# Broken link building

Category: [Link Building & Off-Page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/link-building-off-page/) › [Link building methods](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/link-building-off-page/link-building-methods/)

**Broken link building** is a link building method. You find links on other sites that lead to missing pages and suggest to the owner that they point to a suitable page of yours instead.

## How it works

According to reports, the process usually has three steps. First you find relevant pages with dead outbound links, for example with a crawler or a backlink tool that lists links to pages that no longer exist. Next you check what the missing page covered, using the Wayback Machine if needed, and make sure you have a page that covers the topic at least as well. You then send a short message that names the broken link and offers your page as a replacement.

The owner gains something concrete, since broken links hurt the visitor experience on their site. That sets the method apart from general link requests.

## Example

A resource list on accessibility links to a guide that no longer exists. Someone with a current guide on the topic reports the dead link and proposes the guide as replacement.

## Common mistakes

A replacement that does not fit the original topic. Offering money for the placement: Google's spam policies treat paid links as link spam unless they are qualified with `sponsored` or `nofollow`.

## Related terms

- [Link building](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-building/index.md)
- [Broken link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/broken-link/index.md)
- [Link profile](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-profile/index.md)
- [Link reclamation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-reclamation/index.md)
- [Outreach](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/outreach/index.md)
- [Link rot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-rot/index.md)

## Sources

- [Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)

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Last updated: October 7, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/broken-link-building/