Dataforseo

DataForSEO

Independent, unofficial connector for DataForSEO. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DataForSEO. "DataForSEO" is a trademark of its owner, used only to identify the service this connector works with.

Agent-callable tools for the DataForSEO API v3 (https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/): search-engine, SEO, and AI-search data. Look up Google organic SERPs; research keywords (suggestions, related terms, search volume, difficulty, intent); analyze domains (ranking keywords, rank overview, organic-traffic estimates); inspect backlink profiles; search Google Maps business listings; run an on-page SEO audit; query AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) and track how brands and domains are mentioned in AI-generated answers. All 33 tools are read-only data queries against DataForSEO's live (synchronous) endpoints.

When to use this

• SERP & keyword research — see who ranks for a query, expand a seed keyword, or pull volume / CPC / difficulty / intent for a keyword list.
• Domain & competitor analysis — the keywords a domain ranks for, its rank overview, estimated organic traffic (current or historical), and its backlink profile (summary, individual links, referring domains, anchors).
• Local & on-page — find Google Maps businesses by category or location, or audit a single page's on-page SEO.
• AI-search visibility — ask an LLM a prompt, or track where a brand / domain / keyword is mentioned across AI answers (top pages, top domains, aggregate metrics).

Setup

This is an agentskills.io skill.

If this connector is already exposed to you as callable tools (e.g. mcp__dataforseo__<tool>), that's a valid path — call them directly. Everything below is only for standalone terminal use when no such tools are loaded.

If the connector has not been installed as a skill yet, install it first with npx skills zapier/connectors --skill dataforseo (or your harness's own skill-install mechanism), then continue here.

The connector runs on Node.js 22.18+ and needs a one-time npm install in this directory. cli.js is the entry point — list every script with node cli.js --help, then learn a script's inputs and connections with node cli.js run <script> --help. On older Node, run node cli.js --help anyway: it detects your runtime and prints how to run without upgrading (the prebuilt npm package, or another runtime) — don't skip the connector just because Node is old.

cli.js self-checks readiness before running: if dependencies aren't installed it exits non-zero with the exact install command (it disambiguates a read-only directory from a sandbox-blocked package cache). Run that, then re-run your command.

Scripts

All scripts use the single connection dataforseo. Many take a location_name / language_name pair (full names, e.g. "United States" / "English") — call listLocationsAndLanguages to resolve exact accepted values. List tools page with limit / offset.

