For any SEO professional or a site owner who really cares about boosting the site reputation and ranking, working with dead links is a true boon. It’s a simple way to get good-quality backlinks for your site without putting tons of effort into knocking at the closed doors and pitching yourself to sceptical site owners.
But to work with dead links properly, we first need to answer several questions: what are broken links, where to find them, and what does broken link building tactic include? In a nutshell, various strategies can be reduced to 4 essential steps, and really good strategies are not that numerous.
So pay close attention to this guide on working with broken links, and your site will see significant improvements in its ranking and authority really fast.
What are broken links?
Broken links are links that lead to non-existent pages, so when a reader clicks on a link, ‘error 404’ or a similar message is displayed. Content is inaccessible because at some point in time it was moved to some other address or removed during the website overhaul. So a valuable opportunity of getting good-quality traffic is lost (for the site that reshuffled its content and failed to relink it).
Why broken links are important
First we need to answer the question on what is broken link building.
For you, it’s an amazing opportunity to expand the outreach and gain a new audience in your thematic area, plus attract tons of good organic traffic. Broken link building in SEO means that you build backlinks by replacing the links leading to non-existent pages with working links leading to YOUR website in the same topical niche (SEO, fashion, wellness, fitness, you name it). When your site gets linked to a number of other reputable pages, its authority in the given field and SERP ranking grow exponentially, in an organic and sustainable way.
Yes, in link building, you need to replace links on third-party sites. But how exactly is it possible?
In the following sections, we’ll explore the most popular ways to do it and what tools you will need.
Best 3 Broken Link Building Strategies
For various broken link building techniques that you will use, there are four key steps that you will take in this or that form.
- You’ll need to find broken links (non-existent pages with links that lead to them).
- Evaluate the found links to decide if they qualify for link building (i.e. if it will bring you traffic, higher ranking, or conversions).
- Create appropriate thematic content (that’s important) and put it on your site so it is ready for being linked to.
- Pitch/email the target sites with notifications about their broken links and offers of your replacement content.
Now let’s dive right into the action and see what strategies are to be applied according to your SEO plan.
Finding Broken Links On The Websites Of Competitors
In a nutshell, every useful but broken link out there has a bunch of websites still directing their readers to that non-existent page. When you find this link, you notify the website about the broken link, thus doing a gallant service, and immediately offer your content (fresh and relevant) as a replacement link. But let’s learn step by step how to do broken link building – with examples, of course!
1. Search for broken pages with backlinks on competitor’s pages
Now let’s get to the actual broken link building method. For every link searching strategy we’ll rely on software tools, of which these are the most popular:
- Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
- Ahrefs Site Explorer
- Semrush Backlink Analytics tool
- Screaming Frog broken link checker
You have to make a list of your competitor’s websites that you want to explore – if you know them. Then you:
- Open Ahrefs Site Explorer
- Enter the URL of a site to explore
- Choose the Best by links report and use “404 not found” filter (it’s under HTTP tab)
- Now look at the Referring domains column and sort from the largest to the lowest number.
In this case, you’ll evaluate topics of the most linked-to articles and decide whether they fit your thematic niche.
If, for example, the most backlinked article is about ‘SEO and building the website authority,’ with 50+ backlinks, it’s a hit because you do just this kind of thing and the article is valuable. For some more unique areas, 20 or even 10 backlinks are quite ok for an article to be considered useful for dead link building.
Similarly, with the same list of competitors, you can choose a different strategy:
- Open Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
- Enter the domain to check
- See all pages with broken outbound links and the articles they linked to.
- Plus, you get all the metrics like referring domains, traffic, etc.
- Now you can start prospecting every link as fit for backlinking.
Finally, if you are not sure who your direct competitors are, you can use the following method:
- Open the Ahrefs Site Explorer, enter your domain, and click the Competing Domains tab on the left.
