Broken Link Building: How to do it the Right way

By Sabahat Ali – Link building expert since 2009 – 668+ clients served

Broken link building, BLB, also known as “dead link building,” has been the source of division among SEOs for a while now.

Aira’s State of Link Building, 2022, claims broken link building is the 5th most used tactic for acquiring high quality links .

Newer statistics show that over 10% link building experts still see this strategy as one of the most effective.

In other words, it works.

Despite the report, other SEOs claim that broken link builders are wasting their time on a web page’s backlinks pointing to a dead page.

Is this true? Which of the two divisions is right?

This article will bring you closure. Keep reading to learn more.

What is broken link building?

Broken link building is an SEO tactic that involves identifying and fixing broken links on other websites in your niche or industry, often by providing original content .

The concept is simple:

• You find external websites with broken links,
• Reach out to the website owner and
• Suggest replacing those broken links with links to your relevant and quality content.

This approach helps website owners improve their user experience by fixing broken links. It also provides the opportunity to gain valuable backlinks.

Beyond this, the benefits of a broken link building campaign are manifold.

First, it helps improve your website’s SEO by acquiring high-quality backlinks. This is a crucial ranking factor for search engines. a

Second, it helps build relationships with other website owners and establish a connection with the target website in your industry.

Finally, it allows you to leverage existing content on your website. Doing this will increase its visibility and drive more organic traffic.

So, to maximize your conversion rate, create compelling outreach messages. Remember to include your contact information and follow up with the website owners.

Does broken link building work? What is the hype about?

Short answer: Yes, but only if done right!

Like any link building tactic, “broken link building” takes time, careful planning, and consistency.

When the effort does work, broken link building can be a gold mine. Here is why:

Unlike other link building methods like PR, forum posting, and blog commenting, BLB helps the source.

Meaning when you replace the broken links, you’re helping the source retain prospects. Instead of people bouncing off their (the source’s) page because of “error 404,” you’re fixing the issue for them.

In other words, you’re fixing a problem and getting a backlink.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. It gets better!

You can use broken link building in an expanded way. Here is how:

When you fix the “broken page” with top-notch content, you can reach out to other pages referring to that page as part of your outreach strategy . That’s an extra soft landing for your next guest posts.

But remember, all these processes – though seemingly easy – take time and aren’t a breeze. More importantly, you must execute all the steps correctly.

What steps?

• For starters, you need to find the broken pages.
• Then, check if the pages are worth your time.
• Next, create a replacement to fill the missing spot.
• Lastly, reach out.

I will explain each of the steps one after the other. But first, let’s talk about how broken link building works.

How does broken link building work?

Sometimes, websites have links that don’t work anymore. You can use SEO tools to search for these broken links or dead pages on relevant websites within your niche.

Once you’ve identified these dead ends, the next step is your link building outreach. A well-written broken link building email is key to your success rate.

Note:

When you reach out to site owners, you’re doing two things:

• Offering a solution to their broken link problem.
• Showcasing your website’s high-quality content. This can fill the void left by those dead links.

The good part is that this approach is a win-win:

• The website owner gets a fixed page.
• You get a link that helps your site grow.

These backlinks are vital for SEO, as they boost your site’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines, ultimately resulting in higher organic traffic.

You’ll also get to establish meaningful relationships within your industry. Assisting other websites to fix their broken links will lead to future partnerships or opportunities.

Thus, broken link building opportunities extend beyond SEO gains.

So, don’t overlook this strategy. It can yield impressive results, including gaining more backlinks for your website and your network.

How to find broken pages

The more external sites linking to your website, the greater the risk of encountering broken links. So focus on blog posts and websites rich in external links.

Thankfully, there are various methods you can employ to identify these problematic pages.

In this section, I’ll focus on three of the most effective techniques, presenting them in order of increasing complexity.

Let’s get started.

Using resource pages

Resource pages contain several articles (and new links) on a particular topic. Fortunately, the resource is hardly updated.

