SEO Domain & Keyword Scraper — SEMrush-Alternative Data via DataForSEO

Pull SEMrush / Ahrefs-grade SEO data — domain traffic, ranked keywords, keyword research, organic competitors and backlink profiles — as clean, structured JSON. Powered by the official DataForSEO API (you bring your own DataForSEO credentials), so there is no scraping, no anti-bot fight, and effectively 100% reliability. MCP-ready for AI agents.

What you get

Mode	What it returns	SEMrush equivalent
domain_overview	Organic & paid keyword counts, estimated traffic (ETV), traffic value, ranking distribution by position	Domain Overview
ranked_keywords	Every keyword a domain ranks for + position, volume, CPC, difficulty, ranked URL, traffic	Organic Research
keyword_overview	Volume, CPC, competition, difficulty and search intent for keywords you supply	Keyword Overview
keyword_ideas	Related keyword suggestions from seed terms, with full metrics	Keyword Magic
competitors	Organic competitor domains, shared keywords, their traffic	Competitors
backlinks_summary	Backlinks, referring domains, rank, broken links, spam score	Backlink Analytics

Note: backlinks_summary uses DataForSEO's Backlinks API, a separate subscription from DataForSEO Labs. If your plan doesn't include it, this mode returns a clear "activate your Backlinks subscription" message instead of data. The other five modes use DataForSEO Labs.

When to use it

• SEO agencies and consultants building client audits and reports.
• Growth/content teams doing keyword research and gap analysis at scale.
• AI agents (via Apify MCP) that need structured SEO metrics on demand.
• Anyone with a DataForSEO account who wants this data piped into Apify, Make, Zapier, or Google Sheets without writing API plumbing.

Not a SEMrush login scraper — it never touches SEMrush. It returns comparable third-party data from DataForSEO's own datasets.

Pricing (Apify side)

This actor uses pay-per-event:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
Result row (keyword / competitor / ranked keyword)	$0.005
Domain or backlinks report	$0.02

DataForSEO is billed separately on your own DataForSEO account (typically ~$0.01–0.02 per API call). This actor never charges you for DataForSEO usage — that stays on your key.

Credentials

You need a DataForSEO account. Get your API login (email) and API password from https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access (the API password is auto-generated and is not your dashboard password). Paste both into the dataforSeoLogin and dataforSeoPassword secret fields.

Input

{
  "mode": "ranked_keywords",
  "target": "nike.com",
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "languageCode": "en",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "dataforSeoLogin": "you@example.com",
  "dataforSeoPassword": "your-api-password"
}

Keyword research example:

{
  "mode": "keyword_ideas",
  "keywords": ["running shoes", "marathon training"],
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "languageCode": "en",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Fields

• mode — one of domain_overview, ranked_keywords, keyword_overview, keyword_ideas, competitors, backlinks_summary.
• target — domain for domain/competitor/backlink/ranked modes (e.g. apple.com).
• keywords — array of phrases for keyword_overview / keyword_ideas.
• locationCode — DataForSEO location code (2840 = US, 2826 = UK, 2124 = CA, 2036 = AU, 2356 = IN).
• languageCode — e.g. en, es, de, fr.
• maxResults — 1–1000 for list modes.
• includeSerpInfo — add SERP feature data to keyword modes (raises DataForSEO cost).

Output

One flat JSON record per result. Example (ranked_keywords):

{
  "mode": "ranked_keywords",
  "target": "nike.com",
  "keyword": "nike air force 1",
  "searchVolume": 823000,
  "cpc": 0.74,
  "competition": 0.42,
  "keywordDifficulty": 91,
  "position": 1,
  "serpType": "organic",
  "rankedUrl": "https://www.nike.com/...",
  "etv": 248300.5,
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "languageCode": "en"
}

A run summary is written to the key-value store under OUTPUT (mode, results pushed, Apify charge, DataForSEO cost).

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Exposed via Apify MCP as apify--seo-domain-keyword-scraper. Give an agent a domain or keyword set and it returns structured SEO metrics in one tool call. Costs are predictable per the table above.

FAQ

Do I need a SEMrush account? No. You need a DataForSEO account.

Is this scraping SEMrush? No. It calls the DataForSEO API, a licensed third-party SEO data provider.

Why are some fields missing? Null/empty values are stripped from records. A domain or keyword with no data returns a record with a _note explaining why.

How accurate is the data? It is DataForSEO's estimated/modeled SEO data (volumes, traffic, difficulty), comparable in nature to SEMrush/Ahrefs estimates — not Google-Search-Console ground truth.

What about rate limits / blocks? None — this is a first-party API, not a scraper. Reliability is limited only by your DataForSEO balance and the API's uptime.

Legal

This actor accesses the DataForSEO API using credentials you supply, under your own DataForSEO agreement. You are responsible for complying with DataForSEO's terms of service and for all usage billed to your DataForSEO account. This tool is provided for legitimate SEO research and analytics. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to SEMrush, Ahrefs, or DataForSEO. "SEMrush" and "Ahrefs" are trademarks of their respective owners and are referenced only to describe comparable data categories.