Link reclamation is the process of identifying and recovering links that previously pointed to your website but are no longer working or passing full value. Links are lost constantly: pages get deleted, URLs change, content gets updated and your link disappears in the rewrite, or redirects break. Because building high-quality links takes significant time and money, reclaiming existing links is almost always faster and cheaper than acquiring equivalent new ones. This guide covers every category of lost link, how to identify which ones are worth pursuing, the outreach process for each scenario, and how to set up monitoring so you catch losses early rather than discovering them months later.
⚡ Quick Summary
- Link reclamation recovers links you previously earned that are no longer working or passing value. It is almost always faster and cheaper than building equivalent new links
- Every site loses links continuously. Checking regularly and acting on recoverable losses is standard maintenance, not a one-time project
- The right reclamation approach depends on why the link was lost: removed, page deleted, page redirected, or page noindexed each requires a different response
- Not every lost link is worth pursuing. Prioritise high-DR sites with real traffic, dofollow links, and clear editorial fit before spending time on outreach
- Setting up automated backlink monitoring alerts removes the need to manually audit for losses and allows you to act while the link loss is still recent
What Is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the process of identifying links that previously pointed to your website but are no longer working correctly, and taking action to restore or replace them. These are links you already earned through content creation, guest posting, outreach, or organic editorial coverage. When they stop working, the authority and referral traffic they carried is lost.
Links disappear constantly and for many reasons. A site owner updates an article and removes your link in the rewrite. A page that linked to you gets deleted. A URL changes and the redirect breaks. Content migrates to a new domain without preserving link attribution. Each of these scenarios represents authority you have already earned but are no longer receiving.
This is distinct from converting unlinked brand mentions into links. A mention without a link is an opportunity you never had. Link reclamation is specifically about recovering links you did have.
Why Link Reclamation Is Worth Doing
It is cheaper than building new links
You have already done the work that earned these links. Reclaiming them requires an outreach email or a redirect fix. Building a comparable new link from a comparable publisher requires prospecting, pitching, content creation, and follow-up. Reclamation consistently produces a better return per hour invested.
Conversion rates are higher
Cold link building outreach converts at 2 to 8% in most niches. Reclamation outreach converts significantly higher because you are not asking for something new. You are alerting a webmaster to a problem on their site (a broken link, a dead redirect) that affects their own user experience, which gives them a direct reason to act.
It prevents compounding ranking loss
A lost link from a high-authority publication does not just remove one authority signal. It removes the traffic that link drove, the brand mention signal it provided, and the referral pathway it created. Recovering it quickly, while the linkis still relatively recent, minimises the ranking impact.
Types of Link Loss: What Each One Means and How to Respond
The right action depends entirely on why the link was lost. Ahrefs labels each lost link with its reason in the Site Explorer Backlinks report. Here is how to read and respond to each category.
Link removed
Often worth pursuing
The link existed on the page but was removed. This is the most common loss category and the most actionable. Common causes: content refresh removed some external links, your link was replaced with a competitor’s, the page now has a stricter external link policy.
How to respond: Use Ahrefs Page Inspect (Show changes) to see what the page looked like before and after. If the content was refreshed and your link simply did not make it into the new version, reach out and suggest it as an addition with a brief explanation of why it adds value. If your link was replaced by a competitor’s, the conversation is harder but not impossible: if your content is genuinely stronger, say so specifically. If the page now has a blanket no-external-links policy, let it go.
Page deleted (linking page returns 404)
Sometimes worth pursuing
The page that contained your link no longer exists. This could be intentional (the site owner decided to remove the page) or accidental (migration error, accidental deletion).
How to respond: Check how many referring domains the deleted page had. A page with 50+ referring domains was almost certainly not deleted intentionally by an SEO-aware site owner. Contact the webmaster informally and flag that the page appears to be broken. Do not immediately pitch your link. If the page was clearly deleted intentionally (very few backlinks, no history of quality content), move on. This category is also the entry point for broken link building: find a dead page with many backlinks and create a strong replacement, then reach out to everyone linking to the dead page.
