You spend months (if not years) grinding to get backlinks from decent sites. You finally get a juicy DR 80 link and feel like you’ve finally achieved that link building fairy tale, only to realize six months later it’s vanished into the internet abyss.
This isn’t just annoying, it’s lost equity, lost traffic, lost rankings which all means lost revenue.
But here’s the good news:
Link reclamation is how you take that power back! No new content, no new outreach campaigns, no paid placements. Just pure profit recovery from backlinks you already did the work for and earned.
Think of it like this: you’ve already paid the price, whether in time, money, or effort, to earn those links. Reclamation is the cashback hack SEO forgot to tell you about.
And unlike trying to win a new link on Forbes or Business Insider, you’ve already got leverage! Someone linked to you before. That’s social proof. That’s context. That’s a far easier conversation than cold outreach ever will be.
In this post, we’re going to walk you through how to identify lost links, figure out which ones are actually worth your time, and reclaim them in a way that boosts rankings without chasing meaningless metrics.
What Is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the process of finding and fixing lost backlinks that used to point to your site, but don’t anymore.
We’re talking:
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Broken links (404s, dead pages etc)
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Improper redirects
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Removed links (site owner nuked the category or updated the content)
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Links pointing to outdated pages that should now redirect elsewhere
And regularly losing valuable links to your site creates patterns that the algorithms anti-spam components pick up on and derank you for.
Why Reclaiming Your Lost Links Actually Matters
Every quality backlink you lose is like throwing part of your domain authority off a cliff and watching your rankings go down with it.
As Google has moved to be so reliant on links for everything from entities to trust to anti-spam, investing in links then losing them is like withdrawing cash, putting it in your savings account for 6 months then withdrawing it and setting it on fire… Why? Here are the main five reasons:
1. You’re Losing Hard Earned Link Equity
Each quality link that goes to your site doesn’t just affect the page it links to, it passes distributable equity across your entire domain.
When a link dies or drops?
So does your equity.
And if that link was helping a key page sit at the top of page 1? You can kiss those conversions goodbye.
2. Rankings Start to Slip Without Warning
One day you’re ranking #3. A few weeks later you’re at #9, and the traffic graph’s going full ski slope. What happened?
Well, Google re-crawled those links… and found nothing. The signals that were holding your position evaporated.
Reclaiming them puts the weight back under the page. It’s like restoring structural integrity to a house before it collapses on itself.
3. Google Tracks Link Loss Patterns
This one stings most people don’t even realize:
If Google sees a pattern of link loss without gain, especially from historically clean referring domains, it can interpret that as a decline in content trustworthiness or relevance.
4. You Can Flip the ROI Switch Back On
That killer blog post you promoted last year and finally got links for?
It might be a ghost town now. But one reclaimed link from a DR 80 SaaS blog could spike its rankings again within days.
5. Your Competitors Aren’t Doing This
Here’s the best bit: 99% of SEOs sleep on this. They build links, lose links, and just… move on.
That’s your edge. While they’re off chasing fresh placements, you’re squeezing extra life (and traffic) out of every past campaign.
Link reclamation is your low hanging fruit in a world of overcomplicated SEO “tactics.” It’s the easiest way to recover lost ground without lifting a finger to create something new, especially if you are working with clients.
How To Do Link Reclamation
The process is fairly simple, most people overcomplicate when they try to scale this step-by-step approach:
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 → 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 the Trash
Not every lost backlink deserves a second chance. Here’s how to filter the ones that actually matter:
Use the filters to show only:
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Dofollow links
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DR 40+ sites (adjust based on your niche – DR 10+ is fine for hyper relevant links)
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Link type: “Content” or “Text” – ignore image links, sidebar spam, etc
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Lost reason: 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 SEO, and still could!
Step 3: Identify the Target URLs
Check which pages the links were pointing to. This is where most people mess up.
Ask yourself:
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Does this page still exist?
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If not, is there a relevant replacement?