Meaning: There is a likelihood of finding several broken links on resource pages.

The best part is that, since all the links are on a single page, you might not even need Ahrefs. A Chrome extension will suffice.

Regardless, we’ll show you how to use the two methods. But first, let’s find the resource pages.

Use the template below for a Google search:

KEYWORD intitle:resources inurl:resources.html

For example, let’s use the template for “digital marketing.”

What next?

Let’s use the Google Chrome extension method!

The extension we’re using is Check My Links.

• Add the plugin to your Chrome and activate it
• Head back to the resources page
• Then, click the plugin icon (a tick sign at the top right corner of your Chrome)
• You’ll find something like this:

In our example, the resource page has two invalid links (the broken links). So, how can you find them?

Scroll through the page until you see something like this (links with a red background and the 404 tags):

There you have it. Follow the link and verify!

Note: while this method is easy, it is time-consuming and “too manual.” For mass link finding and fast results, use Ahrefs. Plus, the latter is more accurate.

Fortunately, this method is also FREE — even with Ahrefs.

So, how can you use Ahrefs to find broken links on resource pages?

• Download Ahrefs SEO Toolbar for your Chrome
• Now, go back to the resources page
• Click the Ahrefs toolbar from the icons in the top right corner of your Chrome.
• Click “outgoing links” from the drop-down list. Look towards the left!
• Now, change the default “Status” to “Broken,” then filter the results by “external.”

And that’s it.

Pro tip: Try other tools outside Ahrefs or browser extensions. You can combine tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush Site Audit, etc., to find broken pages at scale. This is to be sure you don’t miss opportunities hidden behind redirect chains or canonical issues.

Now, let’s try more complex methods for finding broken links.

Using competitors’ broken pages

Frankly, resource pages are not effective for maximizing broken links. You’d only be creating random articles that might not necessarily affect your rankings.

What you must do is see your competitors and leverage their broken links. That is the fastest way to rank higher.

How do you go about this method?

We’ll be using Ahrefs. However, you’ll need a paid account, unlike in the “resource pages” method.

Now, log in to your Ahrefs Dashboard and follow the instructions below:

• First, you should already know your competitors. In the case of our example, the competitors are the other websites on the search results.
• Next, click Site Explorer on the Ahrefs dashboard and input your competitor’s domain.
• Go to “Best by links” — you’ll find it on the left tab toward the end of the list.
• Lastly, change the “HTTP code” filter to “404 Not found.”

Pro tip: if you don’t know your competitors, type your domain into Site Explorer. Then, click “competing domains” on the left tab.

Using Ahrefs Content Explorer

Using resource pages and competitor research to find backlinks is a cool hack. However, they can be limiting.

What if there are no resource pages in your niche?

What if there are no competitors yet?

In that case, focus on specific topics relating to your niche. For that, you’ll need link building tools like Ahrefs Content Explorer.

This method is similar to finding broken links using resource pages. Unlike the latter, we’ll be doing the search on Ahrefs.

That said, let’s get to the “how.”

For starters, head to Ahrefs Content Explorer. Then, follow the steps below:

• Step 1: Input a broad topic (keyword) into the search bar. Then, change “Everywhere” to “In title.”
• Step 2: Filter the results by “only broken.” Change the default “live & broken.”
• Step 3: Add an additional filter for “referring domain. Make the “from” at least 20. Why?

It’s best to work with broken pages with some backlinks already pointing to them.

Pro tip: don’t limit the deciding factor by just “referring domains.” Check the traffic coming to the broken pages. If the pages were never visited, don’t waste your time.

Now, you know how to find broken pages and links. However, you can’t work with all the results. You must prioritize the ones that are worth your time.

Qualifying The Broken Pages To Work With

Finding broken pages to work with is only the first step to banking on their linking power. Qualifying the pages is also a priority.

Why?

• For starters, you must understand why people link to the broken page. What is so important about the page? Is it worth your time?
• Secondly, and most importantly, you must verify that the broken page has GOOD backlinks. Who are the sites linking to the page?

