How do I get more links to my site?

Open Backlinks, Get more links. It is one list of websites worth asking for a link, easiest first, each with why it is on the list, how strong it is, where to get in touch and a ready-made email you can copy. We never send anything for you: you copy the email, or open it in your own email app, and send it yourself.

#Where the sites come from

• Links to a broken page: a site already links to a page of yours that no longer opens. Ask them to update the link, or redirect the old page (see Broken links below). These are the easiest links to win back.
• Used to link to you: a strong site (authority 30 or more) stopped linking to you in the last four months. A page was usually moved or removed.
• Links to your competitors: sites that link to your competitors and not to you. Part of this comes from Common Crawl's public web graph, read every three months; when our backlink data is switched on for your account, the list also checks your competitors' links each month.
• Quoted by AI answers: sites that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers quote for the questions you track (from AI answers, Sources).
• Directory for your business: free local and trade directories for your country and kind of business, such as Yell, Checkatrade and Trustpilot in the UK, Gelbe Seiten in Germany or De Telefoongids in the Netherlands. Set what your business does in Local, Local setup to get the ones for your trade. A directory you are already listed on is left out.

A site found more than once shows once, with every reason. Sites already linking to you, your own other sites and your competitors' sites are never suggested.

#Work through the list

1. Read why the site is on the list and press Write the email to see the draft. Copy email copies it; Open in your email app starts a new email with it.
2. Find who to send it to: a directory's Add your business page, The page with the link, or Find their contact page.
3. Set the status: To contact, Contacted, Won or Not interested. Show switches between what is still to do, what you won, what you ruled out, and everything.

When the next monthly refresh sees a link from a site you marked to contact or contacted, it ticks Won by itself and says so. Export CSV downloads the list with each reason and status.

Members with view-only access can read the list; changing a status needs edit access.

#Broken links

Backlinks, Your links, Broken lists links from other sites to pages of yours that answer "not found" (404) or "gone" (410), grouped by page, with the best live page to send each one to: a page with the same words in its address, else one on the same topic, else your home page. Download the redirects for your website: Apache (.htaccess), Nginx, WordPress (Redirection plugin) (import it in the plugin's Import and Export screen) or a Spreadsheet (CSV). Once the redirects are in place, those links count again.

#Lost links

Backlinks, Your links, New and lost lists the sites that stopped linking to you. Ask for it back shows a ready-made email; Mark as asked notes that you did. After the next monthly refresh the site shows Came back or Still gone.

#Questions people ask

#How often does the list change?

The links your competitors have change every three months from Common Crawl, and each month from our backlink data where it is switched on. Lost and broken links change with each monthly refresh, AI answers each week.

#Why is the list empty?

Add your competitors (their links are the best leads) and set what your business does in Local setup for the directories. Without either there is nothing to compare with yet.

#Is the authority the same as on the Overview?

It is Open PageRank, out of 100, the same index for every site on this list so they can be compared fairly. The Overview's figure for your own site comes from our backlink data where it is switched on.