What is Link Reclamation?Link reclamation is the process of identifying and recovering backlinks that once pointed to your website but are now broken or lost, due to: page moves or URL changes without proper 301 redirects, domain migrations that broke old URLs, deletion of pages that had accumulated backlinks, or links pointing to pages
What is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the process of identifying and recovering backlinks that once pointed to your website but are now broken or lost, due to: page moves or URL changes without proper 301 redirects, domain migrations that broke old URLs, deletion of pages that had accumulated backlinks, or links pointing to pages that now return errors or redirect incorrectly. These broken backlinks represent link equity that you previously earned but are no longer benefiting from. Reclamation involves identifying these lost links and either implementing redirects to recover them technically or contacting linking sites to update the link URL.
Link Reclamation Process for SaaS
Step-by-step reclamation workflow: (1) Export lost backlinks from Ahrefs (Site Explorer > Backlinks > filter by Lost), identifying links lost in the past 6-12 months. (2) Analyze the reason for loss: is the source page still live with a broken link? Did your target page URL change without a proper redirect? (3) For URL changes with no redirect: implement 301 redirects from the old URL to the best current equivalent immediately. This automatically recovers all broken backlinks to that URL without any outreach required. (4) For links where the source page still shows a broken link to your URL: contact the linking site and request they update the link to the current URL. Include the specific article URL, the current broken link text, and the correct replacement URL. (5) Track reclamation success in Ahrefs by monitoring the previously lost links returning to active status.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much link equity can be recovered through link reclamation?
Link reclamation impact depends on the number and quality of broken backlinks discovered. SaaS companies that have undergone URL migrations or blog post restructuring often have 10-50 broken backlinks from external sites that can be technically recovered by implementing correct 301 redirects. High-authority links (DR 50+) from these broken sources represent significant recoverable PageRank. For outreach-based reclamation (where you contact sites to update links), expect 10-25% response rates: the website owner must actively make a change, which has higher friction than technical redirect recovery.
Is link reclamation worth the effort compared to new link building?
Link reclamation is typically more efficient than new link building when you have many broken links to recover: redirecting broken URLs is purely technical and recovers equity from already-earned links with zero outreach effort. Outreach-based reclamation (contacting sites to update links) is less efficient than unlinked mention outreach (same effort, higher conversion rate because you are converting an existing mention rather than asking someone to change something they currently have working). Prioritize: (1) Technical redirects for all broken backlinks, (2) Unlinked mention conversion, (3) Broken link reclamation outreach, (4) New link building campaigns.