Do You Remember That Amazing Backlink You Worked So Hard to Get? The One That Drove Tons of Traffic and Helped You Rank #1?
Well Now It’s Broken.
Your Heart Sinks as You See That Once Glorious Inbound Link Now Directs to a 404 Error. The Traffic is Gone. Your Rankings Start Slipping. All That Effort – Wasted!
Or is it? What if you could resurrect that backlink from digital purgatory? Reactivate its SEO superpowers? Welcome droves of referrals back with open arms?
You totally can through the magical process known as… link reclamation.
Link reclamation lets you pull lost links back from the brink, undo PR damage, and reclaim hard-earned authority. It’s like turning back the clock on link equity.
So, Let’s jump into the full guide.
Why Link Reclamation Matters for Your SEO
Reclaiming lost backlinks should be a priority for most website owners – especially if your site relies on search traffic. Just a handful of high-quality backlinks can drive thousands of visitors per month. Losing even one such link can negatively impact organic rankings.
The reasons why link reclamation is critical for SEO include:
1. Preserve Equity from Earned Links
Backlinks don’t just magically impact your rankings. In fact, search engines like Google assign an “equity value” to individual links based on the authority and trust of the page hosting that link. This equity passes onto your site.
But when that link dies – so does the equity it passes onto you. Reclaiming lost links preserves that hard-won equity.
2. Maintain Domain Authority
Metrics like Domain Authority and Page Authority – tracked by SEO tools like Moz and Ahrefs – quantify your overall link profile strength. As you lose links, these metrics drop. Lower authority and trust scores lead to lower rankings and visibility.
Recaptured links boost authority metrics back up, securing your search standings.
3. Keep Rankings Stable
Speaking of rankings – losing just a handful of authoritative backlinks is often enough to jolt rankings down by multiple spots for important keywords.
Link reclamation limits ranking volatility by counteracting equity losses before they impact rankings.
4. Strengthen Site Reputation
Who links to you signals trust and credibility to both algorithms and users. Losing great links causes reputational damage. Fixing broken links demonstrates you’ve invested in maintaining a quality site worthy of such links.
Identifying High-Value Lost Backlinks
Before spending time reclaiming links, you’ll want to prioritize ones that provided the most value originally. Sorting through all your site’s backlinks can be tedious. Instead, focus on links with these attributes:
High Authority Pages
Reclaim links hosted on pages with the highest domain and URL authority scores. For context – authority spans 1-100, with higher being better. Pages over 30 are decent, 40+ good, and 50+ great. Use a tool like Ahrefs to check authority metrics.
Contextual Relevance
Relevant, industry contextual links add more equity. For example, if you run an SEO blog, an SEO-focused guest post carries more weight than a general tech roundup you’re mentioned in.
Evaluate the context of lost links to determine their relative value.
Keyword Relevance
Backlinks containing your target keyword(s) as anchor text have direct rankings value for those terms. Be sure to filter for lost links with your core keywords present.
Referral Traffic Value
Some links drive more visits than others. Find links generating significant user clicks to recover that referral traffic. Use analytics to cross-reference lost links with their previous traffic value.
Essentially, links that had the highest visibility, authority, relevance and user response originally should take priority for reclamation efforts.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Reclaiming Lost Links
Once you’ve identified which of your lost links to prioritize for reclamation, it’s time to develop a game plan and take action. Follow this step-by-step methodology:
Step 1: Discover All Lost Links
Your first task is comprehensively identifying all lost backlinks pointing to your site. The best tools for this are:
Ahrefs Site Explorer – Ahrefs generates full backlink data and allows filtering specifically for “lost” links. You can analyze links by date lost, authority, link type, etc.
Majestic Backlink Analyzer – Similarly, Majestic lets you surface and filter for lost or redirected backlinks. Easy exporting too.
We recommend exploring lost links over at least the past 6 months. Export this full list for next steps.
Step 2: Classify Link Loss Reasons
Why did each link disappear? Understanding the reason helps determine the remedy. Link loss classifications include:
- Link manually removed
- Page with link deleted
- Page redirection
- Page deindexed
- Broken redirect chain
Segment your lost links spreadsheet by these categories using filtering or conditional formatting.
Step 3: Prioritize VIP Links
Refer back to our specs for high-value links – authority, relevance, rankings impact, etc.
Flag your spreadsheet to call out the most important links. You may also color code by value tier or score links on a scale of 1-10.
Step 4: Outreach to Reclaim Links
Now for the fun part – reaching out to recover your links! But careful communication is key, as you don’t want to burn bridges.