Broken redirect
Sometimes worth pursuing
The linked URL now redirects to a different destination, and the link to your site has not transferred to the new page. Also includes 404 pages on your own site that have incoming links but no redirect set up.
How to respond: If the redirect is on your site (one of your pages was moved or deleted), set up a 301 redirect to the most relevant live page immediately. This is a pure technical fix with no outreach required. If the redirect is on the linking site and your link was lost in the process, check the source code of the redirected destination. If your link is not there, reach out and suggest adding it to the new page.
Page noindexed
Occasionally worth pursuing
The link technically still exists on the page, but a noindex tag has been added, meaning Google may not count the link for ranking purposes. The link is not technically lost, but its value is substantially reduced.
How to respond: Check whether the noindex appears to be accidental. Signs of accidental noindexing include: the homepage of the same site also has a noindex tag (site-wide error), the page is clearly optimised for SEO and targeting specific keywords (nobody would intentionally noindex a well-optimised page), the rest of the site does not use noindex. If it appears accidental, a friendly heads-up email can produce a quick fix and genuine goodwill. If it appears intentional, move on.
How to Find Lost Links
1
Ahrefs Site Explorer. Go to Site Explorer, enter your domain, navigate to Backlinks, and filter by “Lost.” Set the “Best links” toggle to show only high-quality links to eliminate low-value losses from the list immediately. Filter further by dofollow, minimum DR, and organic traffic threshold based on what you consider worth pursuing. This is the fastest way to produce a prioritised list of recoverable links.
2
Your own 404 pages with backlinks. In Ahrefs Site Explorer, go to Best by Links, then filter for pages returning 404 status codes. These are your own pages that have been deleted or moved without redirects but still have external links pointing to them. This is a pure technical fix with no outreach: set up 301 redirects from each dead URL to the most topically relevant live page.
3
Google Search Console. The Index Coverage report identifies URLs returning errors that have been previously crawled. It does not show all links pointing to broken pages (use Ahrefs for that) but provides a useful second data source, particularly for technical redirect issues and canonicalisation problems.
4
Automated Ahrefs alerts. Set up daily or weekly Ahrefs email alerts for lost backlinks. This removes the need for periodic manual audits and means you discover losses within days rather than months. Acting on a lost link within the first week of its loss substantially improves reclamation conversion rates because the publisher is more likely to remember the content and have the link fresh in their system.
Which Lost Links Are Worth Pursuing
Every site loses hundreds or thousands of links over a rolling 30-day period. Most of these are low-quality links from spammy directories, forum comments, or sites that have degraded over time. Chasing all of them is not productive. Prioritise by the following criteria before starting any outreach.
| Priority Factor |
Threshold to Pursue |
Why It Matters |
| Domain Rating of linking site |
DR 30+ as a minimum; DR 50+ as priority |
Low-DR sites pass minimal authority. Recovery effort is rarely justified below DR 30. |
| Organic traffic of linking site |
1,000+ monthly visitors verified in Ahrefs |
A site with DR but no traffic may have inflated metrics. Real traffic confirms Google trust. |
| Link attribute |
Dofollow links only (for link equity recovery) |
Nofollow links from lost pages are low priority unless the site also provides referral traffic worth recovering. |
| Recoverability |
Link removed or page accidentally deleted |
Only pursue losses where there is a realistic path to recovery. Intentional removal by a policy change is not recoverable. |
| Recency of loss |
Under 60 days since loss is ideal |
Older losses are harder to recover as the context fades and webmaster personnel change. Act early. |
For the quality evaluation framework including how to assess whether a site passes muster before investing outreach time, see our how to check backlink quality guide
The Outreach Process for Reclaiming Lost Links
Reclamation outreach is structurally different from cold link building outreach. You are not asking for something new. You are flagging a problem and providing a solution. This framing dramatically improves conversion rates. For the general outreach framework and email template structure, see our link building outreach guide.
