How to Find Broken Link Building Opportunities Using Ahrefs

Broken link building starts by helping someone. A website links out to a resource that no longer exists, its readers hit a dead end, and the owner often does not know the link is broken. Offer a good replacement and you are solving a problem instead of begging for a favour.

Ahrefs makes the research side of this process much faster, because its index can show you which pages on other sites are dead and which websites still link to them. This guide explains the full workflow, from choosing a target site to writing outreach that has a genuine chance of working.

Quick Answer

To find broken link building opportunities with Ahrefs, enter a competitor or popular niche site into Site Explorer, open its broken backlinks or broken pages report, and filter for dead pages that have many relevant linking domains. Check that the topic matches content you have or can create, then contact each site that still links to the dead page and suggest your resource as the replacement.

What Broken Link Building Is, in Simple Terms

Over the years, resources that websites link to disappear: companies close, pages get deleted, domains expire, and URLs change without redirects. The links stay behind, leading visitors to error pages.

Broken link building follows three simple steps:

1. Find a dead page that used to be popular and well linked.
2. Create, or identify, a live page of yours that covers the same topic at least as well.
3. Tell the sites still linking to the dead page that their link is broken, and suggest yours instead.

You can start exploring the free entry point through the Ahrefs Broken Link Checker for finding dead links pointing to any site, which gives you a taste of the data before you use the fuller reports inside a paid Ahrefs account.

Step 1: Choose the Right Sites to Research

Your best starting points are not your own pages. They are other people’s popular pages in your niche.

Where to find good target sites

• Direct competitors: sites ranking for the same keywords as you, whose linked resources attract links you would also like.
• Niche publishers and blogs: well-known blogs in your topic area that publish resource lists, tutorials, and roundups.
• Resource and association sites: industry bodies, universities, and community sites that maintain large link collections.
• Expired or redesigned sites: sites that changed direction often leave behind popular old pages that no longer exist.

Make a short list of five to ten target sites and work through them properly.

This outward-looking work pairs well with fixing your own site first. Our tutorial on the Screaming Frog guide to finding broken links on your own site covers the internal side, so your own house is in order before you ask others to link to you.

Step 2: Find Broken Backlinks in Ahrefs

Inside Ahrefs Site Explorer, the workflow is straightforward.

1. Enter the target domain into Site Explorer.
2. Open the report that lists the site’s outgoing or inbound broken links, depending on your angle. For finding dead pages on the target site itself, look at its broken pages. For finding dead external resources it links to, review the broken outgoing links.
3. Sort the results by the number of referring domains, so the most-linked dead pages appear first.
4. Filter out irrelevant results, such as dead pages in languages you do not publish in or topics far outside your niche.
5. Export or note the dead page URLs, their topics, and how many sites link to each one.

The free Broken Link Checker gives a limited view of this data for any domain, which is enough to test whether a target site is worth deeper research. The full lists of linking websites, which you need for outreach, come from the paid reports.

What to look for in the results

Not every dead page is an opportunity. Prioritise pages where:

• Many different websites still link to the dead URL
• The linking sites are relevant to your topic and look well maintained
• The original topic is evergreen, so a replacement page will stay useful
• The dead page was a guide, statistic, tool, or resource rather than a time-sensitive news story

Step 3: Judge Relevance and Recreate Something Better

Finding a dead page is only half the work. Before any outreach, you need a replacement that genuinely deserves the links.

Work out what the dead page was

Use a web archive to view the dead page as it looked when it was alive. Note its topic, its structure, and why people probably linked to it. Was it the clearest tutorial? The only free calculator? A widely quoted set of statistics?

Do not copy the old page. Rebuilding someone else’s content word for word is both unethical and risky. Instead, understand the need it served, then create your own original resource that serves that need better, with updated information, clearer structure, and your own examples and data.

Decide: use an existing page or create a new one

• If you already have a page that matches the topic closely, use it. There is no need to duplicate your own content.
• If your closest page is only loosely related, improve it or write a new, focused resource.
• If the topic does not fit your site at all, drop the opportunity. Irrelevant links help nobody, and editors can spot a forced fit instantly.

Also open a few linking pages and read the text around the link. That context tells you what those authors wanted readers to get, and what your replacement must deliver.

Step 4: Find Who to Contact and Reach Out

With your replacement ready, return to Ahrefs and list every site that links to the dead page. That list is your outreach list.

Prepare your outreach list

1. Export the linking domains and the exact pages that contain the broken link.
2. Remove sites that are clearly spam, inactive, or unrelated, because linking from them has no value.
3. Find a named contact where possible: an editor, content manager, or the site owner.
4. Record everything in a simple tracker with columns for site, contact, email date, and reply status.

The outreach angle that works

Good outreach is short, specific, and helpful. Your message should:

• Name the exact page on their site that contains the broken link
• Point out politely that the link now leads to a dead page
• Suggest your replacement in one sentence, explaining why it fits their readers
• Make it effortless to say yes, with the exact URL ready to paste in
• Stay friendly if they say no, and never pressure or guilt the editor

Personalisation matters more than clever wording. Mentioning the specific article and the specific dead resource shows you actually visited their site. Generic bulk emails that could have been sent to anyone are deleted in seconds, and mass-blasting hundreds of editors with the same template can damage your reputation in a small niche very quickly.

Expect modest reply rates; even a well-run campaign converts only a small percentage of contacts. That is normal, and because one replacement page can be pitched to dozens of sites, the total return is still excellent.

Follow up once, politely

If you hear nothing after about a week, one short follow-up is reasonable. Keep it to two or three lines, restate the broken link and your suggested fix, and then stop. Chasing people repeatedly turns a helpful suggestion into spam.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Pitching irrelevant replacements: if your page does not truly cover the dead page’s topic, editors will not swap the link, and you waste everyone’s time.
• Copying the dead page: recreate the value, never the text. Original, updated content is what earns links and keeps you safe.
• Targeting junk linking sites: a link from a spam site is worthless. Vet every linking domain before you contact it.
• Sending bulk, unpersonalised emails: naming the exact page and broken link is the minimum effort that gets replies.
• Giving up after one target: this is a repeatable process. Work through several competitor sites and build it into your monthly routine.

Conclusion

Broken link building with Ahrefs follows a clear, honest pattern. Find well-linked dead pages in your niche, understand what made them worth linking to, create an original replacement that is genuinely better, and politely show the linking sites an easy fix for their broken link.

It takes more effort than many link building shortcuts, but that effort is exactly why it works. You are helping editors improve their pages, giving readers a working resource, and earning relevant links that tend to last. Start with one competitor, one dead page, and one strong replacement, and build the habit from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the Ahrefs Broken Link Checker for free?

Yes, the free checker shows a limited sample of broken link data for a domain. It is useful for testing whether a site is worth researching, but the full lists of linking websites needed for outreach require a paid Ahrefs plan.

How many linking domains should a dead page have to be worth pursuing?

There is no fixed number, but a dead page linked by ten or more relevant, quality sites is usually a strong opportunity. One excellent linking site can also be worth it if its audience matches yours closely.

Is it legal and ethical to recreate a dead page’s content?

Creating your own original resource on the same topic is fine. Copying the original page’s text, images, or data word for word is not. Study the old page to understand the need, then write something new and better.

What reply rate should I expect from broken link outreach?

Rates vary widely by niche and by how relevant your replacement is, but even single-digit success rates can be worthwhile because one resource can be suggested to many sites at once.

Should I only target competitors’ broken pages?

No. Any popular site in your niche can hold opportunities, including blogs, associations, universities, and resource hubs. What matters is that the dead page’s topic fits your site and that the linking sites are relevant and reputable.