> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.markifact.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Get Backlink Anchors

> Get the anchor text distribution of a link profile from DataForSEO, one row per anchor with its backlinks, referring domains, rank and spam score, to check whether anchors look natural or over-opti...

Get the anchor text distribution of a link profile from DataForSEO, one row per anchor with its backlinks, referring domains, rank and spam score, to check whether anchors look natural or over-optimised for exact-match keywords. Needs the DataForSEO Backlinks subscription.

|                      |                                   |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| **App**              | DataForSEO                        |
| **Operation ID**     | `dataforseo_get_backlink_anchors` |
| **Type**             | Action                            |
| **Connection**       | `dataforseo` (required)           |
| **Credits per run**  | Free                              |
| **Agent / MCP tool** | Yes                               |

## Inputs

| Field                        | Type                       | Required | Default        | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ---------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------- | -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `target`                     | string                     | Yes      | -              | Domain, subdomain or page to analyse. Domains go in bare (example.com, blog.example.com); a single page needs its full URL (`https://example.com/pricing`).                                                                                                                             |
| `include_subdomains`         | boolean                    | No       | `True`         | Count links to subdomains of the target as well. Defaults to true.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| `exclude_internal_backlinks` | boolean                    | No       | `True`         | Leave out links coming from the target's own subdomains. Defaults to true.                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| `backlinks_status_type`      | string or SelectableOption | No       | `live`         | Which backlinks to count: 'live' (default, found on the last crawl), 'all' (live and lost together) or 'lost' (only links that disappeared).                                                                                                                                            |
| `rank_scale`                 | string or SelectableOption | No       | `one_thousand` | Scale for the rank, domain\_from\_rank and page\_from\_rank values: 'one\_thousand' (DataForSEO's default, 0 to 1000) or 'one\_hundred' (0 to 100, comparable to the domain ratings other SEO tools show).                                                                              |
| `top_n`                      | integer                    | No       | `5`            | How many entries to keep in each distribution per row (top TLDs, countries, link types), 1 to 10. Defaults to 5.                                                                                                                                                                        |
| `filters`                    | array of FilterItem        | No       | -              | Up to 8 filters on anchor fields, e.g. backlinks GREATER\_THAN 10, referring\_domains GREATER\_THAN 3, anchor CONTAINS seo tools, backlinks\_spam\_score LESS\_THAN 30.                                                                                                                 |
| `orders`                     | array of OrderItem         | No       | -              | Sort by up to 3 anchor fields, e.g. backlinks DESC or referring\_domains DESC.                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| `limit`                      | integer                    | No       | `100`          | Maximum number of anchors to return (1 to 1000). Defaults to 100.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| `offset`                     | integer                    | No       | -              | Number of rows to skip, for paging.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| `fields`                     | string or array of string  | No       | -              | Result columns to keep, e.g. anchor, rank, backlinks, referring\_pages, referring\_domains, backlinks\_spam\_score, broken\_backlinks, first\_seen, lost\_date, referring\_links\_types, referring\_links\_countries. Leave empty for the default set listed in the output description. |

### FilterItem

| Field      | Type                       | Required | Default | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| ---------- | -------------------------- | -------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `field`    | string or SelectableOption | Yes      | -       | The field to filter on, must be one of the current selected metrics or dimensions.                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| `operator` | string                     | Yes      | -       | The operator to use for filtering. Must be one of the supported values. Use REGEXP\_MATCH to search/filter by multiple OR values like '.*(summer\|holiday).*'                                                                                                                               |
| `value`    | string                     | Yes      | -       | The value to filter by, always as a string: text, a number, or a regex. For IN\_LIST and NOT\_IN\_LIST, pass the values as one comma-separated string such as 'a,b,c', not as an array. For regex values, escape backslashes once in the JSON string: write \b for a word boundary, not \b. |

### OrderItem

| Field       | Type                       | Required | Default | Description                                                                      |
| ----------- | -------------------------- | -------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `field`     | string or SelectableOption | Yes      | -       | The field to sort by. must be one of the current selected metrics or dimensions. |
| `direction` | string                     | Yes      | -       | The order to sort by, must be one of 'ASC', 'DESC'                               |

### SelectableOption

| Field   | Type   | Required | Default | Description |
| ------- | ------ | -------- | ------- | ----------- |
| `value` | string | Yes      | -       |             |
| `label` | string | Yes      | -       |             |

## Output

**Type**: `List[Dict]`

Returns one row per anchor. Default columns: anchor, rank, backlinks, referring\_pages, referring\_domains, referring\_ips, backlinks\_spam\_score, broken\_backlinks, referring\_links\_types, referring\_links\_countries, first\_seen, lost\_date. Other columns available through fields include referring\_main\_domains, referring\_pages\_nofollow, referring\_subnets, broken\_pages and the remaining referring\_links\_\* maps.

**Fields**: `anchor`, `rank`, `backlinks`, `referring_domains`, `backlinks_spam_score`

**Example**:

```json theme={"dark"}
[
  {
    "anchor": "backlink checker",
    "rank": 388,
    "backlinks": 940,
    "referring_domains": 210,
    "backlinks_spam_score": 9
  }
]
```