Executive Summary
Building a high-authority backlink profile is an investment, but the work doesn’t end once a link goes live. In the 2026 search landscape, Link Decay is a silent killer of ROI. Link reclamation is the strategic process of protecting your existing authority by identifying and repairing broken or lost citations. Instead of simply chasing new acquisitions, reclamation ensures that the “Entity Trust” you have already built remains intact, preventing your rankings from eroding due to technical changes beyond your control.
Reclaim Valuable Links and Protect Your Investment
You know that having a solid backlink profile is critical to your search engine ranking, but building links isn’t the end of the process. You must check for broken backlinks and reclaim lost links, ensuring that all your internal and external links offer you vital link juice.
Fixing broken links strengthens your website’s online presence and helps you regain the authority offered by previously existing links.
This article will provide actionable strategies to reclaim lost backlinks and helpful tips to streamline your link reclamation efforts so that you can get more done quickly. If you would rather have this done for you, get in touch to discuss our custom link outreach campaigns, which cover link reclamation and many other tactics.
What is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the process of finding and reclaiming links that previously pointed back to your site but have been broken for whatever reason. These can be external backlinks hosted on other sites or internal links on your own website that were broken due to a web redesign.
Site owners understand that a solid link-building strategy is vital for search engine rankings, but they may not always know that a lost link undoes the hard work of getting those links.
Just as you hunt for new links, you must find and reclaim lost links to retain your authority with search engines.
Why Do Links Break?
Backlinks are not permanent assets. They are subject to “Link Decay”, a natural process where referring pages are deleted, URLs are restructured, or domains expire.
For a high-growth brand, losing a link from a site like Forbes or a top-tier legal journal is a loss of a high-value “Identity Signal.” At Stellar SEO, we monitor these fluctuations in real-time to ensure that your most powerful endorsements don’t turn into 404 errors.
The Impact of Broken Links on SEO
Your link profile determines your domain’s search engine ranking because it drives organic traffic. You’ll lose referral traffic if users can’t reach your page via broken inbound links.
Lost external links from highly reputable sites mean you’re not getting link equity from this website, and it looks like the referring site is no longer recommending you.
These factors damage your site’s SEO, making link reclamation important for retaining a high ranking and boosting your authority.
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Impact on User Experience
Dead links don’t just damage search rankings; they also frustrate users. If you don’t find broken internal links before users do, they will assume your site is unprofessional. This raises your bounce rates, which reduces your rankings.
Fixing internal links will improve user navigation and keep users engaged, boosting your site’s SEO.
How to Identify Broken Links?
While tools like Google Search Console and Ahrefs provide the raw data for lost links, the value lies in the Strategic Audit. Automated tools often flag “noise”, which are low-value links that aren’t worth the effort to reclaim.
Our process involves filtering these losses to prioritize “Power Links”, defined as those from highly relevant, high-authority entities that directly influence your LLM discovery and search rankings. We focus our outreach on reclaiming the citations that move the needle.
Common Types of Lost Links
A lost link may result from a deleted page, which can be challenging to remedy, or a URL change, which may be easier to fix. However, both may be fixable if you communicate with the site owner or audit your website.
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Deleted Pages
If a page is deleted, any links to it will also break, which can damage your link juice. If you replaced an old page on your site, you can reclaim links by redirecting them to the new version or replacing the broken link with a similar page.
For broken external links where your link was hosted on a now-deleted page, contact the site owner and ask whether there is a different linking page relevant to your content.
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URL Changes
When a URL changes, this breaks any backlinks from the old URL. This is common during site migrations, such as when the owner changes the domain name or switches hosts. These types of broken backlinks can damage your rankings if you aren’t proactive, especially if you have multiple links from that site.
The Process of Link Reclamation
The link reclamation process includes contacting other website owners and reviewing your site to ensure that all your internal links continue to work.
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Reach Out to Website Owners
If you notice a broken link on another website, you can contact the site owner and politely request an updated link. Don’t be accusatory; provide specific information on which link is broken, including screenshots or URLs, as necessary.
Always ensure that you provide the correct link and its context. Most webmasters will not mind fixing links for you, especially if it’s an easy fix.
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Internal Link Adjustments
Fixing broken backlinks on your site is a fast way to reclaim lost authority, as you have full control over the process. Perform a site audit and identify missing links, then insert the appropriate link.
