This comprehensive guide to link reclamation we provide insights on how to identify lost link value and repurpose it for SEO success. It walks you through all the steps of the process, from evaluating pages for potential link reclamation opportunities to monitoring the effectiveness of your link campaigns.
Along the way, we outline best practices, shares helpful tips and resources, and provides thoughtful analysis to ensure the highest return on investment. Read on to learn how to to reclaim links and lost link value in an efficient and effective manner.
TL;DR
- Link reclamation is an essential SEO tactic that helps boost website performance by fixing broken internal links using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and BacklinkManager.
- Lost Links Reports in Ahrefs help in finding and fixing broken internal links, optimizing the website for search engine success.
- Finding and reclaiming lost external backlinks can be done using tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs Site Explorer, Majestic, and BacklinkManager.
- Estimating the value of lost links involves considering factors like referring domain’s authority, relevance to the niche, and potential for referral traffic.
- Reclaiming lost external backlinks involves reaching out to webmasters and providing them with the correct URL for the website.
- Reverse image search tools like TinEye or Google Images can help find unlinked mentions of a brand and recover missing or broken links.
- Developing a link reclamation strategy is crucial for SEO and marketing campaigns, which involves fixing broken internal links, reclaiming lost links, and utilizing unlinked mentions for increased visibility; and monitoring the outcomes of your outreach using BacklinkManager.
What Is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the activity of finding and fixing broken links or lost links to a website, or replacing links that don’t pass value as they should. It involves reaching out to website owners or editors and asking them to update one or multiple links found on their site. This is an important strategy for maintaining the quality of your backlink profile and improving SEO.
Links can be removed due to:
- deliberate action
- accidental deletion
- incorrect URL structure changes (e.g. in redirects or content updates, when a slug has been changed without a redirect)
- website redesigns
- domain name alterations
- paid links swaps (your links being attacked by your competitors who may have “bought your organic link out“).
- “Non-canonical”: The page containing the link has a rel=”canonical” tag pointing to another page, indicating that it is not a distinct page. As a result, links from this page are not considered.
All these are common causes of link loss. Link reclamation helps top up link juice by taking advantage of existing/controlled connections. It also assists in locating defective pages/duplicate content issues/problems with internal linking/site navigation while relieving pressure from building new links and providing quick wins for SEOs.
Link reclamation is essential when it comes to recovering lost backlinks, building links’ value and acquiring fresh ones too. It’s also useful for identifying unlinked mentions of your brand and products plus developing a link reclamation plan.
While it may be difficult and time-consuming, but it’s key part of any successful link building campaign – so make sure those hard-earned links don’t disappear without notice.
Advantages of Link Reclamation
Linkback reclamation is the process of a process that can help website owners regain lost link value and improve their SEO. Link reclaiming is beneficial for website owners because it helps them reclaim lost links, which can result in increased organic traffic, improved website rankings, and a better user experience.
Broken links are also bad for user experience, passing link juice and organic traffic.
Moreover, link reclamation allows website owners to recover high-quality backlinks – improving SEO and authority of the site. Reclaiming these links also passes link equity from linking pages to the linking page – boosting the overall link profile of the website (or specific, top-converting pages).
Link reclamation requires some effort but provides long-term benefits for your website – however it should be used alongside other link building strategies for maximum effect.
Finding and Fixing Broken Internal Links
To identify and repair broken links, use SEO audit tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, BacklinkManager or Moz.
Plus, Lost Links Reports can be great for finding and fixing broken internal links. Follow these steps to make sure your site is free of broken internal links – optimizing it for search engine success!
Finding Broken Internal Links
Finding broken and fixing internal links is a crucial part of any link reclamation strategy. It’s essential to identify and repair broken internal links on your website, as these can lead to user experience decline, loss of link equity, and reduced organic traffic.
There are several tools and techniques that can be used for locating broken internal links, such as web-based SEO audit tools like:
- Ahrefs
- Backlink Manager (FREE)
- Broken Link Checker
- Screaming Frog
- Moz’s link explorer (FREE)
- Google Chrome’s “Inspect” tool
By using the tools and methods above, you’ll be able to quickly detect and fix broken internal links.
Fixing Broken Internal Links
Fixing broken internal links is a key part of link reclamation, which can help enhance user experience and SEO.
To repair broken links, you can substitute the link with broken redirect chain a working one, redirect it to an existing page or create a new page for the link. Moreover, you can maintain the link equity by fixing the page or link. In some cases, it may be necessary to contact the linking website and ask them to fix or delete the broken link.
You can address redirect issues by reducing their number, directing users straight to the destination page or replacing the link with its target URL. Furthermore, sending an email with updated URL to the linking site owner will benefit both your website’s user experience and SEO – making it beneficial for everyone involved.
By following these steps outlined in this section, you’ll be able to reclaim lost value from links and improve overall user experience of your website.
Finding and Reclaiming Lost External Backlinks
Armed with your list of broken backlinks, reach out to the respective site owners to provide the correct URL for your website. Most site owners will appreciate the information and update their page accordingly, which benefits both parties. By reclaiming backlinks, you can boost your SEO and backlink profile without the need for new links.
But before you reclaim lost links pointing to your website – you first need to find them.
Finding Lost External Backlinks
Finding lost external backlinks is a key part of any link reclamation strategy. Google Search Console, Ahrefs Site Explorer, Majestic and BacklinkManager are some tools and strategies that can be used to locate lost links. It’s important to compare the features of each tool to decide which one suits your needs best.
