
"value": 10534024,
"percent": 1.74,
"top_socials": [
{
"site": "Youtube",
"value": 4954737,
"percent": 47.04
},
{
"site": "Facebook",
"value": 2059355,
"percent": 19.55
},
{
"site": "Linkedin",
"value": 1417751,
"percent": 13.46
},
{
"site": "Twitter",
"value": 521067,
"percent": 4.95
},
{
"site": "Reddit",
"value": 507561,
"percent": 4.82
}
]
},
"display_ad": {
"value": 675811,
"percent": 0.11,
"top_publishers": null,
"top_ad_networks": [
{
"site": "",
"value": 233851,
"percent": 34.6
},
{
"site": "",
"value": 59608,
"percent": 8.82
},
{
"site": "bild.de",
"value": 57386,
"percent": 8.49
},
{
"site": "search-assistbar.estart.jp",
"value": 56513,
"percent": 8.36
},
{
"site": "cbssports.com",
"value": 38000,
"percent": 5.62
}
]
},
"mobile_apps": {
"google_play_store": null,
"app_store": null
},
"mail": {
"value": 34953369,
"percent": 5.76
}
},
"estimated": [
{
"date": "2021-12-01",
"value": 514901306
},
{
"date": "2022-01-01",
"value": 644241712
},
{
"date": "2022-02-01",
"value": 606867923
}
]
},
"sites": {
"similar_sites": [
{
"site": "glassdoor.com",
"rank": 5
},
{
"site": "monster.com",
"rank": 94
},
{
"site": "simplyhired.com",
"rank": 104
},
{
"site": "ziprecruiter.com",
"rank": 8
},
{
"site": "careerbuilder.com",
"rank": 96
},
{
"site": "thebalancecareers.com",
"rank": 101
},
{
"site": "snagajob.com",
"rank": 203
},
{
"site": "usajobs.gov",
"rank": 34
},
{
"site": "themuse.com",
"rank": 167
},
{
"site": "dice.com",
"rank": 200
}
],
"similar_sites_by_rank": null
},
"date": "2022-02-01"
}
]
}
]
}
2. Bulk Traffic Estimation of DataForSEO Labs API. This endpoint provides an estimated organic traffic value (etv), calculated based on the positions a website holds in SERP for all its keywords and their search volume values.
To find an estimated traffic value for a target website or page, locate an
etv field in the API response.
{
"version": "0.1.20221214",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3683 sec.",
"cost": 0.0103,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "12211622-1535-0391-0000-3ad1dbf68935",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3138 sec.",
"cost": 0.0103,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"dataforseo_labs",
"google",
"bulk_traffic_estimation",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "dataforseo_labs",
"function": "bulk_traffic_estimation",
"se_type": "google",
"targets": [
"https://dataforseo.com/",
"https://www.forbes.com/",
"https://edition.cnn.com/"
],
"location_code": 2840,
"language_code": "en"
},
"result": [
{
"se_type": "google",
"location_code": 2840,
"language_code": "en",
"total_count": 3,
"items_count": 3,
"items": [
{
"se_type": "google",
"target": "https://dataforseo.com/",
"metrics": {
"organic": {
"etv": 447.5668411348015,
"count": 124
},
"paid": {
"etv": 0,
"count": 0
},
"local_pack": null,
"featured_snippet": null
}
},
{
"se_type": "google",
"target": "https://www.forbes.com/",
"metrics": {
"organic": {
"etv": 89044.03408945538,
"count": 28536
},
"paid": {
"etv": 799.4589724391699,
"count": 31
},
"local_pack": null,
"featured_snippet": null
}
},
{
"se_type": "google",
"target": "https://edition.cnn.com/",
"metrics": {
"organic": {
"etv": 56836.45518072136,
"count": 3738
},
"paid": {
"etv": 0,
"count": 0
},
"local_pack": null,
"featured_snippet": null
}
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Dofollow/Nofollow
The dofollow/nofollow backlinks ratio can tell a lot about the quality of the website’s backlink portfolio. Quality resources usually have between 50/50 and 30/70 dofollow/nofollow links, while websites without any nofollow backlinks appear rather suspicious (depending on the niche, of course).
