Link reclamation is one of the highest-ROI link building activities available because it targets links that should already be pointing to you — either links that existed and broke, or mentions of your brand that should have a link but do not. Instead of building new relationships and earning new links from scratch, link reclamation recovers value that has already been established.

Two Types of Link Reclamation

Broken link reclamation — backlinks from external sites that point to pages on your site that no longer exist or have moved. These links are currently returning 404 errors to the linking site, passing no equity to you, and providing a poor experience for users who click them. As we covered in our guide to fixing 404 errors, these represent lost equity that can be recovered immediately.

Unlinked brand mention reclamation — references to your brand, products, or site on other websites that do not include a link. A journalist who writes "according to SEOLinkScan's research" without linking to your site has made a citation that deserves a link. These are often the easiest link building wins available because the site owner has already demonstrated knowledge of and interest in your brand.

Finding Broken External Links to Your Site

Use Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console's Links report, or Moz Link Explorer to identify your backlinks. Filter for links that return 4xx error codes — these are your broken backlink opportunities. The most valuable ones are links from authoritative, relevant sites pointing to pages you have since moved or deleted.

Once identified, check whether the broken URL has been redirected. If not, there are two fixes: set up a 301 redirect from the broken URL to the most relevant live page, which automatically restores the link value without requiring any outreach — or contact the linking site and ask them to update the link to a live URL.

Use our Wayback Machine URL extractor to research what content existed at broken URLs. This helps you identify the most relevant live page to redirect to, or the most appropriate replacement URL to suggest to the linking site.

Finding Unlinked Brand Mentions

Search Google for your brand name in quotation marks and review the results for pages that mention you without linking. Also search for variations of your brand name, your site's URL without the www, and the titles of your most distinctive tools or articles.

Tools like Ahrefs Alerts, Google Alerts, and Mention.com can monitor for new brand mentions in real time, notifying you when someone writes about your brand so you can reach out promptly while the content is still fresh.

The Reclamation Outreach Email

Outreach for unlinked mentions should be brief and non-demanding. The site owner has already mentioned you — they clearly think your brand is relevant to their audience. You are simply making it easier for their readers to find you:

"Hi [Name], I noticed your recent article mentioned [your brand/product]. Thank you for the mention — your readers might find it helpful to have a direct link to [specific page URL] for reference. Happy to help with anything else you are researching."

This converts roughly 20–40% of unlinked mentions into actual links, making it one of the highest conversion-rate link building activities available. As we covered in our guide to outreach email templates, brevity and genuine helpfulness are the keys to high response rates.

Summary

Link reclamation recovers value from links that should already be pointing to you. Fix broken external links with 301 redirects and outreach for URL updates. Find unlinked brand mentions through Google and monitoring tools and convert them with brief, helpful outreach emails. Combined, these two activities can recover significant link equity that is currently being wasted.

Missed the previous article? Read: How to Optimise for Google's People Also Ask in 2026