Have you ever stumbled upon a broken link while surfing the web? Odds are, you have. And chances are, you’ve wondered what to do when encountering one. In this blog post, we’ll get into broken link building, shed light on spotting these dead links and, more importantly, use them to improve your website’s SEO. Stick around for a straightforward, step-by-step guide on finding broken links and making them work to your advantage!

Learn stuff like how to connect, useful resources and cool tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer to smooth out the ride. Venture into the corners of the web, and you’ll discover that these dead resources could be your undiscovered goldmine. See the world of link-building techniques, revealing how to transform forgotten web pages into vibrant connections.

By the end, you’ll know how to identify a broken link or dead URL, and strategically replace them with working links. Get the hang of networking with website owners and effectively using SEO tools. We’ll guide you on building links, clearing the spam folder, and getting into the potential of competing websites and referring domains.

What is Broken Link Building?

Broken link building is a way to find and make the most of broken links or dead links on other websites to get links back to your site. This process can significantly elevate your website’s SEO by strengthening your link profile with high-quality links.

To discover these broken links, you can take a couple of approaches. One method involves using a tool like Screaming Frog, which scans a website to identify broken links. Alternatively, you can manually check websites you suspect might have broken links. This can be done by examining the website’s source code or using a Chrome extension like Check My Links.

Once you’ve identified some broken links, the next step is to seize the opportunity. Reach out to the website owner, informing them about the broken link and suggesting they replace it with a link to your website. This approach can be a fantastic way to acquire high-quality links from websites that are relevant to your own.

By focusing on target keywords and employing effective link-building techniques, you can unearth dead URL and missing pages that were previously linked. This creates an opening to create content that aligns with your goals and secures more links from relevant websites.

Remember, the key is not just to find a broken external link but to replace it with working links. Communicating with the website owner and utilising SEO tools will maximise your chances of success. As you explore how many different websites can benefit from this strategy, pinpoint resource pages and connect with more links to build a network of quality backlinks.

Whether you use a backlink analysis tool, explore links inurl, or collaborate with link prospects and link builders, the focus is turning a dead page into a source of high-quality links. This proactive approach is a powerful search engine optimisation tactic that transforms broken link opportunities into a successful link-building campaign.

Get into finding and fixing broken external links to boost your website’s visibility and credibility in the vast digital landscape.

Does Broken Link Building work?

A broken link-building campaign promises to boost your website’s SEO, but its success isn’t guaranteed for everyone. It’s essential to acknowledge the diverse nature of broken links and the varying willingness of website owners to replace them. Consequently, thorough research becomes crucial before contacting website owners regarding their broken links.

For those curious about the potential of broken link building, we recommend starting with a small-scale test to assess its viability in your specific context. Connect with a few website owners to learn about their openness to replacing broken links with connections to your website. If successful in acquiring high-quality links through this approach, the broken link-building outreach strategy may prove fruitful for further exploration.

Before going into the intricacies of broken link-building tactics, it’s crucial to reflect on why you’re considering this strategy in the first place. The process demands a significant investment of time and effort, with positive responses from website owners not guaranteed. Therefore, a thorough self-assessment is essential to determine whether broken link-building aligns with your objectives and resources.

While broken link building can be a potent tool for enhancing SEO, its effectiveness varies. A thorough approach involves testing the waters with a small-scale initiative, evaluating the response, and aligning the strategy with your overarching goals. The nuanced nature of the broken link-building technique requires careful consideration and a tailored approach to maximise its potential benefits for your website’s SEO.

How to do Broken Link Building?

Locating broken external links across various web pages can be a time-consuming task. Fortunately, a few methods can streamline and simplify this process.

1. Find Broken Pages with Backlinks

Broken pages are valuable resources for executing a successful broken link-building strategy. Using backlink tools like Majestic SEO or Ahrefs can significantly simplify the process. By entering your website URL into the tool, you gain insights into all the websites linking to your page. From there, identifying the broken page becomes the starting point for your broken link-building campaign.

To enhance the effectiveness of your search for pages with broken links, prioritise the topic’s relevance. Placing this criterion at the forefront ensures that your targeted topic aligns seamlessly with the backlinks you discover.

