Link rot is real. You spend your time and resources to build links and gradually they disappear making all your efforts go in vain.
So, addressing link rot is a must for SEO professionals and website managers.
This guide will explore link rot, tools to monitor and fix it, and best practices to avoid it.
Let’s get right into it.
What is Link Rot and how to Avoid It? [+ Tools]: Summary
1. Link rot is when links on your site become broken or invalid over time—wasting your link-building efforts.
2. It can happen due to deleted pages, URL changes, expired domains, or external sites going down.
3. Link rot hurts user experience, SEO rankings, analytics accuracy, and even compliance in some industries. To detect link rot, perform:
- Manual checks (via browser tools or page reviews)
- Automated checks using tools like BacklinkManager, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Search Console
4. When you detect a dead link:
- Fix it (update URL)
- Replace it (with relevant content)
- Remove it (if no alternative exists)
5. If it’s an external site linking to you:
- Monitor with tools like BacklinkManager
- Reach out to the site owner for a fix
- Create new content to attract replacement links
6. Best practices to prevent link rot:
- Link only to reliable and stable websites
- Regularly update your content and check for broken links
- Use 301 redirects when changing URLs
7. BacklinkManager is a great all-in-one tool to:
- Monitor link status 24/7
- Get alerts for lost/removed links
- Track link status by type (do-follow, no-follow, 404, etc.)
- Manage outreach and partnerships via CRM
What is link rot?
Link rot, also known as link decay or link death refers to the condition when a hyperlink on a website becomes non-functional over time. This can occur when the linked web page is moved, deleted, or altered in a way that causes the original URL to become invalid.
Link rot, as you can see from the post above – can be very costly. That’s why it’s an important problem for link-building and SEO agencies and their clients alike.
What causes link rot?
Link rot can be attributed to a variety of factors like these:
URL Changes
If the target page’s URL changes without proper redirection, the original link will become broken.
Deletion of Target Page
Removing or deleting the content being linked to, without updating or removing the corresponding links, leads to link rot.
Domain Expiration
If a linked domain expires or is taken down, all backlinks you built on it won’t remain intact.
Linking to Volatile Content
Linking to content that is expected to change frequently, such as temporary promotions or event pages, can result in link rot once the content changes or is removed.
Server Issues
Technical issues on the hosting server, such as downtime or configuration changes, can temporarily or permanently break links.
Third-party Links
Linking to external sites that you don’t control can also cause link rot if those sites change URLs or take down content.
Security Protocols
Websites usually shift from HTTP to HTTPS but if they don’t redirect, the link becomes broken.
Why is link rot problematic?
Link rot affects your site’s reputation.
Broken links frustrate visitors, often pushing them to leave early and think twice before returning. Over time, it signals poor website maintenance and damages credibility.
Search engines treat link rot as a red flag, lowering your SEO rankings and cutting visibility.
Also, broken links distort analytics, leading to flawed insights about user behaviour and misguided decisions down the line.
In partnerships and affiliate marketing, link rot can strain relationships. If the links they built on your site disappear, they won’t trust you for future collaborations.
To prevent this, you can use a CRM to manage your link-building partnerships. Something like this:
With a tool like BacklinkManager, you will get a notification if either your or your partner’s backlink disappears. You can also filter all your links by status, to follow up with all of your partners on rotten links:
In some sectors, particularly those subject to stringent regulation, link rot could even pose legal and compliance risks. If key-linked content that’s required for regulatory compliance becomes inaccessible, it could result in penalties or legal challenges.
And don’t forget the issue of opportunity cost. If left unchecked, the ongoing task of identifying and repairing broken links can become a costly and time-consuming process.
How to identify link rot on your site
Identifying link rot on your website can be done both manually or in an automated manner:
Manual Checks
Here’s how you can conduct manual checks:
Review Key Pages
Focus on primary pages that are essential to your site’s user experience, such as landing pages, product pages, and key informational content. Inspect the hyperlinks on these pages to ensure they lead to the correct destinations.
Test Call-to-Action Buttons
Often, CTAs are important conversion points on your site. Manually testing these buttons and links can help detect any issues that might reduce user conversion.
