Link Reclamation for Domain Change and SEO Migration

What is Link Reclamation?

Link reclamation refers to identifying and reclaiming backlinks that were once pointing to a website but have since been lost or redirected.

The most common reasons for lost links are:

• The webmaster removes the link from the page.
• The content on the linking page is updated without reference to your site.
• The linking page is deleted or redirected.
• The linking website no longer exists.

Link Reclamation for Category URL Structure Changes:

Link Reclamation is an important part of our Offsite SEO strategy as we follow a 3 stage process and work on implementing the ideal site structure. 

This involves changing the existing site structure and URL’s of the existing categories. This causes a 301 redirect for old URL, which allows our SEO team to outreach the webmasters to modify the external backlink and fix the internal links. 

Link reclamation for Domain change: 

When a website transitions to a new domain, whether due to rebranding, domain expiration, or other reasons, it’s crucial to ensure that valuable backlinks pointing to the old domain are not lost.

Here’s a step-by-step checklist on link reclamation for domain change:

1. Conduct a thorough audit of existing backlinks to the old domain.
2. Prioritise valuable backlinks based on relevance and authority.
3. Set up 301 redirects from old domain URLs to corresponding pages on the new domain.
4. Contact webmasters of linking sites, informing them of the domain change and requesting link updates.
5. Monitor changes in backlink profiles, traffic, and search engine rankings.
6. Send follow-up reminders to unresponsive webmasters if necessary.
7. Update internal links within your website to point to the new domain.
8. Maintain consistency in branding and messaging across old and new domains.

Case Study of a client we worked on Change in brand domain from .com to .com.au

Successful in link reclamation to update high value .com.au backlinks to point to .com.au vs .com resulting in:

• 350% increase in Domain Authority
• 1377% increase in referring domains 

Link Reclamation for Migration projects

Link reclamation for platform migration, such as moving from WordPress to Shopify, involves ensuring that backlinks pointing to the old platform are properly redirected or updated to reflect the new platform. 

How to identify Lost Backlinks and Link Reclamation

To identify lost or broken backlinks, it’s crucial to utilize tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Moz to monitor changes in your backlink profile, keeping an eye out for removed, redirected, or low-status code links like 404 or 410 errors.

Example: 

Run a backlink audit from Semrush or any other SEO software like: Moz, ahref etc. 

What Links do we usually reclaim?

• Focus on Authority Score of the lost backlink. Focus on links >31 Authority score.
• Check if the domain is from local country/IP.

Example: for AU sites need to be .com.au

• Outreach domains related to same niche.

Check backlink traffic potential, how much referral traffic and its referral revenue. 

Why you don’t need to reclaim all links?

The cost of Reclamation a single link for an SEO agency can range between $500 to  $1000. So, it’s more useful for an agency to reclaim a referral traffic revenue generation backlink. 

There are always low-quality based links that will not make any impact on page rank.