Where the data comes from

Backlinks API does not crawl the web itself. The data comes from an independent web link index run by our data partner with its own crawler. It holds about 832 373 462 919 links and is refreshed roughly once a month. We add caching, our own API, limits, tools and support on top of it.

What the numbers mean

• Backlink — one link from a page on another site to the domain.
• Referring domain — a unique site with at least one such link. A hundred links from one site are a hundred backlinks but one referring domain.
• Domain Rating (DR) — a 0–100 authority score of the index, based on how many and how strong the domains linking to a site are. It is calculated on this index only.
• Dofollow / nofollow — whether the link carries a rel="nofollow" (or ugc/sponsored) attribute.

Why numbers differ from Ahrefs, Moz or Semrush

Each service has its own crawler, its own index and its own formula. Counts and DR from different tools are not comparable one to one; compare sites within one tool. Our DR is not Ahrefs DR, even though the scale looks similar.

Freshness

The index is refreshed roughly monthly, so links that appeared in the last weeks may not be counted yet, and removed links may still be shown. Every report shows when a domain was first and last seen. API answers are cached for up to 7 days.

Limits and honesty

No index sees the whole web. Use the data as an estimate for comparisons and trends, not as a complete list. If something looks wrong, write to us — we check it with the data partner.