Broken link building is a way to get backlinks to your website.

This is my step by step guide.

This is the approach I use for building seo backlinks called broken link building and has been the most effective method of increasing my website rankings.

When you inform a website owner that a link on their website goes to a page that does not exist anymore, you are doing the website owner, the person visiting the website and Google a favour.
You are actually helping and providing real value.
It is very annoying to read a page, click a link on the page and the page doesn't exist anymore.
I reached out to a website owner last week and told him his website had a broken link but he was too busy to fix the link.
So I scanned his website and found it had over 800 broken links.
I don't have the facts or proof if Google penalise websites with lots of broken links.
However, from my extensive search for broken link opportunities, there are millions and millions of broken links out there that need to be fixed.
Even my website had 20 broken links on it last week.

There are 7 steps to the broken link building process.

1. Find a page that no longer exists with lots of websites linking to it.
2. Go back in time and re-create or improve upon the content of the broken page you found on your website.
3. Export and filter the list of broken links.
4. Find the name and email address of the people who own the website or wrote the article.
5. Send an email offering to fix and replace the broken link.
6. Reply to the email, show them the broken link and offer the replacement.
7. Repeat.

Here are the tools you need:

- A subscription to Ahrefs.com.
- Excel or Google Sheets.
- A subscription to YourOutreach.com.
- A subscription to Headreach.com.
- A screen capture software such as Snagit or Jing.
- The ability to create a page or blog post on your website.
- There are other tools you can use but I'm sharing the method and tools that have worked for me.

I said good links aren't cheap.
Ahrefs.com subscriptions start at $99 a month.
I use the $179 a month plan.
They also offer a free 14 day trial so you can experiment and try out.
You need Excel or Google Sheets to sort and filter the list of broken backlinks that you will export from Ahrefs.com.
Then I use YourOutreach.com that enables you to import a list of web pages and they will try and find the contact details of the website owner or writer.
Then the software enables you to compose an email and send a personalised email and follow up emails.
When I cannot find names and emails of website owners I use Headreach.com.
You enter a website, company or name and their software will try and find contact information from LinkedIn.
Finally, you need the ability to create a web page or blog post on your website.
I use WordPress and Business Catalyst for the 2 websites I run.
If you are not familiar with creating web pages I recommend you create your page or article in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and get your website content editor or webmaster to create the page in your content management system.