SEO Strategy: Turning Broken Links to Backlinks

Websites change constantly. Pages are deleted, businesses close, resources move and URLs are replaced. When another website continues linking to one of those old URLs, it creates a broken link.

For SEOs and website owners, some of these broken links can become backlink opportunities. If you have a useful resource that could replace the missing page, you can contact the website, point out the error and suggest your content as an alternative.

It is a simple link-building strategy, but finding a 404 is only the beginning. The real work is identifying broken links where your content provides a credible replacement.

What is broken link building?

Broken link building involves finding external links that point to pages that no longer exist and suggesting a suitable replacement.

For example, an SEO article might link to a study that has since been removed. If you’ve published current research covering the same subject, you could contact the publisher and suggest it as an alternative.

This creates a different starting point from conventional outreach. Rather than asking a publisher to find somewhere to add your link, you’ve identified an existing reference that needs updating.

There is no guarantee they’ll use your content. They may remove the link, choose another source or leave the page unchanged. However, you’ve at least identified a practical reason for contacting them.

How to find broken links

You can approach broken link research from either the website or the missing resource.

The first method is to identify websites in your niche and scan their pages for broken external links. Older articles and resource pages are often useful because they tend to contain more external references and have had more time for those destinations to disappear.

The second method is to find a dead page and investigate which websites still link to it. This can be particularly effective when an established resource has disappeared because one dead URL may have backlinks from numerous domains.

Competitor research can help here too. A competitor may have deleted or redirected old content while backlinks to the original URL remain. Looking through those links can uncover publishers that have already shown an interest in the subject.

Check what used to be on the page

A broken URL isn’t enough information to decide whether your content should replace it.

You need to understand what the original resource provided. The anchor text and surrounding paragraph can give you some context, while archived versions of the page may show exactly what was there.

This prevents poor replacements.

If an article originally linked to a dataset containing 500 industry statistics, your general guide to the industry isn’t an equivalent resource. If it linked to an interactive calculator, replacing it with a product page doesn’t serve the same purpose either.

Understanding the original page also helps identify content gaps. If an authoritative resource has disappeared but numerous websites still reference it, producing an updated alternative could be worthwhile even beyond the immediate backlink opportunity.

Focus on the best opportunities

Not every broken link is worth pursuing. The best opportunities are often dead resources that still have backlinks from several relevant websites. If an old industry report has disappeared but 40 websites still reference it, for example, you can review those pages and identify which ones could reasonably use your content as a replacement.

Before contacting anyone, check how the original resource was being used. A broken link to a piece of research needs a suitable source to replace it, while a missing tutorial needs content that provides similar practical information. Your article doesn’t have to recreate the old page, but it should serve the same purpose for the reader.

Also consider the quality of the linking website and page. An actively maintained article on a relevant industry publication is likely to be a better prospect than an abandoned page full of outdated links.

Contact the website

Once you’ve found a suitable opportunity, keep the outreach simple. Tell the website owner where the broken link is and why your resource could work as a replacement.

Hi Sarah,

I was reading your guide to [topic] and noticed the link to [resource] in the [section] is returning a 404.

We’ve published an updated resource covering [subject], which may work as a replacement if you’re updating the article: [URL]

Thought I’d flag it either way.

Cheers,
John Smith

There is no need to explain why you want the backlink. The value of the email is that you’ve identified something that needs fixing and provided a relevant alternative.

If you’re contacting several websites, keep a record of the broken URL, linking page, contact details and outreach status so you don’t lose track of opportunities or contact the same site twice.

Find broken link opportunities with LinkWise

Broken link building can be effective, but finding worthwhile opportunities manually takes time. You need to find the broken links, check the websites linking to them and work out whether your own content could provide a suitable replacement.

LinkWise’s Broken Link Finder is designed to make that research easier. It finds broken links that could be relevant to your website, helping you identify potential replacement opportunities without manually searching through sites one by one. You can then assess the opportunity, decide whether your content is a good fit and manage any outreach through the Outreach Hub.

The aim isn’t to turn every broken link into an outreach email. It’s to find the ones actually worth pursuing and spend your time on those.

Start for free here