Referring Domains API

The VebAPI Referring Domains API returns the domains linking to a website, subdomain, or exact URL. It provides aggregated backlink metrics for every referring domain, including backlink counts, referring pages, dofollow and nofollow links, spam score, broken links, referring IPs, link types, countries, TLDs, and first-seen dates.

VebAPI processes data from a database containing more than 12 billion backlinks. The backlink database is updated daily, provides 99.9% service availability, and covers approximately 95% of known domains.

What Is the Referring Domains API?

A referring domain is a unique website that contains one or more backlinks pointing to another website. For example, if ten pages from example.com link to your website, example.com counts as one referring domain and ten backlinks.

The Referring Domains API groups backlinks by their source domain. This makes it easier to evaluate backlink diversity, identify authoritative websites, detect spammy domains, monitor lost links, and analyse competitor link profiles.

API Infrastructure and Data Coverage

More than 12 billion backlinks in the database
Backlink data updated every day
99.9% service availability
Approximately 95% domain coverage
Live, lost, and historical referring-domain data
Support for domains, subdomains, and exact URLs
Pagination support for large result sets
Redirect and canonical link detection

Endpoint

GET https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains

Authentication

Every request must include your VebAPI key in the X-API-KEY request header.

X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY

Request Example

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=vebapi.com&limit=100" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

Request Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`target`	string	Required	Domain, subdomain, or exact URL to analyse. For example: `vebapi.com`, `blog.vebapi.com`, or an exact page URL. The API returns HTTP status code 422 when this parameter is missing.
`limit`	integer	100	Maximum number of referring domains to return. Accepted values range from 1 to 1000.
`offset`	integer	0	Number of referring-domain results to skip. Use `offset` together with `limit` for pagination.
`backlinks_status_type`	string	live	Controls which referring domains are returned. Available values are `live`, `lost`, and `all`.
`include_subdomains`	boolean	true	When set to `true`, the API also includes referring domains linking to subdomains of the target.
`exclude_internal_backlinks`	boolean	true	Removes the target's own domain and subdomains from the referring domain results, keeping only external domains.
`include_indirect_links`	boolean	true	Includes domains that reach the target through redirects or canonical URLs.

Referring Domain Status Types

Value	Description
`live`	Returns domains that currently contain active backlinks pointing to the target.
`lost`	Returns domains whose backlinks were previously detected but are no longer available.
`all`	Returns both currently active and lost referring domains.

Response Example

{
"engine": "Vebapi v8",
"node": "master",
"provider": "vebapi.com",
"request": {
    "target": "vebapi.com",
    "backlinks_status_type": "live",
    "limit": 100,
    "offset": 0,
    "include_subdomains": true,
    "exclude_internal_backlinks": true,
    "include_indirect_links": true
},
"counts": {
    "domains": {
        "total": 23,
        "returned": 23,
        "lost": 0
    },
    "backlinks": {
        "total": 213,
        "broken": 0,
        "referring_pages": 203,
        "noFollow_pages": 18
    }
},
"domains": [
    {
        "domain": "producthubx.com",
        "domain_inlink_rank": 25,
        "backlinks": 16,
        "referring_pages": 16,
        "doFollow_pages": 16,
        "noFollow_pages": 0,
        "spam_score": 0,
        "broken_backlinks": 0,
        "broken_pages": 0,
        "referring_ips": 1,
        "referring_subnets": 1,
        "link_types": {
            "anchor": 16
        },
        "link_attributes": null,
        "tlds": {
            "com": 16
        },
        "platform_types": {
            "unknown": 16
        },
        "countries": {
            "WW": 16
        },
        "first_seen": "2025-09-18",
        "lost_date": null
    }
]
```

}

```

Response Fields

General Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
`engine`	string	The VebAPI processing engine used for the request.
`node`	string	The infrastructure node that processed the request.
`provider`	string	The API data provider.
`request`	object	The request parameters applied to the query.
`counts`	object	Aggregated referring-domain and backlink totals.
`domains`	array	A list of referring domains and their backlink metrics.

Domain Count Fields

Field	Type	Description
`counts.domains.total`	integer	Total number of referring domains matching the request.
`counts.domains.returned`	integer	Number of referring domains returned in the current response.
`counts.domains.lost`	integer	Number of referring domains classified as lost.

Backlink Count Fields

Field	Type	Description
`counts.backlinks.total`	integer	Total number of backlinks from the matching referring domains.
`counts.backlinks.broken`	integer	Total number of detected broken backlinks.
`counts.backlinks.referring_pages`	integer	Total number of unique pages containing backlinks.
`counts.backlinks.noFollow_pages`	integer	Total number of referring pages containing nofollow links.