Link Reclamation vs. Link Building
While link reclaiming and link building are important parts of search engine optimization, they are not quite the same. Link reclamation is about finding and fixing previously generated links, while link building is about finding new links to build your profile.
How to Prioritize Links for Reclamation?
Not all lost links are created equal. You should focus on the metrics of the broken link before deciding whether to fix it, as otherwise, you are wasting time and effort.
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Assessing Domain Authority (DA)
A linking page with high DA will provide you with more link juice, meaning that you should prioritize reclaiming these links as quickly as possible before search engines demote you.
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Relevance of Linking Site
Highly relevant links will provide better results than sites only tangentially related to your topic. As such, you should focus on links from high-authority sites within your niche or that match the topic of the linked page.
Best Practices for Link Reclamation
A strategic approach to the link-reclaiming process, including tracking your outreach, updating content, and thoughtfully applying redirects, will help ensure you get the most link juice with the least effort.
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Tracking Outreach Efforts
Email outreach tracking software that integrates with cold calling and lead follow-up will also help during the reclamation process.
Turn on read receipts and input all related emails into your tracking software, including reminders to follow up after some time has passed.
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Updating Old Content for Reclamation
Updating old content with broken links can be an easy and effective way to improve your authority. This also does not require external outreach, making it a great first step in cleaning up your backlink profile.
The Role of 301 Redirects in Link Reclamation
301 redirects tell a website to redirect visitors who click a broken link to a new, functional link. This restores link equity by ensuring you maintain contact with a high-authority page even when a link is non-functional.
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Using Redirects Strategically
Poorly executed redirects can cause further problems with your SEO because, if not done correctly, they can result in client errors. Too many redirects can also increase page loading time, further damaging your page rank.
You should keep redirects for at least a year to ensure everything has time to update. Additionally, update your sitemaps whenever you make changes, and continually monitor redirect times to ensure you’re not slowing down your site.
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Examples of Successful Link Reclamation
In one example, an Australian company decided to rebrand from .com to .com.au, which provided better value thanks to greater specificity. After thoroughly reclaiming all links, the company experienced a 350% increase in DA and a 1,377% increase in referring domains.
In another example, an SEO company helped an international travel brand find broken links. The primary goal was to claim unlinked mentions following the release of a report on the travel industry.
After outreach, the company reclaimed 13 of 18 articles that mentioned their work, for a success rate of 72%. This included a mention from a source with a DA of 67, significantly boosting their link juice.
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Monitoring Links Post-Reclamation
As with other SEO elements, you must continually monitor reclaim links and check for new broken backlinks over time, staying proactive with your approach. By ensuring that there are no new issues with your links, you can maintain your DA and ensure a strong link profile that gets you higher in rankings.
Tools for Ongoing Link Monitoring
Tools like Ahrefs Site Explorer can continually assess your link health and alert you to any issues after you fix broken backlinks. Moz also provides an SEO Backlink Reporting tool that monitors your backlinks in real time and alerts you to potential issues.
How to Report on Link Reclamation Results?
When reporting on reclaimed links, focus on clear, actionable metrics. This includes improved DA, higher traffic, better rankings, and lower bounce rates.
If you’re building new links simultaneously, drill down into your statistics to demonstrate the benefits of fixing lost external backlinks versus link outreach.
Avoiding Common Link Reclamation Mistakes
As you work to improve your backlink profile by fixing link issues, avoid these common pitfalls.
- Ignoring Internal Links – While finding lost external backlinks is important, issues with internal links can damage your SEO, too. Perform regular site audits and ensure your internal linking remains secure.
- Not Following Up – Other site owners are also busy and may forget to respond to your request. Follow up as you would with any outreach opportunity to ensure that they fix the issue promptly.
- Over-relying on Redirects – Try to keep 301 redirects to a minimum to avoid a confusing site architecture.
Failing to Prioritize High-Value Links
You won’t see great results if you’re only going for the low-hanging fruit. Prioritize high-quality links from relevant sites, as these are the ones that best improve your Page Rank.
Reclaiming Your Entity Footprint
LLMs now use your backlink profile as a “Source of Truth.” When a link breaks, a bridge of information between two trusted entities is severed. Link reclamation ensures that the “Advanced Edges” of your Knowledge Graph remain connected, making it easier for AI systems to verify your expertise and cite your brand in generative answers.
If you want a comprehensive SEO strategy or further details about the link reclamation process, we can help!
