Link Reclamation: What is it, Advanced Tips, Tools, & More (Email Template Inside)

Link reclamation is the SEO process of finding and recovering backlinks, broken links, and unlinked brand mentions that should be pointing to your website. And the goal of link reclamation is to restore lost link equity, authority, and referral traffic without building a new backlink from scratch.

Link reclamation is a vital link building technique for search engine optimization because link decay is everywhere.

Ahrefs studied more than 2 million websites and found that at least 66.5% of links had rotted over a nine-year period. When Ahrefs included other issues that prevented links from counting for SEO, the total percentage of lost links climbed to 74.5%.

There are several ways to reclaim lost links, including fixing broken internal links (404 destination URLs), recovering links that publishers removed, reclaiming unlinked brand mentions, and contacting websites that still reference your company but no longer link to you. It’s not hard at all.

So, why do SEOs LOVE link reclamation? Because it’s free, and it works (You paid and the business linked to you…so you better get that link back!).

We’ve seen clients reclaim dead backlinks on high-authority sites with a single email.

But you have to do it right. If not, your conversions will be next to 0.

As the world’s leading link building marketplace, we have worked on more link-building campaigns than we can count. In this guide to link reclamation, we’ll show you exactly what it is, how to find opportunities, advanced tactics for recovering your best links, and even the email template we use on real link reclamation projects.

First, let’s cover the answer to “what is link reclamation” to make sure we are on the right page.

What Is Link Reclamation?

Link reclamation is the process of finding and recovering lost backlinks that used to point to your site through broken link building, claiming unlinked brand mentions, fixing broken 404 pages, identifying changed URLs, or missing image credits. 

With link reclamation, instead of building new backlinks from scratch like you would with guest post link building, you find links you previously paid for that have decayed, and ask for the host website to reinstate or replace them.

Links decay for a number of reasons, including:

• Pages get deleted
• URLs change
• Websites migrate
• Content gets updated
• Redirects break
• Links break
• Domains expire
• Publishers remove links
• Website errors occur

In our experience, rebuilding broken and lost links isn’t that hard. You just need to identify broken links (or lost links) using a link reclamation tool like Ahrefs, find the site owners or contact person (I hope you saved their name in a spreadsheet), and contact them demanding to get your link back with proof that you paid.

Here’s how you can find lost links in Ahrefs…

Just add a site into Site Explorer and click Backlinks on the left-hand side:

Then, check for lost or broken links in the column on the right:

This is a totally white hat link building technique, which means it’s Google approved.

We will explain this much more in-depth in our how to do link reclamation properly section. For now, let’s get to other matters.

NOTE: We cannot overstate the importance of link reclamation. You should be doing link reclamation campaigns every 3-6 months. Regularly losing valuable backlinks can weaken the authority and search ranking signals pointing to your site. The reason for that is because every lost backlink is one less signal search engines can use when evaluating your pages. But when you reclaim lost backlinks, you get all of that juice back, and it’s often faster and cheaper than building a new one from scratch.

What Are The Benefits of Link Reclamation for SEO?

The main benefits of link reclamation are recovering lost SEO authority, improving the ROI of previous link-building campaigns, and earning backlinks with a higher chance of success than cold outreach. 

You already did the hard work of earning or paying for these links. So you better get that link back. This is a common problem in the SEO industry, and one reason that link building agencies charge high retainers for backlink management.

Link reclamation has the following benefits for your business:

• Boosts SEO: When you lose a backlink, you lose valuable link equity (link juice), which means your authority and associated ranking signals decrease. Recovering previously existing links restores signals that were previously helping your pages and should boost you back up in the SERPs.
• Improves ROI: You already spent the money, time, or resources required to earn the backlink. If a $1,000 placement disappears, recovering it with a five-minute email is a much better deal than spending another $1,000 on a replacement. Not to mention the morality of it. Come on! You paid good money for that link!
• High Conversion Rates: If you’re an SEO, you know cold outreach response rates are next to 0 (though we get more than 10% with our processes). But with link reclamation efforts, outreach isn’t completely cold. The publisher already linked to you once (and you paid), so you’re often asking them to fix something rather than convincing them to link to a stranger. This is where maintaining the client-provider relationship comes in handy.
• No New Content: There’s no guest post to write, linkable asset to create, or campaign to launch. You can reclaim a lost link with a single email or second annoying follow up.
• Major SEO Competitive Advantage: Remember the Ahrefs study we referenced earlier? At least 66.5% of links built over a nine-year period were dead. That means the majority of businesses aren’t even monitoring their links! This is a huge advantage for you. That leaves a massive pool of valuable links sitting there waiting to be recovered (and a lot of broken link building opportunities too).

The people winning in SEO these days are squeezing every drop of ROI out of their systems and marketing budgets. Reclaiming links instead of just buying new ones or doing guest blogging outreach is a major advantage for savvy SEO teams.

