Link Reclamation: How to Find and Reclaim Lost Backlinks?

Building links is difficult. Which is why it’s so frustrating when hard-earned links disappear without warning.

Sadly, this happens all the time.

This is a nice link from a page on a site with a Domain Rating (DR) of 93.

But take a look at that article now. The link is no more. It’s gone.

That would sure be a nice link to reclaim, right?

Yes. It would. The same goes for the hundreds of other links we’ve lost in the past couple of months. Which is where link reclamation comes in.

What is Link Reclamation?

Link reclamation is the process of recovering lost links. If a link to your site was once live but is no longer working, link reclamation helps you regain it.

So, how do you reclaim a lost link?

It all depends on why you lost the link in the first place.

Here are four common reasons for link loss:

• Link Removed: The author removes your link from the page.
• Linking Page Deleted: The page that hosted your link no longer exists (404 error).
• Linking Page Redirected: The page that linked to you has been redirected (301 redirect).
• Linking Page Noindexed: The page is still live but is no longer indexed by Google*.

I’ve marked the last one (*) because while the link still exists, its value is diminished since the page isn’t indexed by Google.

Understanding the reason behind each type of link loss is crucial for taking the right steps to reclaim it. Keep reading to learn how to take action.

Link reclamation vs. claiming unlinked brand mentions

Link reclamation and claiming unlinked brand mentions are two strategies used to recover or build backlinks, but they serve different purposes and involve distinct approaches.

• Link Reclamation: As discussed, link reclamation focuses on recovering lost links. This is when you work to get a link that once pointed to your website but is now broken or removed, back into place.
• Claiming Unlinked Brand Mentions: On the other hand, claiming unlinked brand mentions involves finding instances where your brand, product, or service has been mentioned online without a link. You reach out to the website owner or author to request that they add a link to your site, turning an unlinked mention into a valuable backlink.

While both methods are important for improving SEO, link reclamation targets fixing issues with existing backlinks, while claiming unlinked brand mentions is more about identifying new opportunities for linking.

How to find and reclaim lost backlinks

1. Find lost links with Site Explorer

Site Explorer > enter your domain > Backlinks > Lost

Here you will see all the backlinks you’ve lost during the past 30 days.

For ahrefs.com, I see 6,285 lost links.

But the reality is that most of those links won’t be worth trying to reclaim. Many will just be junk that weren’t helping you to rank anyway.

To find links worth reclaiming, set the “Best links” filter to “Show best links only.”

If we do this for Ahrefs.com, 6,285 immediately drops to 594.

If you’ll only be doing link outreach in a particular language, it’s worth filtering for links from pages in that language too.

2. Pick the best opportunities

Your approach to reclaiming a lost link will depend on the reason behind its loss. In some cases, it might not even be worth attempting to recover the link (we’ll discuss this further shortly).
In Ahrefs, we categorize each link with a specific reason for its loss:

You can also filter by link loss reason:

Let’s go over how to address each reason for link loss and whether it’s worth pursuing.

Link removed — Often worth pursuing

This occurs when the link is no longer present on the linking page.

Here are three common reasons this might happen:

• They updated their content, removing some external links in the process.
• They replaced your link with a more relevant or valuable one.
• They adopted a policy that removes all external links.

Here’s how to determine the reason for the link loss:

1. Content Update – If the page content has changed significantly, it’s likely a result of a content update. A lot of red and green in Page Inspect can be a sign of this. Check if your link still adds value to the updated content. If so, reach out and pitch your link again.
2. Link Replacement – If your link was replaced, it’s likely because they found a more relevant or useful resource. Contact them to ask why it was replaced, gather feedback, and improve your content. This not only prevents future link losses but may also get your link reinstated if you make the necessary improvements.
3. Policy Change – If your link was removed alongside several others, the site may have implemented a new external link policy. In this case, pitching your link again is unlikely to help, as there’s not much you can do to reverse this.

Page Not Found — Occasionally worth pursuing

This means that during our last crawl, the linking page couldn’t be found.

Here are three possible reasons for this:

• The site owner intentionally deleted the page.
• The site owner accidentally deleted the page.
• There was an issue accessing the page during crawling, possibly because the site was temporarily down.

I recommend pursuing these opportunities only if you believe the page was deleted by accident.

To verify if the page was deleted, click on the referring page link.

Here’s an example from WPShout that no longer exists:

While it’s impossible to know for certain if the page was deleted by mistake, a page with many backlinks is often a strong indicator. After all, any knowledgeable website owner would typically set up a redirect instead of deleting a valuable page without one.

