The Scenario
You are an SEO agency analyst. Quarterly link-building strategy session is on Thursday and you have 25 competitor domains in an Excel workbook.
You need total backlinks, referring domains, and spam score for each one in columns B, C, and D before the meeting.
It is Tuesday morning.
The bad version:
- You log into a backlink tool and check the first competitor domain
- You write down the three numbers into the workbook manually
- You find the bulk check feature requires an enterprise plan you do not have
- You try exporting from the tool's standard interface and it gives you a 20-column CSV
- You spend 45 minutes removing columns you do not need and re-joining the data to your original domain list order
- You walk into Thursday with a workbook that looks clean but took all morning to produce.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI is an AI agent inside your Excel workbook that reads your competitor domain list, calls DataForSEO's backlinks summary endpoint for each domain in batch, and writes every metric directly into the workbook.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
For each domain in column A of my Competitors tab, fetch the DataForSEO backlinks summary and write total backlinks, referring domains, and spam score into columns B, C, and D.
SheetXAI calls the backlinks endpoint for all 25 domains, waits for results, and writes every value back to the matching row. You come back to a fully enriched workbook.
What You Get
A complete competitors workbook with three new columns:
- Column B — total backlink count
- Column C — referring domain count
- Column D — spam score (0-100 scale)
All 25 domains enriched, no manual lookups. Sort by referring domains to rank competitors by link authority, or sort by spam score to see who is building risky links.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Competitor domain lists arrive in inconsistent formats. SheetXAI handles the preparation and the pull in one prompt.
When domains have inconsistent formatting
Some entries have "https://example.com" with full protocol, others are just "example.com," and a few have trailing slashes.
Normalize all domains in column A of my Competitors tab to bare domain format without protocol or trailing slash. Then fetch DataForSEO backlinks summary for each and write total backlinks, referring domains, and spam score into columns B, C, and D.
When you want to include a referring domain trend
The strategy session needs to know which competitors are growing their link profiles this quarter.
For each domain in column A, fetch the DataForSEO backlinks summary and write current referring domain count into column B. Also fetch the referring domain count from 90 days ago and write it into column C. In column D, calculate the percentage change and label the trend direction.
When you want to flag high-spam domains before the client presentation
You want risk categories applied automatically so you do not have to explain the spam scores during the meeting.
Fetch DataForSEO backlinks summary for all domains in column A of the Competitors tab. Write total backlinks, referring domains, and spam score into columns B through D. Add a column E called Risk Category: mark "High Risk" for spam score over 60, "Medium Risk" for 30-60, and "Low Risk" for under 30.
When you need the full backlink pull plus a strategy brief in one shot
The Thursday meeting needs both the data table and a written starting point for recommendations.
Fetch DataForSEO backlinks summary for all 25 domains in column A of the Competitors tab. Write total backlinks, referring domains, and spam score into columns B through D. Then create a Strategy Brief tab and write a short paragraph identifying the top two competitors by referring domain count, the average across all 25, and one sentence on what a realistic link gap to close in 90 days might look like.
The pattern: the data pull and the strategic framing happen in one prompt — you walk into Thursday prepared.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any Excel workbook with a list of competitor domains, then ask it to pull backlink summaries from DataForSEO. The DataForSEO integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to pull bulk SERP rankings in Excel or the DataForSEO in Excel overview.