Replacing Dead Competitors: A SaaS 404 Recovery Strategy
Client: A B2B SaaS company in the “Email Marketing” space.
Challenges We Faced
The client was struggling to build authority in a saturated market dominated by giants like Mailchimp:
High-Competition Niche
Gaining links from marketing blogs was extremely difficult and expensive.
Low Domain Authority (DR 25)
They couldn’t rank for “money” keywords.
Missed Opportunity
A major competitor (a smaller email tool) had recently shut down, leaving thousands of broken backlink building opportunities across the web.
No Strategy
The client knew about the shutdown but didn’t know how to capitalize on it.
Unclaimed Backlinks
Thousands of valuable backlinks pointed to the shut-down competitor, but there was no clear way to reclaim them.
Capitalize on Competitor Failures
“Did a competitor shut down? Our Competitor 404 Analysis service will help you capture their lost backlinks and traffic.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
Competitor 404 Analysis
We used Ahrefs to analyze the backlink profile of the defunct competitor. We found 2,500+ domains linking to their now-dead homepage and blog posts.
Recreating Dead Content
We used the Wayback Machine to see what the dead pages were about (e.g., “Guide to Email Deliverability”).
We created “Skyscraper” versions of this content on our client’s site—better, more up-to-date, and more comprehensive.
Manual Webmaster Outreach
We contacted the webmasters of the 2,500+ sites. Our pitch was helpful: “I noticed you’re linking to [Dead Tool]. They shut down, but we have an updated guide on the same topic here…”
Link Reclamation & Tracking
We monitored live link updates, followed up with non-responders, and tracked reclaimed backlinks and referral traffic to measure authority gains and SEO impact.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) | 25 | 52 | +27 points |
| New Backlinks Acquired (from 404s) | 0 | 185+ | +185 links |
| Referral Traffic (from new links) | 0/mo | 3,500/mo | +3,500/mo |
Free Dead Link Audit
“Not sure if there are broken link opportunities in your niche? Claim a Free 404 Audit and let our broken backlink building company find them!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- Monitor your industry for shutdowns. When a competitor closes or rebrands, it’s the single best time to launch a broken link building seo campaign.
- Don’t just say “link to me.” You must offer a replacement. If the dead link was a guide, offer a guide. If it was a tool, offer a tool.
- The Wayback Machineis your secret weapon. Use it to see exactly what the dead content was so you can recreate it perfectly.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- The sheer volume of dead links (2,500+) gave us a massive pool of prospects.
- Our “helpful” outreach approach had a much higher conversion rate (7%) than standard cold outreach (1-2%).
- The new “Skyscraper” content started ranking for its own keywords, driving even more traffic.