Referring Domain Object Fields

Field	Type	Description
`domain`	string	The referring domain linking to the target.
`domain_inlink_rank`	integer	A relative score representing the backlink authority and link strength of the referring domain.
`backlinks`	integer	Total number of backlinks from the referring domain.
`referring_pages`	integer	Number of unique pages on the referring domain that link to the target.
`doFollow_pages`	integer	Number of referring pages containing dofollow backlinks.
`noFollow_pages`	integer	Number of referring pages containing nofollow backlinks.
`spam_score`	integer	A spam-risk indicator for the referring domain. Lower values generally indicate a lower detected spam risk.
`broken_backlinks`	integer	Number of broken backlinks from the referring domain.
`broken_pages`	integer	Number of referring pages containing broken or unavailable links.
`referring_ips`	integer	Number of unique IP addresses associated with the referring pages.
`referring_subnets`	integer	Number of unique network subnets associated with the referring domain.
`link_types`	object	Distribution of backlink types, such as anchor links, image links, redirects, or canonical links.
`link_attributes`	object or null	Distribution of detected link attributes, such as sponsored, nofollow, or user-generated content attributes.
`tlds`	object	Distribution of backlinks by top-level domain, such as `com`, `org`, or `net`.
`platform_types`	object	Distribution of referring pages by detected website or platform type.
`countries`	object	Distribution of backlinks by detected country. The value `WW` represents worldwide or an undetermined country.
`first_seen`	date or null	The date on which VebAPI first detected a backlink from the domain.
`lost_date`	date or null	The date on which the referring domain's backlinks were detected as lost. This value is null for active referring domains.

Pagination

Use the limit and offset parameters to retrieve referring domains in multiple pages.

First 100 Referring Domains

GET https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=vebapi.com&limit=100&offset=0

Next 100 Referring Domains

GET https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=vebapi.com&limit=100&offset=100

Common API Request Examples

Find Live Referring Domains

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=example.com&backlinks_status_type=live" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

Find Lost Referring Domains

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=example.com&backlinks_status_type=lost" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

Find All Live and Lost Referring Domains

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=example.com&backlinks_status_type=all" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

Exclude Backlinks to Subdomains

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=example.com&include_subdomains=false" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

Exclude Redirect and Canonical Links

curl -X GET "https://vebapi.com/api/backlinks/referraldomains?target=example.com&include_indirect_links=false" \
```

-H "X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json"

```

What Can You Build With the Referring Domains API?

Backlink analysis tools
SEO dashboards
Competitor backlink research platforms
Link-building prospecting tools
Lost backlink monitoring systems
Domain authority and link-quality reports
Spam backlink detection tools
SEO audit applications
Agency reporting dashboards
AI-powered SEO assistants

Why Use the VebAPI Referring Domains API?

The VebAPI Referring Domains API allows developers, SEO agencies, SaaS platforms, and marketing teams to access structured referring-domain data without maintaining their own backlink crawler or link index.

Each response combines domain-level backlink totals with actionable metrics such as dofollow pages, nofollow pages, spam score, broken links, referring IPs, referring subnets, geographic distribution, and first-seen dates.

With more than 12 billion backlinks, daily database updates, approximately 95% domain coverage, and 99.9% service availability, VebAPI is designed for production SEO applications that require scalable backlink intelligence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the Referring Domains API return?

The API returns a list of unique domains linking to a target website, subdomain, or URL. It also returns backlink counts, referring pages, dofollow and nofollow pages, spam scores, broken links, referring IPs, link types, countries, TLDs, first-seen dates, and lost dates.

What is the difference between backlinks and referring domains?

A backlink is an individual link from one web page to another. A referring domain is the unique website that contains one or more backlinks. One referring domain may generate hundreds or thousands of backlinks.

How large is the VebAPI backlink database?

VebAPI maintains a backlink database containing more than 12 billion backlinks.

How frequently is the backlink database updated?

The VebAPI backlink database is updated every day as new links are discovered and existing links are rechecked.

What percentage of domains does VebAPI cover?

VebAPI's backlink infrastructure covers approximately 95% of known domains. Results may vary depending on the age, crawl accessibility, popularity, and visibility of a website.

Can the API find lost referring domains?

Yes. Set backlinks_status_type to lost to retrieve domains whose backlinks were previously detected but are no longer available.

Can I retrieve both live and lost domains?

Yes. Set backlinks_status_type to all to retrieve both active and lost referring domains.

Does the API include backlinks to subdomains?

Yes. The include_subdomains parameter is enabled by default. Set it to false when you only want links pointing to the specified target.

Does the API include redirects and canonical links?

Yes. Indirect links through redirects and canonical URLs are included by default. Set include_indirect_links to false to exclude them.

What is the maximum number of domains returned per request?

A single request can return up to 1,000 referring domains. Use the offset parameter to retrieve additional results.

Can I use this API for competitor backlink analysis?

Yes. You can submit a competitor's domain or URL as the target to identify websites linking to them, measure backlink diversity, discover link-building opportunities, and analyse lost referring domains.

What is the availability of the VebAPI service?

The VebAPI backlink infrastructure is designed to provide 99.9% service availability.

```

Referral Domains