What Is Link Reclamation? How Can You Do It Effectively?

Link reclamation is the process of identifying and reclaiming backlinks that have been lost. It can happen for various reasons, such as when a website redesigns and changes its URL structure or when pages are moved or deleted. Why Does Link Reclamation Matter? Link reclamation is essential because it helps ensure that your site’s link profile is accurate and up-to-date. It is valuable for search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience. When a website changes its URL structure, any links pointing to the old URLs will be broken. It can happen when a site migrates from HTTP to HTTPS or changes its domain name. If you don’t redirect these broken links to the new URLs, you’ll lose any SEO value that they had. Link reclamation can be time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort. How To Reclaim A Link? The link reclamation process can be divided into three main stages: identification, outreach, and tracking. Identification The first step is to identify which links are missing. You can do this in several ways, but the most common method is to use a tool like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. Both tools will allow you to see all the links currently pointing to your website. You can then compare this list against your records to see missing links. In some cases, which links are missing might not be immediately apparent. For example, if you have changed the URL of a page, any links that were pointing to the old URL will no longer work. In this case, you will need to use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and find all the pages that are no longer working. Outreach The next step is to reach out to the website owners and ask them to update their links. You can do this via email, phone, or social media. It is essential to be polite and professional when reaching out to website owners. In most cases, they will be happy to help you if they can. Tracking The final step is tracking your progress and seeing how many lost links have been replaced. You can do this using a tool like Google Search Console or Moz Link Explorer. Both tools will allow you to see the links pointing to your website. You can then compare this list against your original list to see how many of the lost links have been replaced. So, what is link reclamation? By checking for lost links and quickly replacing them, you can ensure that your website always gets the maximum number of links possible. It is a process that should be carried out regularly. Benefits Of Link Reclamation There are many benefits of link reclamation in SEO, including: – Improving your website’s SEO: Link reclamation can help improve your website’s SEO by repairing broken links and improving your website’s authority. – Increasing traffic: Link reclamation can also help increase your website’s traffic by improving your website’s ranking in search engines. – Fixing 404 errors: Link reclamation can help fix 404 errors on your website, which can be detrimental to your website’s SEO. – Improving user experience: Link reclamation can also help improve your website’s user experience by repairing broken links and redirecting them to the correct page. If you want to improve your website’s SEO, link reclamation is an effective strategy to help you achieve your goals. Common Challenges With Link Reclamation There are a few potential risks involved with link reclamation, but you can mitigate these with careful planning and execution. One risk is that you could contact the wrong person. You can avoid it by researching and ensuring you have the correct contact information before reaching out for what is link reclamation. Another risk is that the site owner may not be willing to update the link. In this case, you could try reaching out to another site owner or consider removing the link from your site. There is also a risk that link reclamation could be perceived as spammy if not done carefully. To avoid this, ensure your outreach is personal and relevant, and only reach out to sites relevant to your industry. Claiming Unlinked Mentions vs. Link Reclamation Unlinked mentions are when your brand or website is mentioned online without a link back to your site. It could be in the form of an article, blog post, forum comment, etc. Link reclamation is when you actively seek out these unlinked mentions and request that the site owner add a link to your site. Unlinked mentions are references to your brand or website that don’t include a link to your site. It could be in the form of an article, blog post, forum comment, etc. Link reclamation is when you actively seek out these unlinked mentions and request that the site owner add a link to your site. Broken links are previously existing links to your site that have since gone dead or were removed by the site owner. What is link reclamation? It is when you reach out to the site owner and request that they update the link to point to a live page on your site. How To Reclaim Lost Links Finding Broken Internal Links When you control a website, internal linking is something you have 100% control over. If there are pages that don’t have links, it’s up to you to add those links. The first step in reclaiming lost links is finding out which of your pages are not being linked to. There are some ways to do this. The first is to use Google Analytics. Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Then, under the Link Clicks column, sort from highest to lowest. It will show you the most linked pages and those not linked at all. If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website, another way is to do a site search in Google. If you wanted to see which pages on the Moz website weren’t being linked, you would search site:moz.com -inurl:links. It tells Google to show you all of the pages on the Moz website that don’t have the word “links” in the URL. Once you’ve found which pages on your website aren’t being linked, it’s time to start adding links to them. This is what is link reclamation. Writing For Linking The best place to add links is in blog posts and articles. When writing a post, look for opportunities to link to other relevant pages on your website. If you’re writing a post about link building, you could link to a page on your website that discusses the different types of links. Not all of your lost links will be from blog posts and articles, in any case. There will also be pages on your website that should be linked to but aren’t. To find these pages, do a site search for site:yourdomain.com intitle:”keyword” -inurl:links. It tells Google to show you all of the pages on your website that have the keyword in the title but don’t have the word “links” in the URL. These pages on your website should be getting links but aren’t. Start linking to them from other pages on your website. Fixing Broken Internal Links If you have pages that are linked to other pages on your site, but those links are broken, you’re losing link equity. To fix these broken links, you can either update the links to point to the correct URL or remove them altogether. To update a link, edit the HTML of the page to point to the new URL. To remove a link, you’ll need to edit the .htaccess file. This file is located in the root directory of your website. If you’re unsure how to edit this file, you should contact your web host or developer. Once you’ve edited your .htaccess file, the link will be removed from your website. It will help ensure that your website’s link equity is not lost due to broken internal links. It is integral to what is link reclamation. Finding Lost External Backlinks If you’ve recently changed the URL of a page on your website, you will lose any external backlinks pointing to the old URL. You can use Google’s Search Console tool to reclaim those lost backlinks. You’ll need to add and verify your website with Google to access this tool. Once you’ve done that, you can go to the search traffic > links to your site section of Google’s Search Console. You can download a list of all the external backlinks pointing to your website. This list will include the old URL of any pages that have been redirected. You can then contact the website owners and ask them to update their links to point to the new URL. This process can be time-consuming, but it’s the best way to reclaim lost backlinks. Adding Links To Your Webpages Once you’ve found the pages on your website that need links, it’s time to start adding them. The best place to add links is in the content of your webpages. When writing a post or article, look for opportunities to link to other relevant pages on your website. For example, if you’re writing a post about link building, you could link to a page on your website that discusses the different types of links. You can also add links to your webpages by editing your site’s navigation. If pages are not being linked anywhere else on your website, you can add links to them in your navigation. It will make it easier for people to find those pages and will help to improve your website’s overall link equity. It is an important part of what is link reclamation. Reclaiming Redirected Links If you’ve recently changed the URL of a page on your website, any links pointing to the old URL will be lost. To reclaim those lost links, you can redirect the old URL to the new one. It will tell search engines that the unique URL is correct and that any links pointing to the old URL should now be pointing to the new one. You should edit your .htaccess file to set up a redirect. This file is located in the root directory of your website. If you’re unsure how to edit this file, you should contact your web host or developer. Once you’ve edited your .htaccess file, any links pointing to the old URL will be redirected to the new one. It will help to ensure that your website’s link equity is not lost when you change the URL of a page of your website. Reclaiming Lost Links Through 404 Errors If you have pages on your website that are returning 404 errors, any links pointing to those pages will be lost. To reclaim those lost links, you can redirect the old URL to a new one. It will tell search engines that the new URL is correct and that any links pointing to the old URL should now be pointing to the new one. You should edit your .htaccess file to set up a redirect. This file is located in the root directory of your website. If you’re unsure how to edit this file, you should contact your web host or developer. Once you’ve edited your .htaccess file, any links pointing to the old URL will be redirected to the new one. It will help to ensure that your website’s link equity is not lost when you change the URL of a page of your website. You should know this before pursuing what is link reclamation. Link Reclamation Through Google Alerts Another way to find lost backlinks is to set up a Google Alert for your website’s URL. It will send you an email any time someone links to your site. To set up a Google Alert, go to google.com/alerts and enter your website’s URL into the search box. You can then choose how often you want to receive notifications and what type of links you want to be alerted about. Once you’ve set up your alert, you’ll be notified that someone links to your site anytime. It can help you quickly reclaim any lost backlinks. Link Reclamation Through Social Media If you’ve recently changed the URL of a page on your website, you can use social media to reclaim any lost backlinks. Post the change on your social media accounts and include the new URL. You can reach out to influencers and websites linked to your site in the past and let them know about the change. It can help you quickly reclaim any lost backlinks. Link Reclamation Tips There are a few things you should keep in mind for carrying out what is link reclamation: Make sure you redirect any old URLs to the new ones. It will help to ensure that your link equity is not lost. Use Google’s Search Console tool to find any external backlinks pointing to the old URL. Set up a Google Alert for your website’s URL. It will notify you anytime someone links to your site. Use social media to post about the change and reach out to any influencers or websites that have previously linked to your site. Following these tips, you can quickly and easily reclaim any lost backlinks. Site Canonicalization Issues Site canonicalization issues occur when a website has multiple versions of the same page accessible to users. It can happen for several reasons, but the most common cause is having both www and non-www versions