- Of all the domains you’ll see, the top 10 are the best ones, with the main keywords that are most relevant to your topical niche. These sites are the best sources to look for broken links, since they are thematically close to your domain.
- Now you open each domain and prospect the backlinks.
Link prospecting and content preparation
- If you use Ahrefs Site Explorer or Ahrefs Broken Link Checker, click Best by links report. You’ll see a long list of articles that now end up as dead links, for some reason (content removal, site refurbishing, etc.)
- Export the report for ease of use.
- You’ll see the articles names, traffic, dofollow/nofollow tab, referring domains, and Anchor and backlink columns. That’s where your manual work begins.
- You need to evaluate every link by topic, traffic, number of backlinks, and anchors that are used for creating links.
Usually, when you scroll through articles you see editorials and features on top of the list, and blogs and forums on the bottom. The top ones are the most beneficial for link building.
You can also filter by Traffic or by Referring domain feature, but the results will most probably be similar. Yet you’d better check. Remove links that look unfeasible to follow (no traffic, irrelevant by topic, etc.).
The remaining list is the one to work with.
To start emailing the webmasters, you need to have the content ready and published on your page – and it needs to be really matching the niche and tonality of the content with the dead link. So collect all anchors that host the broken links – these words are the reason these articles were linked to, in the first place. Readers needed this very information, so use it in your content. It may be ‘the list of SEO tools,’ ‘pricing comparison,’ or whatnot. Just make sure you include them into your replacement content. It will make pitching – and getting backlinks – a hundred times easier.
Websites pitching process
Oftentimes, it’s too obvious that you are trying to do link-building, and the website owners may feel unduly pressured or bothered by your ‘cold call.’
Instead, give them a valuable insight first: tell them about the broken link they have (otherwise they would have already fixed it), and then be helpful by saying that you can provide useful content to fill the gap and make the link workable again.
The letter should be friendly and not too pushy.
Here’s a broken link building email template you may use (or tweak to fit your specific goal). The great tip is to add a screenshot of a page with a broken link into the letter body.
Hi there
[or Hi “name”]
I really enjoy the content of your website/blog on the topic of [insert topic], actually I’m a subscriber/regular reader and want to say thanks for what you do.
Yet I tried to open the link in the post [give the URL of the post] and the linked page is not available any longer. Looks like it’s a dead link, so maybe you need to know about it.
(screenshot)
In case you need some help in fixing the matter, I have a fresh article on the topic, with a few extra tips and bits [provide the link to your article].
Anyway, just wanted to say kudos for your work, keep it up!
[your name]
Who to send the email to? Check on the website for their contact form, or better, look for the info on who’s responsible for site maintenance and reach out to them directly. Use the tool hunter.io to get emails of content managers or page owners. It will simplify your job significantly.
2. Explore websites with similar thematic fields for dead links
There is one more technique of how to find broken links for link building that complements the previous one. It offers you a chance to tap into thousands of websites that explore the same topic as you, instead of focusing on a few leading competitors only.
The tool you need is Ahrefs’ Content Explorer, it’s a convenient database with millions of webpages you can search through.
- Open the tool and type your topic (preferably a broader version), like ‘building website authority’ or something like that.
- Get the mode “In title” and click Search.
- Now filter the results: set ‘broken pages only’ and choose pages with 20 referring websites or more.
- To weed out unpromising pages, check “Page traffic” and pick pages that previously attracted sufficient amounts of traffic. It means their backlinks were of good quality and redirected users to this linked content, thus pushing it higher in ranking. So it’s worth pitching your content to them, too.
Websites pitching process
Here, the pitching process is the same as in the previous case, from link prospecting to anchors exploration. You may tweak the email template a little, to sound more professional (or laid back). Don’t forget about a screenshot of dead link:
Hi “name of the recipient”
Fellow blogger/page owner here. I read posts on your website now and then, since they are really informative and useful. But I could not reach the page under the link [insert URL] and it looks like it’s broken. So I’ve compiled my own small research on the matter because the topic is really hot right now.
