How to steal competitor backlinks from defunct products

To steal competitor backlinks the clean way, look for competitors that have shut down and are still linked or mentioned across the web. Contact the sites that mention them, tell them the product is gone, and suggest yours as a current replacement. It is a form of broken link building, and it works best when your product does the same job as the dead one and the page that mentions it is still maintained.

How to do it

1. Build a list of dead competitors. Look through startup graveyards, old "best tools" roundups, your own category's directories, and your memory of products that vanished. Also search Google for the product name plus "shutting down" or "discontinued" to confirm the date.
2. Find who still links to them. Put the dead domain into a backlink tool such as Ahrefs Site Explorer and open the backlink and referring-domain reports. Ahrefs' own guide describes filtering the Best by links report for 404 pages and sorting by referring domains to find the dead pages with the most links.
3. Check what the old page was. Use the Wayback Machine to see what the dead product or page said, so you know why people linked to it and whether your product is a fair replacement.
4. Keep only pages where a replacement makes sense. A comparison article, a "tools for X" roundup or a resource page that still lists the dead tool is a fit. A news story from the year it launched is not.
5. Write a short, honest email per segment. Name the page and the exact line, say the product has shut down, link a proof (their shutdown notice), and suggest yours as one option for readers. Say you are the maker. Keep it to a few sentences. See cold email copywriting for structure.
6. Make the target page worth linking to. Link to a page that explains the product plainly, ideally one that helps people coming from the old tool (what carries over, how to move their data). A bare homepage is a weak replacement.
7. Track replies and stop at one follow-up. Log the page, the contact, the date sent and the outcome in a sheet.

Examples

Pocket, 2025. Mozilla's read-it-later app Pocket shut down on July 8, 2025, with an export-only period that was set to end on October 8, 2025, according to Yahoo Tech. Any roundup or tutorial that still tells readers to "save it to Pocket" is now out of date. The makers of any other read-it-later app have a genuine reason to email those authors. This shows where the opportunities come from, not that any such outreach worked.

Ahrefs' broken link building method. Ahrefs describes the same mechanics for dead pages: find a page that has gone, see who links to it, and ask those sites to point at a working page instead. Its guide recommends a hybrid of segmented templates over identical blasts, and notes shotgun outreach carries a risk of getting your domain blocked.

When it backfires

• Replies are not guaranteed. Webmasters ignore most outreach, and no source gives a dependable success rate for this tactic. Treat it as a slow, small-volume channel.
• Do not pretend to be a neutral party. If you suggest your own product as the replacement, say it is yours. A site owner who later finds out may remove both links.
• Link rules. Google defines link spam as "creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings," and lists buying or selling links and automated link creation among its examples. Offering money or free product for the link crosses that line unless the link is marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". See Google's spam policies.
• Email law applies to business email. The FTC says CAN-SPAM "makes no exception for business-to-business email." Include a physical postal address and a clear opt-out, and honor opt-outs within 10 business days, per the FTC guide. Other countries have their own rules.
• Pages go stale. If the page that links to the dead product is itself abandoned, nobody will update it and the link would carry little value anyway.

Questions people ask

How do I find my competitors' backlinks? Enter their domain into a backlink tool such as Ahrefs Site Explorer and read the referring domains list. For a dead competitor, the Wayback Machine helps you see what the linked pages once held.

Is it okay to steal competitor backlinks? You cannot take a link; the site owner chooses to change it. Asking a site to replace a dead reference with a working one is a normal practice, as long as you are honest about who you are and follow email and link rules.

Sources

• Ahrefs: broken link building guide, read Oct 8, 2026
• Yahoo Tech: Mozilla shutting down Pocket and Fakespot, read Oct 8, 2026
• Google Search Central: spam policies, link spam, read Oct 8, 2026
• FTC: CAN-SPAM compliance guide for business, read Oct 8, 2026