Broken link building (BLB) is a backlink strategy that has been around for a while but is a lesser-leveraged approach. BLB begins by finding broken hyperlinks on someone else’s website and then reaching out to the webmaster to report a problem on their site, i.e., broken links in their content.
Finally, to further drive the value you’re offering, you’re giving them an instant solution in the form of high-quality content that they can link to as a viable replacement to the original broken linked page.
This link building strategy gives you two advantages:
1. You’re pulling a sales psychology tactic that has a win rate of 25 to 60 percent.
2. You’re hitting two birds with one proverbial stone by winning an easy backlink and networking with an industry peer.
That’s why BLB should be a part of every search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. This link building strategy benefits parties mutually in the exchange. Think of it as a “scratch my back, and I scratch yours” type of strategy.
In this blog post, we’ll go over the basics of BLB, broken links definition and how BLB fits into link building SEO. We’ll also discuss the different backlinking strategies involved, how to do link building in SEO and strategies for link building outreach. And lastly, we’ll show how it integrates into your digital marketing and how new marketers will benefit from an SEO link building service.
Reciprocity in Full Swing
You can call broken link building the reverse backlink strategy. In broken link building, you turn things around. You’re not just asking for the backlink, as it were.
You’re doing the webmaster or site owner a favor first. Since you showed some generosity (i.e., you identified a broken link), the site owner or webmaster will feel obligated to return the favor (i.e., linking back to your site and helping them in their SEO efforts). It’s a different approach on how to link build efficiently.
This practice is called the principle of reciprocity in social psychology. It’s a proven tactic used in sales, and it can help how to link build. In many social situations, humans tend to feel obligated to pay back the equivalent of our favor. So this practice is a powerful tactic you can apply in your link building strategy.
Broken link building works well with a repurposing strategy and will benefit new marketers as they learn how to do link building in SEO.
BIG TIP: If all of this sounds confusing, you don’t know how to link build, you need to see a broken link example, or you need help with local link building, it helps to speak to a broken link building service provider who can walk you through different tools and strategies to boost your SEO efforts.
Benefits of Broken Link Building
It takes a lot of time and effort for web admins to check broken links. It is, however, crucial as broken links negatively impact a site’s ranking. Now, imagine how they would feel if you’ve identified dozens of broken links on their site – you just made things a lot easier for them.
BLB creates a lot of opportunities. Here are some of the other reasons it’s a viable SEO strategy:
• It has the potential to boost your conversion rate by five to 10 percent.
• You can win a lot of high-quality backlinks to your site with BLB..
• The high authority backlinks you win will increase your website’s visibility
• Broken link building lets you tap into new audiences you haven’t discovered yet.
• It improves your site’s relevance by providing better-quality content.
Web admins should learn to build links and create a strategic link to their site with BLB. It will require the right link building tools for SEO, as well. We’ll mention some of the tools used by leading SEO link building service agencies.
How To Implement Broken Link Building
The following is a four-step process for implementing broken link building:
Step 1: Prospecting
The first step to BLB is to prospect for broken links. Let’s start with a simple broken links definition: A broken link is also known as a dead link, which doesn’t work anymore because of specific issues:
• The website or page doesn’t exist anymore (it may have been removed).
• The link contains an incorrect URL.
• A firewall is blocking access.
• The owner of the website no longer allows outside access to their web property.
The most common broken links definition is the first on the list above because you’re looking for links from high-authority sites relevant to your niche when prospecting. For example, if you’re running a vegan blog, you should prospect from vegan nutrition websites.
Prospecting involves searching for a broken page with links pointing to it. A broken page produces a 404 error when you enter the address on your browser. A broken link example is a hyperlink that redirects you to a “404 not found” page or something similar.
You will then use link building tools for SEO to find the pages that link to a 404 page. An example of a free tool is Check My Links, a Google Chrome extension.
You can use more advanced tools for prospecting and link building SEO. Examples of these are link analysis tools from Ahrefs and Moz. SEO link building service providers can help you pick the best tools.
You can use several broken link prospecting techniques. Here are three of the most effective ones you can try:
Simple Prospecting and Link Building Outreach
This strategy involves just going over blogs and posts on relevant sites and finding broken links, as described earlier. Next, you reach out and offer a link to your page with similar content. This is a slow process, but it can still get you results.
Keyword Based Prospecting
This step is the most straightforward approach to broken link building. It’s also the easiest way to check broken links. Start by selecting keywords relevant to your site. Then, you will use those keywords in your backlinking strategies.
Select relevant keywords for your audience but not necessarily pertinent to your products with this approach. So, how do you do that? Use generally broad terms. For instance, Instead of using the long tail “Dallas health resources for children,” use the search term “health resources.”
You will use those relevant keywords with prospecting search phrases like the following:
• Site:.gov
• Intitle:links
• Inurl:resources
• Intext:” dead link”
It will help you find potential pages with dead links on them. Enter the links you found using this method in a backlink analysis tool to find broken links and the websites still linking to them.
Using Resource Pages
Resource pages and resource sections of web pages can also be a source of broken links. Use link analysis tools to find these resource pages. For example, check the list of hyperlinks, test them to see if they’re broken and find the links to them.
Step 2: Create Matching Content
The content you offer should match the content previously linked to. It doesn’t have to be a 100 percent match of the original page. But if you can provide better and more updated content, you’re showcasing your niche authority and your thought leadership in your niche.
Remember, you don’t want to blindly email the webmasters of the sites linking to the page. Not knowing what the page is about diminishes your chances of getting a backlink from site owners, especially if your content doesn’t match the original. If you have a blog post or article that is somewhat similar, you can update it to match the content you’re targeting. This step is part of a content repurposing strategy.
You can use tools from Ahrefs to view the content from the dead URL. There are other link building tools for SEO used by any experienced local link building agency.
Step 3: Sending Link Building Outreach Emails
After identifying broken links and publishing matching content, reach out to the site owner with a compelling email. In your email, you should point out the dead links and provide details about them, such as the type of error they pull up, if the site still exists or if they just mistyped the URL.
Here are a few outreach emailing tips as part of a backlink strategy:
• Use the subject line to sum up your intent, which is to check broken links and offer an alternative resource.
• Don’t forget to ask for a strategic link – some fail to ask.
• Demonstrate your credibility by providing a summary of the original content.
• Add a screenshot where you found the broken link.
• Make your pitch concise and sound mutually beneficial, especially for link building SEO.
Step 4: Follow Up To Improve Success
Broken link building is not a foolproof strategy; your success rates will sometimes vary. To improve your chances of success, remember to send a follow-up email to those who don’t respond after a week or two. In addition, you can add value to your proposition by offering to link to their page in one of your campaigns or some other method to improve their SEO.
Getting the Best From a Seasoned Agency
If you’re new to digital marketing, it’s essential to learn to do link building in SEO, including broken link building. Preferably, you want to get links from sites with a high Domain Authority. You also establish a strong relationship with other webmasters in your niche.
A broken link building service agency will help you learn to use powerful tools and apply BLB strategies to improve your site’s rank. Thrive is a seasoned broken link building service provider serving businesses of all sizes for more than 16 years. We leverage all tools and techniques at our disposal to build our clients’ backlink profile.
Take advantage of our experience and boost your SEO results today. Call 843-353-6383 for a free consultation.
