A broken link building service turns other websites' maintenance problems into links for you. Every website accumulates dead outbound links over time: the resource they cited was deleted, the company behind it closed, or the page moved without a redirect. Site owners do not want broken links on their pages, because they frustrate readers. When someone points out the broken link and offers a working page that covers the same thing, many editors are happy to make the swap. That swap is an editorial link from a relevant site.
We offer broken link building as a monthly service within our link building services. Each month we research dead pages in your niche that still have links pointing to them, check that you have or can build a genuinely good replacement and contact the sites linking to the dead page. Every link we earn is reported with its URL, the page it points to and the anchor text, so you can check each one yourself.
What Our Broken Link Building Service Includes
| Component | What we do | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Dead page research | We look for pages in your niche that return errors but still have many sites linking to them, using competitor backlink data, resource pages and expired domains in your industry. | A steady supply of link opportunities on topics that fit your business. |
| Opportunity vetting | Each linking site is checked for relevance, real traffic, editorial standards and spam signals. Our plans start at DR 30 and above, with higher tiers mixing in stronger sites. | Links from sites you would be happy to be associated with, not link farms. |
| Replacement matching | We match each dead page to an existing page on your site, or recommend updating one to cover what the dead page offered. | Editors get a replacement that actually fits, which is why they say yes. |
| Linkable resources | On the higher plans, we write or upgrade resource pages built to replace popular dead content: guides, glossaries, checklists, data pages or tools. | Assets that keep attracting links long after the campaign. |
| Manual outreach | Personal emails to the right person at each site, with one follow-up at most. | Outreach that protects your brand's reputation with publishers. |
| Link verification and reporting | Every link is checked live and reported, then rechecked later to confirm it is still in place. | Full transparency, with no hidden networks or vague "placements". |
Our Broken Link Building Method, Step by Step
- Onboarding and page review (weeks 1 to 2). We learn your business, review the pages on your site that could serve as replacements and agree which topics and target pages matter most. We also set rules on what sites you do not want links from.
- Dead page research (ongoing). Using Ahrefs, we look at the broken backlinks of competitors and industry sites, scan resource pages and roundups in your niche for dead links and check expired sites that once published useful content. Each dead page is recorded with the number of referring domains still pointing to it.
- Content check (ongoing). We look at what the dead page used to contain using the Wayback Machine, then decide whether your existing page is a fair replacement, needs an update or whether a new resource is justified.
- Prospect list and contacts (ongoing). We export every page linking to the dead resource, remove irrelevant, spammy or inactive sites and find the right contact: the author, the page editor or the site owner.
- Outreach (from week 3). Short, personal emails that point out the exact broken link and suggest the replacement, sent in small batches so each one gets attention.
- Verification and reporting (monthly). We confirm each new link live and send a monthly report. Links from earlier months are rechecked so you know they are still in place.
The first links usually go live in the second month, once research, any content updates and the first outreach rounds are complete. From then on, the work runs as a monthly cycle.
Broken Link Building Deliverables and Monthly Reports
- Live link report: linking page URL, the linking site's Domain Rating, the target page on your site, anchor text and the date the link went live.
- Dead page list: the dead resources we targeted, their referring domains and the replacement page used.
- Outreach summary: number of sites contacted, replies and outcomes.
- Content log: resource pages written or upgraded, with the dead pages they were built to replace.
- Link health check: earlier links confirmed live or flagged if removed.
Success looks like a growing set of editorial links from relevant sites, pointed at pages that matter to your business, with every link verifiable. Each plan is built around a monthly link target shown in the plans below, and we report exactly what was delivered. We do not promise rankings, because links are one factor among many.
Broken Link Building Service Pricing
Our broken link building service runs on monthly plans. The price is driven by the number of links per month, the authority range of the linking sites and how much replacement content we create. Niches with plenty of dead resources and active publishers are faster to work than narrow industries with few relevant sites, which is why we confirm feasibility before you commit.
Broken Link 3
$850 /month
Billed monthly
- 3 links a month from relevant sites (DR 30+)
- Dead page and broken link research in your niche
- Replacement content matched to each broken link
- Personal outreach, no templates blasted at scale
- Monthly link report
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month
Broken Link 6
$1,550 /month
Billed monthly
- 6 links a month (DR 30+, mix up to DR 60)
- Everything in Broken Link 3
- 1 linkable resource page written or upgraded each quarter
- Competitor dead page recovery (their lost links, your page)
- Anchor text plan
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month
Broken Link 12
$2,900 /month
Billed monthly
- 12 links a month (DR 30+, mix up to DR 70)
- Everything in Broken Link 6
- 1 linkable resource built each month
- Bi-weekly calls and a live link tracker
- Minimum term
- 3 months, then month to month
- Add-on
- Linkable resource page written for you: $450 each
All prices in USD. Need something different? Ask for a custom quote.
For larger campaigns, several target sites or broken link building combined with digital PR, contact us for a custom quote.
What Is Broken Link Building?
Broken link building is a white-hat link building technique where you find links on other websites that point to pages that no longer work, then suggest your own relevant page as a replacement. The site owner fixes a broken link on their page, their readers get a working resource and you earn an editorial link. It works because it solves a real problem for the publisher, rather than asking for a favor.
A broken link example
Imagine a home improvement blog with an article on reducing energy bills. It links to a "home insulation R-value chart" published by an insulation company that has since closed its website. Forty other sites link to that same chart, and every one of those links now leads to an error. If you sell insulation and publish an accurate, up-to-date R-value chart, you can contact each of those sites, point out the dead link and offer your chart as the replacement. Some of them will update the link to point to you.
