This must’ve happened to you before – you were on a website and saw an interesting link. However, after clicking, all you got was a 404 page. This is quite frustrating and annoying for visitors. However, website owners, have different goals in mind, and that’s link building. And that’s why they see these pages as an opportunity. Read on and find out how to build backlinks with 404 pages.
The importance of building backlinks
Site owners know how important it is to use a good opportunity to build backlinks. A backlink that’s placed on an authoritative website from your niche can help you increase traffic to your website. And that’s exactly the reason why you should see every broken link on these pages as an opportunity.
A way to build backlinks with 404 pages
Once you find a broken link, you should offer to link it to your website, to a post that fits the topic. And there’s a chance that the website owner will agree to it and give you a backlink. In short, this is the process of building backlinks with 404 pages. But, let’s go over it one step at a time.
Find 404 links that fit your niche
The first step to take is to find the website of high authority, that’s related to your niche. Then, check all of the links until you find broken links. And then, you can use a tool and search for all the backlinks that point to this broken link, as that will help you find a lot more broken backlinks. After all, it’s a number’s game and a conversion rate of 5% to 10% is considered quite good. So, before you even start, keep in mind that this won’t work every time.
Finding the websites
The first step is to find top sites in your niche. There’s a good chance you know some of them. However, since it’s a number’s game, you might want to search for more websites on google. These are some of the search queries you can try:
- “keyword” + “(helpful) resources”
- “keyword” + “(link) list”
This way, you’ll find the top websites with your keyword. The next step is to find broken links on these websites.
Check all the links
Now, it would be hard to do this step manually. You should visit every page until you come across a broken link, and that would be tedious, wouldn’t it. You have smarter ways to spend your time, so why not use a good tool to find broken links. In order to build backlinks with 404 pages, you need to save time, on every part of the process you can. With a tool, you can test outgoing links and find the ones that are not working, by filtering results for 404 errors. Once you find 404 pages, it’s time to proceed.
Find the link prospects
Now, using a tool, you should find all the links pointing to the found broken resources link. You might find it if you go to the Outbound Links section, or if you click on Group Similar Links, depending on the tool you’re using. The list you see will be a list of the link prospects. Higher the number of link prospects, the more chance you have of acquiring backlinks with 404 pages.
The next step
Now you have a list of websites with 404 links, pointing to a page that doesn’t exist. It’s the right time to contact the website owners and let them know that you’ve found a broken link on their site. However, the process of building links with 404 pages is not over. In a matter of fact, your success depends on the next step.
Outreach
Before you try to reach the site administrators, you need to know how to contact them. The first place where you should try to find their email is on their website. However, if not, there are some tools you can use to find this information. After you have their email, it’s time to contact them. This is what you should keep in mind when writing an email:
- Present yourself and let them know what you do
- Let them know that you’ve found a 404 page when clicking on their website
- Mention that these links are not good for the user experience
- Suggest replacing these links with the content on your website and send the link
- Mention that you regularly posted the content on the topic
- Say that you will update the article in order to provide the latest information to the readers
- We will keep updating this article so we can keep readers provided with the latest information.
- The personal touch is always good, so you can ask them a question related to the topic
- Know that all of this effort to build backlinks with 404 pages will not always work
- Don’t forget to follow up with the people you have reached out to
The website owners don’t like having broken links on their website, as it provides a poor user experience. While this is a reason for them to say yes, keep in mind that others might’ve contacted them as well. After all, the more site owners you reach, you have a chance of getting a higher number of backlinks. However, don’t get lost in all of this, there are other strategies you can implement, so always monitor your backlinks to see what works best for you.
Fixing broken backlinks
You might’ve noticed the importance of taking care of your backlinks. If your backlink gets broken, for whatever reason, your competition might claim it, the same way that you do it. That’s why you should know how to fix broken backlinks. However, as you don’t want broken links on your website, you should take care of them, as well.
Build backlinks with 404 pages, but don’t forget other strategies
In order to increase your traffic and build links, it’s good to know how to build backlinks with 404 pages. But don’t forget the other ways white hat backlinking hacks for SEO. Find the strategy that suits you and your business the best, and you’ll have a better chance of succeeding.