Howdy Mozzers,
My name is Anthony and I'm from Fargo, ND. First-time YouMozzer here. After reading this post, I hope you (in?)voluntarily scroll back up to the top to follow me on twitter (@anthonydnelson) and check out my blog Northside SEO.
Today's post is about broken link building. It's been a popular topic in the industry, but I also noticed that SEOmoz didn't have a lot on the subject, so I thought it would be nice to write a kick-ass piece for the large SEOmoz community. Now, on to the post.
BROKEN LINK BUILDING: From Noob to Novice
Broken [broh-kuhn] adjective: not functioning properly; out of working order
Link [lingk] noun: anything serving to connect one part or thing with another
Building [bil-ding] verb (used with object): to construct (especially something complex) by assembling and joining parts
Definitions taken from dictionary.com.
Broken Link Building [lingk bil-ding gohld] verb: the act of acquiring a link to your website by pointing out a broken link on someone else's website
What is Broken Link Building?
Broken link building (sometimes called dead link building) is a technique that involves pointing out a link on another website that is no longer working and also asking for a link to your website. Often the broken link leads to a 404 page. The link will be on a page that is relevant to your niche and appears to be a good fit for inclusion of your site. You perform a solid by pointing out the broken link to the webmaster and in return, suggest that your link be added or be used as a replacement.
Why has Broken Link Building been so Popular Lately?
- SEOs feel like they are making the web a better place. They are helping webmaster's deal with the problem of link rot. SEOs care about the quality of the web. The fewer broken links, the better.
- It gives the link builder an easy value add to their email. You are helping them out, before asking them to help you out.
- It can result in quick links. When broken link building emails are successful, you usually get your link within a day or two of sending the email. Much quicker then allowing a site owner to try and review a product or spending time making a connection and pitching a guest blog post.
- It's a relatively new technique that has already yielded good results for numerous link builders.
Broken Link Building Required Tools:
- A website that doesn't suck (no one is going to link to your crappy site, even if you point out a broken link)
- Google Chrome with Check My Links Extension or Domain Hunter+ (Domain Hunter+ was recently featured on YouMoz)
- Open Site Explorer: Limited use for everyone if you register for a free account at SEOmoz
Additional Tools for Increase Efficiency:
- Xenu Link Sleuth (unless you're really cool like me and use a Mac)
- Screaming Frog
- W3C's Link Checker
- Gmail plugins Rapporative and Boomerang
- Canned Responses in Gmail or saving stationary templates in Mac mail are major time saving wins
How to Find Broken Links
- Use the Check My Links Extension on any webpage you happen to visit and cross your fingers.
- Check Top Pages tab in OSE for any competitor or site in your niche and look for 404 pages with external links pointing at them in the Top Pages tab.
-
Use search operators in Google to find relevant sites (my examples just below). This should result in hundreds of sites with lists of links specific to your industry. Switch your search settings to display the top 100 results and export them to a CSV using the MozBar's SERP Control Panel. Sort by Page Authority or Domain Authority and you're good to go. Find more useful link building search operaters or advanced search queries on Himanshu's site. Visit the sites and run a link checker extension.
- intitle:KEYWORD inurl:links -exchange
- intitle:KEYWORD inurl:resources
- inurl:links KEYWORD -
- Add exported lists of links to Xenu/Screaming Frog to find 404 pages and easily run them through OSE. Alternatively, you can run a single page through to easily find the status codes of its outbound links.
- Run a website through W3C's Link Checker to find broken links
- When you find a broken link, run that link through OSE to determine who else is linking to it. You may find 5-10 other good link prospects from a single broken link.
- Export numerous competitor's followed back link profiles in OSE. Combine results. Filter for URLs containing Link, Directory, Where to Buy, Resources or whatever words fit your industry. Sort sites by PA/DA, visit, run link checker, email.
Determining Link Target Quality
After you find a page with some broken links on it, you have to decide if it's worth your time sending an email and asking for a link.
| Ask for a Link | Don't Bother |
| • Noticeable Page Rank / MozRank |
• Approximately one thousand links on the page |
| • Signs of social sharing | • Spam links present (viagra, ipods, etc) |
| • Nice web design | • Over 10 broken links |
But there are too many broken links!