Does Link Reclamation Still Work?

Yes, link reclamation still works because you’re asking a publisher to fix something that broke and you already paid for it rather than trying to convince a stranger to give you a new backlink.

And most link-placement agreements come with terms such as “the link remains live for at least 1 year” or sometimes much longer than this.

Think about it. You paid. They placed the link. Now the link isn’t there. This is basic economics. You bought it and it should be there. Of course link reclamation still works so long as humans still have basic decency (maybe this is running out soon!).

This is not just my opinion, though I have seen link reclamation work over and over again.

There’s real-world data to back this up, too. 

SEO expert Antonio Gabric reported reclaiming 31 backlinks from 166 outreach emails, which is an 18.67% conversion rate. The average price of a backlink on our link building marketplace is around $112, so recovering 31 links saved him $3,000 at minimum and much faster than buying new ones! 

We see this firsthand across the dozens of clients using our managed link building service.

By the way, link reclamation might not be the best option for new sites, since you probably don’t have any links at all, let alone lost links. In that case, you’d need link building strategies for new websites. But for enterprise link building? You may have hundreds of easy-to-reclaim lost links.

What Types of Lost Links Should You Reclaim?

The types of lost links worth reclaiming include internal broken links, improper redirects, removed links, and recovering missing image credits. Some of these can be recovered yourself with redirects or technical fixes, while others require contacting the publisher.

Here are the four types of lost links we recommend looking for:

• Broken Links: A website still links to you, but the destination page now returns a 404 or another error. In most cases, you can fix this yourself by redirecting the dead URL to the most relevant live page. Easy. Done. Let’s move on.
• Improper Redirects: With improper redirects, the backlink points to an old URL that redirects incorrectly, hits a redirect chain, or ends somewhere irrelevant. You can solve improper redirects by updating the redirect in whichever SEO plugin you’re using.
• Removed Links: Sometimes publishers remove links. It’s usually because the publisher updates a page and removes a backlink that previously pointed to your site. This is the most common form of link reclamation, and you should contact the website immediately and demand (nicely) that they fix it.
• Missing Image Credits: Missing image credits are when someone uses your original infographic, chart, graphic, or photo and credits your brand in plain text without linking to the source. This is a lot like an unlinked brand mention, but we thought we’d add it here since most SEOs don’t even think about it. Just reach out and make sure the image correctly links to you.

OK, those are the types of links you should recover. But how to actually reclaim them?

We hear at conferences or in SEO groups, “how would you approach link reclamation for SEO on such-and-such website?”.

Now, we are going to answer that using our proprietary process that we use on real websites.

How To Do Link Reclamation THE RIGHT WAY

The best link reclamation process is as follows:

• Find lost links using link reclamation tools, like Ahrefs or Semrush
• Filter out the low-quality links
• Identify the high-quality links you wish to reclaim
• Reach out and demand a correction (politely)
• Follow up
• Track everything

We find that most SEOs either overcomplicate this or try too hard in their emails. Or, sometimes, they get too angry (that’s not a good way to get your link back).

Here’s how to do link reclamation the right way step-by-step. By the way, these are real link reclamation strategies we use on our clients’ sites.

Step 1: Find Lost Backlinks in Ahrefs

Head over to Ahrefs Site Explorer and plug in your domain.

In the left-hand sidebar, go to Backlink profile then Backlinks. Then hit the “Lost” filter at the top.

You’re now staring at the graveyard of links you once had.

Step 2: Filter Out Low-Quality Backlinks

Your next step is to filter out the low-quality ones that aren’t worth your time. Some of these may even be toxic links others pointed to your website during a negative SEO attack. Avoid these.

Here’s how to filter down to the high-quality backlinks:

Adjust the filters to show only:

• Dofollow Links: Since the type of backlink decides whether there is any equity to recover at all.
• DR 40+ Sites: We recommend focusing on higher DR sites first but you can adjust based on your own DR and niche. I suggest you read our article Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating if that’s not making sense to you yet. 
• Link Type: Set this to “Content” or “Text“, “ignore image links”, “sidebar spam”, etc.
• Lost Reason: I recommend you prioritize “404 Not Found“, “No page found” or “Removed“

You should now have a clean list of high-quality links that actually used to benefit your site’s SEO, and still could.

How to Read the “Lost Reason” Column

I want to show you how to read the Lost column in Ahrefs so you can quickly separate backlinks worth reclaiming from the ones that will waste your time.