Inspect Anchor Text
Look for anchor text within your content that might be linked to obsolete or irrelevant pages. These links should be updated or removed but not left connected to deleted or outdated content.
Verify Image Links
Images that link to additional content or larger versions should be checked manually to ensure that they are directing users to the intended locations.
Utilize Browser Tools
Some browser extensions and tools can aid manual checks by highlighting broken or redirected links as you navigate your site. Some examples include:
- Check My Links (Chrome): Quickly scans web pages for broken links and highlights them in red.
- Broken Link Checker (Chrome): Identifies dead links on a page and shows HTTP status codes.
- Link Checker (Firefox): Scans and colour-codes links as valid, redirected, or broken.
- Domain Hunter Plus (Chrome): Detects broken links and shows whether the linked domains are available for purchase.
Document Findings
Keep a record of your findings during manual checks to inform future updates, repairs, or overall link strategy. This documentation can be a valuable reference for ongoing maintenance.
Automated checks
In cases where websites contain thousands of links, automated checks can save you days!
Automated tools scan your site, rapidly locating broken or problematic links, a task that would be cumbersome and time-consuming to perform manually.
Let’s look at the top tools you can use for automating link rot detection:
BacklinkManager
BacklinkManager enables you to easily monitor the link status of all the links on your site, including factors such as do-follow, no-follow, and 404 statuses. To save you from manually checking a huge number of links, BacklinkManager’s crawler sifts through your site, identifying problematic links and allowing for quick intervention.
When you do discover a dead link, BacklinkManager’s ability to organize links into target groups allows for more effective management and prioritization.
Ahrefs
Here’s how you can use Ahrefs for link monitoring:
- Create an account: First, sign up for an Ahrefs subscription to access their comprehensive suite of SEO tools.
- Add your domain: After logging in, navigate to the Projects section and add your domain to start tracking your website’s backlinks and other metrics.
- Access Site Explorer: Use the Site Explorer tool to analyze your domain’s backlink profile, including the number of referring domains, backlinks, and more.
- Monitor new and lost backlinks: In the Site Explorer, navigate to the ‘Backlinks’ and ‘New & Lost’ tabs to keep track of your website’s newly acquired and lost backlinks. Regularly monitoring these links will help you identify and address potential issues, such as broken or toxic links.
- Set up alerts: Configure Ahrefs Alerts to receive email notifications for new backlinks, lost backlinks, and keyword rankings. This will help you stay informed and quickly react to changes in your backlink profile.
- Export data: Export your backlink data to a CSV file by clicking the ‘Export’ button in Site Explorer, making it easier to analyze, share, and archive your link data.
- Learn from resources: Utilize Ahrefs’ Academy and Blog to learn more about link monitoring best practices and enhance your SEO skills.
SEMrush
Here are some actionable steps to monitor your links using SEMrush:
- Backlink Analytics: Use SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics to analyze your website’s backlink profile, including the total number of backlinks, referring domains, and anchor texts. Regularly review this data to identify trends and potential issues in your backlink profile.
- New and Lost Backlinks: Monitor new and lost backlinks in the “Backlinks” tab within the Backlink Analytics section. This allows you to track the stability of your existing backlinks and discover new link-building opportunities.
- Backlink Gap: Utilize the Backlink Gap tool to compare your backlink profile with your competitors’. This can help you find websites that link to your competitors but not to you, which could be potential link-building opportunities.
- Backlink Audit: Regularly perform a Backlink Audit to identify potentially harmful backlinks and disavow them, protecting your website from penalties and negative SEO impacts.
- Set Up Alerts: Set up Backlink Monitoring alerts to receive notifications when your website gains or loses backlinks. This enables you to stay on top of changes in your backlink profile and react accordingly.
Google search console
Continuing our discussion, let’s examine how Google Search Console can be employed for link monitoring, an essential aspect of maintaining and improving your website’s search engine ranking:
- Step 1: Log in to your Google Search Console account and verify your website, if you haven’t done so already.
- Step 2: Navigate to the “Links” section in the left-hand menu to view data about your website’s backlinks and internal links.