It's a bit of a road block to run into a page with decent authority only to realize that it contains a ton of broken links. When you find a page with too many broken links on it (10+), you have a few options.
- Decide the page is low-quality and choose not to contact them.
- Send an email pointing out two or three of them and pretend that you don't know about the rest.
- Point out all 10+ broken links and risk overwhelming them to the point that they decide not to update the page at all or completely delete it.
It's totally up to you to decide what is right for you and the site you are building links for. Personally, I've gone with all of the techniques above. Often times, it doesn't matter what you decide on because you may not hear back from them at all.
Finding a Website Owner's Contact Information
- Look for their email address on the contact page, about page or footer of the website
- Google site:DOMAIN.COM email
- Google site:DOMAIN.COM @DOMAIN.COM gmail.com hotmail.com yahoo.com msn.com live.com
- Look for their Twitter handle. A great casual way to introduce yourself
- Check WhoIs
- Look for a contact form on their website
- Citation Labs The Contact Finder if you are working with a large list
Stalk them to the best of your ability. It's OK if they feel a little uncomfortable that you found them through their sister's Twitter account. No contact, no link.
Broken Link Building Email Templates
Now that you know what broken link building is and how to find websites to target, let's get on to email outreach. I'm going to show you five email templates I use which will hopefully help you start your own successful broken link building campaign. Each template is slightly tailored for a different type of website or client. You may find that one of them works best for you, or you may find that you hopping back and forth between styles will give you the best results depending on your client, the niche or the targeted site for link acquisition.
Broken Link Building Email Template #1 - Quick and Dirty
Subject Line: (DOMAIN.COM) question
Hey (WEBSITE OWNER FIRST NAME),
Are you still updating (DOMAIN.COM)? I found a broken link I'd like to point out.
-(YOUR FIRST NAME)
Who to Send it to: Perfect for use on websites that look like they were made in the 90's and seem as if they are no longer being updated. Also good for sites that are questionable in quality. Don't waste too much time with on an email for a site you don't expect to reply.
Why it Works: This short and sweet email has one of the highest response rates of any of the templates I use. It comes off as genuine and helpful and leads with a strong question that illicits a response from all webmasters who are actually updating their website. When they reply, simply follow-up by sharing the page and the broken link as well as suggesting your website and explaining the fit and value it offers to that page.
Broken Link Building Template #2 - The Pressure is On Them
Subject Line: (DOMAIN.COM) broken link
Hi (WEBSITE OWNER FIRST NAME),
My name is (FIRST NAME) and (I WORK FOR COMPANY NAME or I HAVE A WEBSITE CALLED SITENAME) .
I'd love to have (OUR/MY) website (WWW.DOMAIN.COM) added to your great list of (LINKS/RESOURCES).
(LINKS/RESOURCES URL)
Also, I found a few broken links on your site. Is this the right place to report them?
Look forward to hearing back from you.
-(YOUR FIRST NAME)
Who to Send it to: Any website that has a list of links or resources (with a broken link) that you think is a good fit for your site.
Why it Works: You come clean immediately in the email explaining that you want a link. The webmaster might feel the need to include your link in order to find out what links on their site are broken. No webmaster will email you back and say, "No, I won't link to you. Now please show me the broken links." You get a link or they are on their own.
Broken Link Building Template #3 - In and Out
Who Should Use This Template: Any link builder that doesn't have time to follow up. This is a one and done send.
Subject Line: (FIRST NAME), (DOMAIN.COM) broken links
Hey (WEBSITE OWNER FIRST NAME),
My name is (YOUR FIRST NAME) and I wanted to let you know I really liked your post about (TOPIC OF ONE OF THEIR BLOG POSTS - NOT THE EXACT TITLE AND NOT THE MOST RECENT ONE). The part I particularly enjoyed was the part about (QUOTE FROM POST BECAUSE....)
However, when I was looking at your (DESCRIBE PAGE/POST), I noticed (A/SOME) broken (LINK/LINKS).
(LINK 1)
(LINK 2)
(ETC)
When you are fixing the page, I also think you should consider adding these two resources:
(SIMILAR TRUSTWORTHY WEBSITE #1 NAME - WWW.DOMAIN.COM) - (BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SITE - NOT A CORPORATE DESCRIPTION OR SLOGAN)
(YOUR WEBSITE #2 NAME - WWW.DOMAIN.COM) - (BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SITE - NOT A CORPORATE DESCRIPTION OR SLOGAN)
(PERSONAL ANECDOTE ABOUT HOW THESE TWO SITES HAVE HELPED YOU).
