Overview
The URL Referring Domains block lists the unique domains that link to a target. Each domain includes its Domain Rating, dofollow link counts, and estimated traffic. Use it to measure link diversity and find authoritative sites that reference a target.Configuration
Target Domain / URL (Required)
The domain or URL to analyze. Example:{{step_1.output}}
Mode
How Ahrefs interprets the target. Default: Subdomains Options:Limit
Maximum number of results to return. Default: 10 Range: 1–1000 Example:25
Output Format
How the block returns data to the next step. Default: Text (Human Readable) Options: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 referring domains. Each item includes:
domain
The referring domain. Example:"techcrunch.com"
domain_rating
Ahrefs Domain Rating (0–100) of the referring domain. Example:91
dofollow_refdomains
Count of dofollow referring domains pointing to that domain. Example:54000
dofollow_linked_domains
Count of dofollow domains that this domain links out to. Example:12000
traffic_domain
Estimated monthly organic traffic of the referring domain. Example:8500000
first_seen
When Ahrefs first discovered a link from this domain. Example:"2022-11-03T14:05:00Z"
When Output Format is Text, these same fields are returned as readable markdown instead of JSON.
Sample Output
Best Practices
- Use referring domains to gauge link diversity, not raw backlink count.
- Sort by
domain_ratingin a later step to surface the most authoritative sources. - Use
JSON (Raw)when saving results to Google Sheets or processing in code. - Raise the Limit gradually; larger limits cost more Ahrefs units.
- Run inside a Loop block to compare referring domains across competitors.
Common Use Cases
What’s Next
- See individual links in URL Backlinks
- 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