If you’re in the world of SEO, marketing, or run a website, you probably know how big a deal backlinks are. They’re basically gold for boosting your website’s authority and improving your rankings on search engines.
Backlinks have proven time and again to be one of the most effective ways to improve your site’s performance. But here’s the thing—not all backlinks last forever. According to a study from Ahrefs, 66.5% of backlinks created in the last nine years have disappeared.
That’s right, link rot is a real problem. So, if you had a backlink from nine years ago, there’s only about a 34.5% chance it still exists today. This is where link reclamation comes into play. It’s all about auditing those lost backlinks and reclaiming them to help maintain your website’s authority.
What is Link Reclamation?
Simply put, link reclamation is the process of recovering those lost backlinks. You had a link, you lost it, and now you’re trying to get it back. It’s as straightforward as that, but it can make a big difference for your site’s performance.
Why Do Links Disappear in the First Place?
Backlinks can vanish for a few different reasons. Here are the most common ones:
- The website owner removes your link.
- The page that was linking to you is gone (404 error).
- The page got redirected (like with a 301 redirect).
- The page is no longer indexed by search engines.
Why a link disappeared will often determine whether it’s worth trying to reclaim it or not. We’ll dive deeper into that in a bit.
Is Link Reclamation Worth It?
Short answer: absolutely! But it’s important to do a backlink audit first to make sure the effort is worth your time. You don’t want to chase every lost link—just the ones that matter.
Take Antonio Gabric’s study as an example. They looked at their backlink profile and found that they had lost 9% of their backlinks over three years. That’s 74 links! Considering each backlink was worth about $320, that meant they lost nearly $24,000 in SEO value.
After analyzing why the links disappeared, they found the main reasons were the website owners removing them or technical glitches. They took action by reaching out to those site owners and managed to reclaim 31 backlinks within just a month. That’s about $10,000 in value recovered!
How to Reclaim Lost Backlinks
Good news: the process for reclaiming lost backlinks is pretty straightforward. You can do it in three main steps.
1. Use an SEO Tool to Identify Lost Links
First things first, you need a reliable SEO tool to find your lost links. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush are perfect for this job. Let’s walk through it using Ahrefs as an example.
Head over to the “Site Explorer” tab, pop your domain into the search bar, click on “Backlinks,” and then hit “Lost.” This will give you a list of backlinks that you’ve lost and might be able to reclaim.
By default, Ahrefs will show you links lost in the past 30 days, but you can adjust that if you want to look further back. You might see hundreds (or even thousands) of lost links. But don’t panic! Not all of these are worth reclaiming.
2. Focus on the Most Important Opportunities
Once you’ve got your list, you’ll need to sift through it to focus on the links that matter most. On Ahrefs, you can use the “Best Links” filter to highlight the highest-quality links. You can narrow it down even more by filtering for specific things like language (for example, if you’re only interested in English-language sites).
Now, when you’re looking at each lost link, here’s how you should evaluate whether it’s worth following up on:
- Link removed: Almost always worth following up.
- Not found: Could be worth following up if it’s a high-value page.
- Broken redirect: Worth it if it leads to a 404 error.
- Noindex: Probably not worth it unless it’s a mistake.
- Changed canonical: Usually not worth it, since you still get link juice from the new canonical.
- 301/302 redirect: Typically not worth pursuing unless something’s broken.
- Crawl error: Not worth it—this is likely just an error on Ahrefs’ end.
- Dropped: Not worth following up; this usually happens when the page gets de-indexed or removed.
3. Reach Out to Website Owners
Once you’ve filtered your list down to only the links worth reclaiming, it’s time to reach out to the website owners. Just send a simple, polite email explaining the situation. Let them know the link is missing and give them a reason to add it back.
For example, if your link was replaced with something else, you could mention that you’ve updated your content and now it’s even better than the link they’re using. If it’s a technical issue, you can point that out and suggest they restore the link.
The key here is to be polite and offer something valuable in return. If the link was removed intentionally, you may be able to convince them to re-add it by offering fresh content or a guest post in exchange.
A Quick Breakdown of Link Reclamation Opportunities
Here’s a quick recap of the most common types of lost links and whether they’re worth going after:
- Link Removed: Usually worth it.
- Not Found: Sometimes worth it, especially if it’s a valuable page.
- Broken Redirect: Worth it if it’s resulting in a 404 error.
- Noindex: Probably not worth it, unless it’s a mistake.
- Changed Canonical: Not usually worth it—you’ll still get value through the canonical.
- 301/302 Redirect: Often not worth pursuing unless there’s an error.
- Crawl Error: Not worth it.
- Dropped: Not worth it, usually because the page has been removed or de-indexed.
Final Word: Link Reclamation
So, that’s the scoop on link reclamation. Hopefully, you now know what it is, why it’s important, and how to go about it. The process is fairly simple, but it can deliver some pretty impressive results if done right.
Depending on how big your website is, you should aim to do a link audit every month or at least quarterly. This will help you stay on top of any lost links and reclaim the ones that still matter.
By using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, you’ll be able to quickly identify and prioritize the most valuable lost links. Just remember to be polite when reaching out to website owners—it goes a long way in helping you reclaim those lost backlinks.
And there you have it! Link reclamation might take some time and effort, but the rewards are definitely worth it when you see your SEO value and rankings improve.