of your domain (or HTTP and HTTPS versions, if you have an SSL certificate installed). When search engines crawl your site, they may not be able to determine which version is the canonical (preferred) version, and as a result, both versions could get indexed separately. It can lead to duplicate content issues, where the same content is being accessed via multiple URLs. Not only does this create a poor user experience (imagine trying to find information on a website with two identical versions), but it can also split your link equity between the two versions, diluting your SEO efforts. Before you engage in what is link reclamation, the good news is that site canonicalization issues are relatively easy to fix. How To Fix It In most cases, you can add a 301 redirect from the non-canonical version to the canonical version. It will tell search engines that the canonical version is preferred, and all link equity and ranking signals will be passed to that page. If you’re unsure, which version of your domain is canonical, use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your site and check for duplicate versions of your pages. Once you’ve identified the problem, you can add the appropriate redirects. Develop A Strategy Before you start reaching out to webmasters, developing a strategy is crucial. It will help ensure that your efforts are targeted and effective. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you build your plan: What are your goals? Are there any particular sites or types of links you’re interested in? Who is your target audience? What kind of content would be most useful or interesting to them? Answering these questions will give you a good starting point for developing your strategy. Some Important Things To Consider Timeframe The timeframe for link reclamation can vary depending on the situation. Launching a new website might take time before links pointing to your site appear online. In this case, you would need to be patient and wait for the links to appear. If you have recently changed the URL of a page on your website, or if you have removed a page entirely, then you will need to take action to reclaim any lost links. The sooner you start the process, the better your chances of success in what is link reclamation. Results Detected The first step in any link reclamation process is identifying missing links. There are different ways to do this, but the most common method is to use a tool like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. These tools allow you to see all the links currently pointing to your website. You can then compare this list against your records to see missing links. In some cases, which links are missing might not be immediately apparent. For example, if you have changed the URL of a page, any links that were pointing to the old URL will no longer work. In this case, you will need to use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website. Average Links Sent Per Month The next step is to assess how many monthly links you should get. This number will vary depending on the size and popularity of your website. If you are starting, it is unlikely that you will get a considerable number of links right away. As your website becomes established, you should see an increase in the number of links pointing to your site. Tools Needed This paid tool allows you to see all of the links pointing to your website. It also provides other helpful information, such as the number of referring domains and the anchor text used for each link. It can be instrumental in what is link reclamation. Google Analytics: This is a free tool that you can use to track your website’s traffic. You can also use it to see where your visitors are coming from, including which links they clicked on to reach your site. Screaming Frog: This free tool allows you to crawl your website and find any broken links. It can be used for both Windows and MacOS. DeepCrawl: This paid tool allows you to crawl your website and find any broken links. Majestic: This paid tool allows you to see all of the links pointing to your website. SEO Review Tools: This free tool allows you to see all the links pointing to your website. Tineye: This free tool allows you to search for images by URL. It can help find websites that have used your images without linking them. Google reverse image search: This free tool allows you to search for images by URL. The above tools are just some of the many that are available, and there are many more that you can find with a simple Google search. How Many Links Can I Reclaim? While wondering what is link reclamation, you should know that there is no strict rule for how many links you can reclaim through link reclamation. It all depends on the number of links pointing to your site and how many links are no longer working. If you have many broken links, you might be able to reclaim a significant number of them. Alternatively, if most of the links pointing to your site are still working, you might only be able to reclaim a few. It all depends on the situation. What Is The Success Rate Of Link Reclamation? Before considering how to reclaim lost links, you should know that the success rate of link reclamation can vary depending on several factors, such as the link’s age, the website’s authority, and whether or not the website owner is willing to change the link. In general, though, the success rate of link reclamation is relatively high. If you take the time to do it correctly, then you should be able to reclaim a significant number of lost links. Conclusion It is essential to note that link reclamation should only be used as a last resort and that it is often best to focus on building new links. When done correctly, it can help improve your website’s link profile and, thus, its SEO. First, make sure that you have a good reason for why the link was removed in the first place. Second, reach out to the webmaster politely and professionally. Finally, you can always use Google’s Disavow Tool if all else fails. Remember to be patient and polite in your professional communication. Before deciding to pursue what is link reclamation, these are the things to keep in mind. Good luck in your worthy endeavors!

About the Author: PPCRAO

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