Script	Script name	Connections	Description
scripts/getGoogleOrganicSerp.ts	getGoogleOrganicSerp	dataforseo	Fetch live parsed Google organic results for a keyword.
scripts/getKeywordSuggestions.ts	getKeywordSuggestions	dataforseo	Expand a seed keyword into long-tail queries that contain it.
scripts/getRelatedKeywords.ts	getRelatedKeywords	dataforseo	Get keywords from Google's "searches related to" block.
scripts/getKeywordOverview.ts	getKeywordOverview	dataforseo	Full metrics (volume, CPC, competition, difficulty, intent) for known keywords.
scripts/getKeywordDifficulty.ts	getKeywordDifficulty	dataforseo	Keyword Difficulty (0–100) for up to 1,000 keywords.
scripts/getSearchVolume.ts	getSearchVolume	dataforseo	Google Ads search volume, CPC, and competition for keywords.
scripts/getAiKeywordSearchVolume.ts	getAiKeywordSearchVolume	dataforseo	Estimated keyword usage volume inside AI tools.
scripts/getSearchIntent.ts	getSearchIntent	dataforseo	Classify the search intent of up to 1,000 keywords.
scripts/getRankedKeywords.ts	getRankedKeywords	dataforseo	List the keywords a domain or URL ranks for in Google.
scripts/getDomainRankOverview.ts	getDomainRankOverview	dataforseo	A domain's organic + paid search overview.
scripts/getOrganicTraffic.ts	getOrganicTraffic	dataforseo	Estimate current monthly organic traffic for up to 1,000 domains.
scripts/getHistoricalTraffic.ts	getHistoricalTraffic	dataforseo	Estimate monthly organic traffic over the past ~12 months.
scripts/getBacklinksSummary.ts	getBacklinksSummary	dataforseo	Overview of a single target's backlink profile (totals, rank, spam score).
scripts/getBacklinks.ts	getBacklinks	dataforseo	List individual backlinks to a target with anchors and attributes.
scripts/getBacklinksBulkPagesSummary.ts	getBacklinksBulkPagesSummary	dataforseo	Backlink counts for up to 1,000 pages/domains at once.
scripts/getReferringDomains.ts	getReferringDomains	dataforseo	Overview of the domains linking to a target.
scripts/getBacklinkAnchors.ts	getBacklinkAnchors	dataforseo	Anchor texts used in backlinks to a target.
scripts/searchBusinessListings.ts	searchBusinessListings	dataforseo	Search Google Maps business listings by category, name, or location.
scripts/getBusinessCategoriesAggregation.ts	getBusinessCategoriesAggregation	dataforseo	Count Google Maps businesses grouped by category.
scripts/auditPage.ts	auditPage	dataforseo	Run an instant on-page SEO audit of a single URL.
scripts/getChatGptResponse.ts	getChatGptResponse	dataforseo	Send a prompt to a ChatGPT model and get its response.
scripts/getChatGptSearchResults.ts	getChatGptSearchResults	dataforseo	The web results ChatGPT cited for a keyword search, as structured items.
scripts/getChatGptSearchResultsHtml.ts	getChatGptSearchResultsHtml	dataforseo	Raw HTML of ChatGPT's search results page for a keyword.
scripts/getClaudeResponse.ts	getClaudeResponse	dataforseo	Send a prompt to a Claude model and get its response.
scripts/getGeminiResponse.ts	getGeminiResponse	dataforseo	Send a prompt to a Gemini model and get its response.
scripts/getPerplexityResponse.ts	getPerplexityResponse	dataforseo	Send a prompt to a Perplexity model and get its response.
scripts/getLlmMentions.ts	getLlmMentions	dataforseo	Find where brands/domains/keywords are mentioned in AI answers.
scripts/getLlmMentionsTopPages.ts	getLlmMentionsTopPages	dataforseo	Rank pages most cited alongside your targets in AI answers.
scripts/getLlmMentionsTopDomains.ts	getLlmMentionsTopDomains	dataforseo	Rank domains most cited alongside your targets in AI answers.
scripts/getLlmMentionsAggregatedMetrics.ts	getLlmMentionsAggregatedMetrics	dataforseo	Aggregate AI-mention metrics (mention counts and AI search volume) for your targets.
scripts/getLlmMentionsCrossMetrics.ts	getLlmMentionsCrossMetrics	dataforseo	AI-mention metrics grouped by custom keys for comparison.
scripts/getAccountBalance.ts	getAccountBalance	dataforseo	Account credit balance, plan limits, and rate (also the auth check).
scripts/listLocationsAndLanguages.ts	listLocationsAndLanguages	dataforseo	List the exact location and language names DataForSEO accepts.

Disambiguation & refusals

This connector is read-only and live-only — it retrieves data, one query per call. It does not schedule or monitor tasks over time, run full-site crawls, or create/update/delete anything. If asked to do something outside that surface, say it's unsupported and stop — don't substitute another tool and report success for work you didn't do. Specifically:

• No task scheduling or ongoing monitoring. Each tool returns a one-shot live result; there is no "track rankings/backlinks over time" or background job. To trend a metric, the agent calls the tool again later and compares.
• No full-site crawl. auditPage audits a single URL only. There is no tool to crawl an entire site.
• No writes. Nothing here modifies a Google property, a website, or a DataForSEO resource; there is nothing to create, update, or delete.
• ChatGPT-platform LLM mentions are US/English only. getLlmMentions with platform: "chat_gpt" has no data outside the United States / English locale. If asked for another locale, say the data isn't available and stop — don't call getChatGptResponse (a live single-prompt chat, not mentions data) and present its output as mentions data, and don't silently swap to platform: "google" or a SERP search and report that instead without flagging the limitation.

Because every tool is a read that takes explicit query values (keywords, domains, URLs), there is no name-lookup-then-write step that needs disambiguation.

Metric scales

• Backlink rank is 0–1000, higher = stronger — the opposite convention from a 0–100 difficulty-style score. Don't assume "lower is better" by analogy with keyword difficulty or search-position rank. Returned as rank by getBacklinksSummary, getBacklinksBulkPagesSummary, and getReferringDomains, and as domain_from_rank by getBacklinks.