Here’s what to look for in the lost column:

• Link removed: Often worth pursuing because the page still exists, but your link was removed.
• Not found: Sometimes worth pursuing if the dead linking page has valuable backlinks of its own.
• Broken redirect: Sometimes worth pursuing because you can often fix the redirect yourself.
• Noindex: Probably not worth pursuing because the linking page is no longer indexed.
• Not canonical anymore: Probably not worth pursuing because the linking page now canonicalizes elsewhere.
• 301/302 redirect: Probably not worth pursuing because link equity may still flow through the redirect.
• Crawl error: Not worth pursuing because it’s often a temporary Ahrefs crawling issue.
• Dropped: Not worth pursuing because Ahrefs simply stopped tracking the backlink.

Pro Tip: For a “Link removed” result, use Ahrefs’ Show changes feature in Page Inspect to see exactly what changed on the page and what replaced your backlink.

Step 3: Identify the Target URLs

Next up, you need to identify your targets. 

This is where most people mess up.

Ask yourself:

• Does this page still exist?
• If not, is there a relevant replacement?
• If yes, does the URL structure match? Was it moved or redirected poorly?

You’ll often find the link is pointing to a 404 page, an outdated slug, or a moved blog post that didn’t get a proper redirect. 

Use this info to create a two-column list. That is your hitlist for links you wish to reclaim.

Step 4: Decide on the Fix

You’ve got two options here depending on what caused the break:

If It’s an Internal Issue (e.g. your URL changed or was deleted):

• Set up a 301 redirect from the old page to the new one.
• Or, reinstate the original page if it had traffic and still makes sense.

This instantly reclaims the link juice. No outreach needed.

If It’s an External Issue (e.g. the referring site changed the link or removed it):

• Time to reach out to the site owner and ask for a correction. Be helpful, polite, and give them everything they need to fix it in 30 seconds flat. 

More on that in a sec.

Step 5: Use This Link Reclamation Email Template

As promised, here’s an email template that we use for link reclamation that has proven to convert at a high rate. The image you see here is just a sample using our blog. Feel free to change it to whatever niche you are in.

Here’s the email template as copy/paste text for a broken link issue:

One thing worth doing: keep it short, non-pushy, and make their life easy. No one wants a three-paragraph essay about your valuable content. The same rules that make guest post outreach work apply here, except you are starting from a much warmer position.

Step 6: Send a Follow-Up Email (But Don’t Be Annoying)

If they don’t reply in 5-7 days, send one follow-up email. That’s it. UNLESS you have paid for the link and they have broken the terms of your agreement.

The email should look something like:

Hey (name). 

Just following up in case this slipped through. Totally understand if it’s not a priority. Let me know if I can help make the update easier. Thanks again.

No guilt tripping, no “I’ll be forced to escalate this”, just a light nudge.

However, if you paid good money for that link, then it’s time to get pushy if they don’t respond. In the third email, I would be more firm and threaten some type of action.

Step 7: Monitor Link Reclamation Results

Trust me. Log everything. Log every attempt to reclaim lost links, not just the wins. Track:

• Referring domain
• URL linked from
• Anchor text
• Date reclaimed
• Target page
• Status: “Redirected” / “Reinstated” / “Updated via outreach”

This helps you stay accountable and refine your backlink management process moving forward.

We realize this is easy, but it’s still a lot of work. This is why so many brands and agencies outsource link building to 3rd-parties. 

Link Reclamation vs. Unlinked Brand Mentions: What’s the Difference?

Link reclamation is the process of recovering lost links that previously existed but were removed or broken, while unlinked brand mention building involves finding places where a website mentions your brand but never linked to you in the first place. They both help search engine rankings and are closely related link-building tactics, but they are not the same thing.

This is something our SEO link building clients find confusing, so I’ll clear it up here.

Reclamation and brand mention link building often get bundled together because the outreach process is nearly identical. In both cases, the publisher already knows your brand, so you aren’t starting from zero. The only major difference is that reclamation usually involves previous payment, which changes things a bit.

We normally recommend looking for both during the same link outreach session.

However, link reclamation tends to have a much higher success rate. You’re asking someone to fix something that is already broken on their page, rather than asking them to do you a favor and add a brand-new link.

OK, last up, scaling your operation. You know how much we love scaling.

How to Scale Link Reclamation

Once you’ve nailed the fundamentals, link reclamation turns into a low effort, high return SEO system. 

But if you’re aiming to scale this, especially across multiple client sites or large affiliate projects, you’ll need to dial in your process, automate the grunt work, and avoid some common landmines that could kill your momentum.

Here’s how to do it the right way:

1. Automate the Discovery Process

If you’re only checking Ahrefs manually once a quarter, you’re leaving link equity to rot.

Set up automated backlink alerts in Ahrefs:

• Go to *Alerts > New Alert > Backlinks*
• Choose your domain and set it to trigger when links are lost
• Get it delivered weekly to your inbox

Now you’re running link monitoring on autopilot, no need to manually check unless something valuable gets dropped.