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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:
| Lost Link From | Should Point To |
|---|---|
| [Referring Page URL] | [Correct Destination URL] |
Boom! You now have your hitlist.
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):
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Set up a 301 redirect from the old page to the new one.
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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):
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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: Outreach With a Soft Touch
Here’s the email that actually gets responses:
Subject: Quick Fix for a Broken Link on Your Site
Hey [First Name],
Hope you’re doing well! I noticed that one of your articles ([Referring Page URL]) used to link to our guide on [Topic], but the link is currently broken or pointing to an outdated page.
We’ve moved the content to a new URL that’s fully updated:
[New URL]Would you mind updating the link to point to the correct page?
Really appreciate your original mention — just wanted to make sure your readers still get the right info.
Thanks in advance!
Best,
[Your Name]
[Site or Company]
Pro Tip: Keep it short, non-pushy, and make their life easy. No one wants a three-paragraph essay about your “valuable content.”
Step 6: Follow Up (But Don’t Be Annoying)
If they don’t reply in 5–7 days, send one follow-up. That’s it.
Something like:
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.
Step 7: Track Wins and Monitor Results
Every reclaimed link should be logged. Track:
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Referring domain
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URL linked from
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Anchor text
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Date reclaimed
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Target page
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Status: “Redirected” / “Reinstated” / “Updated via outreach”
This helps you stay accountable and refine your link building strategy moving forward.
Scaling Link Reclamation Like A Pro
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:
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Go to Alerts > New Alert > Backlinks
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Choose your domain and set it to trigger when links are lost
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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:
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Linkody or Monitor Backlinks if you’re managing clients.
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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:
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Use consistent URL slugs and avoid random changes
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Set permanent 301s any time you restructure
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Build internal links using canonical URLs, not “draft” or temp ones
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Never delete a page with backlinks without checking where they came from first
Treat your site like an asset. Because broken URLs don’t just cost rankings, they make you look amateur as hell.
3. Prioritize by ROI, Not Just DR
Don’t fall for the DR trap. A DR 80 link from a SaaS blog no one visits might look sexy in your Ahrefs report, but a DR 45 blog with real traffic, high CTR relevance, and a juicy anchor may be far more valuable.
Prioritize based on:
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Topical relevance
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Actual traffic to the referring page (check in Ahrefs or Similarweb)
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Where the link points – homepage ≠ revenue page
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Link placement (editorial = high value, footer = toss it)
Think ROI first, everything else (especially metrics) second.
4. Watch Out for These Pitfalls
There are some common traps in scaled link reclamation. Here’s what to dodge:
🚫 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, porn, or spun AI content… let it die.
🚫 Repointing to Weak Pages
If a link used to go to a blog post you’ve since nuked and have no equivalent for — don’t redirect it to your homepage unless it genuinely fits. That’s how you trigger trust decay.
5. Use Tiered Reclamation for Max Juice
Got a solid Web 2.0 or guest post that’s been orphaned?
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Check if that page lost backlinks, not just your main domain.
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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 link pyramid, not just the top. Most SEOs stop at the root domain. You don’t.
Final Warning: Don’t Overdo It
Reclamation is powerful.
But if you go full Link Avenger and start mass emailing 300 webmasters a day asking for changes to 4 year-old blog posts…
You’ll end up with an inbox full of angry replies, negative reviews and potentially worse.
Here’s the rule:
If a link isn’t valuable enough to move the needle, let it go.
Link building is expensive.
Link reclamation is smart.
But link obsession? That’s a one way ticket to burnout and diminishing returns.
If you’re serious about SEO longevity, brand equity, and squeezing every drop of ROI out of your efforts, link reclamation should be a permanent process baked into your SEO system.
Audit quarterly.
Fix monthly.
Outreach smart.
Track everything.
And when your competitors are crying about traffic drops during the next update, you’ll be quietly climbing, on the back of links you didn’t even have to build.