Auth

Pass auth as one connection string with --connection [<resolver>:]<value>. The value is a selector, not the secret; the <resolver>: prefix is optional (a bare value goes to the first resolver that claims it). Each script declares the connections it needs and the resolvers each accepts — always run node cli.js run <script> --help to see them rather than relying on this file.

DataForSEO uses HTTP Basic authentication: your account login (email) plus a dedicated API password (generated in your DataForSEO dashboard under API access — it is not your account/dashboard password). There are no scopes; a credential has your account's full API access, metered by credit balance (see getAccountBalance). The single connection dataforseo accepts two resolvers:

• zapier:<connection-id> — recommended. Route through a Zapier DataForSEO connection; the Zapier auth / retries / governance layer injects the credential for you. Find the id with npx zapier-sdk list-connections (run login first if needed).
• env:<PREFIX> — for standalone use when you manage the credential yourself. Set DATAFORSEO_LOGIN (your login email) and DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD (your API password), then pass --connection env:DATAFORSEO. The resolver reads <PREFIX>_LOGIN + <PREFIX>_PASSWORD and sends Authorization: Basic base64(login:password).

A bad or revoked credential returns an authentication error — regenerate the API password in the dashboard and reconnect.

Running scripts

After npm install, run a script by name with node cli.js run <script>, or execute its file directly — both take the same arguments and both accept --help. Always run a script's --help first to learn its exact input schema and connections, then invoke it:

# default — via the entry point; self-checks readiness and prints friendly diagnostics
node cli.js run <script> '<input-json>' --connection [<resolver>:]<value>
# shorthand — runs the script file directly (same args, same Node 22.18+ need, no readiness check)
./scripts/<script>.ts '<input-json>' --connection [<resolver>:]<value>

When a harness can't execute scripts directly, fall back to MCP — node cli.js mcp serves every script as a tool over stdio. Register it as a local MCP server in your client: the stanza is harness-specific (an mcpServers entry in Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, …) with command: "node", args: ["cli.js", "mcp"], run from this directory. Run node cli.js mcp --help for auth options. Add the stanza yourself if you can edit the client's MCP config; otherwise guide the user. If a local server isn't possible, guide the user to use Zapier's remote MCP servers at https://mcp.zapier.com instead.

Output format

Every script returns a { data, meta } envelope:

• data — the script's result (the shape its outputSchema declares; run the script's --help to see that exact schema).
• meta.outputDataValidation — what validating data did:
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: null } — validated, nothing removed.
  • { skipped: false, droppedPaths: [...], instruction } — validated, but those paths were stripped from data: fields the script returned from the API that the outputSchema doesn't declare. If you need them, re-run with output validation skipped.
  • { skipped: true } — validation was bypassed; data is the raw, unchecked script output.

Reading dropped fields / skipOutputDataValidation. To receive the raw, unvalidated result, append --skipOutputDataValidation to the script invocation. Input validation is never skipped.

Trimming the result / filterOutputData. To shrink a large result down to the fields you need, append --filterOutputData '<jq>' — a jq expression that post-processes data. The jq runs against data only, NOT the { data, meta } envelope, so write it rooted at data (run the script's --help to see its output schema). The transformed value replaces data, meta is preserved, and the result is NOT re-validated against the output schema.

References

Load the matching reference file before working in that area:

Reference	Covers	Load it when
references/dataforseo-api-gotchas.md	In-body error status codes over HTTP 200, the array-of-tasks request format, the response envelope, auth, rate limits, exact location/language names, the filters array-expression syntax, limit/input caps, and metric-specific notes (backlink rank, keyword difficulty, related-keyword depth, SERP depth, LLM-mentions platform, Perplexity web search).	Any call fails with data-looking-empty results, you're building a filters expression, hitting a limit, resolving a location/language, or interpreting a metric's range.
references/use-as-recipe.md	A reference implementation of the request/response shape for each endpoint — the array-wrapped POST body, the two-level status check, and the per-tool endpoint/param table — with critical rules pointed at the gotchas.	Loaded by a harness writing its own code against the DataForSEO API (can't load the tools, run the CLI, or import the package).