(screenshot)
So I just wanted to let you know about that dead link – and if you want to replace it with a recent and detailed post to keep your readers informed, here’s a link to my post [provide a link]. That’s just FYI.
Regards
[your name]
Wikipedia Broken Link Finding and Building
Wikipedia has become almost indispensable on the web (and beyond) for millions of people as a source of mostly reliable knowledge – but only because it is regularly checked by people who are experts on the topic. That’s why you cannot just replace the first best broken link you find there with a link leading to your page. This link will be removed really fast.
So you’ll have to apply a specially designed broken link building method here:
- It’s possible to look for dead links manually, because Wiki has a separate article about its dead external links. But looking through all of them is unfeasible. Instead, use the tools.
- Type into the search engine the following query: site:wikipedia.org [your target keyword] intext: “dead link” and look through search results. Every article will have at least one dead link. Check for backlinks.
- Semrush Backlink Analytical Tool is just fine for that task.
- Use Ahrefs Broken Link Checker if you prefer this tool.
- Use WikiGrabber to find pages that need citations and feature dead links (they are at the bottom of the list). Check what dead links feature many backlinks and pick ones that match your content niche.
Since many different sites and resources link back to sources offered by Wiki, you need a broken link building email template that will nudge them to pay attention to that broken link and your replacement content:
Hi “name”!
I’ve been reading the article [article title] on your site and discovered that the embedded link is broken [provide the link URL]. It’s a pity since [name the topic] is a hot issue right now and readers won’t be able to get the info.
(screenshot)
In case you plan to update the article, I have a fresh post on this very topic with a couple of useful insights [provide your post URL]. You may use it to keep your readers informed and happy.
You are doing a great job with your site, keep it up!
Best wishes
[your name]
Case Study
Let’s say for the sake of a simple broken link building case study that we’ve found a dead link in a SEO blog post of one of our competitors. Will we be reaching out to them? No! We’ll be reaching out to other resources that link back to this non-existent page.
So, first, use the Wayback Machine or Archive.org to find out what exactly was under that link. Let’s say it’s an article about tools for broken link building and their key features. It lists main tools, their features, benefits, pricing, and tips on the best use. It’s totally our niche and you have some valuable ideas up your sleeve that you can write about. You gather all the keywords used as anchors in the articles under dead links (use Site Explorer or Broken Link Checker and export the report to see Anchor and Backlink column). Then you use them organically in your article (just don’t copy the content word-for-word).
Next we investigate the backlinks (number of them, amount of traffic, you get it). We use Semrush Backlink Analytics tool (for example) to see the number of backlinks and their quality. If they are valid and popular websites that align with your thematic niche and provide sufficient back traffic, gather emails to their webmasters or content managers.
When the article is ready and published, you craft an email (or several slightly different emails) and send the letters to these websites. Don’t forget to include the screenshot of their page with the dead link (highlighted for convenience) and the URL of the content you offer to link to!
With some elbow grease and persistence, you can expect around a quarter of pitched websites to reach back and actually link to your site. The conversion rate can fluctuate around 15% to 25%, and that’s a pretty awesome result for cold calls and pitching ‘out of nowhere.’
One more tip to boost conversion is to reach out to websites that did not respond some time later and say that you’ve updated your content and so the latest version is available, if they need it. It can also bring you a couple of additional backlinks with very little effort.
Conclusion
We’ve covered how to find broken links for link building in ways that are simple and accessible. With the right tools and a bit of persistent work, you can achieve impressive results – and meet your largest business goals.
It’s not a one-day task to create a really wide outreach, but soon it will pay back, bringing you the backlinks and the traffic. And as you know, being referenced by reputable websites and getting good quality organic traffic boosts your ranking manyfold. Plus, it builds up the authority of your site, so the move pays back in multiple ways.
