The Scenario
You are an SEO analyst at a digital agency managing three client websites. Quarterly link-building strategy reviews are next week. The question from each client is the same: "Where should we focus our link-building effort, and what does our backlink quality actually look like?"
You need the authority score distribution of referring domains for all three clients, in one Google Sheet, in a format that shows how many referring domains fall into each authority score bracket.
The bad version of this week:
- You open Semrush and pull the backlink analytics for Client 1
- You find the authority score distribution chart but it does not export cleanly
- You screenshot the chart, estimate the bucket values, type them into the sheet by hand
- You repeat for Client 2 and Client 3
- You realize you estimated Client 1's AS 40–49 bucket incorrectly and need to redo it
- You walk into the client call with a chart you are not confident in.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI reads the domain list and pulls the authority score profile data from Semrush for each domain, writing the distribution into a structured comparison table.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
For each domain in column A, fetch the Semrush authority score profile and write the number of referring domains at each authority score bucket into a pivot-style table in a new sheet called ASDistribution. Use rows for authority score ranges (0–9, 10–19, 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, 80–89, 90–100) and columns for each domain.
SheetXAI pulls the distribution data for all three domains and builds the ASDistribution tab in pivot format. You can build a comparison chart directly from it.
What You Get
An ASDistribution tab with:
- Rows — authority score buckets from 0–9 up to 90–100
- Columns — one per domain from column A, plus an AS Bucket label column
Each cell is the count of referring domains in that bracket for that client. The distribution shape tells the story immediately: a client skewed toward AS 10–30 has a thin, risky link profile. A client with a spread across AS 30–70 is in a stronger position.
From here you build a stacked bar chart in Sheets in two minutes. The strategy conversation writes itself.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Distribution audits need adjustment when clients have unusual profile shapes.
When you want percentages instead of raw counts for cleaner comparison
Three clients with very different total referring domain counts are hard to compare on raw numbers. Percentages normalize the comparison.
For each domain in column A, fetch the Semrush authority score profile. In the ASDistribution tab, write both the raw referring domain count and the percentage of total referring domains for each bucket. Use rows for AS ranges and columns for each domain, with a separate set of percentage columns next to the count columns.
When you want to highlight buckets that are outliers
A client with 300 referring domains in the AS 0–9 bucket has a potential spam problem. You want those cases flagged.
After building the ASDistribution tab, scan for any cell where a domain has more than 30% of its referring domains in the AS 0–19 range. Write "Risk" in a separate Flags tab noting which domain and which bucket triggered the flag.
When you need to compare the distribution against an industry benchmark
Your agency has a benchmark profile from a top-ranking site in the same industry. You want to show clients how their distribution compares.
After building the ASDistribution tab for the domains in column A, add a Benchmark column using the distribution data from the domain in cell B1. Highlight in yellow any bucket where a client domain is more than 20 percentage points below the benchmark.
When the full link-quality report needs distribution data, a risk flag, and a client-ready summary in one pass
The client wants numbers and a takeaway.
For each domain in column A, fetch the Semrush authority score profile and build the ASDistribution tab in pivot style. Flag any domain where more than 25% of referring domains fall in AS 0–19. Then write a 2-sentence summary for each domain at the top of the ASDistribution tab describing the link quality profile and whether it represents a risk or a strength relative to industry standard.
The pattern: the data pull, the risk check, and the client narrative all come from one prompt.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and put your client domains in column A, then ask it to build the authority score distribution. The Semrush integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For a related workflow, see how to pull a 12-month backlink history trend from Semrush or the Semrush in Google Sheets overview.