Summary
As a website owner, you can immensely benefit from the best broken link building tool, as it can help you identify broken links or niche-related websites. Broken link building is also referred to as dead link building. Broken link building is a white-hat and effective SEO strategy that includes finding broken links or 404 errors on niche-related websites. With the right tool, you can identify broken links effortlessly. The subsequent step is to create valuable content and pitch it to the relevant website owners as a replacement for the broken legs.
Broken Link Building Tool – Why Do You Need One?
Before we move on to the list of the best broken link building tools for you, let’s explore why you need a broken link building tool in the first place. Essentially, broken link building is an exclusive Seo strategy that focuses on pinpointing and leveraging dead or broken links or niche-related websites.
The goal is to acquire quality backlinks for your own website. The right broken link building tool can save you time and effort as it can find those broken links and help create relevant content that you can suggest as a suitable and more valuable replacement. With broken link building, you can enhance your website’s authority, which will further help you improve your search engine rankings.
What Is the Best Broken Link Building Tool for You – Know Your Options
Broken link building is a tactic that you absolutely need in your arsenal. Let’s explore the best tools that can help you identify and capitalize on broken links.
Ahrefs
First on the list is Ahrefs. Ahrefs is, without a doubt, the premium tool out of all SEO tools. Ahrefs is packed with features that cater to every aspect of SEO. One of the many superpowers that Ahrefs has is the incredibly powerful broken link checker. This tool is indeed a game-changer for any SEO strategy.
Here is how it works: You start by plugging in a competitor’s domain into the search bar. After all, you have to scope out the competition and see the potential opportunities that you can uncover. After entering the competitor’s domain, your next step is to navigate over to the “broken links” report section.
Next, Ahrefs will present you with an organized list of all the broken backlinks pointing to that domain. Leveraging this tool, you can use the “road map” and tap into untapped SEO potential that will undoubtedly boost your rankings.
What Makes It So Valuable?
If you are wondering what actually makes untapped SEO so valuable, you should know that every broken link you find is an opportunity waiting to be seized. With that said, the broken links are actually your opportunity to swoop in, create fantastic content that fills the void, and subsequently reach out to potential websites that are still linking to the dead pages. You will be offering them a better alternative.
While you are at it, you will notice that they are linking to a broken page. Pitch your content and tell them that you have something even better that they might want to link to instead. This way, broken link building is a win-win situation for both.
You gain a valuable backlink, and the website owners or your competitors will have the opportunity to fix a broken link on their site, which will help them enhance their user experience and SEO.
Ahrefs Has So Much More to Offer
Apart from analyzing the websites of your competitors, you can also use Ahrefs to explore your own website for broken links – both internal and external – and ensure that your website is in perfect shape. The underlying reason why this is crucial is that broken links on your site can negatively impact your SEO and overall website performance.
Broken links also create a frustrating experience for users and signal to Google that your website might not be reliable or user-friendly. You may already be aware that Google doesn’t reward websites that offer poor user experience. It can also cause lower rankings.
Semrush
Just like Ahrefs, Semrush comes loaded with a fantastic broken link checker. However, the cool part is that Semrush approaches it a bit differently with its amazing tool known as the “Backlink Audit” tool. This amazing tool allows you to uncover broken backlinks pointing to your site.
Suppose you have all these websites linking to your content, giving you those sweet backlinks that boost your authority. However, what happens when those links lead to dead ends? Yes, you guessed it right. You lose out on all that important link juice. Semrush’s backlink audit tool helps you plug those leaks and make sure that you are getting the most out of your backlinks.
Use Semrush to Analyze Your Competitors’ Backlinks
Wait, there is more to it! Using this tool from Semrush, you can also analyze your competitors’ backlinks. This means that you can analyze broken links pointing to their sides and swoop in with fresh, valuable, and compelling content to replace those dead ends. Additionally, by analyzing your competitors’ backlinks, you can get valuable insights into their link-building strategies.
You can see what kind of content is earning them backlinks. Subsequently, you can write better content and earn similar backlinks. The information that you get from analyzing your competitors’ backlinks is pure gold, as you get to tap into their anchor texts, the type of content they are publishing, and the websites that are linking to their content.
You can use this information to create your own link-building campaigns and outrank your competitors in search engine rankings.
With that said, it doesn’t matter whether you are a seasoned SEO pro or just starting out; the broken link-building tools of SEMrush are incredibly user-friendly and can give you a serious edge in the search rankings.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Now, let’s move forward to a tool that is a bit different but equally powerful. We are talking about the Screaming Frog SEO Spider. Unlike Semrush and Ahrefs, which are primarily web-based tools, Screaming Frog is essentially a desktop application that you can effectively download and install on your desktop to leverage the broken link building strategy. This tool is user-friendly and designed to be intuitive. Believe us when we tell you that this little frog packs a powerful punch!
This tool is like a digital captive that is tirelessly crawling through websites and pointing out every single broken link that it can find. This tool is especially useful for deeply analyzing large websites with tons of pages. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an ecommerce site or a blog with more than a hundred articles; Screaming Frog can handle it for you.