It’s advisable to focus on authoritative websites that may not prioritise their links for optimal results. This strategic approach lets you capitalise on the situation, opening up new avenues for broken link-building opportunities.

Ahrefs, as mentioned earlier, proves to be a valuable tool for finding broken pages. Utilising its capabilities can significantly contribute to the success of your broken link-building endeavours.

example of finding broken links in Ahrefs

a) Look for a broken pages from competing websites

Because information is constantly being moved, deleted, and reorganised, many of your competitors will have at least a few broken pages. When they do this, their backlinks will refer to broken pages if they forget to redirect old URLs.

Most websites regularly have links to other websites’ pages, and some of these will eventually break. This implies that links to broken pages will probably come from your rivals.

To find out the broken pages your rival is linking to, use these steps:

  1. Visit Site Explorer.
  2. Go to a competing website.
  3. Visit the report about broken links.

Here is an example of a broken links report:

Example of broken links inside Ahrefs

To see which has the most referring domains, export the report, paste the broken URLs into Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool, and sort by total referring domains.

Ahrefs list of Domain URL highlighting the column of Referring domains

b) Look for a broken page about general topics

Searching for broken links across the internet is a traditional method. However, it restricts your opportunities to just a few websites. Wouldn’t it be ideal if you could scan the entire web for broken pages with backlinks related to specific topics? Well, Ahrefs’ Content Explorer lets you do exactly that! This tool offers access to billions of searchable web pages.

Here’s how you can use this tool effectively:

  1. Enter a general topic.
  2. Change the search mode to “In title”.
  3. Press ‘search’.
  4. Apply filters only for broken pages.
  5. Look out for pages with at least 20 referring domains.

For instance, using these steps in content marketing shows up on defunct pages, each with no less than 20 backlinks:

Ahrefs example page of referring domain

To verify a broken page, give the title a click. This action will open the page in a new tab for your convenience.

Example of 404 page

Monitor the “Page traffic” column to spot pages with potential high-quality backlinks. If a page previously had good traffic, its ranking was likely boosted by these backlinks.

Monitoring the "Page traffic" column in Ahrefs

If a page has never experienced traffic, the quality of its backlinks might be questionable.

Monitoring the "Page traffic" column in Ahrefs 2

c) Broken pages from resource page

Resource pages are an excellent source for broken link building. They’re a great source because they’re usually full of links to other websites, and it’s an opportunity for you to find a dead link.

There are resource pages on some websites with helpful links to other websites.

You may be able to find dead pages on these pages if there are any more links to the broken pages,.

Use Google to locate resource pages.

You can narrow down your search by using the Google search operators. The following templates are available:

  • “useful links” AND [topic]
  • [topic] intitle:“useful resources”
  • [topic] inurl:resources

For example:

Google search bar inputted "useful links AND best restaurants in the world" with search results displayed

Here is a step-by-step process on how to find resource pages that are broken from other sites using Google:

  • You can use Google Search. Search for “keyword + resource page”, and a list of resource pages will appear.
  • From there, you can start investigating the links that are no longer working. This can be a great way to find new opportunities for link-building.
  • Then you need to check for the dead page’s url, which you can do for free with Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar:
    1. Visit the page
    2. Click the toolbar icon
    3. Go to the “Links” tab
    4. Click “Check status”
    5. Filter for broken links only
Ahrefs showing broken links in tabular format using the filter "broken"
  • To see the total backlinks to these pages, export the list of URLs and paste them into Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool.

2. Filter The Broken Pages

Identifying dead pages might seem arduous, but targeting these pages selectively is crucial. Your focus should be on dead pages that possess high-quality backlinks. Some pages may have links, but not all are high-quality.

To avoid wasting effort, it’s imperative to filter out low-quality backlinks. Google’s Webmaster Guidelines caution against links intended to manipulate PageRank, considering them part of a link scheme and violating guidelines. Therefore, exercising caution in finding backlinks is essential to ensuring your time is well spent recreating content for those pages.

Several methods can be employed to filter out dead pages lacking high-quality backlinks. Utilising tools like Ahrefs and other SEO tools is one practical approach.

