Aug 08 2011

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Link Reclamation Best Practices – The Complete Guide

Over time, websites change and alter their designs, creating broken links from other websites. Often, back-links may be lost as a result of removing pages and changing URL’s during the website overhaul process. When starting up a link building campaign for a new client, link reclamation is a quick and easy way to help with the search engine optimization effort. 301 redirects will restore some SEO value to the inbound links, but a link reclamation project is the only way to retain the full link value.

Link reclamation is the process of locating, contacting and fixing broken links on your company website and other websites with links pointing to yours. The only tools needed for a link reclamation project are Microsoft Excel and Open Site Explorer. Open Site Explorer is a free tool created by SEOmoz, and it is the most in-depth tool for analyzing linkage on web pages. OSE provides metrics for inbound, outbound, internal and broken links on web pages.

Carrying out a link reclamation project is necessary any time content is removed, URLs are changed, or the website is redesigned. To determine whether a website requires it, investigate the results from the “Top Pages” tab in Open Site Explorer for the root domain of the website. Export the results to a .csv format, and sort them by “HTTP Status.” If any pages have a 404 HTTP status, link reclamation is imminent.

Case Study: TSI

TSI is a precision measurement instrumentation company near Minneapolis, MN. They are a well-known company in the academic and industrial communities because of their aerosol research offerings– which makes them a unique client to build links for. Most of their back-links come from research organizations, .edu and .gov domains. Upon review of their back-links, we noticed several pages coming up as 404’s. Several of these broken links were coming from .edu sites. Most of the broken links were pointing to non-existent product pages from one of their old websites.

Before diving into the project, it helps to create a spreadsheet with the old URL’s, anchor texts, new URLs and locations of the broken links. The best fix for internal linking problems is to manually go to the page with the broken link and replace the URL. To fix broken links from external websites, a 301 redirect campaign along with a link reclamation project are the only way to retain those links. A direct link always holds more value than a redirect, so it would be best to wait a few weeks after the link reclamation to put the redirects in place. After all, why would other websites want to bother fixing their links when you already set up a redirect for them?

Figuring out new URLs for a broken links can sometimes be tricky – especially with a client like TSI. One broken link had “Velocicalc” as the anchor text. Who or what is a Velocicalc? The only other clue was a product ID number in the URL which had absolutely no significance to the current product whatsoever. The web page with the broken link on it came from a climatology research project page for a university – which was full of scientific jargon. After doing some searching on the current website, it turns out that it’s supposed to be pointing to a page for air velocity meters. Using context clues, the correct pages usually can be found. If not, the home page can always be used as the default target.

Once the spreadsheet is built out with the new URLs, the next step is to figure out how many pages are linking to the missing page. To do this, run each URL that came up as a 404 status through Open Site Explorer, and view the “Linking Pages” tab. This will show every link and anchor text pointing to the missing page. Do this for every missing page. This step will make the spreadsheet quite lengthy. If some pages come up as 404’s but there are no pages linking to it, there may be a problem with the old redirects already in place.

Sort the spreadsheet by the linking URL’s once all other steps are complete. This will make it easy to identify websites that have multiple broken links to your company website. The next step is to manually go through the list and contact each of the website owners to let them know about the broken link — and what the correct link is. Depending on the age of the links, the response rate is about 50 percent on average. The older a link is, the less likely a response is. Most people will gladly fix the links because it affects their visitors too. The key to getting better responses is to avoid looking like a bot, and be as informative as possible in the initial contact e-mail.

Not all links can be reclaimed. A few weeks after sending out the initial contacts, the best course of action is to set up 301 redirects for all pages that showed up as 404s previously. Even if the broken links were fixed, it is still highly beneficial to set up redirects for those pages. Google will be able to index the website much more efficiently when all inbound links are clean, direct links to the website.

Written By:

Harrison Jones | Chicago SEO Company

Harrison Jones is an SEO analyst at Straight North, specializing in link acquisition and search engine optimization. Harrison writes frequently about SEO tactics and techniques.

More Posts By Harrison Jones

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When you buy a home, you’re not only purchasing the actual house, but the property and everything that comes along with it. Often, if you’re lucky, this includes a few trees that can add privacy, work as a noise barrier and ultimately increase your home’s value. However, a tree can also mean possible property damage and tussles with the neighbors.

Talk it Out

One of the biggest neighbor disputes involves property lines and trees that cross them. Although you as a homeowner have the right to trim anything on your property, or anything that crosses over onto your property, doing so could have disastrous results.

“Property lines are a gray area,” explains Jim Burgess of Snohomish Arborists. He notes that the best option is to talk to your neighbor first before you take matters into your own hands.

If you have a legitimate concern over a tree on your property, or on your neighbor’s property next door, you have every right to address it — even if your neighbor doesn’t agree with you. The best way to tackle the issue without litigation is to bring in an expert.

An arborist, or tree service consultant, can work with you and your neighbor as a third party to find the best way to deal with a tree. Burgess often says that two consultants will be brought in — one for one neighbor and one for the other — so the most impartial decision can be made.

While the consulting session can run upwards of $100 an hour, Burgess says it’s worth it. You don’t know if the tree is dead, damaged or needs to have specific care given to it. Not only can a consultant help you work with your neighbor, they’ll let you know if the tree needs to be removed.

Don’t Do It Yourself

Pruning may seem like a simple task, but when it’s a 100-year old maple or enormous willow,
you could end up killing the tree and invoking the risk damaging your home or your neighbor’s.

“If you thin a tree improperly, a tree can react and produce large, more hazardous limbs that can go through roofs,” said Burgess. “Some trees, if you cut back too much, you’ll expose them to wounding, disease and then the tree dies.”

Bottom line, says Burgess, if you have a tree of significant value or size, you should bring a certified arborist in.

Avoid a Lawsuit

As mentioned before, you have the right to trim the tree branches hanging over into your yard, but be aware if your work causes damage, you’ll end up as the one responsible.

“When trees aren’t taken care of properly, they can drop the price of the property,” said Burgess. “Trees have very high value and if something is damaged it will be a really large sum in terms of settlement.”

The conclusion, said Burgess, is to negotiate before you litigate. Talk to your neighbor and call in a consultant if need be.

Looking for a consultant or arborist? The International Society of Arboriculture provides a list of certified tree services.