I hope this email reaches you safely and helps you out a bit.
I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
-(YOUR FULL NAME)
Who to Send it to: Any website that has a list of links or resources (with a broken link) that you think is a good fit for your site.
Why it Works: When you nominate two unaffiliated websites for inclusion on the webmasters list of links, they will simply think you are trying to help them. You want to point out some broken links and also give them some additional sites to consider. Make sure the alternate suggested site is not a competitor to your site.
Broken Link Building Template #4 - Brand Power
Who Should Use This Template: Link builders (consultants or in-house) who work for a semi-recognizable brand name in their particular industry.
Subject Line: (SITE OWNER FIRST NAME), (DOMAIN.COM) broken link
Hey (WEBSITE OWNER FIRST NAME),
My name is (YOUR FIRST NAME) and I wanted to let you know I really liked your post about (TOPIC OF A BLOG POST - NOT EXACT TITLE AND NOT THE MOST RECENT ONE). The part I particularly enjoyed was the part about (QUOTE FROM THEIR POST).
I work at (COMPANY NAME) and after being in the INDUSTRY/NICHE field for a few years, I've become really passionate about INDUSTRY/NICHE and I'm happy to have found your site.
When I was looking at your (DESCRIPTION OF PAGE WITH BROKEN LINK) page, I noticed that one of the links was broken. The link labeled (BROKEN LINK ANCHOR TEXT) isn't currently working. (OPTIONAL: DO YOU KNOW WHERE THAT LINK IS SUPPOSED TO GO?)
Also, I hope you would consider adding our website (WWW.YOURSITE.COM) as an additional (RESOURCE/RECOMMENDATION/ALTERNATIVE) to your great (DESCRIPTION OF PAGE WITH BROKEN LINK) page. We'd be honored to be included on your site and I think the link would provide great value to your visitors due to our (BRAND UNIQUE SELLING POINT).
Have a nice (DAY/NIGHT).
I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
-(YOUR FULL NAME)
-(COMPANY NAME)
Who to Send it to: Any website that has a list of links or resources (with a broken link) that you think is a good fit for your site.
Why it Works: The website owner is flattered by having someone from a recognizable brand contact them with complements about their site. On top of that, they are grateful for you pointing out the broken links. How could they not give you a link?
Broken Link Building Template #5 - Zen Master Link Builder
The fifth template is essentially using no template at all. The Zen Master Link Builder builds a relationship before asking for a favor and the placement of a link. I'll outline the basic process below.
- Comment on one the website's blog post. Make sure it's thoughtful and genuine.
- Send first email with complement and question about a post of theirs or the niche they are in.
- After they reply, you email back kindly thanking them. Consider repeating steps two and three if the conversation goes that way.
- Follow them on twitter. Casually tweet at them or about their content to remain on their radar.
- Email again to point out the broken link as an FYI. Mention your website as a replacement or addition to the page.
Who to Send it to: Ideally everyone. Realistically, use this technique on high quality websites. Sites where links are hard to come by.
Why it Works: You've shown that you care and connected with the website owner on a personal level first. The website owner should be grateful for your support (comments, tweets, emails) and will most likely happily add your link to the page in question.
Note: The Zen Master approach is the best approach to take for all link building outreach. It is definitely not exclusive to broken link building. The ultimate hang-up comes to the overall time and resources required to execute.
Outreach Email Link Building Tips:
- Send emails one at a time. From you, to them. Be real and try to offer as much value as possible.
- Don't use full URLs or hyperlinks in your actual email. This increases the chance your email lands in the spam folder.
- Find the website owner's email address and real name. Cyber stalk them to get it. Google them, find their twitter and check WHOIS.
- The email templates above will work even better if you personalize them more. Show some personality. Being unique and odd can be more effective than professional and stale. Be a person, not a canned response, even if you start your post from one.
- Use a woman's name.
- End emails with a question or a sentence that implies they need to respond to you.
- Always double check and proof your email. Using templates can be dangerous if you're not careful. Make sure it is personalized to the right website.
- If you do make a mistake in sending a templated email, come clean and do this.
