Broken link building does what it says on the tin: finds broken links on other, high-authority websites in your niche, and uses them to build links back to your own website — usually in the form of a replacement.

Broken link building does what it says on the tin:

finds broken links on other, high-authority websites in your niche, and uses them to build links back to your own website — usually in the form of a replacement.

For example: Let’s say the GK Web Agency blog linked to an article about meta titles. But when readers clicked that article, it sends them to a 404 error page. A broken link builder would create a blog post on their website around the same topic,

then shoot an email to our editors to:

• Inform them that their link is broken
• Nudge the editor towards swapping the broken link for theirs

Broken link building differs from traditional link building in that you’re creating content for demand — rather than hitting “publish” on a piece of content you think you can get links from.

And it works. Website owners don’t want their blogs to be littered with 404 error pages because they’re bad for user experience and essentially stop visitors in their tracks. Broken links are bad for SEO and result in reduced chances of a website ranking organically because Google wants their users to land on high-quality pages.

No website owner wants to lose organic traffic — which is why broken link building works so well — so they’re more receptive to pitches that ask for a backlink if they’re replacing broken ones.