This endpoint will provide you with historical backlinks data back to the beginning of 2019. You can receive the number of backlinks a given domain had in a specific time period, the number of new & lost backlinks, referring domains, and more.
POST
Your account will be charged for each request.
The cost can be calculated on the Pricing page.
All POST data should be sent in the JSON format (UTF-8 encoding). The task setting is done using the POST method. When setting a task, you should send all task parameters in the task array of the generic POST array. You can send up to 2000 API calls per minute.
You can specify the time range, and we will provide historical backlink data within the set period.
Below you will find a detailed description of the fields you can use for setting a task.
Description of the fields for setting a task:
| Field name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
target |
string | domain required field a domain should be specified without https:// and www. |
date_from |
string | starting date of the time range optional field minimum value 2019-01-01if you don’t specify this field, the minimum value will be used by default date format: "yyyy-mm-dd"example: "2019-01-15" |
date_to |
string | ending date of the time range optional field if you don’t specify this field, the today’s date will be used by default date format: "yyyy-mm-dd"example: "2019-01-15" |
rank_scale |
string | defines the scale used for calculating and displaying the rank, domain_from_rank, and page_from_rank valuesoptional field you can use this parameter to choose whether rank values are presented on a 0–100 or 0–1000 scale possible values: default value: learn more about how this parameter works and how ranking metrics are calculated in this Help Center article |
tag |
string | user-defined task identifier optional field the character limit is 255 you can use this parameter to identify the task and match it with the result you will find the specified tag value in the data object of the response |
As a response of the API server, you will receive JSON-encoded data containing a tasks array with the information specific to the set tasks.
Description of the fields in the results array:
| Field name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
version |
string | the current version of the API |
status_code |
integer | general status code you can find the full list of the response codes here Note: we strongly recommend designing a necessary system for handling related exceptional or error conditions |
status_message |
string | general informational message you can find the full list of general informational messages here |
time |
string | execution time, seconds |
cost |
float | total tasks cost, USD |
tasks_count |
integer | the number of tasks in the tasks array |
tasks_error |
integer | the number of tasks in the tasks array returned with an error |
tasks |
array | array of tasks |
id |
string | task identifier unique task identifier in our system in the UUID format |
status_code |
integer | status code of the task generated by DataForSEO; can be within the following range: 10000-60000 you can find the full list of the response codes here |
status_message |
string | informational message of the task you can find the full list of general informational messages here |
time |
string | execution time, seconds |
cost |
float | cost of the task, USD |
result_count |
integer | number of elements in the result array |
path |
array | URL path |
data |
object | contains the same parameters that you specified in the POST request |
result |
array | array of results |
target |
string | target from the POST array |
date_from |
string | starting date of the time range in the UTC format: “yyyy-mm-dd” example: 2019-01-01 |
date_to |
string | ending date of the time range in the UTC format: "yyyy-mm-dd"example: "2019-01-15" |
items_count |
integer | the number of results returned in the items array |
items |
array | contains historical backlink data for the specified domain the data is provided month-by-month; the metrics are aggregated according to the backlinks the specified domain had on the first day of each given month |
type |
string | type of element = ‘backlinks_history’ |
date |
string | date and time when the data for the target was stored in the UTC format: “yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss +00:00” example: 2019-11-15 12:57:46 +00:00
|
rank |
integer | domain rank on the given datelearn more about the metric and how it is calculated in this help center article |
backlinks |
integer | number of backlinks |
new_backlinks |
integer | number of new backlinks for the targetdata is provided based in a comparison with the previous period Note: this data is available from May 2021; if the date range specified in the POST request precedes May 2021, the field will equal 0 |
lost_backlinks |
integer | number of lost backlinks for the targetdata is provided based in a comparison with the previous period Note: this data is available from May 2021; if the date range specified in the POST request precedes May 2021, the field will equal 0
|
new_referring_domains |