The Backlinks Summary endpoint will provide you with a number of nofollow links in the referring_links_types object. Subsequently, by subtracting this value from the total number of backlinks you will get the total number of dofollow links.
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3804 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [...],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "explodingtopics.com",
"first_seen": "2019-08-18 09:32:39 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"rank": 244,
"backlinks": 1837,
"crawled_pages": 2073,
"info": {...},
"internal_links_count": 22805,
"external_links_count": 4815,
"broken_backlinks": 66,
"broken_pages": 111,
"referring_domains": 868,
"referring_main_domains": 835,
"referring_ips": 747,
"referring_subnets": 631,
"referring_pages": 1696,
"referring_links_tld": {...},
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {
"noopener": 615,
"noreferrer": 390,
"nofollow": 15
},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
}
]
}
]
Referring domains over time
Most SEOs agree that a decent backlink portfolio should be diversified and include as many referring domains as possible. The referring domains time series will enable your users to keep track of the growth of the referring domains and thus help measure the performance of link-building activities over time.
To get data for the points on the graph, refer to the Backlinks History endpoint. Each backlinks_history item is supplied with values for a date, referring_domains, and referring_main_domains.
{
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.2969 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "07061546-1535-0266-0000-aff2797548db",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.1044 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [...],
"data": {... },
"result": [
{
"target": "cnn.com",
"date_from": "2020-01-01",
"date_to": "2021-01-01",
"items_count": 9,
"items": [
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-01-30 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 594,
"backlinks": 17180922,
"new_backlinks": 0,
"lost_backlinks": 0,
"new_referring_domains": 0,
"lost_referring_domains": 0,
"crawled_pages": 1775912,
"internal_links_count": 62450543,
"external_links_count": 20278599,
"broken_backlinks": 2126,
"broken_pages": 93801,
"referring_domains": 523483,
"referring_main_domains": 402571,
"referring_ips": 189296,
"referring_subnets": 78785,
"referring_pages": 14753676,
"referring_links_tld": null,
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2021-02-01 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 594,
"backlinks": 17180922,
"new_backlinks": 0,
"lost_backlinks": 0,
"new_referring_domains": 0,
"lost_referring_domains": 0,
"crawled_pages": 1775912,
"internal_links_count": 62450543,
"external_links_count": 20278599,
"broken_backlinks": 2126,
"broken_pages": 93801,
"referring_domains": 523483,
"referring_main_domains": 402571,
"referring_ips": 189296,
"referring_subnets": 78785,
"referring_pages": 14753676,
"referring_links_tld": null,
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...},
{...}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Website info
A deep dive into the technical details of the target website can seem unnecessary, but providing a generalized overview won’t go unappreciated. By letting your users examine the website volume, CMS, and IP address, you will help them filter out websites that are worth their attention from those they don’t want to have any business with.
Obtaining this information isn’t difficult at all -- request a Backlinks Summary endpoint and extract the values you need from the info object of the response.
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3804 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [...],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "explodingtopics.com",
"first_seen": "2019-08-18 09:32:39 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"rank": 244,
"backlinks": 1837,
"crawled_pages": 2073,
"info": {
"server": "cloudflare",
"cms": null,
"platform_type": [
0
],
"ip_address": "172.67.211.235",
"is_ip": false
},
"internal_links_count": 22805,
"external_links_count": 4815,
"broken_backlinks": 66,
"broken_pages": 111,
"referring_domains": 868,
"referring_main_domains": 835,
"referring_ips": 747,
"referring_subnets": 631,
"referring_pages": 1696,
"referring_links_tld": {...},
"referring_links_types": {...},
"referring_links_attributes": {...},
"referring_links_platform_types": {...},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {...}
}
]
}
]
Top referring domains
Whether you’re analyzing a backlink profile of a competitor website, or drawing up an SEO audit for a prospect - it’s hard to underestimate how important it is to outline the domains referring to the target website. However, challenges might emerge when you attempt to organize thousands of linking sites into a comprehensive list.
