Overview
The URL Backlinks block retrieves backlinks pointing to a domain or URL from Ahrefs. Each backlink includes the source page, anchor text, source Domain Rating, and traffic. Use it to audit a link profile, study competitor links, or feed link data into later steps.Configuration
Target Domain / URL (Required)
The domain or URL to analyze. Example:{{step_1.output}}
Mode
How Ahrefs interprets the target. Default: Subdomains Options:Aggregation
How backlinks are grouped in the results. Default: 1 per domain Options:
Use
1 per domain for a quick view of unique link sources. Use All to inspect every individual link.
Limit
Maximum number of results to return. Default: 10 Range: 1–1000 Example:50
Output Format
How the block returns data to the next step. Default: Text (Human Readable) Options:
Choose
JSON (Raw) when a later step needs to read individual fields. Choose Text when feeding results into an LLM block.
Error Handling
Define what happens if the block fails to retrieve data. Options:- Terminate workflow: Stop execution immediately.
- Continue execution: Proceed to the next step despite the error.
- Retry: Run the block again until it succeeds, up to the Number of retries you choose (1–5). If every retry fails, the workflow stops at this block.
Output Data
When Output Format isJSON (Raw), the block returns a list of backlinks. Each item includes:
url_from
The page that links to the target. Example:"https://blog.example.com/best-crm-tools"
url_to
The target page that receives the link. Example:"https://hubspot.com/products/crm"
anchor
The clickable anchor text of the link. Example:"HubSpot CRM"
domain_rating_source
Ahrefs Domain Rating (0–100) of the linking domain. Example:72
traffic
Estimated monthly organic traffic of the source page. Example:4500
is_dofollow
Whether the link passes ranking value. Example:true
first_seen_link
When Ahrefs first discovered the link. Example:"2023-08-14T09:21:00Z"
When Output Format is Text, these same fields are returned as readable markdown instead of JSON.
Sample Output
Best Practices
- Start with
1 per domainaggregation to see unique link sources quickly. - Raise the Limit only when you need deeper data; large limits cost more Ahrefs units.
- Use
JSON (Raw)when saving results to Google Sheets or processing in code. - Use
Textwhen passing results into an LLM block for analysis. - Run inside a Loop block to audit several targets in one workflow.
- Filter by
domain_rating_sourcein a later step to focus on high-authority links.
Common Use Cases
What’s Next
- See referring sites in URL Referring Domains
- Find dead links in URL Broken Backlinks
- Check authority in Domain Rating
- Compare many targets with Batch Analysis
- Process multiple targets with the Loop Block
- Save data in Google Sheets
- Analyze results with the LLM Block
- Reference step outputs with Variable Referencing