Lost Backlink Checker

What Are Lost Backlinks?

Lost backlinks are links that used to direct to your site that are no longer functional. This can occur due to many reasons: the page that the link was on might have been deleted, the material might have been edited and your link might have been taken off, the site might have changed to a different platform, or the publisher might have removed the link intentionally.

Each backlink that is lost is a loss of the total link equity of your site. As one of the most significant ranking factors of Google, backlinks loss may affect your positions in search engines directly. The link of high authority that had required weeks of outreach to obtain is gone in a moment, and with it, its SEO value.

This is further complicated by the fact that the losses in links are not always noticed. It is possible that without a dedicated monitoring tool, you will not even notice that a link has been removed until you notice a drop in rankings, and at that point it may be too late to recover. This is why the active lost backlink monitoring is a vital component of any serious SEO strategy.

Why Backlinks Disappear

The knowledge of the most frequent causes of backlink loss will assist you in taking precautionary steps and increase your recovery rate. The most common causes are the following:

Content updates and redesigns: The owners of the websites update their content frequently to make it current and topical. In these updates, external links can be deleted, both deliberately and not. This is the most prevalent cause of loss of backlinks.

Page deletions: In case a publisher deletes a page completely, all the outbound links on that page are lost. This usually occurs when restructuring a site, migrating to CMS or consolidating the content.

URL structure changes: When the URL structure of websites is altered (e.g. when switching to HTTPS, changing domain names, or reorganizing permalinks), existing links can be broken unless appropriate redirects are added.

Sponsored content expiry: There are numerous guest posts and sponsored articles that have a time limit. When the agreed time expires, the publisher has the option of deleting the content or the backlinks in the content.

Editorial choices: Publishers can also look through their external links and choose to delete those that they no longer believe to be relevant or useful to their readers. This is particularly prevalent when there is a site-wide link audit.

The Way to Reclaim Lost Backlinks

The positive thing is that it is possible to restore many of the lost backlinks in case you are fast and treat the situation professionally. The following is a time-tested recovery procedure:

Step 1: Detect the loss early. The faster you find a lost backlink, the higher the chances of recovery. Monitor link removals within hours, not weeks with the automated monitoring of Linkoxy. Install email notification so that you are alerted as soon as a link status has changed.

Step 2: Investigate the cause. Read the page before contacting the publisher to know the reason why the link has been taken down. Was the page deleted? Was the content updated? Is there a technical issue? Knowing the reason will enable you to develop a proper response.

Step 3: Contact the publisher. Send a friendly, business-like email. Give them credit on their editorial judgment, tell them what value your link will have to their readers, and inquire whether the deletion was deliberate. In case the page has been deleted, inquire whether there is a new URL on which your link may be added.

Step 4: Offer value. In case the publisher deleted your link on the grounds that the information is not up-to-date, volunteer to create new material, new information, or better resources that would make your link more useful to their readers.

Step 5: Follow up. In case you do not get a reply in a week, send a polite follow up. Also remember to be professional and understanding in your tone, publishers get a lot of requests and sometimes, it is best to be persistent (but not pushy).

The Way Linkoxy Identifies Lost Backlinks

The lost backlink detector system of Linkoxy operates by crawling the pages on which you have placed your backlinks. Our monitoring engine does a deep analysis of the HTML to ensure that your link has not been removed off the page not just to check whether the URL matches but also to check the actual anchor element and its attributes.

Once a link is no longer present on a page, Linkoxy changes its status to removed on your dashboard and sends an immediate email notification. The dashboard gives clear visual indicators: green color on live links, red color on removed links and warning signs on links that are about to expire.

This system will keep you informed of the status of your backlink portfolio. Together with our backlink monitoring capabilities, you can fully see link health, and it is easy to focus on the recovery of your most valuable lost links.

The Cost of Lost Backlinks Not Detected

The actual cost of the lost backlinks that are not detected is underestimated by many SEO professionals. The blow is much bigger than losing one link, it can have a trickle-down effect and destroy your whole SEO strategy. Take this into account: when you spend 200 dollars on a guest post placement and the link is taken down only after two months rather than the twelve months you were promised, you have lost 83 percent of the money you paid. Take that and multiply it by dozens of paid link placements, and the financial impact becomes significant.

In addition to the direct financial expense, lost backlinks also impact on your search engine rankings. The algorithm of Google is continuously testing your backlink profile, and the loss of several links in a short period of time may cause an apparent drop in rank. With competitive keywords, losing a few high-authority backlinks can put you out of the first page of results, where the huge majority of clicks occur, to the second page where visibility plummets.

An opportunity cost is also involved. Each day that you do not realize a lost backlink is a day you are not enjoying the link equity that the link should be giving you. The faster you realize that you have lost something, the faster you can act, be it to seek reinstatement, to construct a new connection, or to change your approach to balance out the lost power.

That is why a specific lost backlink checker is not a luxury, it is a necessity of any serious SEO activity. The monitoring tool is also one of the best investments in your SEO toolbox with a high ROI because it costs less than the links it secures.

Developing a Lost Backlink Recovery Process

The only reason why you want to detect lost backlinks is to have a systematic process of recovering them. The following is a structure that effective SEO teams follow to ensure they achieve the highest recovery rate:

Triage by priority: Not every lost backlink will be worth the same effort to recover. Begin by classifying your lost links in terms of the authority of the linking domain, the relevance of the linking page, and the significance of the target URL on your site. The most valuable links should be recovered first.

Research prior to contact: Before approaching a publisher, research why the connection has been taken down. Determine whether the page has been removed, whether the material has been updated, or whether the whole site has been changed. This study will assist you in creating a more efficient outreach message that will respond to the particular situation.

Do personalized outreach: The recovery rates of generic emails of the kind of "please add my link back" are low. Rather, mention your past association with the publisher, the value their site offers the reader and why your link will be valuable to their content. In case the content was updated, suggest to offer new materials or updated information that would make your link more topical.

Monitor recovery successes: Record the successful and unsuccessful outreach efforts. In the long run, this information will assist you in determining trends, including what publishers will respond, what outreach templates are the most effective, and what kinds of link losses can be salvaged. The campaign features of Linkoxy will help you structure your recovery process and monitor the progress.

Replacement plan: Not all the lost backlinks can be restored. In case of nonrecovery, have a strategy to construct replacement links using similar or better domains. This will make sure that your overall portfolio of backlinks will keep growing even in the event of losing individual links. Your link building tracker can assist you to run both recovery and replacement campaigns at the same time.

Avoiding Future Loss of Backlinks

Although you cannot avoid losing all the backlinks, there are measures that can minimize the chances of losing the links. The best way is to establish authentic relationships with publishers. A publisher who is personally acquainted with you and appreciates your work will be much less likely to delete your links when updating content.

It also helps to create really valuable content that is evergreen on your own site. When the page that you are linking to continues to be of value to the readers of the publisher, then they have a great reason to maintain the link alive. Keep your linked content up to date, accurate and useful, by updating it on a regular schedule, publishers are less likely to remove links to current resources.

Lastly, spread out your backlink sources. Do not place too much faith on a single publisher or platform to do your backlinks. Having a diverse portfolio implies that the demise of any single connection has very little effect on your overall SEO performance, which provides you with the ability to withstand the natural flux of the web.

Explore more tools: free backlink tracker, link building tracker, and backlink management platform.