What is broken link building?

Broken link building is a relatively new way in which people work on the link building of their website. Broken links are traced and replaced by their own valuable content. It's hard for websites to get good authority nowadays. Especially when you only manage a small webshop or website. In this case, you need to think strategically. Active link building is now an indispensable part of every company's strategy. However, it is no surprise that Google's algorithm is making it increasingly difficult to end up higher in the search results. Therefore, especially these small parties have to look for new, innovative ways to build links. Broken link building is one of the alternatives. But what exactly is broken link building? And how do you apply it? 

Definition of broken link building

To understand the meaning of broken link building, it is first of all important to understand what a broken link is. You speak of a broken link when you end up on a 404 page. This means that the web page no longer exists. So you get to see that the web page has been removed or that the link is no longer correct. For example, because the URL has changed over time. Such a broken link can have enormous disadvantages for link building. The more broken links, the further down your webpage will sink in the search results. It is essential for the Google ranking that there are no broken links on the website at all. This is important for the technical SEO of the website. 

If your competitors have broken links, you may be able to benefit from them. That is where broken link building comes in. You track down broken links and replace them with your own (unique) content. That sounds relatively simple, but it certainly is not. You will have to take many steps to do it in the right way. 

Broken link building: how do you get started? 

How do you start with broken link building? And more importantly: what do you have to think about? Here are a few tips: 

• Detecting broken links: First of all, it is of course important to detect dead links. Fortunately, there are many different tools for this nowadays, with which you can examine a lot of websites for so-called broken links in a short time.
• Is it relevant? Next, of course, it is also important to check whether these broken links are also applicable to your website. You have nothing to gain from new backlinks that are not relevant for your website.
• Talk to the webmaster: When you have found a relevant dead link, it is time to contact the webmaster of this link. Discuss the different possibilities and how you would like your content to be placed in the place of the broken link (with a new link to your webpage). 

Once you have succeeded in getting a new backlink, it is a good idea to check your link profile. That way, you will not only know how many links you have acquired but also whether they were of sufficient quality.