Link decay: why indexed backlinks disappear later
Indexation is a state, not an event. Any link report without a re-check date is describing the past, and the gap between reported and live link counts widens every month you do not measure it.
This is the least tracked metric in link building, and the reason so many campaigns quietly underperform their own reports.
Six ways a live link stops counting
The donor page is deindexed
Thin, templated or duplicated pages get indexed on first crawl and dropped during routine index maintenance. Nothing changed on the page; Google simply reassessed.
The article is edited
Editorial placements get updated. A refresh two quarters later frequently drops outbound links, especially commercial ones.
The attribute changes
Sites tighten policy and add nofollow or sponsored site-wide. Your link is still visible and no longer qualifies.
The URL moves without a redirect
CMS migration, category restructure, permalink change. The page still exists somewhere; the URL you recorded returns 404.
Pagination pushes it out of reach
Directory and forum links migrate deeper as new content arrives, and eventually sit past the depth the donor gets crawled to.
The domain lapses
Expiry, parking, or a sale followed by a full rebuild. Common on the cheap end of the market, and the failure is total rather than partial.
A re-check cadence that works
| Link type | Re-check | What you are watching for |
|---|---|---|
| Paid editorial, high value | Monthly | Edits, attribute changes, URL moves |
| Directories and profiles | Quarterly | Deindexation, pagination depth |
| Anything on a domain under a year old | Monthly | Expiry and rebuilds |
What to report
Two numbers, side by side: links placed and links currently confirmed. The spread between them is your real attrition rate, and it is the number that should drive vendor selection. A source delivering 200 placements at 30% six-month survival is worse value than one delivering 80 at 85%, and no delivery report will ever tell you that.
Where re-indexation is the fix — a donor re-crawled after an edit, a page that dropped and needs to be seen again — a scheduled submission run handles it without you touching each URL. Where the link is gone, no submission will bring it back, and the only correct action is to stop buying from that source.
Questions
Is link decay normal or a sign of a bad vendor?
Some attrition is normal on any link profile. What identifies a bad vendor is the rate: sources where more than half the placements stop counting within six months are selling something closer to a rental than a link.
Can resubmitting a deindexed donor page bring the link back?
Sometimes. If the page was dropped for crawl-priority reasons a re-crawl can restore it; if it was dropped on quality grounds, resubmission will not change that assessment.
Re-crawl what slipped, drop what is gone
Donor pages that dropped out can be resubmitted on a schedule. Links that no longer exist cost you nothing, because you pay per confirmed result.
Re-check an old campaign