What is broken link building? You find a page on someone else’s site that no longer works but still has links pointing at it, create a page that does the same job, and ask the sites linking to the dead page to link to yours instead. The pitch writes itself: you are reporting a problem on their page and handing them the fix.
That is also why it is so often done badly. The common version skips straight to outreach with a template that says “your link is broken, here is my article”, pointing at a page that has little to do with what was lost. Editors see that pitch constantly. The version that works spends most of its effort before the first email is sent.
The four steps of broken link building
Joshua Hardwick’s guide to broken link building at Ahrefs breaks the process into four steps. They are worth setting side by side, because each one filters the work for the next.
| Step | What you do | What it rules out |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find broken pages with backlinks | Locate dead pages in your niche that still have links pointing at them | Dead pages nobody linked to, which have nothing to recover |
| 2. Vet the backlinks | Check the quality of the linking pages, and why they linked, from the anchor text and the surrounding context | Weak links, and links you could not plausibly win with your replacement |
| 3. Create a replacement | Build a page that serves the same purpose as the dead one, with improvements | Pitches built on a loosely related article you already had |
| 4. Do outreach | Send segmented, personalised pitches to the linking sites | One template sent to everyone |
Read top to bottom, the table is a funnel. Most dead pages fail step one, most remaining links fail step two, and only then is it worth writing anything.
Step 1: find broken pages that still have links
A broken page with no backlinks is worthless for this tactic, however relevant it is. Start with dead pages in your topic area, then sort by how many referring domains still point at them. Competitors’ sites are a good place to look, as are resource pages in your niche, which link out heavily and rot over time.
Before going further, confirm the page is actually gone. A temporary outage or a redirect you missed will make the whole pitch wrong. The point of the search is a page that has clearly died while its links have not.
Step 2: vet the links, and find out why they exist
This is the step that separates useful broken link building from spam, and it has two parts. The first is quality: are the linking pages ones you would want a link from? Our note on nofollow links covers how to weigh link attributes; the rest is the usual judgement about relevance and whether the linking site is a real publication.
The second part is motive. Look at the anchor text and the paragraph around each link. Did people link to the dead page because it had a statistic, a tool, a definition, a step-by-step method? If most links cite one particular element, that element is what your replacement has to provide. A page that covers the same topic but lacks the thing everyone was citing will not earn the swap.
It also helps to read the dead page itself. An archived snapshot shows what it said and how it was structured, which tells you what you are replacing.
Step 3: build a replacement that serves the same purpose
The received wisdom is that you can pitch whatever existing article is closest. That is the shortcut that sinks most campaigns. Ahrefs’ third step is to create a page that serves the same purpose as the dead one, with improvements. The editor is replacing a link in a sentence they already wrote; your page has to fit that sentence.
Improvements should be the kind the linking pages would notice: more current information, a clearer method, a missing section filled in. Do not drift into a different angle. If your vetting showed people linked for a specific resource, lead with it.
One practical check before you publish: reread three or four of the linking sentences with your URL in place of the dead one. If the sentence still reads correctly, the replacement fits. If the editor would have to rewrite the sentence to make your page make sense, most will not bother, and your pitch fails before it is opened. Adjust the page, not the pitch.
Step 4: segmented, personalised outreach
Not every linking site linked for the same reason, so they should not get the same email. Group them by motive from step two, then write one pitch per group that names the specific use. Personalise beyond the first name: mention the page, the sentence where the link sits, and what your replacement offers that the dead page did.
- Say what is broken and where. Give the page URL and the anchor, so the editor can find it in seconds.
- Offer the replacement as one option. They may prefer to remove the link, and that is still a fix you helped with.
- Keep it short. The editor needs three facts: what broke, where, and what could replace it.
The same discipline applies to your own site. If a page of yours dies, the links to it become someone else’s broken link building opportunity. Recovering those is link reclamation, and it is usually the cheaper job to do first.
The limits of broken link building
Ahrefs is candid about it: “broken link building isn’t easy. Sometimes, it works well. Sometimes, it doesn’t.” There are no reliable response-rate figures to plan around, and any number you see quoted comes from a single campaign in a single niche. Treat the tactic as one channel among several, not a predictable pipeline.
It also scales poorly. Steps two and three are manual by nature, and a strong replacement page can take as long to build as any other piece of linkable content. That cost is worth it when one dead page had links from many good sites, and rarely worth it when it had a handful.
If you need prospects that do not depend on someone else’s page dying, other approaches sit alongside this one: our list of HARO alternatives covers journalist requests, and the guest post sites hub covers placements on sites with real traffic.
Frequently asked questions
What is broken link building?
Finding a dead page that still has backlinks, creating a page that serves the same purpose, and asking the linking sites to point to your page instead.
How do I do broken link building?
Find broken pages with backlinks, vet those links for quality and for why people linked, build a better replacement, then send segmented, personalised outreach.
Can I pitch an article I already have?
Only if it genuinely serves the same purpose as the dead page. A loosely related article rarely fits the sentence the link sits in, so editors decline it.
What response rate should I expect?
There is no dependable figure. Results vary by niche, by the quality of the replacement and by the pitch, and even Ahrefs says it sometimes does not work.
The takeaway The dead link gets you a reply; the replacement page gets you the link. Spend your effort on finding out why people linked, then build exactly that, better.
