How to Reclaim Your Site’s Lost Links

What if I told you there was a treasure trove of solid links to your webpages that were going unused each day? What if these were links that your competitors could never hope to take advantage of, but until you acted, wouldn’t benefit anyone?

It’s true. These unused links are broken historical redirects.

Redirects are used to make searching easier for users. For example, if you were to type in “UK” into Wikipedia, it would redirect you to a page about “Great Britain.” You’ve surely done the same thing with your brand when someone searches for a term close to it. Well, over time and if your webpage goes through various redesigns, it’s possible for these links to become broken.

But what happens to outside links that pointed to these redirects? They become broken. They guide potential leads and customers to that dreaded “404” page that triggers an immediate back button click and a vanishing customer.

That’s why Patrix Stox writes about how to make the use of the Wayback Machine API to track down and fix all of these historical redirects that are going to waste. Some of his work has allowed sites to double their traffic from the previous month and then use that traffic to appear higher in search rankings, resulting in even more website visits.