The State of Backlink Decay: An Ongoing Data Study

This is the home of FooterMonitor's ongoing State of Backlink Decay research — a transparent, methodology-first look at how quickly backlinks disappear, turn nofollow, or change anchor text in the wild. We publish what we can measure honestly, and we show our work.

Why we are running this study

"Backlinks decay" is repeated everywhere, but link owners rarely get clear, methodology-backed numbers they can plan around. As a tool whose entire job is watching links change, we are positioned to measure decay rigorously and share it openly. Our goal is a citable reference that helps SEOs budget for link maintenance — not a clickbait statistic.

Methodology (how we measure)

• Sample: a rolling, anonymized cohort of monitored backlinks, excluding any personally identifying data.
• Signals tracked: link presence, link type (follow vs nofollow/sponsored/ugc), anchor text, target URL and HTTP status.
• Cadence: repeated checks over time so we can attribute a change to a specific window.
• Definitions: a link is "lost" when it is removed or its page stops resolving; "neutralized" when it becomes nofollow; "altered" when the anchor or target changes.

What the literature already tells us

Independent web-archival research has long documented widespread link rot across the open web — a substantial share of links break within a few years of publication. Our work focuses that lens specifically on backlinks, where the financial stakes for owners are highest.

How to use these findings

Whatever the exact decay rate in your niche, the practical implication is the same: treat link maintenance as a recurring budget line, not a one-time campaign. Pair a periodic backlink audit with continuous monitoring, and keep a recovery workflow ready.

Cite this research

Journalists and SEOs are welcome to reference this report with a link back to this page. As our dataset grows we will publish updated figures here, with clear methodology notes each time.