Backlinks API Current

Backlinks API

The individual links behind the numbers: anchor text, source page, target URL and follow status, with a profile summary alongside them. Served from our own index, which is why it costs what it does.

Try it in the browser OpenAPI spec Get an API key

What you get

One request returns two things: a summary of the domain's link profile, and the individual links that summary was calculated from. That second part is the point — you can check the reasoning rather than take a score on trust.

5,000

rows maximum

per request

credit

for the whole response

Yes

de-duplication

one per referring domain, optionally

Backlinks

1 credit

Up to 5,000 backlink rows for a domain, plus a link profile summary.

Request

GET https://domdetailer.com/api2/getBacklinks.php?apikey=YOUR_KEY&app=YourApp&domain=example.com

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`apikey`	string	Required	Your account API key.
`app`	string	Required	A short identifier for your integration.
`domain`	string	Required	The target domain. Send a bare hostname.
`onePerDomain`	boolean	Optional	Return at most one link per referring domain. Useful for outreach lists, where a hundred links from one site are one prospect.
`subdomain`	boolean	Optional	Treat the value in `domain` as a subdomain and query it directly rather than rolling up to the registrable domain.

Response fields

Profile summary (metrics)

Field	Type	Meaning
`page_count`	number	Pages of the target in our index.
`links_in`	number	External inbound links observed.
`links_out`	number	External outbound links observed.
`backlinks_follow`	number	Inbound links without a nofollow attribute.
`backlinks_nofollow`	number	Inbound links carrying nofollow.
`nofollow_ratio`	number	Nofollow share as a percentage, 0-100.
`ref_domains`	number	Unique referring domains.
`links_from_edu`	number	Inbound links from .edu domains.
`links_from_gov`	number	Inbound links from .gov domains.
`language_share`	object	Optional. Percentage share per detected language across the referring pages, largest first. Omitted when we have no language data.

Each backlink row

Field	Type	Meaning
`anchor`	string	Visible link text. May be empty, in which case fall back to title.
`title`	string	Title of the page carrying the link.
`nf`	number	1 when the link is nofollow, 0 when it is not.
`source`	string	URL of the page containing the link.
`target`	string	URL on the target domain being linked to.

What each metric actually tells you, and which combinations catch a manipulated profile, is covered in the field reference.

Example response

200 OK · application/json

{
    "domain": "domdetailer.com",
    "metrics": {
        "page_count": 364,
        "links_in": 504,
        "links_out": 2114,
        "backlinks_follow": 469,
        "backlinks_nofollow": 35,
        "nofollow_ratio": 6.9,
        "ref_domains": 215,
        "links_from_gov": 0,
        "links_from_edu": 0
    },
    "backlinks": [
        {
            "anchor": "Domdetailer.com",
            "title": "Domdetailer.com",
            "nf": 1,
            "source": "https://bestfew.com/elementor-test/",
            "target": "https://domdetailer.com/"
        },
        {
            "anchor": "DomDetailer Homepage",
            "title": "https://domdetailer.com/",
            "nf": 0,
            "source": "https://docu.gsa-online.de/proxy_scraper/url_metrics",
            "target": "https://domdetailer.com/"
        }
    ]
}

Code

curl

curl -G https://domdetailer.com/api2/getBacklinks.php \
  --data-urlencode "apikey=YOUR_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "app=YourApp" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=example.com"

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://domdetailer.com/api2/getBacklinks.php",
    params={        "apikey": "YOUR_KEY",        "app": "YourApp",        "domain": "example.com",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
r.raise_for_status()
data = r.json()

Node.js

const url = new URL("https://domdetailer.com/api2/getBacklinks.php");
Object.entries({
  apikey: "YOUR_KEY",
  app: "YourApp",
  domain: "example.com",
}).forEach(([k, v]) => url.searchParams.set(k, v));

const res = await fetch(url);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();

PHP

$qs = http_build_query([
    'apikey' => 'YOUR_KEY',
    'app' => 'YourApp',
    'domain' => 'example.com',
]);

$json = file_get_contents(
    'https://domdetailer.com/api2/getBacklinks.php?' . $qs
);
$data = json_decode($json, true);

Using it well

Send bare domains

Pass example.com rather than a full URL. Protocols, a leading www. and any path are stripped for you, but sending them wastes a round trip if the result is not what you expected.

Use onePerDomain for outreach

A hundred links from one site is one relationship, not a hundred prospects. onePerDomain=1 collapses them so 5,000 rows means up to 5,000 distinct referring domains.

Read anchor with a fallback

anchor can legitimately be empty - image links carry no text. Fall back to title before treating it as missing data.

Treat counts as a floor

Our crawl coverage is deep but not total. A Pretty count is a firm lower bound on what exists, not an exact total, and should be read that way when comparing against Majestic.

Cache, and throttle

This endpoint is heavier than domain metrics. Five concurrent requests is a sensible ceiling, and a backlink profile is worth caching for days rather than minutes.

Errors

The same status codes and error slugs as the rest of the API. A failed request is never charged.

Status	error	When it happens
400	`missing_parameter`	A required parameter is absent, or the domain could not be parsed as a hostname.
401	`invalid_api_key`	The key is missing, malformed, or not attached to an account.
402	`not_enough_credits`	The account has no credits left. Nothing was charged.
404	`account_not_found`	The key or email did not match any account.
429	`rate_limited`	Too many requests. The body carries `retry_after` in seconds - wait that long rather than retrying immediately.
502	`upstream_error`	A data source failed to respond. Safe to retry after a short pause.
500	`server_error`	Something went wrong on our side. If it persists, tell us what you sent.

Questions

How many backlinks can one request return?

Up to 5,000 rows. For domains with larger profiles, use onePerDomain=1 to get one link per referring domain, which usually tells you more per row than 5,000 links from a handful of sites.

Is the order of the rows meaningful?

No. Row order is not guaranteed and should not be treated as a ranking. Sort on whatever matters to you after you receive them.

Can I page through more than 5,000 links?

Not yet. Paginated link lists are part of the Pretty V2 work described on the dataset page.

Start at 25,000 lookups for $34.

One balance covers the browser tools, the desktop app and the API. Nothing renews, nothing expires, and you can stop using it for six months without losing anything.

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