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Find backlink prospects with SpyFu

You want links for one keyword, and the best leads are the pages that already link to sites ranking for it. SpyFu lists them, but one search at a time.

Cotlet does it in your own SpyFu account with list_backlinks, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Can SpyFu do this on its own?

SpyFu offers backlinks only in its web app (checked 23 Oct 2026). The developer reference lists no backlink endpoint, and the official MCP endpoint publishes no tool list. The CSV export and the outreach manager are also web app only.

How you do it in SpyFu today

  1. Open the Backlinks tab and type the keyword you want to rank for, or the domain of a competitor you want to copy.
  2. A keyword search lists the URLs that link to sites ranking for it. Filter by content type, such as Blogs and Forums, and exclude domains, including your own.
  3. Read the metrics of each link: monthly organic clicks of the domain or the page, domain strength (100 is the strongest), ranked keywords of the page and its number of outbound links.
  4. Close the links you do not want and export the rest to a CSV, or click the add button to send a link to the outreach manager in MySpyFu.
  5. Repeat for every keyword and every competitor, then merge the CSV files by hand.

How to find backlink prospects with SpyFu

Prompt

List blog and forum pages that link to sites ranking for "trail running shoes", leave out my own domain, and give me the ten with the best domain strength.
  1. 01

    Search each keyword and competitor

    list_backlinks runs once per keyword from your prompt and once per competitor domain. The agent keeps the search that produced each row, so you can see which keyword a prospect came from.

  2. 02

    Filter before reading

    The agent passes your content type and your own domain as an exclusion, so your own pages and the types you do not want never reach the list. SpyFu applies both filters, not the agent.

  3. 03

    Merge the same URL

    A URL that links to sites ranking for three of your keywords is a stronger prospect than one that shows up once. The agent merges rows by URL and counts the keywords.

  4. 04

    Rank by your rule

    Domain strength, monthly clicks, ranked keywords and outbound links are in each row. You give the rule, for example "domain strength above 40, at most 30 outbound links", and the agent applies it and says which rows it dropped.

  5. 05

    Hand over the list

    The agent returns the top rows with URL and metrics. Sending a link to the MySpyFu outreach manager and exporting a CSV stay in SpyFu; neither has a tool.

What you get back

Example data

Searches: 1 keyword, 3 competitors
Prospects after filters: 41, merged to 33 URLs
Top 3 by your rule:
- trailrunnerforum.example/gear-threads: strength 52, 11 outbound links, found for 3 searches
- shoe-lab.example/best-trail-shoes: strength 47, 22 outbound links, found for 2 searches
Dropped: 12 with more than 30 outbound links

Other ways to ask

  • Show only forum pages that link to trailkick.com and trailrunner-gear.com, and skip anything above 40 outbound links.
  • For each of my five target keywords, give me the three best prospects in one table.
  • Every month, list prospects that were not in last month's list so I only read new ones.

What SpyFu allows, and what to know first

  • SpyFu shows only backlinks from pages that Google has indexed within the top 100 results, and it removes duplicates.
  • SpyFu built its backlink tools for link discovery on competitors, and says they are not meant for auditing your own site.
  • A keyword search shows the URLs that link to sites ranking for the keyword. Those URLs may not rank for it themselves.
  • SpyFu finds backlinks by crawling pages that rank and reading their outbound links, so a link on a page that does not rank is missing.

Every tool here only reads, so it can run on a schedule from n8n, Make, Zapier or cron without waiting for your OK.

Sources: SpyFu Help: Understanding the Backlinks page · SpyFu Help: How we find backlinks · SpyFu Help: Backlink discovery

Call list_backlinks from a script

curl

curl "https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/spyfu/backlinks?keyword=trail+running+shoes&content_type=Forums&exclude_domains=trailkick.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY"

Example response

{
  "keyword": "trail running shoes",
  "content_type": "Forums",
  "backlinks": [
    {
      "url": "https://trailrunnerforum.example/gear-threads",
      "domain": "trailrunnerforum.example",
      "organic_clicks": 8400,
      "domain_strength": 52,
      "ranked_keywords": 310,
      "outbound_links": 11
    },
    {
      "url": "https://shoe-lab.example/forum/best-trail-shoes",
      "domain": "shoe-lab.example",
      "organic_clicks": 3100,
      "domain_strength": 47,
      "ranked_keywords": 96,
      "outbound_links": 22
    }
  ]
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is spyfu_read → list_backlinks. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

SpyFu tools this automation uses

Cotlet SpyFu tools used to find backlink prospects with SpyFu
Tool Parameters
list_backlinks keyword, domain, content_type, exclude_domains
All 14 SpyFu tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to connect SpyFu to Cotlet?

Yes. You sign in to SpyFu yourself, in your own Cloud Browser in the EU, and we never save your password. Your agents only get SpyFu once you enable it, every background request is listed, and the browser profile is stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM, the cipher 1Password uses for its vaults. The AI model never sees a login, posts and messages wait for your OK, and Disable for agents cuts access in one click. Independent scanners grade cotlet.dev A+ on Qualys SSL Labs, securityheaders.com and Mozilla Observatory; live results are on https://cotlet.dev/security.

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