Field reference
Back link check fields to put in a content audit scorecard
Every column we put in an audit sheet, what it means, what it costs to fill and where it misleads. Keep this tab open while you build the sheet.
Columns, calls and costs
| Column | API action | Credits | Reads as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site rating | overview | Free | Our DR for the whole domain, 0 to 100 |
| Referring domains | refdomains | 2 | Separate sites linking, one row per site |
| Top linked URLs | toppages | 2 | Which of your pages collect links |
| Anchor mix | anchors | 2 | Words used in the linking text |
| Linker strength | bulk_dr | 1 | DR of up to 2,000 domains per call |
| Peer comparison | compare | 1 | Up to 20 domains side by side |
| Shared linkers | intersect | 2 | Who links to 2 to 10 domains at once |
Reading the columns without fooling yourself
Referring domains is the column to trust first. It counts sites, not links, so a footer link repeated across 4,000 pages of one blog adds one. Raw totals flatter weak pages.
The site rating is a log scale. Keep that in mind. Moving from 30 to 40 takes far more new referring domains than moving from 10 to 20, and the formula is public: round(100 times log(ref_domains+1) divided by log(2 times 10 to the 7th)). It is our own metric, comparable in spirit to Ahrefs DR or Moz DA but never the same number.
Anchors are the sneaky column. Branded anchors tell you people cited you. Exact-match commercial anchors tell you somebody paid or begged. Both are information for a refresh brief, because rewriting the claim an anchor describes breaks the promise behind the link.
Pair the rating with the count. A page with 6 referring domains that all rate in the 60s is a stronger asset than one with 30 domains rating in the single digits. The bulk call makes that comparison cheap, at one credit for up to 2,000 domains.
Filling three columns for one domain
Replace the key with your own. Each call is billed once whatever the number of rows, up to 1,000 rows per call.
curl "https://contentwise.app/api.php?action=overview&q=yourblog.com"
curl "https://contentwise.app/api.php?action=toppages&q=yourblog.com&per=200&sort=refdomains&order=desc&key=sk_live_..."
curl "https://contentwise.app/api.php?action=anchors&q=yourblog.com&per=100&key=sk_live_..."What each field cannot tell you
Freshness
We refresh roughly once a month. A link from last week may be missing, so never log a brand-new placement from this sheet alone.
Quality of the page
Links are a side effect of past usefulness. Thin posts with old links still need an editor's read.
Keyword demand
We do not track rankings or search volume. Use Search Console, Ahrefs or Semrush for that column.
Intent
Two pages with equal links can serve different searches. Open both in a browser before merging.
One call returns up to 1,000 rows, and deep pagination caps at 50,000. For a site with 3,000 linked pages, sort by referring domains and take the top slice. The long tail is rarely where decisions are made.
Build the sheet in this order, and cross-check with the mistakes list: rating, top pages, referring domains for the top twenty, then anchors. Stop when the answer is obvious. Our decision tree tells you which columns a given verdict really needs.
Errors are plain. A missing or bad key returns HTTP 401, and running out of credit returns HTTP 402. Every authenticated response carries a _credits object with the cost and your remaining balance, so a script can stop itself before the sheet half-fills.
Moz and Majestic publish their own versions of these columns, and some teams export from them into the same sheet. That is fine. Keep one tool per column, and label the source in the header so nobody subtracts one number from another.