Broken link building, scoped to the replacement-content pitch.
The "hey, your page has a broken link" pitch converts at the bottom of the 5 to 12 percent range or below. The replacement-content pitch converts at the upper end. The differentiator is the upstream work: confirming the broken target is gone, confirming the replacement asset covers the same intent, and writing the pitch in the publisher
Four moves the broken-link campaign runs against.
Prospect discovery routes through dead-outbound workflows. The pitch shape is replacement-content fit. Content production runs in parallel with the outreach. The 5 to 12 percent benchmark sits below resource-page acquisition for an editorial-framing reason.
Prospect discovery routes through dead-outbound workflows.
Broken-link prospecting starts with the topical-cluster map: the set of resource pages, link round-ups, and editorial guides where the target site's content would be a natural citation. The discovery workflow then surfaces dead outbound links on those pages using the Wayback Machine for the historical fetch, Check My Links or LinkMiner for the live 404 sweep, and Ahrefs Broken Links Report for the at-scale crawl on a target source-domain set. The prospect filter then layers on the same vetting the rest of the campaign uses: source DR with topical-relevance overlay, source link-graph proximity to spam hubs (TrustRank seed-set proximity), and source outbound-link density.
The pitch shape is replacement-content fit, not generic broken-link notification.
The "hey, you have a broken link" pitch converts at the bottom of the 5 to 12 percent range or below. The replacement-content pitch ("the resource the broken link was pointing at no longer resolves; this resource covers the same ground with current data and we have already cleared it through your editorial criteria for inclusion") converts at the upper end of the range. The differentiator is the work the agency does upstream: confirming the broken target is gone (not just temporarily down), confirming the replacement asset covers the same intent the original page named, and writing the pitch in the publisher's editorial voice rather than as a tool-generated form.
Replacement-content authoring runs in parallel with the prospect list.
Broken-link campaigns rarely run as pure outreach against existing site assets. The conversion math degrades when the prospect list outpaces the asset set. A campaign typically pairs the prospect-list assembly with a content-production engine: when the surfaced broken target points to a topic the site does not currently cover, the editorial team produces the replacement asset on the same timeline as the outreach. The asset gets indexed before the outreach lands so the publisher can verify the placement on first review. The integration with the content surface is what scopes the campaign past the 5 percent floor.
The 5 to 12 percent benchmark sits below the resource-page benchmark for a reason.
Industry benchmarks for broken-link building run 5 to 12 percent pitch-to-link conversion. Resource-page acquisition runs 8 to 15 percent on a similar prospect-vetting workflow. The gap reflects the pitch shape difference: broken-link pitches lead with a problem (the publisher's page has a dead link) and an offer (a replacement). Resource-page pitches lead with a fit (the asset meets the publisher's stated inclusion criteria). Resource-page authors are typically more receptive than broken-link prospects because the framing is editorial rather than corrective. A campaign that runs both surfaces in parallel against the same topical cluster maximizes the prospect coverage and the conversion.
Methodology questions we get during the audit conversation.
What is broken link building?
Broken link building is the off-page tactic of surfacing dead outbound links on topically-relevant publisher pages and pitching a replacement asset that fits the editorial intent the broken link was serving. The workflow runs through the Wayback Machine to verify the original target, Check My Links or LinkMiner for the live 404 sweep, and Ahrefs Broken Links Report for the at-scale crawl. The replacement asset either already exists on the target site or gets produced in parallel with the prospect list assembly. The pitch shape is replacement-content fit, not generic "you have a broken link" notification.
What conversion rate should I expect from broken link building?
Industry benchmarks for broken-link building run 5 to 12 percent pitch-to-link conversion. The bottom of the range reflects generic broken-link pitches without replacement-content fit. The top of the range reflects campaigns where the replacement asset is purpose-fit to the original page's intent, the prospect list is filtered against topical-cluster proximity and source-domain trust, and the pitch is written in the publisher's editorial voice rather than as a tool-generated form. Campaigns that hit the upper benchmark typically integrate the content production engine with the prospect list assembly rather than running them as separate workstreams.
How is broken link building different from resource-page acquisition?
The two tactics share the prospect-vetting and outreach workflow but differ in the pitch shape and the target page state. Broken-link building targets pages where an outbound link is dead and the pitch leads with the replacement-content fit. Resource-page acquisition targets pages where the curated link list is live and the pitch leads with the inclusion-criteria fit. Resource-page acquisition runs at 8 to 15 percent pitch-to-link conversion versus broken-link's 5 to 12 percent; the gap reflects the framing (editorial fit vs. corrective replacement). The two surfaces run in parallel against the same topical cluster in a well-scoped retainer.
Do broken-link campaigns work for all verticals?
The conversion math scales with the size of the topical-cluster surface and the maturity of the publisher set in the vertical. Mature verticals with deep resource-page coverage (B2B SaaS, marketing, finance, legal) carry hundreds of prospect URLs per topical cluster. Emerging verticals or narrow sub-niches carry single-digit prospect URLs; the conversion math degrades because the prospect set runs out before the campaign closes. Pre-campaign vetting reads the prospect surface against the target query set; campaigns that don't show enough surface get scoped against the broader topical cluster or routed into the digital PR or HARO surface instead.
What's the relationship between broken link building and content production?
Broken-link campaigns rarely run as pure outreach against existing site assets. The conversion math degrades when the prospect list outpaces the asset set. The well-scoped campaign pairs prospect-list assembly with a content-production engine: when the surfaced broken target points to a topic the site does not currently cover, the editorial team produces the replacement asset on the same timeline as the outreach. The asset gets indexed before the outreach lands so the publisher can verify the placement on first review. Sites that won't invest in net-new content during the campaign run a "pitch existing assets only" version of the campaign and accept the lower conversion rate.
How long does a broken link building campaign take to show results?
A campaign quarter runs Week 0 to 2 for the prospect-list assembly and content-asset production, Week 2 to 10 for the outreach sequence (initial pitch + two follow-ups distributed across 7 to 14 days each), and Week 10 to 12 for the placement consolidation and reporting. Placements that land typically index within 1 to 3 weeks of going live. Ranking movement from the placements reads at 6 to 12 weeks post-placement depending on the URL's existing inbound profile and the competitive intensity of the target query. A retainer that scopes against the 10 to 20 percent annual decay rate runs a net-positive trajectory only when the placement target is met quarter over quarter.
The 5 percent floor reflects generic broken-link pitches. The 12 percent ceiling reflects replacement-content fit.
The audit reads the inbound profile, surfaces the topical-cluster prospect set against the existing asset map, and scopes the broken-link plus resource-page plus content-production retainer that closes the gap on the SERP competitor set.