Link building use cases

Here are some actionable link building use cases for Content Explorer.

Find topics that generate a lot of links

Discover hot topics in your niche.

Search for a broad topic and filter for pages that get at least 400 referring domains.

lb-use-cases-01

From here, you can click on Referring domains, then go to Backlinks to reverse engineer how they got those links in the first place.

lb-use-cases-02

Find broken link building opportunities

This tactic involves:

  • Finding broken pages with a lot of backlinks

  • Creating a similar page on the topic

  • Asking those linking to the broken page to link to yours instead

To find such pages, search for a broad topic and filter for Only broken pages. Then use the Referring domains filter to exclude pages with few or no referring domains.

lb-use-cases-03

Once you find a promising broken link building opportunity, click on Referring domains and go to the Backlinks tab.

lb-use-cases-04

Find broken link building opportunities

Unlinked brand mentions are a low hanging fruit: those mentioning you already talk about you, they just need a friendly nudge to link back to you.

To find such opportunities, search for your brand and exclude mentions from your own website using the operator -site:[own website].

lb-use-cases-05

Then toggle the One page per domain setting and enter your own domain under Highlight unlinked domains.

lb-use-cases-06

The websites that have never linked to you before will be highlighted, which means you can reach out to them and ask for the link.

lb-use-cases-07

NOTE

To toggle all unlinked mentions, hit the Export button and toggle the Only pages with highlighted domains option.

lb-use-cases-08
About this course

How to use Ahrefs

64 lessons
3h 24m
Learn practical ways to use Ahrefs' SEO tools and reports to improve SEO.

What you’ll learn

  • How to analyze yours and your competitors’ websites with Site Explorer

  • How to master keyword research with Keywords Explorer

  • How to improve your on-page and technical SEO with Site Audit

  • How to track and improve your Google rankings with Rank Tracker

  • How to discover untapped keyword and link building opportunities with Content Explorer

  • How to get keyword and link building opportunities on autopilot with Alerts

Course by

Andrei ȚițAndrei Țiț is a product marketer at Ahrefs. He develops content to help you make the most out of Ahrefs.
Sam OhSam Oh is VP of Marketing at Ahrefs. He incorporates his commitment to education and love for entrepreneurship into actionable and easy-to-digest tutorials.