integer | number of new referring domains for the targetdata is provided based in a comparison with the previous period Note: this data is available from May 2021; if the date range specified in the POST request precedes May 2021, the field will equal 0
|
lost_referring_domains |
integer | number of lost referring domains for the targetdata is provided based in a comparison with the previous period Note: this data is available from May 2021; if the date range specified in the POST request precedes May 2021, the field will equal 0
|
crawled_pages |
integer | number of crawled pages for the target |
info |
object | information about the target |
server |
string | server |
cms |
string | content management system |
platform_type |
array | platform type |
ip_address |
string | IP address of the target |
country |
string | country code that the target domain is determined to belong to |
is_ip |
boolean | indicates if the target is IPif true, the domain, subdomain or webpage functions as an IP address and does not have a domain name |
target_spam_score |
integer | spam score of the targetif the target is a domain/subdomain, this fields indicates the average spam score of all pages of that domain/subdomain;learn more about how the metric is calculated on this help center page |
internal_links_count |
integer | number of internal links calculated as the sum of internal links on the pages of the specified target |
external_links_count |
integer | number of external links on the page calculated as the sum of external links on the pages of the specified target |
broken_backlinks |
integer | number of broken backlinks number of broken backlinks pointing to the target |
broken_pages |
integer | number of broken pages number of pages that receive backlinks but respond with 4xx or 5xx status codes |
referring_domains |
integer | number of referring domains referring domains include subdomains that are counted as separate domains for this metric |
referring_domains_nofollow |
integer | number of domains pointing at least one nofollow link to the target
|
referring_main_domains |
integer | number of referring main domains |
referring_main_domains_nofollow |
integer | number of main domains pointing at least one nofollow link to the target |
referring_ips |
integer | number of referring IP addresses number of IP addresses pointing to this page |
referring_subnets |
integer | number of referring subnetworks |
referring_pages |
integer | number of pages pointing to the target |
referring_links_tld |
object | top-level domains of the referring links contains top-level domains and referring link count per each |
referring_links_types |
object | types of referring links indicates the types of the referring links and link count per each type possible values: anchor, image, link, meta, canonical, alternate, redirect |
referring_links_attributes |
object | link attributes of the referring links indicates link attributes of the referring links and link count per each attribute |
referring_links_platform_types |
object | types of referring platforms indicates referring platform types and and link count per each platform possible values: |
referring_links_semantic_locations |
object | semantic locations of the referring links indicates semantic elements in HTML where the referring links are located and link count per each semantic location you can get the full list of semantic elements here examples: article, section, summary |
referring_links_countries |
object | ISO country codes of the referring links indicates ISO country codes of the domains where the referring links are located and the link count per each country |
referring_pages_nofollow |
integer | number of referring pages pointing at least one nofollow link to the target |
Instead of ‘login’ and ‘password’ use your credentials from https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access
# Instead of 'login' and 'password' use your credentials from https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access
login="login"
password="password"
cred="$(printf ${login}:${password} | base64)"
curl --location --request POST "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/history/live"
--header "Authorization: Basic ${cred}"
--header "Content-Type: application/json"
--data-raw "[
{
"target": "cnn.com",
"date_from": "2020-01-01",
"date_to": "2021-01-01"
}
]"<?php
// You can download this file from here https://cdn.dataforseo.com/v3/examples/php/php_RestClient.zip
require('RestClient.php');
$api_url = 'https://api.dataforseo.com/';
// Instead of 'login' and 'password' use your credentials from https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access
$client = new RestClient($api_url, null, 'login', 'password');
$post_array = array();
// simple way to set a task
$post_array[] = array(
"target" => "cnn.com",
"date_from" => "2020-01-01",
"date_to" => "2021-01-01"
);
try {
// POST /v3/backlinks/history/live
$result = $client->post('/v3/backlinks/history/live', $post_array);
print_r($result);
// do something with post result
} catch (RestClientException $e) {
echo "n";
print "HTTP code: {$e->getHttpCode()}n";
