SEO Checklist

One of the most effective link building strategies is to target your competitors’ broken backlinks. Broken backlinks occur when external websites link to your competitors’ pages that no longer exist or have been moved without proper redirects. By identifying these broken links and offering your own relevant content as a replacement, you can gain valuable backlinks that boost your SEO and domain authority.

What Are Broken Backlinks and Why Target Them?

Broken backlinks are inbound links that point to non-existent or inaccessible pages (resulting in 404 errors or similar). These links no longer pass SEO value to the linked page. Your competitors lose potential link equity from these broken links, which presents an opportunity for you to capture that link equity by suggesting your own site as the new target.

Benefits of Targeting Competitors’ Broken Backlinks

• High-Quality Link Opportunities: These backlinks originate from relevant, authoritative sites that have already linked to similar content.


• Less Competitive Effort: Website owners often appreciate help fixing broken links and are more likely to accept your link replacement request.


• Improved SEO Impact: Gaining links from previously valuable backlinks can enhance your search rankings and traffic.


• Build Relationships: Outreach for broken link replacement can foster positive relationships with site owners for future collaborations.

Step-by-Step Strategy to Target Competitors’ Broken Backlinks

1. Identify Your Competitors

Choose relevant competitors who rank for your target keywords or share your niche audience.

2. Analyze Competitors’ Backlink Profiles

Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, or Majestic to export a list of backlinks pointing to your competitors' websites.

3. Find Broken Backlinks

In your backlink data, filter or use the tool’s “broken links” or “404” reports to identify backlinks pointing to non-existent pages on competitor sites.

4. Verify Broken Links Manually

Double-check that the target pages actually return a 404 or redirect improperly. Sometimes pages have been moved with correct 301 redirects, so exclude those.

5. Find or Create Relevant Replacement Content

Identify which competitor page the broken link was targeting and create a similar or better piece of content on your own site. This could be a blog post, resource page, product page, or guide.

6. Reach Out to Linking Websites

Contact the webmasters or site owners of the linking websites with a polite outreach email. Inform them about the broken link and suggest your content as a valuable replacement.

Effective Outreach Tips

• Be Helpful and Concise: Highlight the broken link issue and how your content can add value.


• Personalize Emails: Reference the specific page and demonstrate familiarity with their site.


• Include Direct URLs: Provide links to both the broken competitor URL and your replacement content.


• Follow-Up: If no response after 1-2 weeks, send a polite reminder.

Tools to Assist Your Broken Link Strategy

• Ahrefs Broken Link Checker: Easily identifies broken backlinks and helps export target URLs.


• SEMrush Backlink Audit: Filters toxic and broken links for deeper competitor analysis.


• Check My Links (Chrome Extension): Quick manual check for broken links on web pages.


• Hunter.io or Voila Norbert: Find accurate email addresses for outreach.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

• Difficulty Finding Contacts: Use multiple tools to find webmaster emails or social media profiles.


• Lack of Response: Craft personalized, value-driven outreach messages and follow up respectfully.


• Content Gaps: Invest time in creating genuinely valuable replacement content that satisfies visitor intent.

Conclusion

Targeting your competitors’ broken backlinks is a smart and strategic way to build authoritative backlinks by leveraging existing link equity that competitors have lost. By identifying broken links, creating high-quality replacement content, and conducting thoughtful outreach, you can strengthen your backlink profile and improve your organic rankings while providing value to website owners and their audiences.