How to keep your links alive

Getting a link is the part everybody plans for. Keeping it is the part nobody notices going wrong, because a link can vanish in a redesign and nothing tells you. This guide covers the minute a week that stops that happening.

Step 1: Scan the ledger for your badges

Open a partner and look at the two blocks: links you placed for them, and links they placed for you. Every badge is written from your side, so you only need to look for the ones phrased as instructions to you:

1. Accept or decline: their request is waiting on you.
2. Agree the wording or Review their wording: someone proposed different words.
3. Add it to your page: you agreed and haven't placed it yet.
4. Re-add the link: it was live and has gone.

Step 2: Settle a wording change

When a partner sends back different wording, check two things: does it still point at the right page, and does it still describe that page? If yes, accept it. Their version will sit better in their prose, which makes it a better link.

If they've flattened it into something meaningless, send back a middle ground: descriptive of your page, in their voice.

Step 3: Send the publisher link when neither of you can edit the page

Some links go on pages neither of you controls, like a guest post on a third site. Rankbench gives you a link to send the publisher. They open a page showing exactly what would change and press one of two buttons, with no account and no signup.

The link expires if nobody answers, and the publisher is told to ask for a fresh one. Some publishers never reply, which is why it's worth being honest about your access when you register a page.

Step 4: Know what monitoring watches for

Once a link is live, it's checked and then re-checked indefinitely. You're told about changes, not passes. A check can find that the link is gone, the wording changed, it points somewhere else, the page can't be reached, or the page is now hidden from search engines.

A link that stops working moves to Needs fixing on the Backlink Exchange overview, where it stops counting until it's back.

Step 5: Chase a missing link politely

You get a notification naming what happened, and the ledger row says Re-add the link.

1. Assume it's a redesign or a CMS migration. It almost always is.
2. Send the facts and a small ask: the link on your guide isn't showing any more, it may have gone in last week's rewrite, is it easy to put back?
3. Wait for the next check. When it finds the link again, you're told it's working.

Step 6: Pause instead of ending

If you need a quiet quarter, pause the partnership. Neither side can ask for new links while it's paused, but existing links are still watched. Ending a partnership is the permanent version, and it's rarely the right one.

What to do next

• How Rankbench keeps watch
• The partner ledger
• When the page is published somewhere you cannot edit