Monitoring backlink profiles and using BacklinkManager can help identify missing external backlinks (FREE up to 250 links). The Missing Backlinks Report provides info about linking/target URLs, date lost, and reasons for loss:
Before attempting to reclaim broken links, it’s essential to analyze their value. Backlink analysis gives insight into the quality of the link as well as its potential effect on SEO.
SEO Review Tools allows you to see up to 100 broken backlinks in each report. Once you reclaim the initial 100 backlinks, rerun the report to uncover more lost backlinks.
When reclaiming lost external backlinks, it is essential to understand their value to prioritize your efforts effectively. To estimate the value of lost links, consider factors such as the referring domain’s authority, relevance to your niche, and the potential for referral traffic. High-authority websites with content closely related to your site’s niche are likely to carry greater weight in search engine algorithms, positively impacting your rankings.
Additionally, lost links from popular, industry-relevant sites can lead to increased referral traffic and user engagement. By focusing on the most valuable lost links, you can maximize the benefits of your link reclamation efforts, improving your SEO performance and enhancing your site’s credibility and authority.
Reclaiming Lost External Backlinks
Once you have identified and analyzed the value of lost external backlinks, what’s next? Reach out to the webmasters of the linking sites to request that they restore the link.
It’s often easier to get a webmaster to change an existing link than add a new one – making this stage much simpler.
When contacting external sites, you should understand why the link was removed and be aware of any potential issues that could prevent its restoration.
Moreover, reclaiming links offers you an opportunity for generating new ones from unlinked mentions of your brand. By creating links from unclaimed brand mentions that are not currently linked back to your website, you can gain access to more organic traffic as well as pass on link equity to other pages.
Reclaiming lost external backlinks will improve visibility on your website, increase traffic flow, boost SEO rankings and strengthen reputation for your brand. Recovering lost external links is a crucial part of any website’s SEO strategy since it helps maintain existing link equity while improving overall profile with backlinks. With proper tools and strategies at hand, you can easily find and reclaim those missing external backlinks.
Developing a Link Reclamation Strategy
Developing a link reclamation strategy is a must for any SEO or marketing campaign. As we’ve already mentioned, it involves:
- finding and fixing broken internal links
- reclaiming lost links and external backlinks
- and utilizing unlinked mentions of your brand to build links
Here’s a bunch of tactics you can use to do that:
-
Outreach to Site Owners:
One of the most effective ways to reclaim broken links is by reaching out to the site owners directly. Email them with a polite and informative message, explaining the issue and providing the correct URL for your website. This approach not only helps you fix the broken link but also establishes a rapport with the site owner, which could lead to future collaboration and additional backlink opportunities.
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Reverse Image Search: Claim Unlinked Mentions
Reversing image search is an effective way for finding unlinked references of your brand and establishing new connections.
Reverse image search is a powerful tool for discovering and claiming unlinked mentions. TinEye or Google Images are great ways to uncover references of your brand and exclusive content. When you search an image, the results will show from sites all over the web – allowing you to check which pages link back to it and track non-branded proprietary aspects of your business.
Google Alerts can be used to monitor use of proprietary text while Google Images reverse image search helps find graphics or photos without attribution. By using reverse image search, you can reclaim valuable link value that would otherwise go unnoticed.
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Leverage Social Media and Online Communities:
Share your content on social media platforms and relevant online communities where the broken link was initially discovered. Engage with your audience, respond to their comments, and provide the correct link to your content. This proactive approach not only fixes the broken link but also increases your content’s visibility and reach, potentially attracting new backlinks.
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Create Link-Worthy Content:
Focus on developing high-quality, valuable content (such as informative resource pages or infographics) that naturally attracts backlinks from authoritative websites. By producing content that is informative, engaging, and shareable, you can encourage organic link-building and reclaim lost links. Regularly updating and repurposing your content can also help maintain the relevance and value of your site, making it more attractive to other site owners who may wish to link to your content.
5. Monitor your reclaimed links with BacklinkManager
Finally, keep track of all efforts made in order to make sure no hard-earned link value is lost while assessing the effect on website’s credibility and rankings too. You can easily monitor your won-back links for free with BacklinkManager:
BacklinkManager is the only CRM dedicated to building backlinks – it allows you to group them into different projects and track them with a crawler by date, project, or vendor. It allows you to monitor up to 250 backlinks for free.
By following these steps outlined here you can effectively reclaim lost link value and improve website’s visibility, traffic & rankings – an essential part of any SEO strategy which should be implemented regularly for best results!
Summary
Link reclamation is a powerful tool for any website, as it can help to reclaim lost backlinks and link value, improve organic traffic and rankings, and increase the quality of a website’s link profile. By finding and fixing broken internal links, locating and reclaiming lost external backlinks, and utilizing reverse image search to uncover unlinked mentions, businesses can take advantage of this valuable strategy in order to gain more visibility and authority, boosting traffic and page rankings in the process.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is broken linkbuilding?
Broken link building is a technique that leverages existing broken links on recognised websites to acquire links, ultimately driving more traffic to your website. It involves identifying broken links and then reaching out to webmasters with relevant resources to replace them in order to build those valuable links.
By helping the webmaster/company and gaining a link directed to your website, broken link building can be an effective SEO tool.
Does backlinking still work?
The good news is that yes, backlinking still works. It’s still an important factor when it comes to ranking in search engines, just not as much as it used to be. If you want to get the best outcomes with backlinks, make sure they’re coming from relevant and high-quality websites and are helping to achieve a great user experience.
Then, complement your backlinking strategy with other tactics like producing great content.
How do you fix a dead link?
Fixing a dead link can be achieved by recognizing typos, recreating the page, using redirects, or deleting the broken link. With these steps, you’ll ensure that your links remain functional and SEO-friendly.
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