An Ultimate Guide: Broken Link Building
Earning high-quality, topic-related backlinks from other websites is a key component of any successful link-building strategy.
Building quality links requires a multi-pronged approach that strikes just the right mix between persistence and innovation.
Broken link building is a tried and true method that should be incorporated into your link development plan.
Repairing a Web’s Broken Links
In order to build broken links, you need to scour the web for pages that contain external links that no longer work, and then reach out to those sites with suggestions for new material.
Fixing broken links requires careful planning and execution. You need to divide your broken link construction process into three distinct phases to achieve optimal results:
- Checking related websites for broken links
- Locating and/or producing relevant linkable information
- While it may sound easy to reach out to a website owner and convince them to replace a broken link with one to your site, identifying chances at scale is sometimes the most challenging element of this process. We’ll show you how to create an effective strategy for fixing your broken links so that you may uncover opportunities more quickly and efficiently.
The Value of Broken Link Building in Your Overarching Linking Strategy and How to Implement It
To set the record straight, constructing broken links is not the only method of building backlinks. As a strategy tool, continually assessing and capitalizing on possibilities can help you acquire a significant edge over the competition.
Why should you bother with broken link building instead of just reaching out and getting backlinks for fresh content you’ve created? Incorporate broken link building to:
Create inbound links to established pages
Create inbound connections to related content to boost the discoverability and popularity of your target pages.
Harness the authority of inbound links that were once pointing to your competitors (or at least relevant content) and use them to advance your own SEO efforts.
Add to the mix other link-building strategies when the need arises
Where to Look for Links (and How to Fix the Broken Ones)
If you want to make the most of the possibilities offered by broken link building, you must first learn how to locate and convert such links.
You’ll need both a tried-and-true method for locating pages with broken links and the insider knowledge to scale up your efforts. When you locate a single broken link chance, it’s exciting, but imagine if you could quickly multiply it into ten, twenty, or even one hundred more opportunities.
In comparison to other link-building strategies, broken link construction often yields greater results. You have made your case for why they should link to you if you can demonstrate that broken links provide a terrible user experience and provide evidence that the information you have developed is relevant to their website or a certain topic.
Here are some more pointers on how to design broken links that actually work:
Identify 404 error pages that are still receiving inbound links
When launching a broken link building effort, the first step is to identify pages that are no longer being linked to. In this case, the 404 error message indicates that the linked-to page no longer exists on the target website.
Recreate the linked-to content
First, you need to figure out what the dead page was actually about so you can start making material that is actually relevant. Insight about what and why someone linked to the prior article can be gained by finding this. The greatest tool for this is the Wayback Machine on archive.org.
The WayBack Machine is useful since it removes all uncertainty about the original site’s content. If you already have content, you can compare it to the linked page to make sure it provides the same experience.
Start contacting the people that linked to you once you have something similar (and ideally better) up on your site.
Locating Potential Partners and Developing the Ideal Broken Link Outreach Email
You need to have a list of potential customers ready to contact.
But the site’s contact information is something you (likely) lack at the moment and will have to track down.
In most cases, you can choose between two primary alternatives:
- Take a look at the site’s about us, author profile, and contact pages. Editors, webmasters, and site owners’ contact information can usually be found here. Sometimes this space will have a form rather than an email address.
- Write them down alongside your ideal clients.
- Find an email address for nearly anyone with the help of a service like Hunter.io.
- Check Google. Search operators allow you to provide more specific criteria in order to obtain more relevant results.
- You should create a list containing the URL, contact information, and, if available, the name of the person you are reaching out to.
Rebuilding Missing Pieces Through Community Outreach
After compiling a list of prospects, you should contact them in an effort to persuade them to replace a broken link with one to your site.
Your email, and the way you use it, is a critical component of your outreach strategy here.
Taking advantage of pages that your competitors have taken down and using them to connect to your own content can be a terrific strategy to build links that are both topical and relevant.