HARO Link Building - Leverage HARO For Brand Awareness

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Aug 03, 2022

Keith Peterson - I'm an expert IT marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in various Digital Marketing channels such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), SMO (social media optimization), ORM (online reputation management), PPC (Google Adwords, Bing Adwords), Lead Generation, Adwords campaign management, Blogging (Corporate and Personal), and so on. Web development and design are unquestionably another of my passions. In fast-paced, high-pressure environments, I excel as an SEO Executive, SEO Analyst, SR SEO Analyst, team leader, and digital marketing strategist, efficiently managing multiple projects, prioritizing and meeting tight deadlines, analyzing and solving problems.

Among all of the amazing free resources out there, HARO link building is without a doubt one of the best.

What other means do you have at your disposal to acquire high-quality connections from authoritative websites in the absence of continuing digital public relations or an extravagant monthly budget?

HARO is wonderful in that it takes a very basic approach to answer questions.

Journalists are looking for features, and you (or your client) are prepared to provide them with the information they require.

You will receive daily emails from the service.

COPYRIGHT_MARX: Published on https://marxcommunications.com/haro-for-link-building/ by Keith Peterson on 2022-08-03T09:17:10.817Z

You have the option of signing up to receive their complete list of queries, or you may choose to join up only for select categories, such as business and money queries.

You can often get features with journalists or publications who do not connect directly to your sector or niche, and by supplying them with a suitable response, you can still score a link from a website with high authority.

What Is HARO (Help A Reporter Out)?

Laptop in a small table with notebook and pen in front of it

HARO is a platform that was developed to reduce the amount of time that it takes for journalists to obtain pertinent expert opinions for their articles.

On the other hand, SEO professionals quickly became aware of how simple it was to secure a backlink in a highly-visited online newspaper such as Forbes or the Wall Street Journal by utilizing the platform.

The HARO newsletter is published and delivered directly to your email inbox three times per day, Monday through Friday.

Suddenly, CEOs, CMOs, and CTOs joined up for the newsletter.

They may respond to a question that was relevant to their area of expertise and stand a decent chance of having their response published if they did so.

Due to the game's ever-increasing popularity and the fact that the pool of potential experts is already quite large, executives will find it increasingly difficult to gain spots.

How To Use HARO Link Building?

Go to https://www.helpareporter.com and click on the white "Sign Up" button in the menu at the top right of the page.

Fill out your information, including your first and last name, email address, phone number, company name, country, annual revenue (which is kept private), and a password, and then click "Sign Up" at the bottom of the page.

You should get an email from haro@email.helpareporter.com asking you to confirm your account in a few seconds.

Once you've confirmed your email account, you'll be able to log in and change more information, like adding your job title and links to your blog, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts.

You can also choose which HARO media lists you would like to receive.

If you work in the fitness industry, for example, you can choose to only get the "Lifestyle and Fitness" media list.

This can help you narrow down the media list from the hundreds of queries that are usually sent out in the master list.

Even though you might miss some queries if they are put in the wrong category.

Three media lists are sent out every day.

The morning list is published at 5:36 EST, the afternoon list at 12:36 EST, and the evening list at 5:36 EST.

On average, there are about a hundred questions from reporters on each media list.

These groups make up the different parts of the media lists:

Biotech and Healthcare
Business and Finance
Education
Energy and Green Tech
Entertainment and Media
General
High Tech
Lifestyle and Fitness
Public Policy and Government
Sports
Travel
UK

In each HARO query, reporters usually list their name and the media outlet they work for, as well as their deadline, questions, and any special instructions to help you shape your pitch.

These questions can be about the source's job, the article they're writing, or something they're really interested in.

The great thing about HARO is that you can look through these media lists to find reporters who are writing about topics related to your business or your area of expertise.

Once you find the right reporter, you can send them a pitch that tells them about you and your business.

You should be ready to answer any questions the reporter may have.

If you do well, the reporter may want to talk to you or find out more.

What Do You Have To Do With HARO Requests?

A man in glasses and blue long sleeves polo smiling while typing in a laptop

As soon as those emails come in, you need to look through them and see if any of the opportunities are a good fit for you.

Each question has a due date that you need to keep in mind.

Sometimes the journalist is on a tight schedule, and you only have an hour or two to respond.

When you find a question that fits you well, just answer it before the deadline.

If you send a response after the deadline, the journalist won't get it.

Journalists can also end a query early if they get enough responses to meet their needs before the deadline.

Don't wait until the last minute to respond.

What Happens After You Reply To A HARO Request?

When you answer a HARO query, a few different things can happen.

You might hear back that you don't work out.

You might get a reply with more questions or a request to talk on the phone.

You might get a reply that includes a link to the real article.

You might never hear back (this is the most common).

If you send a reply that meets the journalist's needs, they may quote you in their article and include a link to your website.

The reporter gets their story done on time and you get a link, so everyone wins.

But you should be aware that they are under no obligation to give you that backlink.

Sometimes the journalist can't do anything about it.

Sometimes the outlet will tell you that you have to link back to them or they will take your link down.

And some outlets just never link to anyone.

How To Make Your Site Standout To HARO Journalists?

Reporters holding microphones, voice recorder, pen and notebbok while interviewing a man in a suit

Keep in mind that HARO requests are sent to tens of thousands of people who have websites.

All of them do it with the same goal in mind: to get backlinks.

If your answer is similar to those of other people who answer, how will you stand out? "Authority" of your website.

You can do something about this by making your site look and feel better.

Here are some easy ways to make progress:

Make a good first page with a good logo and featured images.
Make a detailed About Us page with author bios, author pictures, the site's history, and contact information.
Use real author pictures all over your site, including in bio boxes.
Add your email address, phone number, and address to your footer.

You should do these things for your niche sites anyway, but you'd be surprised at how few people do.

This gives you an advantage over other people when you answer HARO questions.

Ways To Improve SEO Using HARO Backlinks

After you've been published on a few high-authority websites, you can use these as references when you reach out to websites to ask if you can write a guest post for them. If you've written for high-quality sites like Business Insider or Forbes, that will go a long way toward getting editors to look at your work.
You can also use the articles you've already written to pitch to reporters in the future. Sharing relevant links to articles in which you were mentioned will give them confidence that your pitch is worth listening to.
If you're making great content on your eCommerce blog, for example, you can tell the reporter about it when you send in your pitch. If you have something about this on your blog, you can link to it using the anchor text you want to back up what you're saying in your pitch. Most of the time, reporters will link to your content because it means they don't have to do as much work to find proof to back up their claims.
Lastly, get rid of the guesswork by working with a HARO outreach service or an SEO agency to quickly respond to relevant topics with well-written pitches.