The Google Search Console provides another avenue for filtering out dead pages. In the Crawl section, the Dead Links report displays all pages on your website with broken links.

While various methods exist for filtering dead pages, the primary objective is to focus on pages with high-quality backlinks. This strategy ensures that your time is invested wisely, avoiding the pitfalls of wasting effort on pages that won’t yield a favourable return on investment.

For a comprehensive approach to this process, consider employing the capabilities of Ahrefs Site Explorer. This tool allows you to delve into your website’s backlink profile, aiding in identifying high-quality backlinks.

Remember, efficiency is key in the link-building process. Streamlining your efforts and concentrating on pages with valuable backlinks will contribute significantly to the success of your link-building strategy.

3. Create Quality Content

Building backlinks is a multifaceted process that hinges significantly on creating high-quality content. This sets you apart from competitors and enhances the likelihood of securing valuable links from other websites.

To craft content that truly stands out, prioritising originality and delivering substantial value to the reader is paramount. Furthermore, meticulous attention to detail ensures your content is well-written and grammatically error-free.

Creating quality content is a pivotal strategy for distinguishing yourself in the competitive landscape and increasing the probability of acquiring links from external sources. Emphasise your content’s uniqueness and value proposition, ensuring it meets and exceeds your audience’s expectations.

Remember, the objective isn’t merely to replace a broken link but to surpass it with something superior. For an in-depth exploration of crafting high-quality content, refer to our comprehensive guide on SEO content.

4. Outreach

Outreach refers to presenting your alternative resource to individuals or websites with a dead link.

Typically, this task is accomplished using one of two methods:

  • Targeted outreach. Your emails lack personalisation as they are identical for every recipient.
  • Engaging in sniper outreach. You dispatch individualised, customised emails to each recipient.

Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages.

Shotgun outreach relies only on the principle of quantity over quality. The conversion rates are expected to be relatively low, but you will still get several build links from potential customers. Furthermore, it carries a significant level of danger. Rapidly severing connections and having your domain blacklisted is possible.

Engaging with potential customers through sniper outreach yields higher conversion rates; however, it requires more time and effort. It is pretty effortless to dedicate an entire day to sending twelve emails.

Instead of employing a one-size-fits-all approach, you divide potential customers into segments and develop a customised template for each group. Therefore, we dedicated a considerable amount of work to uncovering both broad and profound connections. You should employ a distinct approach when targeting them.

Here is a sample template for an outreach:

Text showing an example template for email outreach

Email outreach can be very helpful at this stage. Enhance your outreach strategy using tools like Buzzstream. Engage in a step-by-step process, including personalised emails highlighting the website owner’s name and pinpointing the dead link.

Use relevant keywords, like contact details, to establish connections with website owners in your outreach. Emphasise the importance of helpful resources to replace the broken link.

Expand your search to referring domains, targeting keywords, and linking domains to create content that is a valuable replacement for dead links. Navigate through resource pages on various websites, exploring link prospects and building links strategically. Utilise SEO tools to analyse backlinks, ensuring you replace broken links with corrected and quality links.

Conclusion

Building effective links can prove challenging and time-intensive, but leveraging broken links presents a unique opportunity to construct high-quality backlinks for your website.

Get into the strategic process of capitalising on broken links to bolster your website’s backlink profile. Our comprehensive guide offers valuable tips on crafting standout content that outshines competitors and on reaching out to webmasters to position your content as a worthy replacement for broken links.

For a deeper understanding of link building and its impact on SEO, explore our guide to link building for SEO. Additionally, our all-encompassing SEO guide provides a wealth of information to enhance your website’s overall optimisation.

These guides are invaluable resources, equipping you with the knowledge needed to elevate your website to the summit of search engine results pages.

Following the steps outlined in this blog, you can effectively capitalise on broken links, constructing a robust network of high-quality backlinks. Link building is a potent strategy to enhance your website’s SEO, propelling it to the forefront of search engine results. Don’t hesitate to kickstart your link-building journey today!

If you have any queries concerning link building or SEO, please comment below or contact us directly.