- Hustle. You will never get a link for an email you don't send.
Pro Broken Link Building Outreach Tip
- If the website has a phone number, call it. A real conversation will monumentally increase your chance at landing a link. Admittedly, I still send emails 99% of the time.
301 Redirect Broken Link Building - Double Dipping
Sometimes the link you point out in your outreach email doesn't even have to be broken to get the webmaster to take action and change the page. I've 
had success pointing out links that 301 to a different site. Simply put, if you tell a site owner that they are trying to link to domainA.com and the result is a link to domainB.com they are often willing to remove that link. The benefit of this can be great.
Study your competitors' external backlink profile and find the urls of other websites that are 301ing back to them.
Example: DOMAIN1.com is redirecting to COMPETITOR.com.
Contact the sites who are linking to DOMAIN1.com and explain to them they are not linking to the site they were once intending to. Be sure to offer your website as an additional resource.
The end result: Your competitor loses a link and you gain one. Double win.
This technique will not work for links where the redirect clearly goes to the same company/website at a different URL. This technique works best when combined with an email pointing out a few broken links. "These links are broken and this one doesn't go to the right spot..."
Link Exchanges and Directories
Pointing out broken links is often enough to get you listed in a paid directory or on a site that is requesting link exchanges for submission. Of course, this only means something if you find a paid directory you actually want to be listed in or a site that exchanges links in a non-spammy way.
Content Recreation
Sometimes in the hunt for broken links, you'll find a 404 page that has 5-20 external links pointing at it. Some of them are juicy links. Links that you want. Bad. The problem is, your site doesn't contain a direct replacement for the 404'd content. Here is how you can get them.
Even though your site is in the same niche, your site didn't originally publish the results from that study in 2005 that was referenced so many times and no longer exists. You need to recreate the content. The first step is to put the broken link into the Wayback Machine to find out what the content originally was. Recreate the content for your site. If possible, feel free to repurpose it a bit to fit your branding and style.
Once you have created the similar content, contact the webmasters with the broken link pointing at the now non-existent content and gently nudge them towards your new piece. The exact piece they were looking for.
This technique takes a lot of time and effort but can definitely pay dividends. It is already established that the content you are creating is link worthy in the eyes of multiple webmasters.
18 Additional Broken Link Building Resources
- 40 Broken Link Building Resources by Garrett French on Citation Labs
- Broken Link Building In Action by Nick LeRoy on nickleroy.com
- A Tactical Guide to Broken Link Building by Cleo Kirkland on ROI Factor Blog
- The Reciprocity Link Building Method by Melanie Nathan on Search Engine People
- Easy Link Building with Your Competitors' 404 Errors by Fabio Ricotta on Ontolo
- Need Links? Make Up For Your Competitors Shortcomings by Napoleon Suarez on SEER Interactive Blog
- 5 Creative Broken Link Building Strategies by Jon Cooper on Point Blank SEO
- Broken Link Building for Content Promotion by Garrett French on Search Engine Watch
- Check My Links Chrome Extension - A Link Builder's Dream by Jon Cooper on SEOmoz
- Broken Link Building - A Case Study by Ben Jackson on SEO ROI
- Broken Link Building: Feast On Your Competitors This Thanksgiving by Napoleon Suarez on SEER Interactive Blog
- Fixing the Web's Lost Content: An 8 Step Guide for Link Builders by Jeremy Bencken on Search Engine Watch
- 15 Questions with Nick LeRoy on Broken Link Building by Garrett French on Citation Labs
- Broken Link Building: How Napoleon Suarez Gets 8-12% Conversions by Garrett French on Citation Labs
- Broken Link Building Tips: an Interview with Melanie Nathan by Garrett French on Citation Labs
- Busted Links as Reason for Link Request by Wheel on Webmaster World Forum
- Improving Corrective Value-Adds in Link Request E-mails by Ross Hudgens on rosshudgens.com
- Broken link building with Raven's Link Manager and local directories by Eric Scism on Raven Blog
If you know of a great broken link building resource that I am missing, please post it in the comments and maybe one of the mozzers or I (not sure how this YouMoz editing will work) will be able to add it to the list.
