Site migration
Any change to a site's domain, URL structure, platform, template or content organisation that materially affects how search engines see it.
LinksBroken backlink recovery
Link reclamation
Recovering link equity that a site already earned but lost, usually because linked URLs now 404, redirect poorly, or were dropped in a migration.
In full
The workflow is to export inbound links pointing at non-200 URLs, then restore the page, redirect to the closest equivalent, or ask the publisher to update the link. It is the highest-yield link work available on established sites because the links already exist and no persuasion is needed. Migrations are the usual cause, which is why a link-preservation check belongs in every migration plan.
Example
A replatform drops 700 legacy URLs; mapping 300 of them that hold external links back to live equivalents restores lost rankings.
Related terms
301 redirect
A server-side permanent redirect that tells crawlers a URL has moved for good and that ranking signals should consolidate on the…
Backlink
A hyperlink from one website to another, historically the strongest external signal search engines use to judge a page's importance and…
Unlinked mentions
References to a brand, product or person in published content that do not include a hyperlink, and which can sometimes be converted into…
Link equity
The ranking value passed through a hyperlink, influenced by the linking page's own authority, its relevance, its number of outbound links…