Broken link building is an outreach method where you find links on other websites that lead to pages that no longer exist, then contact the site owner with a working alternative from your own site. It helps the other site fix an error for its readers, which makes it one of the easier link requests to say yes to. It works best when your replacement page genuinely covers the same thing.
How the process works
The method has three parts: find dead pages that used to attract links, check whether you have or can create a good replacement, and tell the sites still linking to the dead page.
- Use a backlink tool to find pages in your niche that return 404 errors but still have referring domains
- Check what the dead page covered using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
- Decide whether an existing page of yours is a fair replacement, or whether to write one
- Export the sites still linking to the dead page and review them by hand
- Send a short, specific note naming the broken link and suggesting your page
Good sources of dead pages for SaaS
Software categories churn. Products are acquired and shut down, companies rebrand, and old documentation gets removed. Each of those leaves behind pages that were once linked from blog posts, resource lists, and tutorials.
Retired competitor tools, discontinued free calculators, and old industry reports are common examples. If your product replaces something that no longer exists, a page explaining the migration path is often a natural replacement.
Writing the outreach email
Keep it short, name the exact page and broken link, and make the replacement easy to evaluate. Do not overstate how similar your page is. Editors will check.
Subject: Broken link on your "Guide to sales forecasting"
Hi Dana,
The link to "Forecast template (Acme Sheets)" in your sales
forecasting guide now returns a 404. Acme retired that page last year.
We publish a free forecasting template that covers the same columns:
https://www.example-saas.com/templates/sales-forecast
Happy to suggest another source if that is a better fit.Check your own site too
The same idea works in reverse. Look for pages on your site that return 404 but still have backlinks, usually because of a past migration. Redirecting each one to the closest relevant live page recovers those links without any outreach.
Common mistakes
Suggesting a page that is not a real replacement
If your page covers something different, the editor will ignore the email, and you lose credibility for future requests.
Bulk-sending identical emails
Personalized notes that reference the specific article and link get far more replies than templates sent to every linking site.
Ignoring your own broken pages
Old URLs on your site with backlinks are the easiest wins. Redirect them before doing outreach elsewhere.
Questions
Yes. Suggesting a working resource to replace a dead link is ordinary outreach. Offering payment for the link would make it a link scheme.
Do not copy it. Write your own page that serves the same need, updated and improved, so it is a genuine replacement.