Here are best practices for effective reclamation outreach:
- Personalize emails: Address publishers directly and reference your lost link details to demonstrate this isn’t a generic blast.
- Provide updated URLs: If their previous link to you is truly broken or redirected, provide the updated working URL.
- Suggest contextually relevant replacement content: Could your lost link be replaced with an alternative piece of highly relevant content? Provide recommendations.
- Emphasize added value: Politely pitch the benefits of restoring your link – whether additional info for their audience, boosting page performance via fixing broken links, or showcasing partnership.
- Offer reciprocal value: Proposition promotional partnerships, guest posting trades, social promotions etc as value-added exchange for link restoration.
Step 5: Re-Earn Lost Links
If your initial outreach doesn’t convince publishers to reinstate links, all hope isn’t lost. You may need to re-earn those links from scratch. Treat this as an added opportunity vs shot in the dark.
- Produce Better Content: Significantly improve upon or expand content you originally got links for, then re-pitch it.
- Enhance Trust Signals: Boost your site’s credibility and authority metrics to demonstrate you deserve placement.
- Grow Your Network: Leverage broader connections with influencers at the site to make personal introductions.
While re-earning links requires more effort, restored equity can exceed original value.
Maintaining Reclaimed Links
Getting links back is only step one – you also need to keep them from breaking again! Optimizing reclaimed links for permanency should involve:
301 Redirect Lost Pages
If links disappeared due to deleted or relocated pages, set up proper 301 redirects on your site to forward from old locations to active pages. Also update internal site architecture to reference properly addressed pages.
Enhance Technical Site Health
Improving site speed, security protocols, responsive design and other technical health factors reassures publishers your site – and their links to it – are built to last. Prioritize technical SEO initiatives.
Ongoing Link Monitoring
Link tracking tools like Rank Ranger and Linkody provide alerts when current links break. Rapidly responding to new breaks prevents losing equity again.
Nurture Publisher Relationships
Don’t take partnerships for granted. Check in periodically with link partners to share content assets and analytics on traffic sent. Send gratitude and find new ways to collaborate.
Prominently Display Link Assets
Display key link logos, testimonials and badges prominently onsite. Structured data markup highlighting editorial references builds additional trust. Publishers want recognition for vouching links.
Reclaimed links return more value long-term by investing to avoid recurring issues. Don’t take the familiar adage “out of sight, out of mind” for granted after links are restored.
Measuring the ROI of Link Reclamation
Reclaiming backlinks takes considerable time and effort. But how can you quantify the tangible payoff of this investment to demonstrate ROI?
Here are key metrics to track:
Rankings Increases
The proof is in the pudding – monitor how many keywords tracked in rank tracker tools like SERPBot rise in position post-reclamation. Prioritize monitoring terms losing the most ground during link equity drops.
Higher Domain Authority
As noted earlier, restoring lost links directly translates to gains in trust metrics like Domain Authority and Spirit – the lifeblood of rankings. Watch them notch upward over time.
More Organic Traffic
Expect your analytics platform to unveil surging organic users and lower bounce rates as you regain equity and rankings. Compare traffic 12+ months before vs after reclamation.
Higher Conversions
Driving high-intent visitors from restored rankings should directly translate to more on-site conversions. Closely analyze goal completions, email signups, purchases and other key events.
Direct Referrals
Reclaimed links directing users again is a major win. Pull a site content drill-down report in GA to reveal specific pages driving more impressions and clicks now.
Essentially, link reclamation success equates to a reversal of previous downward SEO trends. Quantify lifts across key performance indicators to economically justify the link renewal investment.
Conclusion
Reclaiming lost backlinks often represents the least labor-intensive path to major ranking and traffic gains. Yet few publishers invest in identifying and recovering these low-hanging fruit opportunities.
In this comprehensive guide, we outlined what link reclamation entails, why it should be core to your SEO strategy, how to systematically uncover lost links, specific outreach tactics to reclaim them, and best practices for sustaining regained assets.
Key takeaways include:
- Lost links damage equity – prioritizing reclamation preserves your hard work
- Tools like Ahrefs make finding lost links easy via “Lost Backlinks” reports
- Classify reasons links disappeared to dictate the optimal recovery plan
- Replacement content, technical fixes, reciprocal value and trust building re-earn links
- Ongoing tracking and nurturing publisher relationships maintain reclaimed links
The proof points across rankings, traffic and revenue making potential covered herein should help sell leadership on embracing link reclamation.
Dedicate sufficient bandwidth to these efforts and watch your search presence steadily strengthen.