Using Backlinks API and its Domain Rank algorithm you can obtain only the most authoritative referring domains. Hit the Referring Domains endpoint, limit the number of objects in the response and configure the order_by parameter to descending rank. You can also exclude internal backlinks and nofollow backlinks by applying the corresponding filters.
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/referring_domains/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "backlinko.com",
"limit": 5,
"order_by": ["rank,desc"],
"exclude_internal_backlinks": true,
"backlinks_filters": ["dofollow", "=", true],
"filters": ["backlinks", ">", 100]
}
]"
This request will return a list of the top 5 domains referring to the target website and their details.
{
"version": "0.1.20210622",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.4953 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "07071113-1535-0273-0000-9765802131ea",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.3964 sec.",
"cost": 0,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [... ],
"data": {...},
"result": [
{
"target": "backlinko.com",
"total_count": 95,
"items_count": 5,
"items": [
{
"type": "backlinks_referring_domain",
"domain": "cvcchome.org",
"rank": 288,
"backlinks": 2599,
"first_seen": "2021-02-27 20:51:03 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 0,
"referring_domains": 1,
"referring_main_domains": 1,
"referring_ips": 1,
"referring_subnets": 1,
"referring_pages": 2456,
"referring_links_tld": {
"org": 2456
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 2456
},
"referring_links_attributes": null,
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"blogs": 2456,
"cms": 2456
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"figure": 2456
}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_referring_domain",
"domain": "kfest.dk",
"rank": 284,
"backlinks": 14966,
"first_seen": "2019-01-19 07:53:03 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 0,
"referring_domains": 1,
"referring_main_domains": 1,
"referring_ips": 1,
"referring_subnets": 1,
"referring_pages": 14966,
"referring_links_tld": {
"dk": 14966
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 14966
},
"referring_links_attributes": null,
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"unknown": 14966
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"footer": 14966
}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_referring_domain",
"domain": "mattabesettcanoeclub.com",
"rank": 274,
"backlinks": 865,
"first_seen": "2020-03-29 01:45:13 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 0,
"referring_domains": 1,
"referring_main_domains": 1,
"referring_ips": 1,
"referring_subnets": 1,
"referring_pages": 804,
"referring_links_tld": {
"com": 804
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 804
},
"referring_links_attributes": null,
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"blogs": 804,
"cms": 804
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"article": 804
}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_referring_domain",
"domain": "digenis.org",
"rank": 262,
"backlinks": 392,
"first_seen": "2020-03-29 03:28:42 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 0,
"referring_domains": 1,
"referring_main_domains": 1,
"referring_ips": 1,
"referring_subnets": 1,
"referring_pages": 378,
"referring_links_tld": {
"org": 378
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 378
},
"referring_links_attributes": null,
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"blogs": 378,
"cms": 378
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"article": 378
}
},
{
"type": "backlinks_referring_domain",
"domain": "completejrrt.tv",
"rank": 262,
"backlinks": 455,
"first_seen": "2020-03-29 04:52:06 +00:00",
"lost_date": null,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 0,
"referring_domains": 1,
"referring_main_domains": 1,
"referring_ips": 1,
"referring_subnets": 1,
"referring_pages": 430,
"referring_links_tld": {
"tv": 430
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 430
},
"referring_links_attributes": null,
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"blogs": 430,
"cms": 430
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"article": 430
}
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
Referring Pages & Backlinks
Give users an at-a-glance view of the target site’s backlink profile health. Combine past and present link-building performance indicators. Unveil in-depth insights into backlinks’ quality.
All of this can be done with the DataForSEO Backlinks API. On top of that, you can streamline the development process and deliver more features with fewer expenses.
Below, we’ll explain the components from this screen and will walk you through fine-tuning each component.