print "Error code: {$e->getCode()}n";
print "Message: {$e->getMessage()}n";
print $e->getTraceAsString();
echo "n";
}
$client = null;
?>const post_array = [];
post_array.push({
"target" => "cnn.com",
"date_from" => "2020-01-01",
"date_to" => "2021-01-01"
});
const axios = require('axios');
axios({
method: 'post',
url: 'https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/backlinks/history/live',
auth: {
username: 'login',
password: 'password'
},
data: post_array,
headers: {
'content-type': 'application/json'
}
}).then(function (response) {
var result = response['data']['tasks'];
// Result data
console.log(result);
}).catch(function (error) {
console.log(error);
});from client import RestClient
# You can download this file from here https://cdn.dataforseo.com/v3/examples/python/python_Client.zip
client = RestClient("login", "password")
post_data = dict()
# simple way to set a task
post_data[len(post_data)] = dict(
target="cnn.com",
date_from="2020-01-01",
date_to="2021-01-01"
)
# POST /v3/backlinks/history/live
response = client.post("/v3/backlinks/history/live", post_data)
# you can find the full list of the response codes here https://docs.dataforseo.com/v3/appendix/errors
if response["status_code"] == 20000:
print(response)
# do something with result
else:
print("error. Code: %d Message: %s" % (response["status_code"], response["status_message"]))using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace DataForSeoDemos
{
public static partial class Demos
{
public static async Task backlinks_history_live()
{
var httpClient = new HttpClient
{
BaseAddress = new Uri("https://api.dataforseo.com/"),
// Instead of 'login' and 'password' use your credentials from https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access
DefaultRequestHeaders = { Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("login:password"))) }
};
var postData = new List<object>();
postData.Add(new
{
target = "dataforseo.com",
date_from = "2020-01-01",
date_to = "2021-01-01"
});
// POST /v3/backlinks/history/live
// the full list of possible parameters is available in documentation
var taskPostResponse = await httpClient.PostAsync("/v3/backlinks/history/live", new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(postData)));
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(await taskPostResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
// you can find the full list of the response codes here https://docs.dataforseo.com/v3/appendix/errors
if (result.status_code == 20000)
{
// do something with result
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
else
Console.WriteLine($"error. Code: {result.status_code} Message: {result.status_message}");
}
}
}The above command returns JSON structured like this:
{
"version": "0.1.20230825",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.1571 sec.",
"cost": 0.02012,
"tasks_count": 1,
"tasks_error": 0,
"tasks": [
{
"id": "09291750-1535-0266-0000-7aab5e588023",
"status_code": 20000,
"status_message": "Ok.",
"time": "0.0662 sec.",
"cost": 0.02012,
"result_count": 1,
"path": [
"v3",
"backlinks",
"history",
"live"
],
"data": {
"api": "backlinks",
"function": "history",
"target": "ibm.com",
"date_from": "2020-08-01",
"date_to": "2021-01-01"
},
"result": [
{
"target": "ibm.com",
"date_from": "2020-08-01",
"date_to": "2021-01-01",
"items_count": 4,
"items": [
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-08-31 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 598,
"backlinks": 7960551,
"new_backlinks": 528250,
"lost_backlinks": 243962,
"new_referring_domains": 3439,
"lost_referring_domains": 860,
"crawled_pages": 2317216,
"info": {
"server": null,
"cms": null,
"platform_type": null,
"ip_address": "104.109.76.210",
"country": null,
"is_ip": false,
"target_spam_score": 0
},
"internal_links_count": 48310894,
"external_links_count": 7036559,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 150008,
"referring_domains": 191515,
"referring_domains_nofollow": 4489,
"referring_main_domains": 146676,
"referring_main_domains_nofollow": 3438,
"referring_ips": 95885,
"referring_subnets": 54931,
"referring_pages": 7265491,
"referring_links_tld": {
"com": 3581003,
"org": 883349,
"tv": 868565,
"edu": 595793,
"net": 347933,
"ru": 115490,
"io": 113234,
"de": 61048,
"com.br": 55193,
"fr": 34685
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 7206570,
"redirect": 57359,
"canonical": 1545,
"alternate": 17
},
"referring_links_attributes": {
"nofollow": 973850,
"noopener": 753384,
"noreferrer": 144929,
"external": 82838,
"ugc": 6768,
"bookmark": 1519,
"alternate": 668,
"author": 474,
"tag": 350,
"sponsored": 110
},
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"unknown": 6418758,
"cms": 696561,
"blogs": 631531,
"wikis": 38885,
"ecommerce": 18248,
"message-boards": 15656
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"": 3687993,
"footer": 1779772,
"section": 997508,
"article": 426672,
"aside": 114124,
"header": 111368,
"nav": 103593,
"main": 38299,
"figure": 4910,
"figcaption": 889
},
"referring_links_countries": null,
"referring_pages_nofollow": 33339
},
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-09-30 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 600,
