The Link Was Dead for 14 Months. One Email Fixed It and Got Us the Backlink.

Every resource page on the internet is rotting. Tools get shut down, blogs move domains, PDFs vanish. The editor who built that page in 2021 has no idea a third of it now points at 404s.

That's the opening. If you run SEO for a small company, it's also the cheapest backlink you'll earn this year.

Grab the prompt here: Find broken-link opportunities and write the replacement pitch. It gives you the search operators, the checking routine, and the email, in one go.

Why this beats asking for a link

Most outreach asks a stranger for something. Broken link outreach tells a stranger their page has a problem, then hands them the fix. The reply rate difference is real. Cold "please link to my guide" emails land somewhere around 1 to 3 percent. Campaigns that name the exact dead URL, the anchor text it sits under, and the page it appears on have reported reply rates above 20 percent, because the recipient can verify the claim in one click.

The catch is the grind. Finding pages, checking links, confirming the site is still maintained, writing an email that doesn't read like a template. That's the part the prompt does.

A worked example

Say you run a small accounting software company and you've published a guide to VAT registration thresholds. You fill in the prompt with the URL, 4 keywords (VAT registration, VAT threshold, small business VAT, register for VAT), the kinds of sites you want (accountancy blogs, local enterprise agencies, startup resource hubs), and your name.

The first thing back is a list of 10 search strings. Things like intitle:"resources" "VAT" inurl:links and "useful links" "small business" "VAT registration", tuned to the keywords you gave. You run those, drop the results into a link checker, and within an hour you've got 6 pages with dead links on the exact topic your guide covers.

Then the checklist. Is the link actually dead, or just slow? Was the page updated in the last 2 years? Is your guide a genuine replacement for what the dead link used to be, or a loose fit that'll get you ignored? Two of the 6 fail that last test. You keep 4.

Then the email. Under 110 words. Subject line: "Dead link in your VAT resources page". First line names the broken URL and the anchor text ("registering for VAT" in your section on tax). Second line says it's been returning a 404 and offers your guide as the replacement, with one sentence on what it covers. One question at the end. No compliments, no "I hope this finds you well".

And a follow-up 5 days later, under 60 words, that assumes they were busy rather than rude.

Where the value sits

The search operators save you from staring at Google trying to remember how inurl works. Useful, but not the point.

The checklist is the point. Most broken link campaigns fail on fit. People find a dead link on a vaguely related page and pitch anyway, and the editor can tell. The prompt makes you answer "is my page a real replacement?" before you write a word, which is the difference between a 20 percent reply rate and a 2 percent one.

The email matters too, because it's specific by construction. The prompt won't let you send it without the broken URL, the anchor text and the page name. Those 3 details are what make an editor trust you enough to click.

There's a tracking sheet layout at the end so you can run this as a weekly habit instead of a one-off. Prospect, broken URL, contact, date sent, follow-up date, outcome. Six columns. That's all it needs.

How to use it

1. Open the prompt and fill in your page URL, 3 to 5 topic keywords, the types of sites you want links from, and your name and role.
2. Run the search operators it gives you, check the candidate pages with any free link checker, and apply the fit checklist. Keep only the pages where your content is a real replacement.
3. Send the email it wrote, one per prospect, with the real broken URL pasted in. Log each one in the sheet and send the follow-up on day 5.

Four emails a week is enough. Do that for a quarter and you'll have more earned links than most agencies deliver for a retainer. Get the prompt and run your first batch today.