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Technical SEO

How to Reclaim Broken Backlinks and Win Back Lost Link Value

Published 2 min read

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Reclaim broken backlinks by finding links from other sites that point to pages on your site that now return errors, then redirecting those pages to the most relevant working page. For the best links, you can also ask the linking site to update the address. It is one of the quickest ways to recover link value you already earned.

A link pointing at a dead page passes little or nothing and sends visitors to an error. When a page with good links is deleted or its address changes without a redirect, that value is wasted.

How to find them

  1. Use a backlink tool or your link report to list pages that receive links.
  2. Check which of those addresses return a 404 or other error.
  3. Sort by the quality and number of links pointing at each.

Learn how to judge which links are worth the effort in how to evaluate a backlink.

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Fix it with a redirect

Send each dead address to the closest relevant page with a single 301, as described in whether 301 redirects pass link equity. Avoid sending everything to the homepage, which I explain in redirecting deleted pages.

Or restore the page

If the old page had real value, recreate it or bring back an updated version at the same address. That keeps the link pointing at relevant content.

For high-quality links, email the site and politely ask them to update the address. Keep it short, helpful and specific. Overall approaches to earning links are in how to get backlinks for free.

Test the results

Confirm every redirect with the free redirect and status code checker.

Frequently asked questions

How long until I see a benefit?

Search engines need time to recrawl and process changes.

Is this the same as broken link building?

No. Broken link building targets other sites’ dead links. This approach fixes links pointing at yours.

Next steps

If you suspect lost link value, contact me here for a link recovery review.

More in this series (broken link questions): start with Free Broken Link Checker, then explore:

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