What Is Link Reclamation?
Link reclamation is the process of finding backlink opportunities that already exist in some form and converting them into active, followed links pointing to your site. It encompasses two main scenarios.
The first is unlinked brand mentions, where another website references your company, product, or content by name without including a hyperlink.
The second is broken backlinks, where an external site has linked to a URL on your domain that no longer exists, resulting in a 404 error.
In both cases, the link equity is either waiting to be captured (unlinked mention) or already lost (broken link).
A short, polite outreach email to the publisher is often enough to convert an unlinked mention into a followed link, because the mention already signals the publisher has a positive opinion of your brand.
Broken link reclamation typically involves either restoring the original page, creating a redirect from the old URL to a relevant existing page, or asking the publisher to update the broken URL to a working destination.
Link reclamation is considered one of the most efficient tactics in SEO link building because it does not require creating new content or building relationships from scratch.
The work has already been done in part: the other site has decided to mention or link to you. You are simply completing the circuit and ensuring that link equity flows to your domain and contributes to your overall domain authority.
South African businesses and agencies can identify reclamation opportunities using tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console. In Search Console, the Coverage and Links reports highlight 404 pages that receive external links.
Brand mention monitoring tools, including Ahrefs Content Explorer and Google Alerts, surface unlinked references across the South African web and internationally.
For businesses that have been mentioned in local news, industry publications, or B2B directories without receiving a followed link, reclamation outreach can yield meaningful improvements in link profile quality without the cost of new content creation.
Link Reclamation In Practice
A Johannesburg-based financial planning firm has been operating for twelve years and has been mentioned by name in several local business news articles, podcast show notes, and professional association newsletters. None of these publications have linked to the firm's website.
An SEO audit using a brand monitoring tool surfaces 23 unlinked mentions across 14 different domains, several of which have significant domain authority scores above 40.
The SEO team drafts brief, personalised outreach emails for each publisher, noting the mention and politely requesting that the reference be linked to the relevant service page on the firm's site.
Eight of the 14 publishers respond and add the link within two weeks, with no new content required. Separately, a backlink audit reveals that three high-authority financial education sites are linking to a resources page that was deleted during a website redesign two years earlier.
The team creates a 301 redirect from the old URL to the current resources page, immediately restoring the link equity from all three referring domains.
The combined result is a measurable improvement in the firm's link profile, achieved in under a month at a fraction of the cost of outreach-based link building.
What link reclamation is
Link reclamation is the practice of recovering or gaining backlinks that a site should have but does not, by finding situations where the site is mentioned or was linked but the link is missing, broken or lost, and getting a proper, working link put in place. It covers several related situations: unlinked brand mentions (where a site or brand is mentioned in others' content but not linked, so a link can be requested); lost links (where a link that previously existed has been removed or broken, which can sometimes be recovered by reaching out); broken links to the site (where a link points to a now-broken URL on the site, such as a moved or removed page, which can be fixed by redirecting the URL or asking for the link to be updated); and similar cases where a deserved or existing link is absent or non-functional. Link reclamation is essentially about reclaiming link value the site is entitled to or has lost, rather than building entirely new links from scratch, so it is often a relatively efficient, legitimate way to gain or recover backlinks, since it builds on existing mentions or prior links and involves getting a proper link where there is already a basis for one. Understanding link reclamation matters because it is a practical, white-hat link-building tactic that recovers deserved link value, finding unlinked mentions, lost links, and broken links to the site and getting proper links in place, so knowing what link reclamation is, recovering or gaining backlinks the site should have, helps a business pursue an efficient, legitimate way to strengthen its backlink profile by reclaiming link value it is entitled to or has lost, alongside other link-building efforts.
Doing link reclamation
Doing link reclamation involves finding the situations where a deserved or existing link is missing, broken or lost, and taking the appropriate action to get a proper link in place, and it is a relatively efficient, legitimate way to gain or recover backlinks because it builds on an existing basis. The main tasks are: finding unlinked brand mentions, instances where your brand, business or content is mentioned in others' content but not linked, which can be discovered using tools that monitor brand mentions across the web (mention-tracking and SEO tools that find where your brand is named), and then reaching out politely to those sites to request that the mention be linked to your site, since a mention without a link is a natural candidate for a link where the site is willing; recovering lost links, links that previously pointed to your site but have been removed or broken, which can be found using backlink-analysis tools (comparing current and past backlinks) and, where appropriate, addressed by reaching out to understand and possibly restore the link; and fixing broken links to your site, cases where a link points to a URL on your site that is now broken (a moved or removed page), which you can address by redirecting the old URL to the right page (so the existing link works again and its value is preserved) or by asking the linking site to update the link to the correct URL. Finding these opportunities relies on tools: brand-mention monitoring tools for unlinked mentions, and backlink-analysis tools for lost and broken links to the site. The outreach, where needed, should be courteous and genuine, since you are asking sites to add or fix a link, which they are more likely to do for a polite, reasonable request, especially where there is already a mention or prior link. Link reclamation differs from broader link building in that it recovers or gains links where there is an existing basis (a mention, a prior link, a broken link to fix), rather than seeking entirely new links from scratch, making it often more efficient and with a higher success rate for the effort, since it builds on existing goodwill or situations. For a South African business, doing link reclamation means using tools to find unlinked brand mentions (and requesting links), lost links (and seeking to recover them), and broken links to its site (and fixing them via redirects or update requests), so it reclaims the link value it is entitled to or has lost, which is an efficient, legitimate way to strengthen its backlink profile. Because link reclamation recovers deserved link value with relatively focused effort, and is a legitimate, white-hat tactic, pursuing it, finding unlinked mentions, lost and broken links, and getting proper links in place, is a worthwhile part of a business's link-building and SEO efforts, complementing broader link building with the efficient recovery of links it should have.
FAQ
What is the difference between link reclamation and link building?
Link building involves earning entirely new backlinks from sites that have never linked to you before, typically through content creation, outreach, or digital PR. Link reclamation focuses on recovering links that already exist in some form, either as broken links pointing to your site or as unlinked brand mentions that could become followed links with a simple outreach email.
How do I find unlinked brand mentions?
You can find unlinked brand mentions using tools such as Ahrefs Content Explorer, Google Alerts set to your brand name, or by searching Google for your brand name with the site and inurl operators excluded. Any result that mentions your brand without linking to your website is a reclamation opportunity worth pursuing with a short, polite outreach email.
How do you find unlinked brand mentions?
Using tools that monitor brand mentions across the web, mention-tracking and SEO tools that find where your brand, business or content is named in others' content. These surface instances where you are mentioned but not linked, which are candidates for link reclamation: you then reach out politely to those sites to request that the mention be linked to your site, since a mention without a link is a natural basis for requesting one where the site is willing.