There has been a lot of discussion on the topic of link
reclamation in the recent years. This happens due to the fact that link
builders are moving towards technical SEO, and so the queries and ideas keep on
evolving. Even with the technical knowhow, the link builders often find it
pretty difficult to work on the websites when it comes to combining the roles
of SEO and a web developer.
This phenomenon is not something for which you can blame link
builders and web developers because the struggle involved in this scenario is
quite real. And people have been struggling in this department from the past.
Things can start converting to worse from bad when it’s too
late before you actually know about the problem. So, the question about ‘404’
errors may come up when you prepare your monthly report. At this point, your
staff may not be ready to anticipate your investigation when you bring up the
issue of existence of lost links. And you may also not be able to create
customized content at this very point.
Although this problem is real and the struggle is
understandable, link building doesn’t have to be this much difficult. And so
the issue of ‘404’ is not that big one for which you would hold a long meeting
with web developers, ending up being stressful enough to require a nap.
To better start with the link analysis and moving towards
finding the fix and eliminating redirects, you can consider using a tool which
is known as Ahrefs.
Now that you have cleaned up the 404 Errors, you will now
require reaching that particular page in order to update the URL. You can
perform this action even if you have added 301 redirects.
After a couple of months of this practice, you may be able
to see new links in your backlink profile. One thing worth mentioning here is
that cleaning up 404 Errors is not the only way to reclaim your links. You can
also reclaim your links through brand mentions which do not have the websites’links.
Reclaiming image URLs is also possible here. You can either
use the tool named Tineye or you can use manual search operator like
allintitle: [insert title of photo] in Google. That will help you to know where
your images are being used.
