How To Use HARO For Link Building: A Beginner’s Guide

Link building is essential for search engine optimization, as the link juice provided by backlinks is quintessential for business success. Help A Reporter Out was developed by a PR entrepreneur named Shankman. It is an amazing platform that has been strongly used by search engine optimization agencies and individual SEO professionals to obtain quality backlinks. Reporters and journalists publish queries related to different niches such as healthcare, entertainment and media, business and finance, high tech, lifestyle and fitness, and public policy and government to get adequate sources of information. If your business could provide great value, you will get a backlink or mention in the news story or article.   In this blog, you will get an understanding of  HARO link building. Beudes, get a full picture of how to use HARO for link building.

What is HARO link building?

What is HARO? The Help a Reporter Out platform can be anybody’s go-to tool to get sources of information related to many niches. It is basically utilised by reporters, media professionals, businesses, as well as journalists. Anybody can post questions and get veteran experts as sources to get information. It works as follows. If you are a journalist, you sign up for HARO and post a question for your upcoming article and receive thousands of pitches. Among these, you can choose the most suitable one that demonstrates expertise and experience in the specified niche. You will mention their contribution in your work and provide a backlink to the website. 

Many SEO professionals, digital marketers and businesses consider HARO link building effective. First of all, it ensures your business gets a top-quality backlink and increases its chances of brand awareness in the industry. 

Why use HARO link building?

There are many journalists and reporters desperately looking for information to understand things related to many niches. The piece of information they seek may be unusual, and a specific source can only act as a resource. It’s a great opportunity for your business to earn backlinks and as a result, enjoy other SEO benefits.

Link building with HARO proves to be a must-have strategy if you yearn for online visibility and SEO. The following are the benefits of HARO backlinks.

• High authority HARO backlinks –  Understanding what HARO is is one of the top link-building tips, because HARO is perhaps the only platform where you can get high authority backlinks. Most of the time, you are helping out a journalist or media professional who works in prominent companies, so their backlink has great meaning for your business. 

• Increased brand visibility – When your target audience, as well as search engines, see that your website is backed by backlinks from highly notable websites, it increases your brand visibility.  This is because these backlinks add credibility and relevance. 

• Referral traffic – The people who read articles featuring your business name in them are likely to visit yours, and this steady traffic can be enormous in number. Imagine getting referral traffic from a popular daily. 

• PR opportunities – PR opportunities provided by quality link building are enormous with HARO. You will be able to get media exposure from just a business to an industry expert who provides expert guidance to journalists. It is an alternative to paid PR that involves hiring agencies for media coverage. 

• Cost-effective – Link building often comes with a hefty price, but if you know how to use HARO to get backlinks, you can save lots of money. HARO subscription fee is economical compared to what you reap. 

Types of Infographics to Use in Outreach 

You’ve got to know about what is HARO, and do you know that when you outreach, the best way is to include infographics. They crisply convey your messages while saving time and engaging the audience. The following are the types of infographics that you can use in outreach. Reporters will be more interested in responding to different kinds of data represented in infographics.

• Timeline: Great for showcasing historical events, processes, or timelines related to your topic, making them easier for journalists to understand.

• Statistical: Useful for visualising data that is truly statistical in nature for easy digestibility. 

• Process: The whole process of a business or subject can be illustrated in an engaging manner. 

• Comparison: Any products, services or concepts can be easily compared with powerful data and graphs displayed on an infographic.

• Geographic: Useful for visualising data that is geographically relevant, like trends, comparisons, or location-based statistics.

• List-style: List-style infographics are effective for summarising data, explaining processes, or sharing tips concisely and engagingly.

How to set up a HARO account?

You are helping out a reporter or journalist to get reliable information and, in turn, build backlinks. Kindly following these steps will help you get an idea about do and dont of link building.

• Set up your HARO account on the platform – To do this, first go to Google and find helpareporter.com.

• Sign up for source – You are going to be the source of information to journalists. You need to fill up the form with relevant details such as your name and email address, and your area of expertise.

• Complete profile – Complete your profile, providing expertise and your social media icons

• Select relevant categories – Select relevant and interested subject areas of to get bespoke queries from reporters.

• Set notification preferences – You can also set your preferences such as location, time zone and more

How to use HARO for link building?

• How to find relevant journalist queries –  You may see a lot of queries in your expertise and you cannot reach out to all. So, to find relevant journalist queries, you can check their domain authority as well as use keywords to segregate the best queries. 

• How to write a winning pitch – Many HARO templates are available on the internet and you can use either one or create your own pitch. Demonstrate why you are the best fit to answer this query and your claims for it using data.

• Concise and relevant answers – Concise and to the point, rich pitches are valuable for a journalist who values time more than anything.

• Include credentials and a link to your website – You can include name, professional expertise, company and title of the role. Some may prefer to add a LinkedIn profile too. 

• Mention pitch timing (respond fast) – Quick responses win here. Journalists need information on time. Being prompt, ideally within one hour of time shows your integrity and professionalism.  Usually, you can check the query’s deadline and respond concisely. 

• Add a mini checklist for a good HARO pitch – Address in person while writing the pitch, and be concise but provide necessary information. Besides, always include contact details and your credentials with a strong backup.

Best HARO link building tips

• Cross-check domain authority –  Journalists come from different companies, and some have a genuine reputation, while others you do not know. So, it is best to recognise its domain authority using any of the paid SEO tools.

• Be specific in choosing queries – There are many queries, and you need to meticulously choose the most appealing ones for your expertise. Check that the query meets your expertise and experience in the subject. 

• Use quotes in your pitches – Journalists value time, and it is best to add relevant data and information in a quote so that they can include it in an article or podcast. Whatever you quote, your answer must be without any jargon or ornamental language. 

• Act professionally – When you write pitches, your words show your crispness, accuracy and professionalism. 

• Include statistics – You can include statistics or relevant infographics on your pitches so that the journalist gets a clear idea of the value you provide and is inclined to respond to your pitch.

Link building with HARO: Mistakes to avoid

• Don’t respond to irrelevant queries – Avoid all kinds of irrelevant queries that add no value for your business when a HARO backlink is earned. The reality is you can only answer questions where you have veteran knowledge.
• Don’t send generic pitches – Generic pitches, just like cold email,s do not work in HARO. You need to address the name, showcase your strength and tailor-make each response to their specific needs.
• Avoid spamming or following up too much – You might be tempted to follow up once or twice. Avoid spamming so that you will have an opportunity to pitch to the person in the future. It is advised to get in touch with the journalist after a prompt response. 
• Mention HARO is competitive – Even if you follow all the guidelines in this blog post, you may not get fast and the desired results within a time frame. Everyone is competing and patiently, consistently pitching to help you get a success rate.

HARO link building enough for the backlink profile?

HARO link building should be seen as part of a link-building strategy for your business. Concentrating only on the HARO Platform to get backlinks can have adverse effects, more than the benefits. Along with HARO, try to include the following link-building tips.

1. Guest posting – Guest posting takes effort to create quality content to win a backlink. 
2. Infographics – A useful infographic is created to attract traffic and get backlinks.
3. Content syndication – Here, you create and distribute your own content to other websites, hoping for a link back to your site.
4. Digital PR – Public relations strategies used to get backlinks of top quality. 

Link building with HARO proves to be a worthy game to try for your business. Whatever your business niche, you can get HARO backlinks for certain. When you use HARO link building, ensure you track and measure the results using any tool like spread spreadsheet. Set your parameters to measure results and make use of Google Alerts. Your focus is to get quality backlinks to strengthen your backlink profile, and patience backed by knowledge gives you the desired result.