- Step 3: Regularly review the “Top linking sites” report to monitor your website’s backlink profile. Keep an eye out for any sudden changes in the number of backlinks, which could indicate an issue or an opportunity for further link-building efforts.
- Step 4: Analyze the “Top linked pages” report to track the performance of individual pages on your website. This information can help you identify pages that may require optimization or additional promotion to acquire more backlinks.
- Step 5: Use the “Top linking text” report to monitor the anchor text used by other websites when linking to your content. Ensure that the anchor text aligns with your target keywords and accurately represents your content.
- Step 6: Set a schedule for regularly checking your backlink profile in Google Search Console. Consistent monitoring will allow you to detect issues and capitalize on opportunities in a timely manner.
- Step 7: If you identify any problematic backlinks or patterns, take action to address them. This may involve contacting the linking website to request changes or using Google’s Disavow Tool to disavow harmful backlinks.
What to do when you detect a dead link on your site?
Detecting a dead link on your site is just the first step in addressing link rot.
Now, you have to decide how important is the dead link. Is it tied to a critical business function, a major content piece, or a significant call to action?
Next, evaluate whether the link should be fixed, replaced, or removed. If the linked content has moved, updating the link with the correct URL is the solution. If the content no longer exists or is irrelevant, you might consider replacing the link with a new, relevant destination or simply removing the link altogether.
When replacing links, ensure that the new destination aligns with the original intent and context of the link. Redirecting users to unrelated content can create confusion and negatively impact user experience.
Dealing with Link Rot on External Websites
Link rot can also occur on external websites linking to your site. It’s not easy to fix link rot on external sites, as you can’t control what the owners of third-party platforms decide to do with their websites. There are, however, various strategies you can use, such as monitoring your backlinks, reaching out to site owners, and creating new content.
Monitoring External Backlinks
The monitoring of external backlinks is paramount in maintaining a strong online presence, especially when web pages change so frequently.
BacklinkManager offers 24/7 link monitoring, enabling you to see the current status of your links at any given time. It does a two-factor check on every link you’ve built to ensure the data it gives you is accurate.
BacklinkManager sends you instant in-app or email notifications when a paid link gets removed or a page goes 404, meaning that you’ll hear about any changes immediately.
This makes it harder for rogue vendors to remove your links without you noticing and equips you to demand compensation when this occurs.
Likewise, BacklinkManager’s Backlink Monitoring by Status feature enhances your ability to manage external backlinks effectively. By switching between your do-follow and no-follow links, you can easily find the specific link you’re looking for via the search bar.
Reach Out to Site Owners
If you encounter a broken link pointing to your site, it’s advisable to contact the site owner and request that the link be updated.
BacklinkManager’s CRM feature will make this easier for you, as it stores all your partners’ contact details and any previous correspondence in one place:
In your outreach, be sure to clearly and concisely explain the purpose of your outreach and the desired outcome. Explain the situation, provide the necessary details about the broken link, and offer assistance if needed. If the link is part of a collaboration or partnership, mention that as well.
Persistence is key when reaching out to site owners. If you don’t receive a response, it’s essential to follow up in a polite manner. If email communication doesn’t yield results, reaching out via social media platforms might be an alternative. Some site owners are more responsive on social channels.
Create New Content
Creating new, high-quality content is a neat way to counteract the effects of link rot by attracting fresh backlinks. Two strategies are worth considering here:
Creating Content for the Third-Party Site
If you discover dead links on a third-party site that were previously directing traffic to you, you can offer to write new content for the linking site. By doing so, you not only rectify the problem but also continue to drive traffic from that site to yours.
Developing New Content on Your Site
You can also create new content on your site related to the topic of the page that was previously linked to from third-party sites. By crafting quality content around similar themes, you’re positioning your site to attract good backlinks organically. The new content can become a destination for those interested in the subject matter, and you can further promote it through manual link-building efforts.
Best Practices for Preventing Link Rot
To prevent link rot, it’s best to stop it from occurring in the first place. This can be achieved through a combination of choosing stable sites for external links, regularly updating web content, and implementing proper redirects. Let’s look at these one by one.
