About DarkSEO and the people who read our guides
We built DarkSEO for people who woke up to a traffic graph that fell off a ledge and a link report full of strangers.
What we are
DarkSEO is a developer API and a free online explorer for backlinks, referring domains, anchor text, top pages and a 0 to 100 Domain Rating. Every answer arrives as JSON.
The data comes from our own crawler and our own index: 181,132,097 domains, 2,774,625,913 domain-to-domain links and about 798.5 billion backlinks. The index refreshes roughly once a month.
Guides on this site are written by the DarkSEO research team. We do not publish named case studies, and we do not claim customer results we have not recorded.
Think of it as link monitoring for owners rather than for link builders. The same data serves both, but the questions we write about come from the owner's side.
Where the data comes from
Our own crawler and our own index sit behind every number on this site. The counts are the same ones that answer API calls, so a figure in a guide and a figure in a response should match at the time of the pull.
The index refreshes roughly once a month, so treat every count as a monthly record. A link placed this week may not show yet, and our pages say so when they mention a count.
Who writes the guides
The guides are written by the DarkSEO research team, not by a named author. That choice keeps attention on the method rather than on a personality, so a guide stands or falls by its steps and its numbers.
Our rule is simple. A number about the product must come from the product facts we publish, and nothing else counts as a source for it.
Why a defensive angle
Link tools usually speak to people who want more links. Fewer speak to someone staring at a spam flood at midnight.
Our pages are written for that reader: what to measure, what to leave alone, and when a disavow file is the wrong tool. We do not teach how to attack other sites, and we will not sell it.
The reader at midnight
Picture the person who opens a link report at midnight, sees a column of unfamiliar domains and needs to decide by morning. That reader has a site to protect and a short list of questions. Our pages start from those questions.
They do not start from a list of sites to build links to, and they do not start with tactics for pushing rankings up. The defensive angle is what we chose to write about.
What we leave out
We do not teach how to attack another site, and we will not sell that service under any name. Guides that would help an attacker are not written here.
Everything on this site is framed as a way to measure, log and decide.
What we do not do
We are not a rank tracker, a keyword database or a full audit suite. For those, Ahrefs and Semrush are the fuller products.
We cannot name who built a set of links. We can show that they exist and describe their shape.
Nothing here guarantees a ranking, a recovery or a penalty removal. Google decides, and its updates, such as the March 2024 core update, can change the picture.
We also do not sell reputation repair or removal outreach. If a vendor offers to delete hundreds of links for a flat fee, ask which sites they contacted and what they sent.
Not a rank tracker
We do not track keyword positions over time, and we do not run a keyword database. For that kind of work, Ahrefs and Semrush are the fuller products, and their monitoring is built around it.
Our API answers link questions. Ask it about links and it will answer. Ask it about positions and you need a different tool, which is the honest answer.
Not a removal service
We do not contact webmasters to remove links, and we do not sell reputation repair. A disavow file is a decision you make with your own evidence, not a service you buy.
If a vendor promises to clear hundreds of links for a flat fee, ask for the list of sites they contacted before any money changes hands.
What the link data can and cannot tell you
Link data is a good instrument for a narrow job and a poor instrument for a broad one. The guides on this site use it for the narrow job, and they say so when a question goes further than that.
A routine of link monitoring is worth keeping for exactly this reason. It answers small questions every month, and it leaves the large ones to the other tools on your desk.
What a link count can show
A count can show that new referring domains arrived, which anchors they used and which pages they point at. It can also show that a pattern repeats month after month.
Those facts support a decision. They rarely make one on their own.
What it cannot show
A link list does not say who placed a link, why it was placed, or whether Google has discounted it. It cannot prove a penalty, and it cannot explain a fall in clicks by itself.
When a guide reaches that edge, it stops and points to the Search Console report or the update calendar instead.
The guides here lean defensive. Each one asks what the data shows before it asks what to do. Evidence comes first, because most scary link spikes turn out to be noise that Google already discounts, and a rushed disavow file can remove links that were helping.
Our method stays plain. Export the profile, date it, and compare it with last month's export. A spike that is only a handful of referring domains is a different animal from a flood of thousands, and the numbers decide which routine you follow.
We also say what the data cannot do. Link counts will not prove who built a link, and they will not tell you why a page lost traffic. They narrow the field, nothing more. Keep a log and review it on a fixed day each month.
Questions we choose to answer
The topics on this site come from the problems site owners describe when they are worried. Think of a sudden drop, a strange anchor or a page they never wrote. Each one turns into a question. We can write it down.
We then ask which of those problems the data can actually answer. Some can be answered, some are only partly visible, and some lie outside our reach, such as who built a link.
Problems the data can answer
A link list can show that a cluster appeared, which anchors it used and which pages it targeted. Those are the questions we answer with the most confidence.
Keep the question narrow. Did the links change this month, and by how much? A narrow question has an answer you can check against your own export.
Problems only partly visible
Traffic drops often have several causes, and a link count is only one of them. Our guides say which parts of the picture the data shows and which parts it leaves out, so a reader knows where the evidence stops.
How billing works
Credit is prepaid. One credit costs $0.0001, so calls start at $0.10 per 1,000. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum. New accounts receive $100 free credit, no card needed.
You sign in with a Google account, and top-ups are made in USDT (TRC-20) from the account page.
Start with the 48-hour runbook if you are in the middle of an incident, or the monthly watch guide if you are calm.
Credit and price
Credit is prepaid, so calls are paid from a balance rather than from a plan. The free lookups cost nothing, and paid calls are priced in credits, with 1 credit at $0.0001.
At one credit a call, a thousand of the cheapest calls cost $0.10. A check of referring domains costs 2 credits, or $0.0002.
Sign-in and top-ups
Sign in with a Google account. Top-ups are made in USDT (TRC-20) from the account page, and nothing else is needed to start.
An HTTP 402 response means the credit has run out, so keep a top-up route in any script you run on a schedule.
Contact
Use your account page to reach us. We do not publish other contact addresses on this site.
Questions about DarkSEO
Four questions come up often enough to answer here, in short form.
Is DarkSEO a rank tracker?
No. It is a backlink data API and a free explorer. For keyword positions and a fresher crawl, the fuller products are Ahrefs or Semrush.
Who is behind the guides?
The DarkSEO research team. The guides carry no personal byline, and they do not feature named customer case studies.
Does the API need a card to start?
No. New accounts receive $100 of free credit, and sign-in uses a Google account.
Where do the numbers come from?
From our own crawler and our own link index. The index refreshes roughly once a month, so read any count as the state at the last pull.
How we write
Each guide starts from a situation a site owner meets, such as a sudden drop, a strange anchor or a hosting scare, and ends with a decision you can write down.
Where we use numbers that are not product facts, we label them as an example. Real Google updates are named with their months so you can check them against your own graph.
Sentences and examples
Our examples are labelled as examples. A figure that only illustrates a point says so in the sentence that introduces it, and a real product figure comes from the product facts.
We keep sentences short where the decision sits, and let them run longer where a reason needs room.
Numbers we label
When we use a number that is not a product fact, such as a worked threshold, the text marks it as an example before the number appears.
A figure without a label is a mistake in our text, not a fact about the web, so check it against your own records first.
