Link reclamation is usually the cheapest link building you will ever do, because the hard part already happened. A journalist wrote about your company, a supplier listed you, a blogger reviewed your product or another site linked to a guide you published years ago. Then something broke: the page moved without a redirect, the link was removed in an edit, or the writer mentioned your name and never linked at all. Each of those is a link you earned and are not getting credit for.
We run link reclamation as part of our link building services, either as a one-time sprint or as an ongoing monthly service. The sprint clears the backlog: lost links, dead URLs and old unlinked mentions. The monthly plans catch new mentions and new losses as they happen, which is when publishers are most willing to add or restore a link.
What Our Link Reclamation Service Covers
| Opportunity | What we do | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| 404 pages with backlinks | We find URLs on your site that return a 404 error but still have links pointing to them, then map each to the closest live page. | You or us, with a 301 redirect. No outreach needed. |
| Broken redirects and chains | Old redirects that now lead to errors, loops or long chains after several redesigns. | You or us, by pointing each old URL straight at its final destination. |
| Lost backlinks | Links that existed and were removed or changed, checked one by one to find out why. | The linking site, after outreach. |
| Wrong URL links | Links with typos, outdated paths or the wrong domain version that land on an error. | A redirect on your side, or a correction request. |
| Unlinked brand mentions | Articles that name your brand, product or founder without linking. | The publisher, after a short, polite request. |
| Uncredited image use | Your original photos, charts or graphics used on other sites without credit, found with reverse image search. | The publisher, asked to add a credit link. |
| Press and podcast mentions | Interviews, quotes and episodes that mention you, followed up for a link in the article or show notes (Reclamation Plus). | The publisher or show host. |
How We Run a Link Reclamation Project
- Backlink and mention audit (week 1). We pull your full backlink history from Ahrefs and Semrush, Search Console's links report and your server's 404 data, and run searches for unlinked mentions of your brand, products and founder.
- Triage (week 1 to 2). Every lost link and mention is checked by hand and sorted: fix with a redirect, worth outreach, or not worth pursuing. A link lost because the linking page was deleted is treated very differently from one removed in an edit.
- Redirect map (week 2). We deliver a 301 redirect map for every dead URL with links, pointing each to the most relevant live page. If you give us access, we can implement it.
- Contact research and outreach (weeks 2 to 4). We find the right person for each opportunity, usually the author or the site editor, and send a short personal email. Follow-ups are limited to one, because persistence beyond that damages goodwill.
- Verification and report (end of sprint). Every recovered link is checked live, recorded with its URL, target and anchor text, and added to your report.
- Ongoing monitoring (monthly plans). Weekly mention alerts, monthly lost link checks and outreach on each new opportunity while it is still fresh.
A Reclamation Sprint usually runs for three to four weeks. Most redirect fixes take effect as soon as they are deployed. Outreach replies arrive over the following weeks, and some publishers take longer to update older articles.
Link Reclamation Deliverables
- Lost and broken backlink report: every lost link and every link pointing at a 404, with the reason for each loss and our verdict.
- 301 redirect map: old URL, new target and the number of referring domains each redirect recovers.
- Unlinked mention list: every mention found, the publisher, the page and the outreach status.
- Outreach log: who we contacted, when, and the outcome.
- Recovered link report: live link URL, target page and anchor text for every link restored or added.
- Monthly summary on ongoing plans, with new mentions found and actioned.
Success looks like no linked URL on your site returning a 404, a clean redirect setup, and a steady process for turning new mentions into links. We do not guarantee that any publisher will add or restore a link, and we report exactly how many did.
Link Reclamation Pricing
Link reclamation runs either as a one-time sprint or as a monthly plan. The sprint price reflects the size of your backlink profile and how much press and mention history there is to search. Monthly plans are priced by how many brands, products or people we track and whether press and podcast mentions are followed up as well as web articles.
