Backlink Audit

Backlink Audit analyzes the link profile of an SEO project to detect spam, identify toxic referring domains, and manage disavow records.

Identifier hierarchyCopy Anchor Link

• SEO project ID (project_id): The numeric integer returned by project-enable-seo. Used to create campaigns and discover scopes.
• Audit campaign ID (audit_id): The numeric userDomainId returned when creating an audit or querying backlink-audit-info. Used for all report and link management commands.

Campaign creation and discoveryCopy Anchor Link

Inspect account limits and valid domain scopes before starting an audit:

semrush backlink-audit-limits
semrush backlink-audit-project --project-id 456
semrush backlink-audit-scopes --project-id 456

Permitted scope options include root, both, www, and nonwww.

Create and launch the audit:

semrush backlink-audit-create --project-id 456 --scope root --dry-run
semrush backlink-audit-create --project-id 456 --scope root --confirm
semrush backlink-audit-info --project-id 456

Creating an audit starts link analysis immediately and consumes account allowances. Extract the returned userDomainId and pass it as --audit-id in subsequent commands.

Check analysis progress:

semrush backlink-audit-status --audit-id 789

A status ID of 1 indicates analysis is complete and ready.

Profile summaries and toxicity analysisCopy Anchor Link

Retrieve aggregate toxicity metrics, referring domain statistics, and anchor types:

semrush backlink-audit-links-summary --audit-id 789
semrush backlink-audit-domains-summary --audit-id 789
semrush backlink-audit-authority-distribution --audit-id 789
semrush backlink-audit-anchor-types --audit-id 789
semrush backlink-audit-rel-summary --audit-id 789 --by-domain
semrush backlink-audit-top-domains --audit-id 789 --only-toxic
semrush backlink-audit-changes --audit-id 789 --list lost
semrush backlink-audit-recommendations --audit-id 789

Reviewing links and moving entriesCopy Anchor Link

List audited links and apply workflow categorizations:

semrush backlink-audit-links --audit-id 789 --mode for-review
semrush backlink-audit-links --audit-id 789 --by-domain false --page-size 50

By default, links are grouped by referring domain. Pass --by-domain false to view individual link records.

Move domains or individual links to whitelist, to-remove, disavow, or back to for-review:

semrush backlink-audit-move-domains --audit-id 789 \
  --ids '["00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000001"]' --list whitelist --confirm

semrush backlink-audit-move-links --audit-id 789 \
  --ids '["00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000002"]' --list disavow --confirm

semrush backlink-audit-move-networks --audit-id 789 \
  --ids '[19387720322]' --list disavow --confirm

Replace the example UUIDs with the exact row string id from backlink-audit-links. Do not pass urlHash values as row IDs.

Disavow workflow and file exportCopy Anchor Link

Manage disavow entries directly in Semrush:

semrush backlink-audit-disavow --audit-id 789 --page 0 --page-size 50
semrush backlink-audit-disavow-count --audit-id 789

Export a formatted disavow text file ready for Google Search Console:

semrush backlink-audit-disavow-export --audit-id 789 --format txt \
  --output disavow.txt --confirm

This marks the entries as exported in Semrush. It does not transmit the file to Google automatically.

To import an existing disavow file into Semrush:

semrush backlink-audit-disavow-import --audit-id 789 \
  --contents-file disavow.txt --confirm

Reruns and scope replacementCopy Anchor Link

Re-crawl backlinks using existing campaign settings:

semrush backlink-audit-rerun --audit-id 789 --confirm

To permanently replace the audit target scope with a different domain variant:

semrush backlink-audit-replace-scope --project-id 456 --scope both --confirm

Target replacement permanently clears historical analysis and launches fresh crawling under the new scope.

Exporting backlink audit dataCopy Anchor Link

Export the full filtered backlink table to CSV:

semrush backlink-audit-export --audit-id 789 --format csv --output backlinks.csv

The command checks that backlinks.csv does not exist before initiating the export.