Noob to Novice
I gave this post the title from Noob to Novice because reading blog posts is not going to make you an expert or advanced link builder. You have to get out there and get your hands dirty. Send emails. Send a lot of emails. Try different techniques. Test and record. Broken link building is still a technique that is in its infancy and there is a lot of room for us all to improve and refine our techniques.
I still consider myself a novice link builder. There is so much to learn and the game is always changing.
Broken link building or any outreach based link building campaign is never going to compete with someone who creates link worthy content. Content that will continue to build links on it's own. Content that will build links on the weekends when they're not working.
Outreach link building definitely has its place. It's something I do a lot of. However, you should do it to supplement the natural links your amazing content organically gets. Useful, high-quality content is still king.
Be sure to drop a comment and let everyone know about your broken link building successes or failures. It is still a relatively new technique and we can all learn from sharing. Don't be shy on giving this post a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Feedback is needed to grow.
Awesome guide - you beat me to it! I was thinking about creating one myself.
A couple things I wanted to address.
1. The scalability of 301 Redirect BLB - The reason BLB is so popular is because it's scalable. Just pull up 100 resource pages, run Check My Links, and then outreach to the webmasters with a fixed template.
But that's where 301 redirect finding is tough. Although you can look through competitor backlinks for this, 80% of the 301 redirects you "could" come across aren't usually being received by your competitors. If there are any, it's usually only a couple per competitor, at best.
Again, it's a fantastic idea, but I advise that you do not run an entire campaign around finding 301s, because even if you do find a few, webmasters don't care as much, because only a handful actually pose a problem to the reader.
2. Template #5 - I've been testing a new template that's been working great lately. It's really, really simple, and it gets feedback 30%+ of the time (for those who don't know, that's a pretty solid number):
Hi!
I just stumbled across a few broken links on the website, and I didn't know who to notify. Do you think you could help me out?
Thanks :)
*Name*,
*Company*
Why is it great? Because you're not only making sure you're getting in contact with the right person, but you're also showing only signs of adding value (you just want a link fixed) and no signs of getting anything in return.
3. Broken Link Building Resource #19: Guide to using Domain Hunter Plus - I hate to be self promotional, but I included some tips on utilizing this extension for finding abandoned domains for link building.
Once again, GREAT job Anthony! Hope to see you posting more often :).
Thanks Jon. Your template above is a great and is kind of a hybrid between #1 and #2 in my post. I also have been seeing a higher response rate with the shorter emails.
I've read your post on Domain Hunter Plus and think it would be a great addition to the broken link building resources list.
Thanks for the comment.
Great response Jon, and thanks for promoting our tool, too!
Firstly Congratulations on your first YouMoz!
There are some really actionable tips for link builders and hopefully this blog will point a few people to this technique.
From some of my own experiments, and from what I have seen from other link builders, links in old content don't always deliver the results you might expect. I often advise the blogger/webmaster to change some content on the page especially where it is out of date. This increases the chance that Google will put a higher value on the link due to the refreshed content.
Great point Chris. Cyrus did a great Whiteboard Friday video about this a few weeks back.
Wow... this is awesome content, Anthony. You really put a lot of work into it an covered all of the details.
Thanks for dropping a comment EGOL. Also, thanks for all the great advice you share in the Q&A.
I must admit, when I saw the title, I thought "oh no, a boring post which will say 'download LinkSleuth, then email people'" It's actually full of useful ideas! I've never before devoted much time to broken link building, but you've inspired me to have a go. I'm going to have a broken link building day this week!
Thanks! Some of this post will be basic to many, but I tried my best to put some variations and actionable tips in there for everyone to build off of.
Ha, the same with me. I thought "why even bother reading this, because I'm pretty sure it will be random stuff that everybody knows", but I'm really impressed. Liked your blog and your willingness to keep up the discussion within the comments. Hope to read more blogs from you in the future.
Thanks!
Great post - Broken Link Building is a technique that doesn't get utilized enough. It's not scalable but when your niche doesn't require hundreds or thousands of links to rank well its a VERY valuable technique.
Thanks for the comment Nick. You also have some great posts on the subject. Go Vikes!
Couldn't digest all in one read, will be coming back again to read it properly with more attention. Nice effort, and yeah will be following you on twitter and visiting your site in next read!
