backlinks/history/live – DataForSEO API v.3

Backlinks History

‌
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.

Historical data is available from 2019-01-01.

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, each Live API call can contain only one task. The maximum number of calls that can be sent simultaneously is limited to 30.

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 `2019-01-01` if 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` values optional field you can use this parameter to choose whether rank values are presented on a 0–100 or 0–1000 scale possible values: `one_hundred` — rank values are displayed on a 0–100 scale `one_thousand` — rank values are displayed on a 0–1000 scale default value: `one_thousand` 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'n
`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 `date` learn 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 `target` data 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 `target` data 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 `target` data 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 `target` data 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 IP if `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 `target` if 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: `cms`, `blogs`, `ecommerce`, `message-boards`, `wikis`, `news`, `organization`
`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
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}