Almost lost a 6 month guest posting gig because of one broken link

I was sitting at my desk in Duluth last Tuesday, checking my backlink profile like I always do, and I noticed this guest post I got on a solid gardening site had a 404 error on the anchor page. The whole point of the link was to drive traffic to that specific resource guide, and it was dead for probably three weeks before I caught it. Had to email the editor at Green Thumb Monthly with proof that the link was broken and ask them to fix it, which was awkward because it made me look like I didn't do my homework. Has anyone else had a similar issue where a site owner broke your link during a site update and you had to track it down yourself?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicesingh13d ago

...and that's exactly why I started saving screenshots of the live page the moment a guest post goes up, broken links are such a pain. I had a similar thing happen with a home repair site where the editor redirected all their old URLs and didn't tell anyone, so my anchor link went to a completely different page about plumbing (which had nothing to do with my content about painting). Now I check every link in my backlink profile once a week, and I keep a simple spreadsheet with the editor's email and a note about when the post was published so I can be like "hey, this went live on X date and the link worked then" if I need to ask for a fix.

felix14713d ago

The spreadsheet tip is solid... I do the same thing now after getting burned twice.