Broken Link Building: Replacing Dead Links With Yours
Broken link building finds dead links on other sites and offers your content as a natural replacement, earning a link in the process.
Broken Link Building is earning links by replacing dead links with your content.
What It Is
Broken link building is a tactic where you find a broken link on a relevant page and suggest your content as the replacement.
The site fixes its dead link and you earn a new one.
Why It Works
- Broken links hurt the site owner, so fixing them is a genuine favor.
- The replacement content is often better than what was lost.
- The pitch is helpful rather than demanding.
How to Find Them
- Use tools to crawl pages in your niche for 404 links.
- Check popular resource and roundup pages.
- Use Google with operators like inurl:resources plus relevant terms.
- Look at competing sites backlink profiles for dead targets.
How to Pitch
- Be specific about the broken URL you found.
- Offer a genuinely relevant replacement, not a sales page.
- Make the email short and helpful.
- Follow up once and move on.
Before: a resource page links to a page that no longer exists.
After: you tell the owner about the dead link and offer your matching guide.
The result: the owner replaces the link with yours.
The lesson: a dead link is a door left open for you.
Quick Tip
Broken link building works best when your replacement is clearly better than the original, so pick targets your content can actually beat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Broken Link Building, in Short
A broken link is an invitation in disguise.
Offer a better replacement and the link follows.