Broken Link Building are also known as Dead Link Building is a smart and powerful SEO strategy used to earn high-quality backlinks by replacing previous broken or non-working(404) links on other guest post websites with a link to your own relevant and useful content.
What is Broken Link Building?
Broken Link Building is one of the best processes of identifying dead links usually 404 pages(also read more about error 525) on guest websites in your niche and suggesting your own content as a replacement link. This step not only helps the website owner to fix an issue but also allows you to gain a high quality nofollow dofollow backlink to your content in return. It’s a win-win situation for you and for the website owner.
Why Does Broken Link Building Working So Well?
Most of the outreach emails ask for favors like “Please link to my post” without offering anything to site admin in return. But with broken link building, you need to do the opposite. First, you offer value. Specifically, you point out broken links in front of the admin on their web page and offer a working alternative your content. Always website owners appreciate the help, and many are happy to replace the broken link with your relevant resource. Here is another SEO guide on Automotive SEO for you.
Best Practices for Broken Link Building Strategy:
1. Use a Top Rated Broken Link Building Tool
One of the easiest and free tools to start with is Check My Links because it’s a free of cost SEO chrome extension. First you need to open Google chrome search bar, search the name of recommended extension, download and install it, after the installation, then bookmark into the chrome header, click on the icon, and it will scan a complete webpage for broken links. Are you looking for a premium tool? Must try Ahrefs broken link building feature or SEMRush site audit tool, which we’ll explain shortly.
2. Find Pages with Lots of External Links
The more external links in a page has, the higher the chances that at least one of them is must broken.
To find these issues link-rich pages, search Google using strings like:
“Keyword” + inurl:resources
Use this one “Keyword” + intitle:links
“Keyword” + “useful resources”
“Keyword” + “helpful links”
These will bring up resource pages, which often contain dozens or hundreds of external links perfect for broken link building(BLB).
3. Find Everyone Linking to That Broken URL
After finding a complete dead link list, do not stop at one website. Use top market tools like Ahrefs or a Semrush backlink analytics to find every other website linking to that same broken page. This will help you expand your reach to new sites and also help you maintain the continuity of your broken link building.
4. Try the Wikipedia Broken Link Building Technique
Absolutely Yes, Wikipedia is fillup of dead external links, and here’s how to find them:
Search at Google using: site:wikipedia.org “keyword” intext:”dead link”
Once you find a complete list of broken link in a Wikipedia article, please keep in mind don’t try to replace it directly on Wikipedia their rules are strict and link back nofollow. By choice, paste the URL into Ahrefs or Semrush to identify other websites that have already linked to that dead page.
5. Use SEMRush Broken Link Building Features
Semrush has two great tools to simplify this process:
Website Audit > Broken External Links: Reveals all external broken links on a website.
Backlink Analytics > Broken Pages: Shows your competitor pages with links pointing to broken pages.
You can reach out to your linking competitor websites and offer your helpful content as a replacement. This is an effective approach to get backlinks from your competitors.
How to Create the Perfect Replacement Link?
To get the highest results, you need to offer a relevant and helpful content as a replacement.
Here’s how:
Re-create Dead Content:
Find the outdated content using this tool such as archive.org, and create a latest, better, and updated version of it. Never copy the exact content from other competitor websites and from AI tools. This will help you make the site owner more agreeable to replacing your broken link.
Writing a Broken Link Building Email Template That Converts:
Your outreach email template should be more polite, non-pushy, and super helpful.
Pro Tips:
- Point out all your broken links on their webpage.
- Include the exact link of your website that is broken.
- Offer your highest quality content as a replacement only in this situation if it is a very close to match.
- Find the right contact person of a website where your link is broken such as the webmaster, editor, or a content manager.
Here is a concise sample broken link building email template:
Subject: Broken link on your [Page Title]
Hi [Name],
Recently, I was browsing your awesome post on [Topic] and noticed that one of your external links is no longer working:
Broken Link: [Broken URL]
I actually have a relevant piece that might serve as a good replacement:
[Your URL]
Either way, just wanted to let you know. Hope it will helps!
These are the pro tips for better conversion rates:
- Avoid Dead Sites: If a website where your want to create a backlink that has not been updated in years, do not bother. They are unlikely to respond.
- Use a Personal Tone: Keep your message casual; add interest and emotions, not robotic.
- Don’t Be Pushy: Offer value to the website owner that will e beneficial for you, better than aggressive link requests.
FAQs:
How To Find Broken Links For Link Building?
You can use following tools like Check My Links(It’s a free google chrome seo extension), SEMRush, Ahrefs, or search at Google or at any other search engine Wikipedia for “dead links” to find broken URLs in your niche or in industry.
Which Link Building Strategy Focuses On Fixing Broken Resources?
This is also known as a broken link building SEO strategy based on changing broken links with live ones from your own website.
What Are The Best Broken Link Building Tools?
Some of the most popular tools especially for digital marketing agency and also for individual freelancers, include:
- Check My Links it’s a free Google chrome extension
- Ahrefs broken link builder, It’s a expensive SEO tool in the market
- SEMRush website audit and backlink analytics, this is a paid version tool and available in a very cheap prices.
- Many more broken link checker free tools are available online
What is the Main Goal Of Broken Link Building?
To earn high quality backlinks for your business website by providing value, helping webmasters to fix broken links by offering your working content as a replacement.
Is There a Broken Link Building Service?
Absolutely yes, many top leading SEO agencies such as RealDigitalEra, offer broken link building services. Costs vary depending on your niche(industry), number of backlinks, and their outreach effort involved.
What Does Broken Link Building Tactic Include?
It includes:
- Finding a list of broken backlinks
- Analyzing complete backlink data
- Recreating or offering a similar helpful content
- Sending personalized outreach emails via your company webmail
Broken link building is one of the most powerful link building(Off Page SEO) methods in SEO industry. When done properly, it will definitely help you to earn high-authority backlinks, improves SEO keywords rankings, and builds long term business relationships in your niche.
Use paid and free version tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or even Check My Link to uncover super opportunities. Just focus on offering value first, and the links will follow.