Link Building Guide
How to Run a Broken Link Building Campaign
Find dead links on other sites, match replacement content, and send outreach that converts at higher rates than cold pitches.
Broken link building is one of the highest-conversion outreach tactics in SEO. You find dead links on other sites and offer your content as a replacement. The site owner gets a quick fix for a problem they didn't know they had. You get a backlink. It's the closest thing to a win-win in link outreach.
How it works
The basic loop:
- Find pages with broken outbound links
- Match or create content that replaces what the dead link used to point to
- Email the site owner, flag the broken link, offer your page as the fix
That's it. Conversion rates on this type of outreach run consistently higher than cold guest post pitches because you're solving a real problem instead of just asking for a favor.
Find pages with broken links
Keyword Prospecting on resource pages
In Link Builder, use Keyword Prospecting with terms like "[niche] resources", "[niche] useful links", or "[niche] recommended tools." Resource pages are where most broken links live. They link out to dozens of sites, and over time, some of those links die quietly.
Competitor gap domains
Run a gap analysis in Link Planner. Some of the gap domains — sites that used to link to a competitor — may still have a live page pointing to your competitor's dead content. If the original page is gone but the referring site never updated the link, that's your opening.
Site Finder
Use Link Builder's Site Finder to browse sites in your niche and spot resource pages or "best of" lists that might have dead links. Prioritize sites with DR 50 or higher — a broken link fix on a quality site is worth the extra prospecting time.
Check the links
Once you have a prospect list, go through the pages and look for:
- Links returning 404
- Links redirecting to something completely unrelated
- Links pointing to domains that no longer exist
A browser extension like Check My Links speeds this up. You're looking for at least one clearly broken outbound link per page before adding it to your campaign.
Match your replacement content
You need something that actually makes sense as a replacement. That means:
- Your content covers the same topic the dead page covered
- It's at least as thorough as what was there before
- It lives on your domain
If you don't have a matching page yet, build one. A well-targeted guide or resource page made for broken link campaigns can support multiple pitches across different sites. It's worth the investment.
Write the outreach email
Three parts, nothing more:
- Name the broken link — give them the specific URL of their page and the exact link that's dead
- Note what it used to point to
- Offer your replacement — one sentence, include the URL
Don't pitch your business. Don't explain why backlinks matter. Don't flatter them. Just flag the problem and hand them the fix.
In Link Builder, set up a broken link outreach template with variables for the target page URL, the broken link, and your replacement URL. Run it as a campaign with one or two follow-ups spaced 7 days apart.
Track your placements
Once a site owner swaps in your link, add it to Link Monitor. Broken link fixes are vulnerable to getting quietly reverted during site redesigns or CMS migrations. Monitoring catches that before you lose a placement you earned.
When to use this tactic
Broken link building works best alongside your main outreach program, not as a replacement for it. Good opportunities don't come up every week, but when they do, close rates are reliably better than cold pitches. The reason is simple: you're leading with a fix, not a request.