Many thanks for the DHP mention, we just did some updates to fix some of the initial pain points with it and will eventually be rolling out a bigger, newer, meaner version. Beyond that, this is a GREAT post that I will share with all of my BLB brethren. Seriously, you knocked it out of the park here. And you and Jon Cooper nailed the best response rate email - that template is almost identical to the one that i have used to incredible results. just last month i moved a client up in an incredibly difficult travel niche by finding a recently defunct competitori and emailing the linkers with a similar template and bagged about 40 links in a couple days which moved us from 13th to 2nd on the Google. Boom. This doesn't work in every niche, but when it does, it really does people. And definitely check out Citation Labs' tools, too. The bulk tools they have are awesome for streamlining your approach. A great combination of tools for BLB are: Ontolo (input 25 competitors and find pages with co-citations), dump those into Citation Labs' outbound scraper and then into their status checker tool, then take that and dump it into Majestic SEO's bulk backlink checker. When you find something that's dead with a ton of links, run a report and start contacting. This is magic. PURE MAGIC.
Thanks for the great comment and the great tool. I look forward to future updates.
Awesome post!
I would include WP plugins to automate the process - broken link checker or yoasts.
Good stuff.
You left out two great broken link finding tools.
Crawl Errors report in Google Webmaster Tools and your web server logs.
Hi Anthony,
First of all congratulations on your first post and you have pointed out some amazing techniques. As far as operators are concerned you can also use the expression intext:brandname -site:brandname.com. You will be surprised to know the number of pages/websites that have instances of brand URL. I certainly miss the "+" operator. It would have been very useful in identifying loads of websites that have instances of the URLs under consideration.
Now for a big problem with Google WMT -
One of the biggest flaws with Google WMT is that even if there is an instance of a URL in the form of text it picks it and shows it in the crawl errors section. For example if someone writes www.abc.com/page1 and it is in plan text and not a link and is present in the comments section of a blog, even if that page does not exist Google WMT will highlight it as a crawl error. The only option in this case would be to manually write a 301 redirect rule in htaccess file.
There is also a virtual problem that we all face. Lets say we implement virtual page views for tracking purposes in Google Analytics say a URL abc.com/virtual for some weird reason Google WMT picks it up and reports it in the crawl errors section.
- Sajeet
Thanks for the comment Sajeet. Your first comment is a great one. I love to monitor the web for mentions of your brand. There are a lot of them out there that slip through the cracks of automated alerts. If a site mentions your brand, they are very likely to turn it into a link if you contact and thank them.
I agree - I reviewed recently some webmaster tools crawl errors and now many virtual pageviews are reported as broken links. It is very weird. Also some links in javascript are counted as broken links - but that is because they have to be joined in javascript.
Are there best practices to avoid this? Is CDATA effective to prevent Javascript being parsed?
Very informative! I'm sure this will become a very popular post since it contains a lot of actionable information. This is exactly the type of link build that should be taught to Noobs.
Great post Anthony. stationary templates - templates that don't move? I think you mean stationery
Thanks for the great ideas.
Ha! Nice catch Alan. Where are those SEOmoz editors when I need them?
Great post Anthony!!! You have managed to gather all important information regarding link building and put it all into bullets! Love your writing!
Anthony - congrats on your first YouMoz submission. I never cease to be amazed at the kind of awesome information I get in this community. Thanks for breaking it down step by step. I usually always look for the "last updated" or "copyright" information at the bottom of the page. If it hasn't been updated in some way recently, I try not to target those since I'm probably just wasting my time. (But I will check to see who's linking to them......)
Thanks again!
-Maranda
You are absolutely right about this Maranda. Sites that haven't been updated in a long time are the least likely to respond to your outreach email.
It's a good idea to filter your google search results to only show Past Year or even modify the search query to include a year.
intitle:keyword inurl:links 2010
Presto! Pages that might be a bit old and have some broken links, but not ridiculously old.
Thanks this post is really helpful
yup effort was put into this post. thanks!
Thanks for awesome, really very helpful post...
Anthony,
This was a foreign concept to me, but I've been using it here and there. I've received a few links, a Twitter mention, and a few "thank you for catching that" emails. The potential I see with this is that even if you don't get a link immediately, it opens the door for a relationship with that person, especially if you continually engage with them on their blog/social media sites.
Thanks for such a thorough post!
