Most website owners receive dozens of guest post and backlink requests every single day.
So if you want to stand out, you need to approach link building from their perspective.
Here’s the truth:
Webmasters don’t really care if a broken link exists on a years-old blog post that no one reads.
But they do care—a lot—if that broken link is on a newly published article that’s actively getting traffic.
That’s why targeting fresh broken links is one of the smartest plays in SEO.
Here’s a step-by-step method for uncovering these
high-leverage opportunities using Ahrefs:
- Enter your competitor’s domain in Site Explorer.
- Go to the Best by Links report.
- Set the HTTP response filter to 404 (Not Found).
– This will show you all of their broken pages,
sorted by how many referring domains are still linking to them.
- Look to the right of each entry.
– Click the number under “DoFollow” links
to see all the domains linking to that specific broken page.
- Now, filter the results by “First Seen.”
– This shows you the newest articles that are linking to a broken page.
Once you have that list, your job is simple:
Reach out to those site owners and let them know
they’ve linked to a dead page in their newly published content—
and politely offer your article as a relevant replacement.
You’ll be doing them a favor.
And in return, you may earn a high-quality backlink
that many SEOs completely overlook.
Most website owners receive dozens of guest post and backlink requests every single day.
So if you want to stand out, you need to approach link building from their perspective.
Here’s the truth:
Webmasters don’t really care if a broken link exists on a years-old blog post that no one reads.
But they do care—a lot—if that broken link is on a newly published article that’s actively getting traffic.
That’s why targeting fresh broken links is one of the smartest plays in SEO.
Here’s a step-by-step method for uncovering these
high-leverage opportunities using Ahrefs:
- Enter your competitor’s domain in Site Explorer.
- Go to the Best by Links report.
- Set the HTTP response filter to 404 (Not Found).
– This will show you all of their broken pages,
sorted by how many referring domains are still linking to them.
- Look to the right of each entry.
– Click the number under “DoFollow” links
to see all the domains linking to that specific broken page.
- Now, filter the results by “First Seen.”
– This shows you the newest articles that are linking to a broken page.
Once you have that list, your job is simple:
Reach out to those site owners and let them know
they’ve linked to a dead page in their newly published content—
and politely offer your article as a relevant replacement.
You’ll be doing them a favor.
And in return, you may earn a high-quality backlink
that many SEOs completely overlook.
