SEO Metrics Providers

SEO Metrics Providers

Search Console tells you how you're performing. It can't tell you how much demand exists, how hard a keyword is, or who's winning instead of you. Those numbers come from a third party. OpenGSC brings them in and joins them with your own GSC data, which gives answers neither source has alone.

Everything here is optional. With nothing configured, every new column shows — and the free Ahrefs DR badges on dashboard cards keep working.

What it adds

Feature	Where
Volume, KD, CPC, Potential columns	Potential (striking distance), Rank Tracker
Backlink profile, lost-link alert	Site → Backlinks
Competitor keyword gap: within reach / wrong page / no content	SEO Tools → Competitors
Demand check in Content Decay	Decay
DR / referring-domain chip per network domain	Indexer, Drops
get_keyword_metrics, get_domain_metrics, get_backlink_profile, get_competitor_gap	MCP (free, cache-only)

Two ways to get data in

	Import (free)	API (paid)
Source	A CSV you exported from Ahrefs/Semrush	An API key
Cost	Nothing; exports are part of your browser subscription	From ~$1.25/month at reseller rates
Effort	Manual, per file	One button
Good for	One-off bulk data: a whole backlink profile, a big keyword list	Anything that must refresh by itself: alerts, MCP, weekly checks

Both write into the same cache, so every feature works the same whichever way the numbers arrived.

Importing a file

Settings → SEO Metrics → Import metrics. Drop the export in, pick the market (country) it belongs to, press Import. The report type is detected from the column headers:

Export	Fills
Keywords Explorer / Organic keywords	Volume, KD, CPC
Referring domains	One site's backlink profile (you pick which site)
Domain-level metrics	Referring domains and traffic on dashboard cards

The file's own date is used, not the upload time. An old export won't overwrite fresher data, and an import never marks a link as lost.

Configuring an API

Settings → SEO Metrics. Everything for these providers is on that one screen: key, host, cap and usage.

1. Provider:
   • Ahrefs: keywords + links. The reference.
   • Semrush: keywords + links. Supported for existing subscribers; more expensive here.
   • Majestic: links only (Trust Flow, Citation Flow, referring domains) at a fraction of Ahrefs' link price. With Majestic active, keyword tools keep using your Ahrefs/Semrush key.
   • DataForSEO: backlink profiles pay-as-you-go ($0.024 per request + $0.000036 per row, no subscription), using the same credential as SERP and Demand.
   • Keys.so: the Yandex / Runet market. Backlink profile and domain metrics from its own index (labelled DR·KS), Yandex AI answers, a Yandex market for Competitors and Demand, Yandex Direct in Ads. Works with an official api.keys.so token or a GroupBuySEO key; the settings card checks the key for free and shows remaining credits.
2. Where your key comes from:
   • Official API: api.ahrefs.com / api.semrush.com / api.majestic.com.
   • Reseller: credits from a group-buy provider; the host is filled in for you.
   • Custom gateway: anything that speaks the official protocol; enter the host.
3. API key.
4. Monthly unit cap: requests are priced before they're sent and refused above the cap. Units spent this month are shown alongside.

Link Monitor uses the same Ahrefs key and host.

What it costs

Every button shows its price before you press it. Nothing fetches on page load.

Ahrefs bills max(50, per-row cost × rows). Most fields cost 1 unit, volume and difficulty cost more. The fields you select are the price. That's why loading is batched (one keyword costs the same as four) and KD is an opt-in checkbox: it costs 10 units per row and roughly doubles a load.

Rough figures at group-buy rates (Ahrefs $0.0001/unit, Semrush $0.00006, Majestic $0.000002):

Action	Units	≈ USD
100 keywords, no KD	1,300	$0.13
100 keywords, with KD	2,300	$0.23
Domain metrics, one domain (Ahrefs / Majestic)	100 / 1	$0.01 / $0.000002
Backlink profile, 100 referring domains (Ahrefs / Majestic)	550 / 1,101	$0.055 / $0.0022
Competitor keywords, 200 rows	2,600	$0.26

For keywords, Ahrefs is cheaper than Semrush in this module (KD 10 vs 50 units). For links, Majestic is now the budget pick, about 25× cheaper than Ahrefs for the same referring-domain pull.

Rate limits: 3 concurrent requests per key, then 429. The client queues and retries 429/502 with backoff.

About resellers

The Get key links on these cards are referral links to a reseller, the only referral links in the project. Nothing depends on them: official hosts are the default, the custom-gateway field accepts any compatible host, and CSV import needs no API at all. Reselling API access is against Ahrefs' and Semrush's terms and can be withdrawn without notice. That risk is yours to weigh.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause
"This report was not recognised"	The importer lists the columns it found. Headers sometimes change; open an issue with that list
Import saved rows but nothing appears	Wrong market. Volumes are stored per country
400 from the API	Usually an invalid field; pm2 logs opengsc has the provider's text verbatim
Button disabled	No key set (tooltip says so), or everything visible is already cached (Refresh weights)
503 from a reseller gateway	The gateway, not OpenGSC. Check its status or switch provider (DataForSEO and Majestic are cheap alternatives)
Cap reached	Raise the cap or wait for next month; nothing was spent

Internals (routing, caches, price model): docs/METRICS.md.