Building new backlinks from scratch requires significant time and effort. Link reclamation is a more efficient approach: it recovers the link equity you have already earned but are no longer fully receiving. By systematically identifying lost links, broken link destinations, and unlinked brand mentions, you can recover meaningful authority without the cold outreach required for fresh link acquisition. For most established UK businesses, a link reclamation audit uncovers a material number of recoverable links within hours.
What Is Link Reclamation and Why Does It Matter?
Link reclamation is the practice of recovering links that were lost, broken, or never properly credited. The three main types of recoverable link are:
Lost live links: Links that pointed to your site but have since been removed or changed. A third-party website may have removed a page, updated their content and dropped your link, or redesigned their site without preserving all external references.
Broken links (404 errors): Links that still point to your domain but land on a page that no longer exists. If you have changed URL structures, deleted pages, or migrated your site without comprehensive redirects, external links are pointing at dead ends. The link equity from those external links is wasted because it lands on a 404 page rather than a live, indexable page.
Unlinked brand mentions: References to your business name, product, or key personnel in online content where the author did not link back to your site. These represent coverage you have earned but are not receiving link equity from.
Each of these represents a link that was either earned or partially earned and represents a recoverable asset with the right approach.
How Do You Find Lost Backlinks?
The most efficient approach uses a backlink monitoring tool to compare your current link profile against historical data.
Ahrefs Lost and Broken Backlinks report: Ahrefs tracks backlinks over time and categorises lost links (where a page previously linking to you no longer does) from broken links (where the linking page still exists but your link has been removed). Filter by domain rating of the linking site to prioritise high-authority lost links first.
Google Search Console Links report: GSC shows your current live backlinks but does not track lost ones. It is useful as a baseline to compare against third-party tools.
Moz Link Explorer: Similar functionality to Ahrefs for identifying lost links, with a UK-friendly interface.
When reviewing lost links, focus on:
- Links from sites with domain rating (DR) above 30, as these carry the most authority
- Links lost within the past 12 months, as reclamation is easier when the content is recent
- Links from sites in your industry or geographic area, as these are the most topically relevant
How Do You Find Broken Backlinks (404s)?
Broken backlinks are particularly important to address because they represent full link equity wastage. The external site is still linking to you, still passing authority, but you are not receiving it because the destination page does not exist.
Ahrefs Site Explorer - Broken Backlinks report: Shows all external links pointing to URLs on your domain that return a 4xx or 5xx status code. Export the full list and sort by number of referring domains to prioritise pages with the most inbound links.
Screaming Frog with Ahrefs integration: Crawl your site with Screaming Frog and integrate your Ahrefs data to see which of your broken pages have external backlinks. This provides a complete picture of your 404 pages ranked by their link equity.
Once you have your list of broken pages with external backlinks, the fix is simple: implement a 301 redirect from each broken URL to the most relevant live page on your site. If the original page existed and was removed, consider whether it should be restored rather than redirected.
How Do You Find Unlinked Brand Mentions?
Unlinked brand mentions are citations of your business that did not include a hyperlink. A blogger who mentioned your company by name, a journalist who referenced your research without linking, or a review site that quoted you without attribution are all examples.
Google Search for brand mentions: Search Google for your business name in quotation marks and filter by time (last 12 months). Review results for pages that mention your brand without linking to your site. Also search for variations of your name and for any distinctive brand terms you use.
Ahrefs Content Explorer: Ahrefs Content Explorer allows you to search for pages mentioning your brand name across the web. Filter by pages that do not link to your domain to identify unlinked mentions specifically.
Google Alerts: Set up ongoing monitoring for your brand name so you are notified whenever new mentions appear. This allows you to reach out for link addition promptly while the content is fresh.
Common sources of unlinked brand mentions include:
- Industry publications and trade press that referenced your business or a spokesperson
- Local news coverage that mentioned your company
- Roundup articles and "best of" lists that included your business name without linking
- Forum discussions and community sites where your brand was recommended
- Supplier or client websites that mentioned your partnership but did not link to you
How Do You Contact Sites to Recover Lost or Unlinked Links?
Effective outreach for link reclamation is typically much easier than cold link building outreach, because you are not asking for something from scratch. In most cases, you are either reporting a genuine error (a broken link) or pointing out a simple addition (converting a brand mention to a link). The ask is low-friction.
Outreach for Broken Links
The most effective approach for broken link reclamation is direct and helpful:
Email the site owner or webmaster explaining that you have noticed a link on their site pointing to a broken URL on your domain. Provide: the URL of their page containing the link, the broken URL it points to, the correct URL where the content now lives or a relevant replacement page. Frame it as a helpful fix for their site as much as your own.
Most webmasters appreciate broken link reports because broken links reflect badly on their own site quality. Response rates for broken link outreach are significantly higher than cold link building outreach.
Outreach for Unlinked Brand Mentions
For unlinked mentions, the email is equally straightforward. Reference the specific article where your brand was mentioned, thank them for the coverage, and politely ask whether they would be willing to add a link to your site to make it easy for their readers to find you directly.
The success rate for this outreach depends on the context. Journalists and bloggers who included you in a positive or neutral context are reasonably receptive. News articles that have since been archived or handed to editorial teams are harder to update but worth attempting.
Outreach for Content That Previously Linked But No Longer Does
For cases where an external site had a page linking to you that was updated and the link removed, approach depends on the context. If the page was updated and your content is still relevant, reach out and explain that you noticed the link to your [resource/article] was removed in a recent update, and ask whether they would consider restoring it or linking to a more current version of the content.
If the page was removed entirely, there is limited recourse. Note the linking domain in your list for future outreach on new content that may be relevant to them.
How Do You Prioritise Link Reclamation Efforts?
Not all lost or broken links are worth pursuing. Prioritise your reclamation efforts by:
Domain authority: Focus first on links from high-DR domains. A lost link from a national newspaper's website is worth far more than one from a low-traffic niche directory.
Relevance: Links from sites topically relevant to your industry or geographic area carry more value than links from unrelated general sites.
Age of the link: More recently lost links are easier to reclaim because the content is fresher and the webmaster is more likely to be actively managing the site.
Volume of links from a referring domain: If a single domain has five broken links pointing to your site, fixing all five with one outreach contact is highly efficient.
A systematic link reclamation audit, conducted quarterly, ensures that your link profile is fully utilised. The links you have already earned are a significant asset. Making sure you actually receive their authority is basic maintenance that most businesses neglect.
Dynamically conducts link reclamation audits as part of our ongoing SEO retainer work with UK businesses. If your link profile has grown but rankings have not kept pace, get in touch for a link equity review.