Components
- Referring pages & backlinks over time
- Domain rank over time
- Counters of referring pages, IPs, and subnets
- Referring platform types
- Backlinks semantic locations
Referring pages & backlinks over time
Essentially, a referring page is a URL that’s linking to another website, while a backlink is a single link to a different site. In other words, if one URL links to the same website twice, the count of referring pages for that website will be one and the count of backlinks will be two
This chart will help to quickly capture the growth or decline trend in a website’s backlinks and referring pages over time. It will be especially useful for analyzing competitors’ backlink profiles in a retrospective and understanding their link-building velocity. From there, users can see if they should strengthen their own link-building strategies to beat the competition.
DataForSEO Backlinks API will help you to enrich this chart with data as easily as making an API request to the Backlinks History endpoint.
Here, you will need just three values from the API response.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks History
"date"
"backlinks"
"referring_pages"
"backlinks"
"referring_pages"
Domain rank over time
Domain Rank stands for a website’s authority gained through quality links from other websites. This metric is a major indicator of a website’s success in link-building. It’s best used for comparative analysis of a website with its SERP competitors
This chart will help users to investigate a timeline of competitors’ Domain Rank changes. Knowing the rivals’ progress, users can compare it with their own results and see if they are keeping up.
Empowering your tool with the “DR over time” chart won’t even take a separate request to DataForSEO Backlinks API. You will just need two different values from the Backlinks History response.
Note that in DataForSEO Backlinks API, the calculation method for Domain Rank is similar to Google’s PageRank algorithm. The main difference is that DataForSEO DR values range between 0 and 1,000.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks History
"date"
"rank"
"rank"
Counters
The count of referring pages shows users the exact number of URLs on other domains that link to the target domain or page for the actual date. While more referring pages may not increase the Domain Rank, it’s still an essential metric. More quality referring pages are sending more relevant traffic to the target domain, and it indirectly signals to the search engines that the website is popular and probably has good content worth ranking higher. Sure enough, users will want to know that.
As for referring IPs and subnets, these counters are primarily helping to understand if any black-hat SEO tactics such as PBNs are a part of the site’s link-building strategy. That’s the case when several domains on one IP address or on several IPs but one subnet are sending an abnormally high number of links to the target site.
To equip your tool’s dashboard with these counters, you can rely on the DataForSEO Backlinks API. Backlinks Summary endpoint can quickly furnish you with the necessary data.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Summary
"referring_pages"
"referring_ips"
"referring_subnets"
"referring_ips"
"referring_subnets"
Referring platform types
Platform types that are linking to a website can be a good indicator of a site’s backlink profile quality.
For example, the best scenario for an e-commerce website is to have more backlinks from similar e-commerce platforms. In contrast, having too many backlinks from message boards (aka forums) would be unhealthy.
This table with backlink count per platform type will help users to quickly evaluate the domain’s link-spam level.
You can build this table hassle-free using data from the DataForSEO Backlinks API.
Backlinks semantic locations
The semantic location of a backlink indicates the element in HTML where the link is placed on the referring website. The thing is, link position impacts the level of authority that will be passed to the referenced site or page. In-content links, especially those placed higher, pass more value than backlinks from surrounding areas like footer or sidebar.
Data from this table will give users an in-depth understanding of the value the analyzed website gains from backlinks.
You can incorporate data on semantic locations of the discovered backlinks through DataForSEO Backlinks API. The Backlinks Summary endpoint will supply you with the link count per location.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Summary
"referring_links_semantic_locations"
New vs Lost Backlinks
Let your users examine the progress of link-building campaigns and analyze a backlinks profile of any website.
Well-thought-out referring domains and backlinks time-series graphs guide users through the backlink profile’s quantitative growth. At the same time, referring link types and top backlink anchors illustrate the quality of these backlinks.
DataForSEO Backlinks API will provide you with a capability to easily incorporate this data.
Components
New & lost referring domains
The new & lost referring domains time series shows the dynamics of referring domains changes over time. The data is accessible all the way back to the beginning of 2019, providing a user with an extended historical overview.
In this example, the selectors allow displaying all-time, last year, and last 6 months time ranges, but you can implement your own by applying a custom time range in the date_from and date_to fields of the backlinks/history endpoint.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks History
"new_referring_domains"
"lost_referring_domains"
"lost_referring_domains"
New & lost backlinks
The number of acquired backlinks has long been a core KPI not only for link-building activities, but SEO campaigns in general.
