The Link Lazarus Method: How Dead Wikipedia Links Leveraged My Link Building (300,000$ Saved)

Many years ago, while trying to update a Wikipedia article for link building, I stumbled upon something fascinating—many external reference links were dead. These broken links weren’t just a problem for Wikipedia; they were hidden gems waiting to be reclaimed.

Driven by curiosity, I manually checked these dead links over the years and found numerous expired domains with valuable backlinks from authoritative sites, including Wikipedia itself. However, the manual process was exhausting, prompting me to create a game-changing strategy and tool—what I now proudly call the Link Lazarus Method.

The dead Wikipedia links method is not new, I just enhanced it.

What Makes the Link Lazarus Method Different?

Unlike typical expired-domain tactics, the Link Lazarus Method focuses intensely on content relevance with embedding & AI:

• Deep Content Analysis: I thoroughly examine archived content to grasp what each page was truly about. It performs better especially connecting the entities.
• Strategic Mapping: Each expired domain/page is matched precisely to relevant content on my sites, preserving original topical context.
• Intent-Based Redirects: Redirects are content-driven, maintaining topical integrity rather than mere metrics or structure.
• Enhanced Content Recreation: When beneficial, I recreate improved versions of highly valuable content.

This method preserves the contextual relevance critical to Google’s algorithms, significantly boosting the effectiveness of reclaimed backlinks.

A Critical Issue Most SEOs Overlook - What Mainstream Tools Miss

Even if you use popular tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to identify broken links, you’re likely missing out on valuable backlinks data. For instance, consider the domain campaignsandgrey25.com, linked from Wikipedia’s Campaigns & Grey page. Despite this link, platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush often fail to show these critical backlinks—including Wikipedia itself!

This blind spot means you’re wasting precious time chasing the same domains everyone else is targeting. My specialized tool addresses this critical flaw, uncovering hidden, precisely topical expired domains that mainstream tools miss. Because you can just search with desired terms OR by selecting Wikipedia categories.

Note: I love Ahrefs and Semrush, that’s not the point.

Technical Note: I developed a custom Python-based Streamlit app that systematically crawls Wikipedia, extracts external links, identifies dead links, and verifies domain availability via WHOIS and DNS resolution. It even accounts for restricted TLDs and excludes unregistrable domains, saving massive manual effort. It’s free and you can find it end of the this post.

How the Method Practically Works

Here’s my structured workflow:

1. Wikipedia & Other Gold Mine Platforms Scanning:

• Keyword-targeted searches and full-category crawls uncover relevant dead links.

2. Intelligent Content Analysis:

• Historical versions of dead links retrieved from Archive.org. - Deep topical assessment, not just metrics.

3. Domain Verification:

• Automated WHOIS and DNS checks to confirm domain availability.

4. Content Relevance Mapping:

• Mapping content topics precisely to my sites. - Identifying valuable content gaps worth recreating. - Using AI & Embeddings to identify and match topical authority.

5. Advanced Redirect Strategy:

• Topic-based redirects preserving exact relevance. - Organizing pages around clear topic clusters.

[caption id=“attachment_408” align=“aligncenter” width=“2560”] The tool interface, it’s using Streamlit[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_409” align=“aligncenter” width=“2560”] All relevant Wikipedia pages.[/caption]

YOU CAN TRY THE TEST VERSION (LIMITED RESULTS) HERE: https://huggingface.co/spaces/metehan777/link-lazarus

It’s limited with 20 results/wiki pages only, if you want to try unlimited version & future updates, you need to download the ebook below. No performance optimization or filtering the unnecessary domains.

Results Speak Louder

With the Link Lazarus Method:

• AppSamurai dominated the first page with less competitive keyword without personalized search, if a user visits AppSamurai, he/she/they see 8 AppSamurai results in the first page! (Videos, LinkedIn, Medium, appsamurai.com pages/posts)
• A high competitive niche affiliate site jumped from position #23 to #2. (Tested & validated)
• I identifed 1862 expired domains from multi-language Wikipedia pages (ES, FR, IT, TR) It could cost me around 327,000$ if I want to get backlinks from them. (avg 200$ for each) —and it’s not possible & realistic of course. Numbers can change. You can focus on the improvement here.

[caption id=“attachment_407” align=“aligncenter” width=“2386”] I tested this method with another fresh domain. In 3 weeks result, high competitive niche. Not bad.[/caption]

The most powerful discovery involved a domain cited by Harvard, MIT, and government sources!

Why “Link Lazarus Method” is Your Next “Aha!” Moment

While others chase metrics and basic redirects, the Link Lazarus Method:

• Prioritizes true content relevance.
• Strategically resurrects the value behind dead links.
• Offers consistent, impressive SEO outcomes.

If you’re still stuck on superficial metrics or generic redirects, you’re missing out. Test the Link Lazarus Method and bring your SEO back to life. And it’s not only about Wikipedia, I tested with some gold mine platforms, too. (Shushing face here…)

Important:

This is just Part 1 of the journey.

In the upcoming Part 2, I’ll teach you how to use embeddings to supercharge your dead link finds — automatically matching expired content to your existing topical authority with AI precision.

Plus, for those downloaded my Link Lazarus ebook and subscribed to my newsletter, I’ll be sharing the full source code of my tool with three major upgrades:

• Faster link scanning.
• Smarter domain matching algorithms.
• Early Archive.org content embeddings support.

Bonus Superpowers:

• International SEO Supercharged: My tool allows you to pick different Wikipedia subdomains like pt.wikipedia.org, es.wikipedia.org, fr.wikipedia.org, and many others. Perfect for finding dead links across multiple languages and boosting your international SEO efforts with localized expired domains.
• Shhh… It’s not only Wikipedia!: The other gold mine platforms to identify expired domains are on the way!
• Competitor Research Edge: You can also scan Wikipedia pages that link to your competitors’ domains. If you find dead links among their Wikipedia backlinks, you have a golden opportunity to claim that authoritative link for yourself.

Stay tuned!

Always apply the Link Lazarus Method responsibly, adhering to SEO best practices and search engine guidelines.