Broken Backlink Recovery
Recover lost links by reaching out when competitor content dies
Nora finds backlinks to competitors that are now broken, and suggests reaching out to those sites to link to your similar content instead.
Websites constantly shuffle content. A site that linked to your competitor's old article might still want to link to content on that topic — but now the link is broken. Nora queries Ahrefs for backlinks to your top 3 competitors and checks which ones now return a 404 (broken link). For each broken link, Nora extracts: the linking site's authority, the anchor text/topic, and your similar content. It then generates an outreach list: sites to contact with a message like 'I noticed you had a link to [broken competitor link] — we have updated content on that topic here [your link]'. This 'link reclamation' is one of the highest-ROI link-building tactics because the site already cares about the topic. For a competitive niche with 100 broken competitor links, you might recover 10-20 high-quality links for minimal effort. This automation surfaces those opportunities monthly.
How it works
- Query Ahrefs for all backlinks to top 3-5 competitors
- Check HTTP status for each referring URL (identify 404 broken links)
- Extract linking domain, anchor text, and content topic from broken link context
- Identify your related content that could replace the broken competitor link
- Filter for high-authority linking domains (DA >40) to prioritize outreach
- Generate outreach template and list of targets for manual or automated email
Frequently asked questions
What does "Broken Backlink Recovery" do?
Nora finds backlinks to competitors that are now broken, and suggests reaching out to those sites to link to your similar content instead.
How long does setup take?
Under 5 minutes. Connect your tools and Nora handles the rest.
Which tools does this use?
Uses Ahrefs, run by your Webmaster.
How much time does this save?
Saves approximately 4 hours/month, running monthly on the 15th at 10:00 am.