Why Broken Link Building Still Works for SEO
Broken link building works in SEO because the incentive is aligned for both sides. Publishers who care about their readers want working links, and a polite note that saves them from hunting down a replacement is useful. The links are editorial, placed in existing content on relevant pages, which is the kind of link search engines value. It is also scalable within a niche: one popular dead resource can have dozens of linking pages, so a single good replacement can earn several links over time.
It is not a fit for every situation. Broken link building works best in niches with plenty of informational content, resource pages and guides: home improvement, health and fitness, finance, software, education, outdoor and hobby markets. It is slower in narrow industries with few publishers, and it does not work if you have no page worth linking to. In those cases we either build a resource first or recommend a different approach.
Broken Link Building Tools We Use
| Task | Tools |
|---|---|
| Finding dead pages with links | Ahrefs Site Explorer (broken backlinks, best by links filtered to 404), Semrush Backlink Analytics |
| Checking pages for broken links | Check My Links Chrome extension, Screaming Frog SEO Spider |
| Seeing what the dead page contained | Wayback Machine (archive.org) |
| Finding resource pages | Google search operators such as intitle:resources and inurl:links combined with your topic |
| Contacts | Hunter, site contact and author pages |
| Outreach tracking | BuzzStream or a shared outreach sheet |
| Link verification | Ahrefs alerts and manual checks |
Wikipedia's "dead link" tags are a well-known research source for finding popular dead resources. Wikipedia's own links are nofollow, so we use these tags to discover dead pages, then target the other sites that link to the same resources.
Broken Link Building Strategy: Choosing Dead Pages Worth Replacing
The biggest factor in a broken link building campaign is choosing the right dead pages. A good target meets all of these criteria:
- Many referring domains. A dead page with links from many different sites gives you many outreach chances from one replacement.
- A close topic match. The replacement must cover the same subject as the dead page. A loose match gets ignored.
- Content you can genuinely match or beat. If the dead page was an original study you cannot recreate, a summary will not persuade editors.
- Active linking sites. Pages that have not been edited in years belong to sites nobody maintains, and those owners rarely reply.
- A useful target page. The replacement page should connect to your business, so the link helps the pages that bring revenue, directly or through internal links.
Broken Link Building vs Guest Posting vs Digital PR
| Broken link building | Guest posting | Digital PR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the link sits | In existing content on an established page | In a new article you write for another site | In news or feature coverage |
| What you offer | A fix for a broken link | A free, useful article | A story, data or expert comment |
| Content needed | A good replacement page on your site | A new article for each placement | A newsworthy angle or asset |
| Typical pace | Steady monthly links | Steady monthly links | Irregular, sometimes many links at once |
| Best for | Niches with lots of resource content | Building topical relevance and authority | Brands with a story or original data |
Many sites use more than one. Our guest posting services and digital PR work can run alongside broken link building in the same campaign.
How to Buy Broken Link Building Services Safely
Some providers sell "broken link building" that is really paid link insertion with a different name. Before you buy broken link building services from anyone, including us, ask these questions:
- Can you see the dead page for each link? A real broken link building campaign can show the broken resource it replaced.
- Is the linking page relevant to your topic? A link from an unrelated site with good metrics is not editorial.
- Are you paying per link to a site owner? If the provider pays publishers, it is a paid link, which Google's spam policies treat as a link scheme.
- Do the linking sites have real traffic? Sites with high authority scores and no organic traffic are a warning sign.
- Do you get full URLs? Every link should be reported in full so you can check it.
We do not pay publishers for links, we do not use private blog networks and we report every link in full.
Broken Link Building Outreach: How We Write Pitches
A good broken link pitch is short and puts the publisher's problem first. A typical email we send reads like this:
Hi James, I was reading your guide to reducing heating bills and noticed the link to the insulation R-value chart in the third section now goes to an error page. It looks like the company that published it closed its site. We keep an up-to-date chart that covers the same materials, if it is useful as a replacement. Either way, thought you would want to know about the broken link.
It names the exact page and broken link, explains what happened, offers the replacement without pressure and makes sense even if they choose a different replacement. We send at most one follow-up, and we stop immediately if someone asks us to.
Common Broken Link Building Mistakes
- Pitching weak replacements. If your page covers the topic less well than the dead page did, editors will not swap it in.
- Bulk templates. Mass emails with no mention of the exact page get ignored or marked as spam, which also hurts future outreach.
- Chasing link counts over relevance. A link from an unrelated site is easy to get and does little for your rankings.
- Ignoring your own broken links. Before pointing out other people's dead links, make sure your own site has none. Our link reclamation service handles that side.
- Linking only to sales pages. Editors replace resources with resources. Point the link at a helpful page and link internally to your commercial pages from there.
Who Our Broken Link Building Service Is For
A good fit
- Businesses in niches with plenty of guides, resource pages and informational content.
- Sites with useful resource pages, or the willingness to create them.
- Companies that want steady, white-hat links with full reporting.
- Teams that prefer links in existing content to sponsored or guest content.
Probably not a fit
- Very narrow industries with few publishers. A link gap analysis can show what is possible first.
- Sites with no content beyond product or sales pages and no plan to add any.
- Anyone who needs a specific number of links on a deadline regardless of quality.
Related Broken Link Building and Outreach Services
Broken link building pairs well with our resource page link building, which targets curated resource lists in your niche, and with link reclamation, which recovers links you already earned. For a full review of your current backlink profile and site health first, start with a free marketing audit.