Broken link building tested: a real campaign with honest results

Executive overview

Broken link building is the second most popular link building tactic, yet many experienced SEOs dismiss it as a waste of time. Sam Oh ran a live campaign targeting a broken Google URL with 2,700+ referring domains to test whether the tactic still holds up.

74 personalised emails sent. One link earned — likely due to prior brand familiarity, not the pitch itself.

The real issue isn't the tactic: it's that most link building tactics provide a weak reason for contact and a weak reason to link.

The blitz list process

• Export all backlinks pointing to the broken URL from Site Explorer
• Filter out low-quality pages using URL footprints (forums, blogspot, profile pages)
• Set a minimum domain rating threshold; pull traffic and keyword data via Ahrefs API
• Use Hunter's Author Finder API to retrieve author names and email addresses
• Verify emails with NeverBounce; manually check catch-all domains
• Filter to English-language pages; manually visit each URL to confirm the broken link is still live and contextually relevant
• 2,800 starting URLs → 74 qualified prospects in under 2 hours

The outreach email

• Told prospects about the broken URL and Google's live replacement — honest framing, not pretending the tool was dead
• Pitched a third-party tool (Merkle's mobile-friendly tester) as a superior alternative: no CAPTCHAs, bulk testing, exportable results
• Included a screenshot showing the exact broken link location on their page
• No follow-up emails sent

Campaign results

• 74 emails sent; 4 bounced; 5 replied; 1 link earned
• 1.4% conversion rate on deliverable emails
• Two recipients fixed the broken link but didn't add the pitched link
• Two requested a link exchange; both declined
• The one link came from someone already familiar with the brand — likely not a cold conversion

Why the campaign underperformed

• Prospects were SEOs and digital marketers — the audience least likely to care about broken links
• Google's tool wasn't discontinued; it was simply mis-redirected, weakening the pitch
• Opening with "was digging through Ahrefs" telegraphed link-seeking intent immediately
• No follow-up sequence; reciprocity-based follow-ups had driven conversions in past campaigns

What broken link building actually is

• A tactic for finding prospects and initiating contact — not a complete pitch strategy
• The core weakness: reason for contact (broken link) and reason to link (similar live page) are both weak
• The skyscraper technique has the same structural problem
• Successful link building requires strong content, a strong value proposition, and a genuine reason for the recipient to act
• Route A: paid links or link exchanges; Route B: earn links through content and tool quality