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Losing backlinks can cause a noticeable drop in organic traffic. When a site that links to your page removes the link, changes its URL, or goes offline, your page loses authority. Search engines use backlinks as signals of trust and relevance. Fewer quality links often means lower rankings, and lower rankings mean less traffic.

This article explains how to identify if backlink loss caused your traffic drop, how to fix pages that lost links, and how to rebuild your link profile through practical strategies.

How to Check If Backlink Loss Caused the Traffic Drop

Before you fix anything, confirm that backlinks are the actual cause of the traffic drop. Other factors, like a Google algorithm update, a technical issue, or content changes, can produce the same result.

Step 1: Check Your Traffic Dates Against Backlink Loss

Open Google Search Console and look at your performance report. Note the exact date your traffic started falling. Then open a backlink monitoring tool, such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz, and look at your lost backlinks during that same period.

If a significant number of links disappeared around the same time traffic dropped, that is a strong signal. If traffic dropped weeks after a backlink loss, the connection is still likely but less direct.

Step 2: Compare Referring Domain Count Over Time

In Ahrefs, go to the Referring Domains report and switch to a historical view. A downward trend in referring domains that matches your traffic decline confirms the relationship. A single high-authority link removed can sometimes cause a larger drop than losing ten low-quality links.

Real example: In 2022, a digital marketing blog in the U.S. lost a link from a university (.edu) domain that had been pointing to one of its research-based posts. Within three weeks, that post dropped from position 4 to position 19 on Google for its target keyword. The referring domain count for that URL went from 47 to 46, but the single lost link carried significant authority weight.

Step 3: Cross-Reference With Google Algorithm Updates

Use a tool like Semrush Sensor or MozCast to check if any algorithm updates occurred around your traffic drop date. If there was no major update and your backlink count dropped at the same time as your traffic, backlink loss is likely the cause.

Step 4: Audit the Quality of Lost Links

Not all lost backlinks matter equally. Export your lost links from your tool of choice and filter by domain authority or domain rating. Focus on links from domains with a rating above 40 to 50. If you lost several of those, you have a clear priority list to work on.

How to Fix Broken Pages That Lost Backlinks

Once you confirm backlink loss is the issue, the next step is to fix any technical problems that may have caused links to break or become inactive.

Identify Pages With 404 Errors That Had Backlinks

Sometimes a page gets deleted, moved, or renamed, and the old URL starts returning a 404 error. Any backlinks pointing to that 404 page become useless. Google stops passing authority through broken links.

Use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit to find 404 pages on your site. Then cross-reference those URLs with your backlink data to see if any dead pages still have links pointing to them.

Real example: An e-commerce store selling outdoor gear restructured its category pages in 2023. Several product pages were moved to new URLs without redirects. About 38 backlinks, including a link from an outdoor enthusiast magazine with a domain authority of 61, were pointing to the old URLs. After setting up 301 redirects, the site recovered most of its lost authority within six weeks, and traffic to those pages rose by 34%.

Set Up 301 Redirects

A 301 redirect tells both users and search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new URL. When you redirect a broken URL to a live, relevant page, you recover the link equity that was being lost.

Keep redirects as direct as possible. Avoid chains where URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Each step in a redirect chain reduces the amount of authority passed.

Restore Deleted Content

If a page was deleted by mistake, restore it. Check your CMS, your version control system, or a cached version via the Wayback Machine. Restoring the original page is almost always better than creating a new one, because the old page already had authority attached to it.

For sites that used to buy search engine traffic as part of a short-term visibility strategy, restoring the pages that earned organic backlinks is a more sustainable way to rebuild consistent rankings and traffic over time.

Reach Out to Webmasters About Updated URLs

If you moved content to a new URL, reach out to webmasters who linked to the old URL. Ask them to update the link to point to the new location. This removes the need for a redirect and gives you a clean, direct link to the correct page.

Write a short, polite email explaining the change. Include the old URL and the new URL. Keep the message direct. Most webmasters are willing to update links when the request is clear and the content is still relevant.

Fix Content Quality Issues on Linked Pages

Sometimes a page loses links because the content became outdated or irrelevant. Webmasters remove links to pages that no longer provide value to their readers.

Review the pages that lost links. Ask yourself: Is the information still accurate? Is the page well-organized? Does it load quickly on mobile? If the answer to any of those is no, update the page before pursuing new links.

How to Replace Backlinks You Cannot Recover

Some lost backlinks cannot be recovered. A site may have gone offline permanently, changed its content direction, or decided to remove all external links. In those cases, you need to build new links to replace what was lost.

Identify Who Links to Similar Content

Use Ahrefs or Semrush to find pages similar to yours that are currently earning backlinks. Look at who links to those pages and reach out to those sites. If they linked to similar content, they are likely open to linking to your page if it offers something valuable.

This approach works well for informational articles, data-driven content, and how-to guides. It is less effective for product pages, which are harder to earn editorial links to.

Create Content Worth Linking To

Original research, surveys, statistics, and case studies attract more links than general articles. If you publish data that people in your industry want to cite, links come more naturally.

Real example: A SaaS company published an annual report on remote work trends in 2021. The report included original survey data from over 2,000 workers. Within 90 days, the report earned 83 backlinks from HR blogs, news outlets, and industry publications. Several of those links came without any outreach because journalists found the data useful for their own articles.

Use Broken Link Building

Search for pages in your niche that link to resources that no longer exist. When you find a broken outbound link on a relevant site, reach out to the webmaster, tell them about the broken link, and suggest your page as a replacement.

This strategy provides value to the webmaster and gives you a reason to contact them that is not purely self-promotional.

Reclaim Unlinked Mentions

Sometimes websites mention your brand, product, or content without linking to you. Use a tool like Google Alerts, Ahrefs Alerts, or Brand24 to track mentions of your brand online. When you find an unlinked mention, ask the site to add a link. These conversions are often easier to get because the site has already chose to mention you.

Build Relationships in Your Industry

Guest posting on relevant sites, contributing quotes to industry articles, and collaborating with other content creators are all ways to earn links consistently. These activities also build relationships that can lead to future link opportunities without active outreach.

Real example: A personal finance blogger in the UK began contributing expert quotes to financial news sites in early 2022. Over 12 months, she earned 21 editorial backlinks from sites with domain authority above 50. Her target keyword rankings improved on 14 of her main pages, and her organic traffic increased by 58% compared to the previous year.

Monitor Your Link Profile Regularly

Backlink loss is easier to address when you catch it early. Set up alerts in Ahrefs or Semrush to notify you when you lose links from high-authority domains. Check your referring domains count weekly, not monthly. The sooner you act, the less damage accumulates.

A good rule: treat backlink monitoring the same way you treat ranking monitoring. Both are signals of your site’s health, and both need regular attention.

Fixing traffic drops from backlink loss requires a clear process. First, confirm the cause. Second, repair broken pages and redirects. Third, replace links you cannot recover through strategic outreach and content creation. Each step builds on the last. Sites that follow this process consistently recover faster and build stronger link profiles over time.