Understanding The Reason

Without this step, you won’t be able to create a replacement page that will grab attention. So, let’s ask again.

Why do people link to a broken page?

The “reasons” are often classified into two categories.

• General links — these have no particular context for the source page. Even their anchor texts give them away.
• Deep links — these have contexts to the source page. More importantly, their anchor texts are concise and self-explanatory.

In summary, work with “deep links.” But how can you find such links?

• Go to Site Explorer > Backlinks > More filters
• Click “Anchor with surrounding text” and add actionable, power words

Verifying If A Broken Page Has GOOD Backlinks

After rounding up the “deep links,” check if there are live pages pointing to them. More importantly, verify that the live pages are top-quality.

Otherwise, your site is better off.

That said, here is the “how”:

• Type the broken page URL into Ahrefs Site Explorer
• Click “backlinks” under the “Backlink Profile” in the left bar.
• Leave the “one link per domain” at its default setting
• Change the “show history: last 30 days” to “don’t show.”

Now, you should have a list of the broken pages to work with. However, you can still reduce the list further by adding the following filters:

• Dofollow links only
• 20+ Domain traffic
• 5+ DR
• Exclude subdomains

Including such filters will disqualify links from forums and directories. Also, it will disqualify spammy, low-authority sites.

By now, you have found broken pages that are worth your time. At this stage, you can create the replacement page.

Creating the replacement page

Since replacement pages are the content you’d pitch as the better version of the broken links, they must indeed be better.

How can you make your replacement pages better?

• For starters, you don’t have to copy the title of the broken page. Write something similar that talks about the idea of the content.
• Create a stellar outline. Check similar resources online and get ideas. Or you can use AI tools for inspiration.
• Update the statistics and figures. This is an opportunity to make your replacement page better and more refreshed.
• Add other insights to back up your points. You can use journalists’ comments and articles.
• If possible, add YouTube embeds.

Find other ways to make your replacement page stellar, outside of our suggestions. You can even get insights from podcasts and events.

Outreach

Now, go back to your backlink analysis reports. Round up the sites linking to the qualified, deep, broken links. Then, reach out to them.

To get the most results, personify your pitch. You can adapt the template below:

Hi [name],

I saw your post on [keyword] — an INTERESTING read, BTW. However, you recommended this article: [title of broken page].

I checked the link. But unfortunately, it was broken.

If you’d like to update your article and fix the issue, I have a similar article on the same subject. Plus, it includes updated statistics.

I even interviewed experts in [keyword] to support the facts. You can take a look here [link to your replacement page].

Let me know if this is helpful

[Your name]

Best practices for broken link building

Check for redirect and canonical errors

Broken links today aren’t always clean 404s. There are now many causes, such as redirect loops, chains, or improper canonical tags.

A canonical tag in the source code of a page indicates to search engines that a master copy of the page exists.

So, always confirm whether the page is indeed dead before pitching a replacement.

Personalized outreach surpasses email quantity

Generic outreach templates may get ignored. So, keep your pitch short, reference the site specifically, and show genuine value.

High-quality personalization now beats sending hundreds of bulk emails.

Track KPIs to measure ROI

Monitor response rate, successful link placements, referral traffic, and ranking improvements.

You should compare with other link building tactics to know if you have enough return for the effort.

Use outreach management tools

Outreach CRMs like Streak or Respona help you manage follow-ups and track replies. It will also help you avoid spamming site owners with duplicate emails.

Integrate other link building tactics

Broken link building is no longer a standalone tactic. The best results come when you combine digital PR, guest posting, and resource page outreach. You can add these to your balanced off-page SEO plan.

Verdict

Contrary to what gurus say about broken backlinks, they still work. You can even get more results here than in other forms of link building — because of the value involved.

Nevertheless, do “broken link building” correctly — as described in this article. Otherwise, it won’t work for you.

For other link building methods, see our 20-point checklist, niche edits guide, and HARO guide. For costs, see our pricing breakdown.