It would take you years to check those big websites for broken links if you were to do it manually. The right tools can turn a potentially difficult task into a simple one. This tool can check thousands of pages in minutes and give you a comprehensive overview of all the broken links on a website.
Use Screaming Frog to Uncover Your Internal Broken Links
The tool Screaming Frog is incredibly effective in uncovering internal broken links. Internal links essentially connect pages within your own website. Your site’s internal links are the backbone of your site’s navigation. Internal links are crucial for your SEO because they help Google comprehend the structure of your website and the subsequent relationship between different web pages. This understanding can significantly affect your search rankings.
However, internal links can also break, especially if you’re constantly updating your website or making changes to your content. With the help of this broken link-building tool, you can successfully identify your broken internal links and fix them before they start dragging down your website’s SEO. You might think of this tool as a vital vigilant watchman for your website.
Why Are Internal Links Crucial for Your Site’s SEO
If your website is a beautiful house, then your internal links are like the hallways that connect all the rooms of your house. Thus, internal links ensure smooth navigation. On the other hand, broken internal links are like blocked hallways that can make it challenging for visitors who want to navigate your site. Broken internal links actually disrupt the user experience.
The Screaming Frogs tool can help you clear those blocked hallways and ensure a smooth and pleasant experience for your website visitors.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to maintaining a seamless flow. Besides, this tool provides you with tons of other important SEO data, such as meta descriptions, page titles, heading tags, and more. So, if you’re looking for a broken link-building tool that lets you assess your website’s link structure, the Screaming Frog SEO Spider is an absolute must-have.
Google Search Console
Now, at this point, you must be thinking that all these above-mentioned fancy SEO tools sound awesome, but the question is, what to do when you are on a tight budget? In this case, you have nothing to worry about, as Google has you covered. We are talking about Google Search Console. This Google SEO tool is not only free but also an absolute goldmine of SEO insights.
Understandably, Google Search Console might not have all the bells and whistles like the page tools, such as Ahrefs and SEMrush; However, it’s still an incredibly valuable tool that you can effectively use to find broken links. The key to finding broken links with Google Search Console lies in the coverage report.
The coverage report will indicate all sorts of issues related to your website’s indexing and crawlability. It will also show you broken links. It’s important to mention here that Google Search Console will primarily show you internal broken links, which means that it won’t show you broken links from other websites pointing to yours.
However, this shouldn’t be a problem because fixing internal broken links is important for a healthy website. You might want to think of Google Search Console as a way of having a Direct Line to Google, where they tell you exactly what they like and dislike about your website.
With that said, when you see broken links in the coverage report, it’s basically Google telling you what you might want to fix. It wouldn’t be wrong to state that it’s always a good idea to listen to Google. By fixing those broken internal links, you won’t only be improving your website’s user experience but also making it easier for Google to potentially crawl and index your website and ultimately boost your website’s SEO.
Since Google Search Console is constantly updated with new features and improvements, you can also leverage this aspect of this free Google tool to improve various aspects of your website, including your website’s SEO.
Check My Links – Chrome Extension
Lastly, we have the Chrome extension of “Check My Links” on the list. If you are looking for a quick and simple broken link building tool, then look no further. This tool is all about efficiency. What this means is that once you’ve installed the extension, all you have to do is visit a web page, click on the icon of “Check My Links,” and it will scan the entire webpage for you while looking for broken links within a few seconds.
It wouldn’t be wrong to state that this tool is like having a superpower that lets you detect broken links with X-ray vision. This tool is incredibly useful for quickly checking the status of links while browsing the web.
For instance, you might be reading an intriguing blog post related to your website niche, and you’ll come across a link that you might want to check out full stop instead of clicking on it and potentially being met with a 404 error, you can just use this chrome extension to verify if the link is working before you even click on it.
This tool is also great for checking your website content before you hit that publish button.
All you must do is run this Chrome extension on your blog post or web page to make sure that all your internal links, as well as external links, are working properly. By doing so, you will be saving yourself lots of headaches down the road and ensuring that your readers have a great user experience on your website.
Final Thoughts
With the best broken link building tool, such as Semrush or Ahrefs, you can successfully identify websites with broken links that are quite relevant to your niche. Once you have identified websites with broken links, the subsequent step would be to develop high-quality, compelling, and valuable content that can serve as the perfect replacement for the broken links. After contacting the website owners, you can pitch your content and explain the broken link. However, you can also leverage our broken link building service and save effort and valuable time. Our in-house link-building experts do the hard work for you, including reaching out to website owners and pitching them valuable content as a replacement.
FAQs
What is broken link building?
Broken link building is essentially a white-hat SEO strategy that involves identifying and repairing fractured or dead links on niche-related websites. The goal is to suggest your own high-quality and relevant content as the perfect replacement and gain backlinks in return.
What is the real meaning of a broken link?
Essentially, a broken link is a hyperlink that points to a nonexistent page or resource. Mostly, a broken link leads to a page that has either been deleted or moved without setting up a redirection.
What is the link-building tool?
A link-building tool is an application or software that assists in generating links pointing to your website. These links are crawled and indexed by Google and other search engines to help others discover your website and decide how high to rank your website in search results.
