Broken link building
White hat. Within Google’s guidelines. Safe to use. White, grey and black hat SEO compared
What is broken link building?
Broken link building is a link-building tactic where you find links on other websites that point to pages that no longer exist, then contact the site owner to suggest your own relevant page as a replacement. It helps the site fix a 404 error for its readers and earns you a link.
There are two common ways in. One is to scan resource pages in your niche for dead outbound links. The other is to find a dead page on a competitor’s or defunct site that still has many backlinks, recreate a better version of its content, and tell every site that linked to the old page.
Why broken link building matters for SEO
It works because it offers real value, which makes it a solid part of any link building plan. Broken links frustrate readers and make pages look neglected, so many editors are happy to swap in a working alternative. It stays within Google’s guidelines, because the site owner chooses to link on merit and nothing is paid.
The replacement page has to genuinely match what the old link promised. If it does not, the outreach is just a cold pitch and response rates drop sharply.
How to do broken link building
- Find dead pages with backlinks: look up competitors’ or industry sites’ pages that return 404 but still have referring domains.
- Check what the dead page offered, using a web archive if needed.
- Make sure you have a page that covers the same topic as well or better. Create or update one if not.
- List the sites still linking to the dead page and find the right contact for each.
- Send a short note: name the page, the broken link and your suggested replacement. Keep it helpful, not pushy.
- Follow up once, then move on.
Broken link building FAQ
Is broken link building still effective?
Yes, when the replacement is genuinely relevant. Generic pitches to sites with any broken link work poorly; targeted pitches for a close match work much better.
Is broken link building white hat?
Yes. You are suggesting a useful fix and the site owner decides whether to link. It only becomes a problem if you pay for the replacement link and it is not marked sponsored.
Related SEO terms
Link buildingWhite hat
Link building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours, to earn referral traffic and the trust that helps pages rank.
Link reclamationWhite hat
Link reclamation is recovering backlinks you have lost or that point to broken URLs, by fixing pages, adding redirects or asking sites to update links.
A 404 error is the HTTP status a server returns when a requested page does not exist. It is normal, but broken links to 404s are worth fixing.
Outbound links are links from your site to other websites. Linking to useful sources helps readers and does not drain your rankings.
Skyscraper techniqueWhite hat
The skyscraper technique means finding content that earned many links, making something clearly better, and asking the linking sites to cite yours.
White hat SEOWhite hat
White hat SEO is search optimisation that follows Google’s guidelines: useful content, a crawlable site and links you earn rather than buy.