The new & lost backlinks graph will provide your users with a comprehensive overview of acquired and expired backlinks over an extended period of time: all time, last year, and last 6 months.
DataForSEO Backlinks API has historical data from the beginning of 2019, enabling you to get a comprehensive picture of the target website’s backlinks profile development.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks History
"new_backlinks"
"lost_backlinks"
"lost_backlinks"
Referring Link Types
Sometimes knowing the number of backlinks alone just isn’t enough. You need to keep track of their types to determine whether these links come from images, text anchors or even redirect to a target website.
Backlinks API offers a full overview of each and every backlink in our database, including their distinct types. To access this information, request the backlinks/summary endpoint and pull the referring_links_types object.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Summary
"referring_links_types": {
"redirect": 245,
"canonical": 74,
"anchor": 61,
"alternate": 21
}
"redirect": 245,
"canonical": 74,
"anchor": 61,
"alternate": 21
}
Top backlink anchors
In a nutshell, an anchor is a piece of text, under which a link is posted. As insignificant as they may seem, anchors have a significant impact on the ability of backlinks to generate traffic to a target website and can help Google determine the relevancy of a link.
To provide you with backlink anchors, DataForSEO designed a separate endpoint -- backlinks_anchors. By ordering the results by descending backlinks and limiting the results’ number, and dividing the obtained anchors and backlinks by the total number of a website’s backlinks (available at backlinks/summary), you can easily obtain all the necessary data for the top backlink anchors feature.
Here’s an example of the backlinks/anchors request in cURL:
login="login" \
password="password" \
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)" \
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/anchors/live" \
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "forbes.com",
"limit": 5,
"order_by": ["backlinks,desc"]
}
]"
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Anchors
"type": "backlinks_anchor"
"backlinks"
"backlinks"
TLDs and Link Attributes
Invite users on a world trip to competitor’s geo strategies. Map out the most prominent areas contributing to a domain’s authority growth. Help users discern the number of backlinks that increases a site’s reputation from that bringing in referral traffic only.
With DataForSEO Backlinks API, you can do all of the above. Keep on reading for informative and actionable specs.
Components
Referring TLDs distribution
This table dishes out the site’s backlink profile by top-level domains (TLDs). Referring TLDs can give users several key insights into the competitors’ strategy.
First off, this data highlights if competitors are acquiring reputation through trusted .gov or .edu domains. Second off, the map will show users what particular geographic areas are sending more backlinks to the target domain.
If the domain is outperforming the user’s website, the rivals are probably getting more backlinks from niche-relevant TLDs. From there, users may consider channeling their link-building efforts towards the same TLDs and countries.
You can serve users with a domain’s complete Referring TLDs distribution through a single parameter from the Backlinks Summary endpoint.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Summary
"referring_links_tld"
Referring links attributes
Certain link attributes indicate whether a link will pass any authority signals to the referenced domain or URL. In particular, nofollow, UGC, and sponsored rel attributes nullify the value of a backlink in terms of authority-building. Yet, links with these attributes are still important for acquiring referral traffic from relevant sources.
Data from this table will uncover how many of a site’s backlinks are dofollow versus those marked with nofollow and other attributes. It will help users to pinpoint the exact number of links that carry the greatest importance for a website.
To produce a similar table, you can hold on to the helping hand of DataForSEO API. The Backlinks Summary endpoint will deliver you all the necessary data.
Endpoint and parameters used:
Backlinks Summary
"referring_links_attributes"
Backlinks Section Overview
The Backlinks Section is an indispensable functionality part for any backlink analytics tool. It offers whopping data on the target’s backlinks, revealing the ones that are the most valuable, recently gained or lost, and backlinks that are no longer working.
In-depth Backlink Reports
In-depth reports will provide users with deep insights on a site’s backlinks, revealing its top pages, referring domains, anchors, link gap and referral traffic. Making their way through each of these reports, users will get detailed performance stats, discover hidden backlinks opportunities and evaluate the site’s link-building strategies from different perspectives.