"backlinks": 8231030,
"new_backlinks": 407125,
"lost_backlinks": 155261,
"new_referring_domains": 4555,
"lost_referring_domains": 751,
"crawled_pages": 2390151,
"info": {
"server": "ustream/web",
"cms": null,
"platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"ip_address": "104.109.76.210",
"country": null,
"is_ip": false,
"target_spam_score": 0
},
"internal_links_count": 48306246,
"external_links_count": 6814735,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 153405,
"referring_domains": 196837,
"referring_domains_nofollow": 4730,
"referring_main_domains": 150753,
"referring_main_domains_nofollow": 3635,
"referring_ips": 98439,
"referring_subnets": 55945,
"referring_pages": 7523423,
"referring_links_tld": {
"com": 3649487,
"org": 1011765,
"tv": 867263,
"edu": 597002,
"net": 355506,
"ru": 138864,
"io": 115358,
"de": 68799,
"com.br": 57495,
"fr": 34360
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 7462829,
"redirect": 58950,
"canonical": 1626,
"alternate": 18
},
"referring_links_attributes": {
"nofollow": 971813,
"noopener": 748692,
"noreferrer": 154975,
"external": 85418,
"ugc": 7674,
"bookmark": 2439,
"alternate": 676,
"author": 415,
"tag": 356,
"sponsored": 116
},
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"unknown": 6630888,
"cms": 737977,
"blogs": 673558,
"wikis": 39589,
"ecommerce": 19351,
"message-boards": 16027
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"": 3761537,
"footer": 1935941,
"section": 986991,
"article": 445547,
"header": 120263,
"aside": 116787,
"nav": 108846,
"main": 40953,
"figure": 5269,
"figcaption": 929
},
"referring_links_countries": null,
"referring_pages_nofollow": 36250
},
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-10-31 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 602,
"backlinks": 8561190,
"new_backlinks": 455524,
"lost_backlinks": 156158,
"new_referring_domains": 4580,
"lost_referring_domains": 388,
"crawled_pages": 2485792,
"info": {
"server": null,
"cms": null,
"platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"ip_address": "104.109.76.210",
"country": null,
"is_ip": false,
"target_spam_score": 0
},
"internal_links_count": 49573669,
"external_links_count": 6900594,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 157439,
"referring_domains": 203646,
"referring_domains_nofollow": 4969,
"referring_main_domains": 155524,
"referring_main_domains_nofollow": 3812,
"referring_ips": 101117,
"referring_subnets": 57034,
"referring_pages": 7831950,
"referring_links_tld": {
"com": 3718284,
"org": 1170115,
"tv": 867765,
"edu": 598029,
"net": 366456,
"ru": 167229,
"io": 118880,
"de": 72381,
"com.br": 65144,
"it": 35100
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 7770042,
"redirect": 60217,
"canonical": 1672,
"alternate": 19
},
"referring_links_attributes": {
"nofollow": 970935,
"noopener": 745230,
"noreferrer": 167836,
"external": 88874,
"ugc": 8085,
"bookmark": 2462,
"alternate": 687,
"author": 398,
"tag": 362,
"sponsored": 124
},
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"unknown": 6897418,
"cms": 776539,
"blogs": 710442,
"wikis": 40448,
"ecommerce": 22248,
"message-boards": 16470
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"": 3845675,
"footer": 2146663,
"section": 974315,
"article": 463646,
"header": 124594,
"aside": 118868,
"nav": 107545,
"main": 43866,
"figure": 5432,
"figcaption": 988
},
"referring_links_countries": null,
"referring_pages_nofollow": 46312
},
{
"type": "backlinks_history",
"date": "2020-12-31 00:00:00 +00:00",
"rank": 603,
"backlinks": 8900727,
"new_backlinks": 185603,
"lost_backlinks": 68434,
"new_referring_domains": 1466,
"lost_referring_domains": 153,
"crawled_pages": 2610252,
"info": {
"server": null,
"cms": null,
"platform_type": [
"unknown"
],
"ip_address": "104.109.76.210",
"country": null,
"is_ip": false,
"target_spam_score": 0
},
"internal_links_count": 52322051,
"external_links_count": 7251238,
"broken_backlinks": 0,
"broken_pages": 162728,
"referring_domains": 209218,
"referring_domains_nofollow": 5153,
"referring_main_domains": 159477,
"referring_main_domains_nofollow": 3954,
"referring_ips": 103145,
"referring_subnets": 57852,
"referring_pages": 8156763,
"referring_links_tld": {
"com": 3766489,
"org": 1352682,
"tv": 868091,
"edu": 598769,
"net": 376591,
"ru": 206205,
"io": 127906,
"de": 76675,
"com.br": 71597,
"it": 37572
},
"referring_links_types": {
"anchor": 8093750,
"redirect": 61248,
"canonical": 1745,
"alternate": 20
},
"referring_links_attributes": {
"nofollow": 970410,
"noopener": 736981,
"noreferrer": 175502,
"external": 91788,
"ugc": 8854,
"bookmark": 2472,
"alternate": 659,
"author": 401,
"tag": 366,
"sponsored": 133
},
"referring_links_platform_types": {
"unknown": 7201817,
"cms": 793888,
"blogs": 726552,
"wikis": 41098,
"ecommerce": 24428,
"message-boards": 16765
},
"referring_links_semantic_locations": {
"": 3939792,
"footer": 2366930,
"section": 963461,
"article": 477386,
"header": 131548,
"aside": 121288,
"nav": 102878,
"main": 46563,
"figure": 5535,
"figcaption": 1020
},
"referring_links_countries": null,
"referring_pages_nofollow": 13800
}
]
}
]
}
]
}