Reclamation Sprint
$650 one-time
One-time, paid upfront
- Search for unlinked brand, product and founder mentions
- Lost backlink and broken backlink (404) report
- 301 redirect map to recover links pointing at dead pages
- Personal outreach to up to 50 site owners
- Report of every link won, with follow-ups
- Delivered in 4 weeks
Mention Monitor
$350 /month
Billed monthly
- Weekly alerts for new brand mentions
- Outreach on every new unlinked mention
- Lost link checks with recovery outreach
- Image use checks (your photos and graphics used without credit)
- Monthly report of links reclaimed
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month
Reclamation Plus
$650 /month
Billed monthly
- Everything in Mention Monitor
- Up to 3 brands, products or people tracked
- Mentions from press and podcasts followed up
- Quarterly redirect and 404 backlink check
- Bi-monthly call
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month
- Add-on
- One-time Reclamation Sprint: $650, or $450 when added to a monthly plan
All prices in USD. Need something different? Ask for a custom quote.
If you have several brands, a large migration behind you or want reclamation combined with new link building, ask us for a custom quote.
What Is Link Reclamation in SEO?
Link reclamation in SEO is the process of finding links to your site that have been lost, broken or never added, and restoring them through redirects or outreach. It includes recovering lost backlinks, fixing links that point to dead pages and asking writers who mention your brand to link to you. It matters because links are still one of the signals Google uses to judge a page's importance, and a reclaimed link from a site that already knows and likes you is often easier to get than a new link from a stranger.
Lost Backlinks: Which Ones Are Worth Recovering
Backlink tools report a link as "lost" for many reasons, and only some of them are worth your time. This is how we judge each type:
| Reason the link was lost | Worth pursuing? | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Your page returns a 404 | Almost always | 301 redirect to the best matching live page. Fast and fully in your control. |
| Link removed from a live page | Often | Check whether it was an edit, an update or a replacement with a competitor, then ask for it back if the reason allows. |
| Your redirect is broken | Yes | Repair the redirect so the old URL resolves directly to a live page. |
| Linking page now redirects elsewhere | Sometimes | Check whether the content moved to a new URL and whether the link survived the move. |
| Linking page deleted or site gone | Rarely | Usually not recoverable. If the content moved, contact the owner. |
| Linking page noindexed or canonicalized | Rarely | The link still exists but carries less value, so we usually move on. |
| Crawl error or temporary outage | No | Recheck later. These often come back on their own. |
404 Link Reclamation and the Redirect Map
404 link reclamation is the quickest win in this whole service, because it needs no outreach at all. Over years of redesigns, product changes and blog clean-ups, most sites delete or rename pages that other sites still link to. Every one of those links now lands on an error page and passes little or no value. A single 301 redirect from the dead URL to the most relevant live page recovers the link immediately.
We pull these from Ahrefs' best by links report filtered to 404 responses, Search Console's links report, your server logs where available and your own crawl data. The redirect map prioritizes URLs by the number of referring domains they hold. We avoid the common shortcut of redirecting everything to the homepage, because Google can treat irrelevant redirects as soft 404s and the link value may not carry over.
Link Reclamation vs Unlinked Brand Mentions
The two are related but not the same. Link reclamation, strictly speaking, recovers links that once existed or that point to the wrong place. Unlinked brand mention outreach asks for a link that never existed, from a page that mentions you. We cover both, because the work, the tools and the outreach are similar, and both rely on a publisher who has already shown interest in you.