Reclamation outreach email framework
Subject: Broken link on [their article title]
Hi [Name],
Quick note: I noticed that [their article URL] links to [broken/removed URL], which now returns a [404 error / no longer includes the link].
We recently [moved the page to / the updated version is now at]: [new URL]
Happy to confirm that the new page covers [brief description of what it covers], same topic, still fully up to date.
Worth updating the link when you next have a chance? It would fix the broken link for your readers.
[Your name]
[Your title] | [Company] | [Website]
Key principle: Keep it under 100 words. Focus on the problem (broken or missing link) and the solution (here is the updated URL). Do not over-explain or pitch your content quality. The brevity itself signals that you are not spamming.
Building New Links While Running Reclamation
Link reclamation recovers what you had. Linkscope’s guest posting service builds what you still need. Every publisher pre-verified with real organic traffic data before any payment. Run both in parallel for the strongest link building programme.
Browse Publisher Marketplace
Minimising Future Link Loss
Reclamation is reactive. The most effective programmes combine reactive reclamation with proactive practices that reduce the rate of link loss in the first place. For the complete link quality assessment framework you can apply before selecting publishers to reduce the probability of early link loss, see our link building strategies guide.
Target stable, established publishers
Links on sites that have been publishing for 5+ years with consistent ownership and regular content updates are significantly more durable than links on newer blogs or sites showing signs of declining maintenance.
Set up 301 redirects immediately when URLs change
Every URL change on your site that has incoming links should have a 301 redirect set up before the change goes live. Never delete a page with backlinks without redirecting it first.
Avoid linking to documents
Links to PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentation files are more fragile than links to web pages. Document URLs change more frequently and the content can disappear entirely without any redirect.
Set up automated monitoring
Ahrefs backlink alerts deliver lost link notifications by email on a daily or weekly schedule. This means you discover losses within days and can act before the editorial context fades and the publisher has moved on.
Linkscope Marketplace
Replace Lost Links and Build New Authority on Pre-Verified Publishers
Not every lost link is recoverable. For those that are not, Linkscope provides replacement placements on publishers verified for real organic traffic. Full DR and niche data before any payment. Pre-approve every placement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I check for lost links? +
Set up automated alerts in Ahrefs to receive notifications of new lost links on a weekly basis. This removes the need for manual scheduled checks and ensures you discover losses within days rather than months. For sites actively building links and losing them at higher volume, daily alerts are worth setting up. Then conduct a deeper monthly review of all losses to identify patterns (e.g., a specific type of content that keeps losing its links, or a particular publisher that removes links during regular content updates).
Is link reclamation better than building new links? +
They serve different purposes and are not substitutes. Link reclamation recovers authority you already earned, typically at lower cost and effort per link than building new ones from scratch. It should always be part of your programme because letting high-authority links disappear without attempting recovery is a straightforward waste of previous investment. New link building adds net new authority from publishers who have not previously linked to you. Both are necessary: reclamation is maintenance, new link building is growth.
What is the difference between link reclamation and broken link building? +
Link reclamation recovers links that used to point to your site. Broken link building is a proactive tactic where you find dead pages on third-party sites with many referring domains, create a better replacement resource, and then outreach to everyone linking to the dead page to suggest your content as a replacement. The two tactics often intersect: when a page that linked to you is deleted, the broken link building playbook applies. If you have a suitable replacement for the deleted content, you can pitch it to everyone else linking to that dead page as well.
Should I try to reclaim low-quality backlinks? +
No. Low-quality links from spammy directories, link farms, or sites with no organic traffic contribute little to your rankings even when they are working. Chasing them when lost wastes outreach time that could be directed at recovering high-value links. Apply the same quality filter to reclamation decisions as you would to new link building: only pursue losses from DR 30+ sites with verified organic traffic and editorially relevant content. If a lost link would not have been worth building in the first place, it is not worth reclaiming either.