Also consider tools like:

• Linkody or Monitor Backlinks if you’re managing clients.
• Little Warden for automated redirect + 404 monitoring.

2. Build Reclamation Into Your Site Maintenance Stack

If you’re launching new content, plan for reclamation before it becomes a problem:

• Use consistent URL slugs and avoid random changes
• Set permanent 301s any time you restructure
• Build internal links using canonical URLs, not “draft” or temp ones
• Never delete a page with backlinks without checking where they came from first

Treat your site like an asset. Broken URLs hurt SEO rankings and destroy your brand. 

3. Prioritize by ROI (Not Just DR)

Domain Rating is a decent judge of site quality, but it’s not everything. Google is far too sophisticated for that these days. A DR 80 link from a SaaS blog no one visits might *look* good in your Ahrefs report, but a DR 45 blog with real traffic, high CTR relevance, and a juicy anchor may be far more valuable.

For example, you are probably better off with these types of sites (ones with medium DR but real traffic and referring domains) than you are with fake high-Domain-Rating sites:

This image is courtesy of our link building marketplace.

Our advice is to prioritize based on:

• Topical relevance
• Actual traffic to the referring page (check in Ahrefs or Similarweb)
• Where the link points to (your homepage does not equal a revenue page)
• Link placement (avoid links in the footer or sidebar)

Think ROI first. Everything else (especially metrics) second.

4. Watch Out for These Pitfalls

There are some common traps in scaled link reclamation. Here are the lowest value reclamation targets:

• Chasing NoFollow Junk: Don’t waste time reclaiming links that were nofollowed from the jump, unless they drove real traffic or conversions.
• Reclaiming Spammy Links: If the referring domain’s link profile is full of pills, adult, or spun AI content, let it rot. If anything, those are toxic backlinks you may want to disavow rather than win back.
• Repointing to Weak Pages: If a link used to go to a blog post you’ve since nuked and have no equivalent for, do not redirect it to your homepage unless it genuinely fits. That’s how you trigger trust decay.

5. Use Tiered Reclamation for Max Juice

Tiered link building is the practice of building backlinks to your backlinks. So, if you have Site A and you build a link on Site B, you’d also build a link on Site C and point it to Site B…still with me?

Got a solid Web 2.0 or guest post that’s been orphaned? Here’s what to do:

• Check if that page lost backlinks, not just your main domain.
• Reclaim links to your tiered content, and then strengthen your money page through internal linking.

You can reclaim link equity from every layer of your tiered link building system, not just the top. Most SEOs stop at the root domain. This is a mistake.

What Are the Best Tools for Link Reclamation?

And last up, I just want to share our favorite tools for reclaiming lost links. The best link reclamation tools are Ahrefs, Linkody, Monitor Backlinks, Little Warden, Google Search Console, and Screaming Frog. Each helps with a different part of the process, so let me explain what each of these SEO tools does:

• Ahrefs (Our Favorite): Ahrefs is a paid tool that finds lost and broken backlinks, explains why they disappeared, and lets you monitor new losses with alerts.
• Linkody: Linkody is a paid backlink monitoring tool that automatically alerts you when an existing backlink disappears or changes.
• Monitor Backlinks: Monitor Backlinks is a paid tool that tracks your backlink profile and sends alerts when links are lost or their status changes.
• Little Warden: Little Warden is a paid monitoring tool that alerts you to broken redirects, status-code changes, indexing issues, and other technical problems.
• Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool you can manually check for broken URLs and other crawling issues affecting your website.
• Screaming Frog: Screaming Frog is free for up to 500 URLs and lets you crawl your site for 404s, redirect chains, broken redirects, and other technical problems.

For more options, see our guide to the best link building tools.

Other Types of Link Building We Recommend

Of course, link reclaiming is not the only way to build links. We also recommend link insertions, guest posts, link exchanges, testimonial link building, guestographics, and niche edits.

Final Thoughts

Link reclamation is one of the highest-ROI link building techniques in SEO, and it’s often overlooked by your competition.

As you now know, nearly 70% of links rot and nobody does anything about it. 

You could be out there right now reclaiming those links or even claiming other companies’ lost links with broken link building campaigns.

If you’ve paid for a link and the vendor no longer hosts it for whatever reason, you are entitled to have it returned.

The one thing I want you to take away from this link reclamation guide is to DO IT. Most SEOs don’t even care, and it could really hurt your website’s SEO (as well as profits).

Find lost links using our advice, use our template to reach out to the website, and demand to get your link returned to live status.

The only thing it will cost you is time and effort.

If I were you, I’d fire up Ahrefs right now and start looking for lost links. Imagine reclaiming 30+ links in a single month without spending a dime. 

Now that would be a great case study!

And don’t forget to check out our free link building checklist.

I wish you successful link reclamation.

–  Dusan Novakovic