| Link reclamation | Unlinked brand mentions | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A link that was lost or broken | A mention with no link |
| Main fix | Redirects on your site, plus outreach for removed links | Outreach to the author or editor |
| Speed | Redirects work immediately | Depends on publisher replies |
| Best source | Backlink tools and Search Console | Mention monitoring and web searches |
Link Reclamation Tools We Use
| Task | Tools |
|---|---|
| Lost and broken backlinks | Ahrefs Site Explorer (lost backlinks, broken backlinks, best by links), Semrush Backlink Analytics |
| Your own linked pages | Google Search Console links report, Screaming Frog SEO Spider for status codes and redirect chains |
| Brand mention monitoring | Google Alerts, Ahrefs Alerts, Brand24 or Mention for broader coverage |
| Image reuse | Google Lens and reverse image search, TinEye |
| Contacts and outreach tracking | Hunter, publisher contact pages, BuzzStream or a shared outreach sheet |
How We Write Link Reclamation Emails
A link reclamation email works when it is short, specific and makes the fix easy. We never use a mass template, but every message follows the same shape. Here is the kind of note we send for an unlinked mention:
Hi Sarah, thanks for including our hiking boots in your spring gear roundup, it was great to see. One small request: readers looking for the boots would find them more easily with a link to the product page, which is here. Happy to send higher-resolution photos if they would help the article. Thanks again for the mention.
The structure is simple: thank them for something specific, name the exact article, make one small request with the exact URL, offer something useful and keep it under a hundred words. For a removed link, we first find out why it was removed. If a competitor replaced you, we say so only when we can point to something on our page that serves their readers better.
Link Reclamation Steps You Can Run Yourself
If you want to try a basic version before hiring anyone, these link reclamation steps cover the highest-value work with free or low-cost tools:
- Find your linked pages that return errors. In Google Search Console, open the links report and export your top linked pages. Run that list through a crawler such as Screaming Frog, which is free for up to 500 URLs, and note any that return a 404 or a broken redirect.
- Redirect each dead URL. Point every dead URL with links to the closest matching live page using a 301 redirect. Your CMS or hosting control panel usually has a redirect manager, and Shopify and WordPress both support redirects through settings or a plugin.
- Search for unlinked mentions. Search your brand name in quotes and exclude your own domain with -site:yourdomain.com. Do the same for your main product names and your founder's name. Set up Google Alerts for each so new mentions arrive by email.
- Check each mention. Open the page, confirm there is no link and confirm the mention is positive or neutral.
- Send a short request. Find the author's contact details and send a brief, friendly email using the structure above.
This works well for a small brand with a modest backlink profile. Larger sites with years of history, several migrations or regular press coverage usually find more value in a full sprint with paid backlink data and someone handling the outreach.
When Link Reclamation Does Not Work
- Publishers with no-link policies. Some news sites and corporate publications do not link to commercial sites in editorial content. We note these and move on.
- Negative or neutral mentions. Asking for a link from an article that criticizes you rarely helps and can draw more attention to the criticism.
- Mentions in competitor-run content. Competitor comparison pages almost never add a link.
- Very old articles. Some publishers do not edit archived content. These are worth one polite request, not more.
- Thin profiles. A young brand with little coverage has little to reclaim, and new link building is the better use of budget.
Link Reclamation After a Site Migration or Rebrand
Migrations and rebrands are where the most links are lost. URL structures change, redirects get missed, and a domain change can leave years of links pointing at a site that no longer resolves correctly. If your organic traffic dropped after a move, a reclamation sprint is one of the first things to run. We compare your pre-migration backlink profile with your current redirects and fix every gap. If the move is still ahead of you, our SEO migration services plan the redirects in advance so the links are never lost.
Who Our Link Reclamation Service Is For
A good fit
- Brands with regular press, podcast or blog coverage.
- Sites that have been redesigned, restructured or migrated, especially more than once.
- Companies with a founder or product that gets mentioned by name.
- Businesses that publish original photos, research or data that others reuse.
Probably not a fit
- New sites with very few backlinks or mentions. Start with broken link building or other new link building instead.
- Brands looking to remove negative articles. That is a reputation management job, not a link job.
Related Link Reclamation and Link Building Services
Reclamation recovers the links you already earned. To earn new ones, our broken link building service replaces dead resources on other sites with your pages, and digital PR creates new coverage worth linking to. Our link gap analysis shows which sites link to competitors and not to you.