dfseo-cli — SEO Data from Your Terminal

A CLI tool wrapping DataForSEO APIs. 43+ commands for SERP analysis, keyword research, site audits, and backlink analysis. All output is JSON by default (machine-readable). Add --output table for human-readable format.

Authentication

Requires DataForSEO API credentials. Set them as environment variables:

export DATAFORSEO_LOGIN="your@email.com"
export DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD="your_api_password"

Or run dfseo auth setup for interactive configuration (saves to ~/.config/dfseo/config.toml).

Verify with: dfseo auth status

Quick Reference

SERP Analysis

# Google SERP for any keyword + location
dfseo serp google "keyword" --location "Country" --language "Language"

# Compare Google vs Bing
dfseo serp compare "keyword" --engines google,bing

# YouTube results
dfseo serp youtube "keyword"

# SERP features only (featured snippets, PAA, etc.)
dfseo serp google "keyword" --features-only

Keyword Research

# Volume, CPC, difficulty, search intent (up to 700 keywords)
dfseo keywords volume "kw1" "kw2" --location "Country" --include-serp-info

# Long-tail suggestions
dfseo keywords suggestions "seed keyword" --min-volume 100 --max-difficulty 40

# Semantically related keywords
dfseo keywords ideas "seed1" "seed2" --limit 100

# Bulk difficulty check (up to 1000)
dfseo keywords difficulty "kw1" "kw2" "kw3"
dfseo keywords difficulty --from-file keywords.txt

# Keywords a domain ranks for
dfseo keywords for-site "domain.com" --min-volume 50 --sort volume

Site Audit

# Full audit (crawl + wait + summary)
dfseo site audit "domain.com" --max-pages 100

# Quick single-page check (uses Instant Pages API, no polling)
dfseo site instant "https://domain.com/page"

# Drill down after audit
dfseo site pages "$TASK_ID" --errors-only
dfseo site links "$TASK_ID" --type broken
dfseo site duplicates "$TASK_ID" --type title

# Lighthouse performance
dfseo site lighthouse "https://domain.com" --categories performance,seo

Backlink Analysis

# Backlink profile summary
dfseo backlinks summary "domain.com"

# List backlinks (new, lost, broken)
dfseo backlinks list "domain.com" --dofollow-only --sort rank
dfseo backlinks list "domain.com" --status new
dfseo backlinks list "domain.com" --status lost

# Anchor text analysis
dfseo backlinks anchors "domain.com" --search "brand" --sort backlinks

# Link gap: who links to competitors but not to you
dfseo backlinks gap "your-site.com" "competitor1.com" "competitor2.com"

# Bulk rank comparison (up to 1000 domains)
dfseo backlinks bulk ranks "site1.com" "site2.com" "site3.com"
dfseo backlinks bulk ranks --from-file domains.txt

# Historical backlink data (since 2019)
dfseo backlinks history "domain.com" --from 2024-01 --to 2026-03

Output Conventions

• Default output: JSON on stdout — always parseable, no decorative text
• Errors and progress: stderr — never mixed with results
• --output table — human-readable formatted tables
• --output csv — for spreadsheets and data pipelines
• -q / --quiet — suppress everything except the result
• --dry-run — show estimated cost without executing

Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = error, 2 = auth failed, 3 = rate limited, 4 = bad params, 5 = insufficient funds.

Common Patterns

Keyword research workflow

# 1. Get seed keyword data
dfseo keywords volume "email hosting" --location "Italy" --language "Italian" --include-serp-info

# 2. Expand with suggestions
dfseo keywords suggestions "email hosting" --min-volume 50 --max-difficulty 40 --limit 50

# 3. Check difficulty for best candidates
dfseo keywords difficulty "email hosting professionale" "hosting email aziendale" --location "Italy"

Competitor analysis workflow

# 1. Check competitor SERP presence
dfseo serp google "target keyword" --location "Italy" --depth 100

# 2. Find their keywords
dfseo keywords for-site "competitor.com" --location "Italy" --min-volume 100

# 3. Analyze their backlinks
dfseo backlinks summary "competitor.com"

# 4. Find link gap opportunities
dfseo backlinks gap "your-site.com" "competitor.com" --min-rank 200

Site health check

# 1. Full audit
dfseo site audit "domain.com" --max-pages 200

# 2. Performance check
dfseo site lighthouse "https://domain.com"

# 3. Check for broken links
dfseo site links "$TASK_ID" --type broken

Service References

For detailed command documentation, load the specific reference file:

• SERP commands — See
• Keywords commands — See
• Site Audit commands — See
• Backlinks commands — See

Important Notes

• Site audits are async: dfseo site audit blocks until crawl completes by default. Use dfseo site crawl for non-blocking, then retrieve with task_id.
• dfseo site instant analyzes a single URL live with no polling.
• Google Ads endpoints (keywords ads-volume, keywords ads-suggestions) have a 12 req/min rate limit.
• Backlinks API requires a $100/month minimum DataForSEO commitment.
• The --from-file flag accepts text files with one item per line (# comments and blank lines ignored).
• All location/language defaults can be set globally via dfseo config set location "Italy".