Choose Stable Sites for External Links
When selecting external links for your own website, opt for sites that are reliable and have a history of remaining operational. These are typically websites with high domain authority and receive a considerable amount of traffic, such as:
- reputable news websites
- educational institutions (look for the telltale .edu domain!)
- well-known industry publications
Choosing stable sites for external links ensures that the links remain active and do not become disconnected, which in turn safeguards the integrity of your content.
As a nice bonus, these sites typically have high domain authority, meaning that they’re excellent backlinks for the health of your website!
Regularly Update Web Content
Keeping your web content up-to-date is essential in ensuring that links remain functional and do not become invalid. This can be achieved by:
- Locating inactive links and modifying them as necessary. You can use automated tools such as BacklinkManager to monitor changes.
- Staying abreast of industry events, trends, or changes in regulations. By being proactive in aligning content with these factors, you minimize the risk of linking to outdated information.
- Regularly reviewing past content for accuracy and relevancy, and removing content that no longer feels current or on-brand.
Failure to frequently update web content may result in decreased search engine rankings, reduced user engagement, and a reduction in website traffic.
Implement Proper Redirects
When a link is no longer valid, it’s important to implement effective redirects to ensure that users go to the appropriate page. This can be done by establishing 301 redirects or utilizing other techniques such as URL rewriting.
Using proper redirects, such as 301 redirects, helps maintain the link equity and traffic of the original page.
Here’s a detailed guide on 301 redirects!
Over to you
Link rot, though often overlooked, can seriously hurt user experience, SEO, and site performance. It’s more than a technical issue. it’s about keeping content relevant and trustworthy.
To tackle it, businesses need to identify and fix dead links, both on their site and from third parties. This can mean replacing links, updating content, or reconnecting with partners.
BacklinkManager simplifies all of this. It monitors links around the clock, alerts you instantly when one breaks, and stores outreach history to make follow-ups seamless.
But don’t take our word for it! Book a free demo today and see for yourself!
FAQs on Link Rot and How to Handle It
What is link rot?
Link rot, also known as link decay or link death, happens when hyperlinks on a website stop working. This can occur due to deleted pages, changed URLs, expired domains, or server issues, leaving users with broken or irrelevant links.
Why is link rot a serious issue for SEO?
Link rot negatively impacts SEO by:
- Lowering search engine rankings due to poor site quality
- Damaging user experience, leading to higher bounce rates
- Breaking referral pathways that impact analytics and conversion tracking
- Weakening trust with partners and audiences
What causes links to rot?
Common causes include:
- Page or domain deletions
- URL structure changes without proper redirection
- Temporary or event-based content expiring
- Third-party sites going offline or reorganizing
- Shifts in security protocols (e.g., HTTP to HTTPS without redirect)
How can I identify broken links on my website?
You can find broken links through:
- Manual audits: Use browser extensions like Check My Links or Link Checker
- Automated tools: Use BacklinkManager, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console for scalable, site-wide monitoring
What should I do when I find a broken link?
You have 3 main options:
- Fix it: Update the link if the content has moved
- Replace it: Link to relevant, alternative content
- Remove it: If no suitable replacement exists, delete the hyperlink
How do I deal with link rot on external websites?
While you can’t control external sites, you can:
- Monitor lost backlinks using tools like BacklinkManager
- Reach out to site owners with updated links
- Create new, high-quality content to regain backlinks
How often should I check for link rot?
For active websites, it’s best to perform automated link audits monthly. Manual reviews can be done quarterly for high-traffic or cornerstone pages.
Can link rot affect compliance or legal obligations?
Yes. In regulated industries (like finance, healthcare, or legal), broken links can result in compliance violations if essential or cited content becomes inaccessible.
What are some tools to monitor and fix link rot?
Top tools include:
- BacklinkManager – Offers CRM + link monitoring + instant alerts
- Ahrefs – Excellent for backlink audits and lost link tracking
- SEMrush – Backlink audits and competitive gap analysis
- Google Search Console – Free tool for checking internal and external links
How can I prevent link rot in the future?
Proactive steps include:
- Linking only to trustworthy, high-authority domains
- Setting up 301 redirects when changing URLs
- Regularly updating and auditing site content
- Using tools to get alerts for any broken or removed backlinks
