# Link reclamation

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/)

**Link reclamation** means restoring backlinks that have disappeared or stopped working. The aim is to keep links you already earned instead of building new ones. Turning an unlinked brand mention into a link is a related tactic but a different one.

## Why do links get lost?

According to reports, common causes are a link removed by the owner, a page deleted or changed on the linking site, a change on your own site that makes the linked page unreachable, a redirect or `noindex` on the linking page, and a domain that no longer exists. Backlink tools list such cases as lost links.

## How does it work?

Two cases can be told apart. If an external link points to a page on your site that now returns an error, a permanent redirect to the matching target page helps. Google's documentation says the indexing pipeline uses a redirect as a signal that the target should be canonical. If the link was removed on the other site, only a request to the owner can restore it.

## Example

A trade portal linked to `/guides/crawling`. After a relaunch the page lives at `/knowledge/crawling` and the old URL returns 404. A 301 redirect to the new address makes the existing link usable again.

Anything that amounts to paying for the restored link falls under Google's link spam rules.

## Related terms

- [Lost backlinks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lost-backlinks/index.md)
- [Broken link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/broken-link/index.md)
- [Link rot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-rot/index.md)
- [301 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/301-redirect/index.md)
- [Backlink](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/backlink/index.md)
- [Outreach](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/outreach/index.md)

## Sources

- [Redirects and Google Search – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
- [Spam policies for Google web search (link spam) – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies)
- [Link Reclamation – Ahrefs blog](https://ahrefs.com/blog/link-reclamation/)

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