Stacey-
You are absolutely correct. I have pointed out numerous broken links to people, often on sites where I have no intention of getting a link at the moment. It is a great way to introduce yourself as a helpful person and begin a relationship.
Don't know how I missed this post before... it's fantastic! I especially love the content recreation with the Wayback Machine... never would have thought of that!
Hi, this is a very interesting strategy. I try to think of myself as the person that has the broken link and if you were to contact me. I think my reaction would be to thank you for the information, but not to offer a link.
It must work since there are so many comments that support this method of link building. Congratulations on your post!
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the comment. I have had numerous webmasters reply the way you said you would react in this same instance. In order to get the link, you have to make sure your site or page is worth linking to. Ultimately, it comes down to content.
Providing a webmaster with good content and doing them a favor is a nice way to increase your chances of securing a link.
Link building is tough, and with every technique you strike out more often than you hit a home run.
"Check My Links" is again available to download in the Chrome Web Store.
Thanks for the update Erin.
Super guides!
:( I guess I missed the boat on that one. Domain Hunter Plus looks like a good tool, I will be sure to spend more time with it in the days to come. Thanks for the excellent article!
Thanks for this! I've recently started getting into broken link building. My first few attempts didn't gain me a link, but I started some relationships. And then, BOOM, I had a webmaster from a top site in my niche thank me by giving me a blogroll link on his site.
I find BLB is like gambling....you keep thinking that this one could be the big one! And then when you get a link you get fueled to go back and get more!
I really like template #2...and I'm going to start using it (or something similar) now.
Thanks for this!
Marie
Thanks for the comment Marie. I've read some of your comments on Point Blank SEO and I'm happy to see that you've started to have some success with this technique.
I like your analogy of broken link building with gambling. The key here is to refine our techniques (search queries, outreach emails) and figure out how to get the best odds.
Like!!!
Anthony great post! The email templates alone were enough but this is a complete guide and should be seen as a great starting point in the BLB process. Congrats on the first YouMoz post!
I struggled with including so many templates. It made the post long and kind of drag in the middle. I ultimately chose to include a handful of variations because I thought they would be of value for a lot of link builders.
Great post. I think the last part about creating new content to get those juicy links is an especially valuable tip that I'm sure works when done well. (I haven't tried it yet personally). Congrats on the post too!
Thanks for commenting Holly.
Anthony, this is an absolutely awesome post, filled full of platinum (not gold)! This is almost priceless.
I am actually training a few guys on link building and I think this has just become a great resource for them to use. Thanks for sharing this with us. You just got a new follower and subscriber as well! :-)
Hey Michael, Thanks for such kind words. I hope it can help you get some new link builders going with this technique and I appreciate you following/subscribing!
Thanks Anthony! I hope so too. Neither has any experience, but I think this will be enough to help them get their feet wet for sure. Starting nice and easy with targeting links, next will be all the fun stuff.
Superb post Anthony, you obviously put a lot of time & effort into this.
Your post could even potentially be wrapped-up into an Ebook style guide, with a Contents page, plus with a mini Infographic to visually display the different angles/techniques to finding broken links.
Great job :-)
Fantastic post - especially liking the email templates - got some great ideas for how to tweak mine... thanks! :)
Great Post. I've read that some SEO's theorize that links on previously crawled pages pass juice than fresh content original links.
Does anyone know if this is true?
Erik, check out my first comment above for more info on your question.
Thanks for pointing that video out Anthony. Don't know how I missed it, I watch WBF's pretty religiously LOL.
keep going! I like to see people getting improved!
Thanks for making a comment Nikos.
Great Post Anthony. Just proves why I love SEOmoz so much. Great resources that are uber actionable from the get go!
Thanks Greg. We are all lucky to have access to a site like SEOmoz and I'm thankful for them giving us all the ability to submit blog posts to YouMoz.
How success rate is there in this technique?
This is a great article, and I have been using it to good effect. That said, I wanted to post a disclaimer to not trust the links that Domain Hunter flags 100% without also hand checking the ones you want to mention. I just ran into a rather embarrassing circumstance in which all the "broken" links turned out to be fine.
Has this happened to anyone else?
This has happened to me with both of the link checkers on Chrome. I always check the links. Once during initial review and a second time right before I send off the email.
really well said Anthony....this is very useful
Best Regards
Thanks for the comment Laura.
