Ahrefs Domain Overview

The Ahrefs Domain Overview node reads a domain's current Domain Rating, backlink volume and estimated organic traffic from the Ahrefs API v3, with per-organisation caching to save API units.

What does the Ahrefs Domain Overview node do?#

The Ahrefs Domain Overview node reads a domain’s current standing from the Ahrefs API v3 Site Explorer: Domain Rating and Ahrefs Rank, backlink and referring-domain counts, and estimated organic traffic with its keyword count and traffic value.

Three separate Ahrefs endpoints answer those three questions — domain-rating, backlinks-stats and metrics — and nothing is shared between them but the target. The node runs them together, so a workflow needs one node rather than three.

Each metric group is a separately billed Ahrefs call, which is why each has its own switch: a workflow that only tracks Domain Rating should not pay for a traffic estimate it discards. Every response is cached per Ahrefs integration in the organisation, so a repeated read with the same integration — a re-run, or a second workflow asking the same question — spends no API units at all.

Common use cases:

• Checking a domain’s authority before and after a link campaign.
• Benchmarking a portfolio of domains on the same date.
• Qualifying backlink prospects by Domain Rating and referring domains.
• Capturing a monthly snapshot of traffic, keywords and backlinks in one node.
• Comparing a site against its competitors on identical metrics.

Quick setup#

Configuration parameters#

Required fields#

Optional fields#

What does the node output?#

The node exposes four output anchors rather than one, so a downstream node receives what it asked for instead of the whole payload:

Anchor	Contents
Domain Rating	The score alone, for a threshold test or a chart
Backlinks	Live and all-time backlink and referring-domain counts
Traffic	Estimated organic traffic, keyword counts and traffic value
Overview	The whole payload, including the cache report

{
  "target": "example.com",
  "mode": "domain",
  "date": "2026-10-21",
  "domain_rating": 76.5,
  "ahrefs_rank": 42138,
  "backlinks": {
    "live": 184320,
    "all_time": 402911,
    "live_refdomains": 5120,
    "all_time_refdomains": 9874
  },
  "traffic": {
    "org_traffic": 328400,
    "org_keywords": 94120,
    "org_keywords_top_3": 2150,
    "org_cost_cents": 41200000,
    "paid_traffic": 1200,
    "paid_keywords": 85,
    "paid_cost_cents": 320000,
    "paid_pages": 40
  },
  "retrieved_at": "2026-10-21T16:04:11Z",
  "source": "Ahrefs API v3 (Site Explorer)",
  "cache": {
    "hits": [{ "endpoint": "domain-rating", "cached_at": "2026-10-21T08:12:03Z" }],
    "misses": ["backlinks-stats", "metrics"],
    "units_cost": 142
  }
}

Usage examples#

Example 1: Qualify a list of backlink prospects#

You have a list of candidate domains and want to keep those with a Domain Rating of 40 or more.

Workflow:

1. A Text node lists the prospect domains, one per line.
2. A Loop Node iterates over them and feeds the Target input.
3. Ahrefs Domain Overview runs with Backlinks and Organic traffic switched off — one billed call per domain instead of three.
4. The Domain Rating anchor goes into a Conditional Node testing >= 40.
5. Qualified domains are appended to a Google Sheets tab.

Example 2: Monthly client snapshot#

Workflow:

1. A Date node provides the first day of the month.
2. Ahrefs Domain Overview reads the three groups with Cache window set to 30d.
3. The Overview anchor feeds a Merge With Template node producing the report body.
4. An Email Sender delivers it.

With a 30-day window, re-running the workflow during the month costs nothing.

Common issues#

The node fails with `Ahrefs API token not configured`

Cause: No Ahrefs integration is attached to the node, or the integration was deleted.

Solution: Open the node settings and select a valid Ahrefs integration. Check in the Integrations page that the token is still active on the Ahrefs side.

`Select at least one Ahrefs metric group`

Cause: The three switches — Domain Rating, Backlinks, Organic traffic — are all off, so there is nothing to read.

Solution: Switch at least one back on.

`Ahrefs rejects country='uk'`

Cause: Ahrefs expects a lowercase ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code from its own list of 210 countries. uk and eu are not on it.

Solution: Use gb for the United Kingdom, and pick a single country rather than a region. The error message lists what the API accepts.

The run reports a 402 or a 429

Cause: A 402 means the API unit balance is exhausted; a 429 means too many calls in too short a window.

Solution: Check the remaining balance shown in the node settings panel. The node never retries a call on its own, because a call that reached Ahrefs may already have been billed. Widen the cache window, or switch off the groups you do not need.

Best practices and pitfalls#

How does it fit into a workflow?#

graph LR
    Text[Text<br/>prospect domains] --> Loop[Loop Node]
    Loop --> Overview[Ahrefs Domain Overview]
    Overview -->|Domain Rating| Cond{DR >= 40?}
    Cond -->|Yes| Sheets[Google Sheets<br/>qualified]
    Cond -->|No| Drop[Discarded]

Related nodes#