What Is HARO & How Can It Factor Into Your Link Building Strategy?

Hey guys, today in this article, we are going to discuss HARO link building best practices. So keep reading.

Links are more than just links – they are a crucial factor for your site’s success that can make or break your SEO. Marketers use a plethora of tools and link-building strategies to find lucrative backlink opportunities through guest posts, link insertion, and broken link building, but these can be time-consuming and not to mention costly. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is ahead of the pack.

Learn how to leverage the HARO link building service to share your expertise with those in need and, in turn, harness its unmatched link juice power to skyrocket your link-building strategy.

What Is HARO?

Help a Reporter Out, or HARO service for short is a free online outreach service that connects journalists looking for subject matter expertise with a wide range of expert sources – brands and business owners worldwide looking to connect with top-tier media outlets for the opportunity to land valuable media coverage.

Due to Google’s growing obsession with quality over quality and the fact that high-quality content and backlinks are the two most important ranking factors, if you’re not factoring the HARO networking platform into your link-building strategy – you’re FOMO just got real.

What Is HARO Link Building and How Does It Work?

In its purest form, HARO is a relationship broker between journalists and sources. However, there’s a lot more to HARO than meets the eye. The chance to show off your industry prowess is also a lucrative link-building opportunity to acquire valuable high-authority links and online exposure from reputable online publications simultaneously and, thus, give your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts a much-needed boost.

Links from reputable media sources can be some of the most authoritative and beneficial backlinks for your site. With “Help a Reporter Out,” you don’t have to know a reporter to score a valuable media link – simply help one out.

Everyone wins in the HARO scenario: the journalists get their expert source for their stories, while you gain the opportunity to demonstrate your industry expertise and earn valuable exposure and backlinks from a high-quality website in exchange for your input.

Talk about a match made in heaven!

What Are HARO Backlinks?

HARO backlinks are inbound links that websites gain courtesy of linkups through the Help A Reporter Out program. With all the high authority sites under its wing, HARO is unrivaled at building high-quality backlinks.

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Key Benefits of Using HARO as Part of Your Link Building Strategy

Backlinks, also known as external links or inbound links; are the pillar of an effective SEO strategy as they are a top search engine ranking factor. They act as a digital “vote of confidence” from one website to another, indicating value, credibility, and authority to both readers and search engines like Google and Bing.

The result? Authority-based exposure in SEO and digital marketing directly translates to more visibility, referral traffic, higher ranking on SERPs, and, ultimately, overall business success.

High-Quality Backlinks that Speak Volumes

To build strong domain authority, valuable organic traffic, and trust flow; you want to opt for quality over quantity, aka external links in reputable publications. Luckily, HARO serves them on a silver plate. HARO is a white hat link-building method that allows you to be featured in high-ranking; high-authority publications and builds a robust backlink profile that does all the traffic- and revenue-driving legwork for you.

Cost-Effectiveness at Its Finest

On the hunt for a result-driven link-building tactic to add to your SEO arsenal without breaking the bank? HARO may be just what you need. Help a Reporter Out is a completely free service that requires nothing but a little time and effort; making it one of the most cost-effective link-building methods today.

HARO Link Building Best Practices: How to Leverage HARO to Boost Your Link Building Strategy

In today’s bustling digital landscape, there’s no such thing as “build it, and they will come.” For people to discover your website, you need to actively work toward getting it in front of your target audience – pave the way and adorn it with big, flashing signs that lead them there. Or, in digital marketing and SEO terms, building links, links, and more links. High-quality links. That’s where HARO comes in to save the day.

Nonetheless, there is something of a science to HARO link building. We’ve rounded up the top 5 insider tips and tricks to help you ensure the juice-squeezing backlinks you get through HARO tick all the boxes and maximize your link-building efforts:

1. Don’t Settle – Pick Your Battles

Think more is better? Think again. Although generally desirable, not all types of links are equally valuable – relevant links earned from reputable and authoritative sites and referring pages topically relevant to the link destination offer more SEO value (read: link equity) as they give search engine algorithms exactly what they want.

So, a vital part of a strong HARO link-building strategy and a crucial component of your ROI equation is how well you identify pitching opportunities. While you might be tempted to chase quantity and reply to a bunch of inquiries; keep in mind that one high-authority website’s backlink gives a better SEO boost than 20 links from weak sites.

You can use various SEO tools to check the level of authority (“Authority Score”), URL rating (UR), and traffic volume of referring domains. Aim for a domain rating (DR) above 50 and keep an eye on domain and page relevance in regard to your industry. Steer clear of making link exchanges and watch out for the “link bait and switch” queries that promise you will get featured on a high authority site but end up posting it on a much lower authority site.

2. Stick with DoFollow Links

Although not all HARO backlinks are DoFollow, you’ll gain the biggest SEO boost from the ones that are. While “nofollow” links and branded mentions are not without their SEO and PR value; “dofollow” backlinks are at the heart of successful HARO link building.

So, build (and constantly update) a list of high DR/DA sites that reliably provide dofollow backlinks; as well as those that don’t. However, the beauty of HARO is that despite not passing link equity; even a “nofollow” is likely to carry more weight than a “dofollow” link from an irrelevant or low authority website; as they can be great for quality referral traffic and some exposure, too.

3. Position Yourself for Success

Page placement of the links you earn matters – it will impact the importance that Google attaches to it. Many factors go into making a valuable backlink, but one of the most important characteristics of high-quality backlinks is that the link text occurs naturally within the context of the page. If your backlinks exhibit “natural” characteristics, they will likely carry more weight in search ranking.

The best position for a backlink is in the body of the article (body content of the page); as it yields the greatest SEO value. So, ensure your editorial link gets placed for optimum impact and try to strike a natural balance of generic, branded, keyword match, and naked URL anchor text.

4. Opt for Scarcity

A unique link is harder to earn but more valuable as not everybody gets one. Links carry greater value when there are fewer on the referring site – a backlink from a site with a handful of outbound links is more natural than one from a site that doles out hundreds of links to other websites.

So, to capitalize on your HARO link building; avoid link farms and spammy directories as they offer bulk backlinks without regard to their quality; providing links that carry less weight in PageRank.

5. Snatch’em Before Someone Else Does

HARO is an excellent way to leverage your industry knowledge to earn quality backlinks from major publications. However, journalists and bloggers are busy people with inboxes jam-packed with countless pitches. Submitting an attention-grabbing response to a query that stands out as soon as possible, regardless of the deadline; can go a long way and drastically increase your chances of being chosen as a source and showcasing your linkable content assets.

HARO: A Link-Building Gold Mine at Your Fingertips

HARO is an evergreen link-building tactic that can support your link-building campaigns and keep your business front and center. It’s a simple yet highly effective path to developing a well-rounded and, above all; successful SEO strategy paved with top-notch link building and revenue-boosting exposure.

Effective link-building strategies come together organically. Don’t be afraid to experiment, target only valuable link opportunities relevant to your marketing or business goals and reach your desired audience and remember that patience is key to the HARO link-building method. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Looking to boost your website’s rankings? Check out these top link building strategies that will help you increase your online visibility and drive more traffic to your site.