Changed me view of dumb web*NOT*masters in their approach of getting link exchange. What I mean is they tend to simply drop their bunch of links and then offer me to get link in one of the following websites - where all of those websites are link exchange portals I can register myself.
This one is a lot better and takes psychological aspect in.
Intersting post, but i would like to know we can use like this search for french sites also to find broken links.
Thanks for advance.
This article helped me a lot. I was looking for extra link building techniques that didn't involve guest posting. It is tedious, but I think it could pay off if you keep at it and e-mail as many webmasters as possible.
Great work Anthony! I'll give it a try, though i'm afraid SEO-s have already reported all broken links, and left nothing for me :D
I can confirm to you that there are plenty of opportunities still out there.
Best of luck!
Hi Anthony! Yes, broken link building or sometimes what we call dead link building is a technique that involves pointing out a link to another website that is no longer working. I have noticed that some broken link leads to a 404 page.
hi,
Anthony I like your article. This article full fill from SEO related guide. Really this will helpful for me and many more others.
We are an Website Development Company in India.
[link removed]
Hello Guys,
I continue to hear SEO's rave about the Check My Links Extension. However it is no longer in the Google Chrome Web Store. Does anyone know what happened? If it is permanent? If so, do you have an alternative tool that you reccommend?
Hi Zeph,
I'm not sure what happened to the extension. While I was working on this post, I had a working link to the extension in the chrome store, but noticed the page had disappeared before I submitted the post. Nearly had a broken link in my broken link building post.
As an alternative, I suggest you check out the Domain Hunter+ extension.
You can go to either place to get it:
https://github.com/ocodia/Check-My-Links/wiki
https://code.ocodia.com/extensions/cml/cml.crx
Hope that helps!
Nice job Jon.
Zeph, I had the same problem yesterday, but you can still source the Check my Links extension at GitHub
Awesome post Anothony. I love the Zen Master link builder. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tom.
What a great post Anthony. I will be using your method right now.
congrats for your first YouMoz post.
I have to say I'm trying this for a while now, and in most of the case it works really well. The good aspect is that you can create a strong relationship with the owner of the site , and this is important even for future collaborations. Plus, you are doing something for the same people you want a link from, so it's always positive because you care about the site you're approaching.
thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback Alessio. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.
Great post, Anthony. I'm really intrigued by the Email Template breakdown because it's categorized almost on a desperation scale. Many times Ive come across emails with the Subject Header saying: "Dead Links" or "Can I Swap Links" and for all intents and purposes, one might assume those get responded to on a 1-5% basis. Also, good points about shortening the amount of URLs and focusing on putting important link resources as anchor texts.
Also, I was looking to add the "Check My Links" extension, but it appears the extension's either undergoing maintenance or Google has pulled it entirely. Really hoping it's the first reason because I've been using the extension up until I had to purchase a new Mac Mini, and consequently had to reinstall all the extensions.
Jon Cooper posted some links in a comment above where you can still download the Check My Links extension.
Congratulations on such an amazing piece of work. I think in seo link building strategies "content is the king" is a universal truth.:)
I used very similar methods and got it to work! The result is we're listed on https://www.easysurf.cc/beauty.htm#S2 with a follow link.
I used Chrome + "Check My Links" and e-mail.
Anthony -Thank you for such a thorough explanation and providing the list of supporting resources. The additional resources really made this an A+ post!
I wanted to add a consideration for the type of client. This form of link building will be much more effective for product based clients such as the coconut water example you used than it would be for something like professional services. For example, using this form of link building would be difficult for a dentist because the types of resource pages that exist are primarily on competitor's sites or are for national dental associations. Both of which are not interested in providing the blog or website of a dental provider.
Hey Adam- You are absolutely right. I've found BLB to work quite well for some niches and be a complete afterthought for others.
Also, I read the BLB blog post you wrote after this comment, so I'll put that link here as a resource for future readers. https://adam-wagner.net/post/39551644333/broken-link-building-success-strategies-for
What a fantastic guide. I've been hearing such good things about the tactic so will have to get on with it and start doing it. It's fantastic to see that there are so many tools to improve the scaleability of this method. Thanks for the great guide!
Hi Nick-
Best of luck with this tactic. Be sure to read Russ's more recent post for a look into some newer tools that can help scale this tactic.