Automate Backlink Management with AI Agents

Manual backlink outreach is time-consuming. Between discovering opportunities, tracking submissions, and monitoring indexed links, SEO teams spend hours every week on tasks that follow a predictable pattern.

AI agents can run these patterns autonomously. This guide shows how to combine OpenClaw — an open-source AI agent runtime — with the MyBacklinks CLI to create a hands-off backlink management workflow.

The Stack

Step 1: Install and Authenticate

Install both tools:

# OpenClaw agent
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# MyBacklinks CLI
npm install -g @mybacklinks/cli
mybacklinks login

Verify the CLI is working:

mybacklinks status --json

Step 2: Competitor Backlink Discovery

Use the CLI to discover backlinks for any domain:

mybacklinks fetch-backlinks-by-domain --domain competitor.com --dofollow --min-dr 30 --limit 100

This returns a Markdown table of backlinks with source domain, anchor text, and follow status — structured data an AI agent can parse directly.

For an OpenClaw agent, you can create a skill that runs this on a schedule:

# ~/.openclaw/skills/competitor-scan.yaml
name: competitor-backlink-scan
schedule: "0 8 * * 1"  # Every Monday at 8am
steps:
  - run: mybacklinks fetch-backlinks-by-domain --domain competitor.com --dofollow --min-dr 30 --json
    save_as: new_backlinks
  - analyze: Compare new_backlinks with last week's results
  - notify: Post new opportunities to #seo-backlinks channel

Step 3: Project Pipeline Management

Once you identify opportunities, track them through the pipeline:

# Add to your project
mybacklinks update-project-backlinks \
  --project-id proj_abc \
  --target-url https://mysite.com/product \
  --backlink-url https://resource-site.com/article \
  --anchor "product review" \
  --status submitted

# Check current status
mybacklinks fetch-project-backlinks --project-id proj_abc --status submitted

Step 4: Batch Operations via JSON

For bulk updates (common in agent workflows), use a JSON file:

{
  "projectId": "proj_abc",
  "items": [
    {
      "targetUrl": "https://mysite.com/feature",
      "backlinkUrl": "https://blog-a.com/review",
      "anchor": "best tool",
      "status": "submitted"
    },
    {
      "targetUrl": "https://mysite.com/feature",
      "backlinkUrl": "https://dir-b.com/listing",
      "anchor": "mysite",
      "status": "indexed"
    }
  ]
}

mybacklinks update-project-backlinks --file batch-update.json

Step 5: Monitor and Report

Track your backlink metrics over time:

# Domain authority
mybacklinks fetch-dr-by-domain --domain mysite.com

# Traffic estimate
mybacklinks fetch-traffic-by-domain --domain mysite.com

# Project backlink breakdown
mybacklinks fetch-project-backlinks --project-id proj_abc

An OpenClaw agent can compile these into a weekly report and post it to your team channel.

Why CLI Instead of Dashboard?

The dashboard is great for manual review. The CLI exists for automation:

• Scriptable: Pipe output to other tools or agents
• Markdown-first: Default output is structured Markdown that AI models parse well
• JSON mode: Pass --json for exact machine consumption
• Same backend: CLI, MCP, and dashboard share the same API and credit model

MCP Alternative

If you're using an MCP-compatible AI client (Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.), MyBacklinks also provides an MCP server that exposes the same tools. The CLI and MCP server are interchangeable — choose whichever fits your agent runtime.

Getting Started

1. npm install -g @mybacklinks/cli
2. mybacklinks login
3. mybacklinks list-projects to see your existing data
4. mybacklinks fetch-backlinks-by-domain --domain competitor.com to start discovery
5. Set up an OpenClaw agent or cron job to automate the loop

The CLI's --help flag on any command shows all available options:

mybacklinks <command> --help