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What Is Broken Link Building, and Should You Be Doing It?

broken link building

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Broken link building is a popular link-building strategy and one that is worthwhile.

It’s a link-building strategy that prioritizes high-quality content and, perhaps, a desire to make the internet a better place. While these qualities are intriguing and have the potential to increase your ranking in the SERPs, broken link building is a time-consuming strategy that is strongly dependent on uncontrolled factors.

This post will provide you with a thorough understanding of what broken link building is, how to use it, and how it differs from content marketing.

Broken link building is a technique that involves finding “broken links” on websites and contacting website owners to request a backlink from the broken link. A broken link, in this sense, is any case where a website tries to link to another website but the link does not exist.

This technique is typically utilized by SEO specialists to acquire more backlinks with less work; it is also considered a “white hat” strategy, which allows for simpler client buy-in and avoids Google penalties.

Broken links may be caused by a number of factors, including:

  • The linked web page was deleted from the destination website (causing what is known as a 404 error)
  • The destination website has moved or is no longer available.
  • The destination website is being blocked by a firewall, interstitial, or log-in.
  • The destination webpage is no longer available.
  • A webpage was relocated without a redirect.
  • The link-receiving page’s URL structure was altered.
  • The link was never properly built in the first place.
  • The link was never properly built in the first place.


As you can see, broken links appear on the internet in a variety of ways. It’s no longer an issue of how to restore them, but where to look for them.

If you wish to rebuild a broken link, you must first locate it. Let’s look at two approaches for prospecting for and locating broken links in detail. While the principles of these two tactics are similar, the first way starts with selecting sites from which you’d want to get a link, whilst the second method starts with sites with whom you’re competing in the SERPs.

  • Make a list of websites in your niche from whom you’d want to get a link. Begin by compiling a list of 30-50 non-competitor websites with high PageRank, Domain Authority, or whatever criteria you choose to use.
  • Use a “dead link checker” to see whether any of these websites are linking to 404 pages. “Broken Link Check“, “Dead Link Checker“, and other similar platforms are some of the tools you may utilize.
  • Make a list of websites with broken links, as well as the website owner, their contact information, and any existing resource that may be used to replace the broken link.
  • Send emails to webmasters requesting that your link be updated to replace the broken ones.
    Follow up as needed to confirm you successfully acquired the link.
  • Make a list of the top five websites you wish to beat in the search engine results pages.
  • Analyze broken links on each of these websites using backlink auditing tools. Tools like Moz’s Open Site Explorer, AHrefs, and SEMrush are examples. These tools make it simple to extract all the backlinks to sites that are related to your content. (Note that this part is largely similar to that described previously.)
  • Make a list of websites with broken links, as well as the webmaster, their contact information, and any existing material that may be used to replace the broken link.
  • Send emails to webmasters requesting that your link be added to replace the broken ones.
  • Follow up as needed to confirm you successfully acquired the link.
  • The method you choose may be influenced by your niche or the tools you currently have access to. If you currently utilize backlink-tracking software on a daily basis, this may be readily integrated into your strategy.

You’ve generated a list of potential targets at this stage. So, how can you persuade your target audience to replace the broken link with a link to your content? We’ll go through the three pillars of broken link building outreach here:

  • Contact Information: The websites you’re targeting don’t always make their contact information available. You may need to manually search each site or utilize contact/email search tools.
  • Email Templates: Because you may have hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts to reach out to and share your resouces with, using a template can save you time.
  • Automated Emailing Services: Using email services like Buzzstream or MailChimp may speed up your workflow (which may be off-putting to certain webmasters).

An outreach email for broken link building is quite simple. Because you don’t want to look spammy, personalize the email to particular websites and proceed cautiously when trying to automate or send in bulk.

It’s no secret that having a huge number of high-quality backlinks can help you rank higher in the SERPs. We do know, though, that Google wants to view information that is organically shared and shared.

Of course, improving SEO without backlinks is quite tough. Broken link building is, in principle, safer than many other “black hat” tactics that Google monitors and penalizes.

While we’ve covered the basics of building broken links and the tactics required to succeed, it’s vital to remember that there are several inherent drawbacks that make it tough to be effective:

  • Scalability
  • Time commitment
  • Various tools are required
  • Reliant on existing relevant, high-quality broken links
  • It has the potential to be considered spammy


Before you embark on a broken link-building strategy, be sure you’ve considered all of the potential benefits and drawbacks.

What Is the Difference Between Broken Link Building and Content Marketing?

When deciding on a marketing plan, it’s helpful to break it down into three primary factors: cost, effort, and profit.

Broken link building may seem to be an easier solution than content marketing at first glance. A well-thought-out content marketing plan, on the other hand, may result in a larger yield and significant advantages. Content marketing focuses on placing your content on websites with high interaction and natural sharing potential, generally by targeting the internet’s most relevant and popular publications.

When it comes to researching publications, creating connections with authors, and continually adjusting to the ever-changing internet and its users, a solid marketing strategy, goes above and beyond.

This isn’t to imply that all broken link building is a waste of time; nevertheless, even the finest broken link building strategy will pale in comparison to a well-executed content marketing strategy.