Broken Link Building Strategy: How To Turn Dead Links Into SEO Gold

The phenomenon of broken links can negatively affect the consolidation of your search engine optimization efforts. Many overlook this fact and start avoiding the broken link outreach strategy completely. You may be well informed about the perilous effects of 404 errors on your business website and want to clear it up. In this blog, you will focus on the importance of broken link outreach strategy, and we will also elucidate how to fix broken backlinks. After all, validation of links, regardless of their type, in SEO is a standard practice. 

What is broken link building?

The Internet is dynamic in nature, and it is natural for content to change from time to time. Moving, updating, and deleting resources on your webpage causes broken links on your website.  Resource migration and deletion of resources are major causes, and broken link building addresses this issue. So, what is broken link building? Here, this happens: You find a broken link on a top website, and you have similar yet great content on the same topic to provide instead of that broken link. The content shown must be provided by your website in the hope of getting a backlink. 

Do broken links affect SEO?

Do broken link affect SEO? The answer is Yes. Severely and perilously. Broken links are a big catastrophe for a search engine optimization company or professional. Above all, the user is badly affected by it, so it is vital to understand how to fix broken backlinks. 

1. Negative user experience – Broken links are a major annoyance to your target audience. They find it troublesome when finding a 404 error.

2. Tarnished reputation as a brand – The trustworthiness and credibility of your business will be tarnished if you fail to address the broken link problem on the website. Your target thinks of your brand as someone who does not value their time and effort to reach out for information.

3. Decreased crawlability – Broken links cause crawlability issues, and as a result, your website will see lower SERP ranks, decreased visibility, and inaccurate indexing.

4. Loss of link juice – Ranking power will be drastically lessened if your website has a continuous broken link, and so will the SEO benefits of your webpage.

How to find broken links for SEO?

Broken link building tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMrush, MozPro, and Deadlink checker can be used to find out any broken links available on your website. Besides, some of these Chrome extensions also allow finding broken links, just like a regular website audit.

Broken link outreach strategy

A successful link reclamation strategy will comprise the following steps:

• Identify broken links – With the help of a paid SEO tool, you can easily find any broken links within a targeted website. The only thing you have to do is run these tools and find broken links related to your niche.

• Find content for replacement – Once your broken link list is ready, it’s time to cross-check whether you have the resources to build backlinks using broken links. You need to submit a stellar piece. If you already have it, it’s all good. If you do not, craft one for submitting.

• Reaching out through cold emails – If you have high-quality, more comprehensive content than the existing version of a broken link, your targeted website owner is likely to say yes to your cold pitch. Publishing the piece is good for their traffic, conversions, and brand presence. For you, it will be easy to build backlinks using broken links.

• Create a pitch that is concise – You can use simple, straightforward language, and the entire focus must be on how your link can benefit them and their audience.

• Lure them by stating any add-ons – Some may be obstinate at not replacing a link unless they are very certain about the benefits. If you can provide any add-ons, you can include them in the pitch.

• Make necessary changes – Not everyone is going to approve your attempt. So, it is essential to monitor and employ different approaches.

By carefully taking these steps into action, you can achieve the desired results. 

How to fix broken backlinks?

Use of specific tools and following the best practices helps you understand how to find broken links for SEO as well as how to fix broken backlinks. You can easily fix a broken backlink issue by finding the right person to outreach, providing real value with your content, and repeating the process over and over with a strong broken link outreach strategy mentioned above.

Benefits of broken link building

Broken link building ensures several benefits for your business several benefits, primarily boosting SEO and the ultimate user experience. Besides, you can also earn referral traffic by building rapport with similar websites. To put it simply, thinking of a link reclamation strategy is beneficial for you and the targeted website. 

• High-Quality Backlinks: By identifying and replacing broken links, you can acquire valuable backlinks from relevant and often authoritative websites.
• Increased Domain Authority: A strong link profile, including high-quality backlinks, enhances your website’s domain authority.
• Fixing Broken Links: Broken link building helps improve the overall user experience by addressing broken links on other websites. This removes frustrating 404 errors and makes it easier for users to navigate and find the information they need.
• Positive User Perception: By fixing broken links, you demonstrate that your website is well-maintained and reliable.
• Networking with Webmasters: Broken link building provides an opportunity to build relationships with other website owners by offering to help them improve their sites.
• Potential Collaboration: Building a relationship with a webmaster can lead to future collaborations and opportunities for backlinks.
• New Links Direct Traffic: The new links you acquire through broken link building can drive traffic to your website.
• Link Popularity: If the broken link was on a popular page with high traffic, the new link can bring a considerable amount of referral traffic
• Easy to Implement: Broken link building is relatively easy to implement and can be repeated for various websites and content.
• Long-Term Benefits: The benefits of broken link building can continue to accumulate over time as you acquire more high-quality backlinks.

Attempting to identify and rectify broken links is a must-have SEO requirement. As mentioned earlier, White hat link-building is necessary to understand the underlying causes of broken links. Fixing these broken links as soon as possible ensures your SEO efforts are not in vain.