To check the number of backlinks the referring page has, simply click the caret next to the URL:

Broken Redirect — Sometimes Worth Pursuing

This means the linked URL couldn’t be redirected to its destination during the most recent crawl.

There are several reasons this could occur:

• No longer redirecting: The linked URL (or a link in the redirect chain) is no longer active.
• No longer canonicalized: The linked URL’s declared canonical has changed.
• Destination changed: The linked URL now redirects to a different page.

Note: There’s also the “Dropped” reason, which indicates the redirecting URL was removed from our database. These links typically still exist, so they don’t require concern.

Unless one of these changes was made by mistake, there’s no link reclamation opportunity to pursue. These links are lost due to changes made on your website.

Noindex — Probably not worth pursuing

This means the linking page was noindexed since the last crawl.

You can verify the presence of this tag with the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar:

This is a bit of an odd situation because your link is likely still on the page, but Google may not be counting it because the page has been marked as “noindexed.”

If the site owner intentionally set the page to noindex, there’s little you can do about it.

However, many people accidentally add the noindex tag. In that case, you could reach out to inform them. A simple message like this might work:

“Hey, I noticed a ‘noindex’ tag on your page about _______. Not sure if this was intentional, but if not, you might want to fix it. This tag removes the page from Google.”

Here are two ways to identify accidental noindexing:

• Check the homepage for a “noindex” tag: Most site owners don’t want to de-index their homepage. If it has a noindex tag, it’s usually a sign they’ve accidentally applied a sitewide noindex.
• Look for signs of SEO: If the page is optimized (e.g., targeting a high-traffic keyword), it’s likely an accidental noindex, as no one would optimize a page they planned to exclude from search engines.

I suggest reaching out only if you’re confident the noindex tag was applied by mistake. Often, the site owner will realize and correct the issue on their own, so contacting them might just be a waste of time.

Not canonical anymore — Probably not worth pursuing

This means the linking page is now specifying another resource as its canonical.

Most of the time, there’s no need to be concerned about canonicals. Common reasons for using them include:

• Canonicalizing to HTTPS (from HTTP)
• Canonicalizing to a standardized version of the URL (e.g., with or without a trailing slash)
• Canonicalizing to the same content at a different URL

In these cases, your link will still exist and “count” at the canonicalized URL.

However, in some situations, canonicals may indicate an error…

301/302 Redirect — Generally not worth pursuing

This means the linking page redirected to a different URL during the latest crawl.

Similar to canonicals, redirects are typically not worth chasing. Common reasons for redirects include:

• Redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS
• Redirecting to a standardized version of the URL (e.g., with or without a trailing slash)
• Redirecting to the new location of a page (e.g., blog.ahrefs.com to ahrefs.com/blog/)

In these cases, the redirected URL will usually still point back to your site.

However, sometimes pages are deleted and redirected elsewhere, which may result in a genuine lost backlink.

I would only recommend pursuing these opportunities if:

• The redirected page contains an unlinked mention: This is rare but if it happens, you can treat it as an unlinked mention opportunity.
• There’s a clear link opportunity on the redirected page: If a link to a resource of yours would add value to the page, reach out and suggest it.

Crawl Error — Not worth pursuing

This means we couldn’t crawl the referring page during our last attempt.

Crawl errors can occur for a variety of reasons, but they’re generally not something to worry about. The links will often reappear during the next successful scheduled crawl.

Dropped — Not worth pursuing

This means we’ve removed the referring page from our database.

Chances are, the link is still on the page, but we classify it as lost because we can no longer confirm its existence.

Here are a few reasons why we might drop a page from our index:

• We crawled a more authoritative page with the same content.
• The page was disallowed by robots.txt for at least 2 months.
• The domain no longer exists.
• The page has a low URL Rating (UR).

Final Thoughts

Link reclamation is an ongoing process. Links are constantly being lost for various reasons, so it’s important to regularly check for lost links and try to reclaim those that can be recovered.

In fact, it might be beneficial to shift some of your resources from link building to link reclamation. Reclaiming lost links is often easier, quicker, and more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

My advice? Choose your battles wisely. Focus on reclaiming links that you have a good chance of getting back. Don’t waste time on those that were lost for valid reasons.

For more link-building strategies that don’t require new content, explore our list of proven tactics.

If you’re looking for professional SEO services to improve your website’s performance and reclaim lost links, Engage Coders is here to help. Our team specializes in effective SEO strategies tailored to your business, ensuring sustainable growth and online visibility.

Let us help you take your SEO game to the next level!