If you’ve ever looked at a competitor’s backlink profile and thought, “How on earth are they getting links from proper publications?” The answer is usually digital PR.
HARO link building is one of the simplest ways to get earned media without paying for placements, because you’re not begging for links. You’re giving journalists a useful quote they can publish.
A quick heads-up though: HARO was rebranded to Connectively, which shut down in December 2024, and later got acquired and revived under Featured.com’s ownership. So yes, HARO is back and working again, but it’s worth understanding the “new” HARO before you build your process around it.
What is HARO link building?
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a platform that sends out journalist queries, usually by email, asking for expert sources for stories.
You reply as a source with something genuinely helpful, the journalist uses your quote, and you can earn an editorial link or at least a brand mention from a real publication.
In practice, this sits somewhere between classic media outreach and modern journalist request platforms, and when it works, it’s one of the cleanest ways to build authority links.
Why HARO still works for backlinks
Google is obsessed with trust signals, and nothing screams “legit” like a link that exists because a writer chose your insight.
HARO links tend to be contextually placed, surrounded by relevant text, and often come from strong sites with real referring domains and real readers. That’s why they can move the needle on organic traffic when the link is topically relevant and not just a random mention.
Also, HARO is back in the original “daily email opportunities” format, which keeps it simple.
Step 1: Set up HARO the right way (so you don’t miss opportunities)
Start by signing up on the official HARO site and choosing categories that actually match your niche and client work.
If you pick everything, you’ll drown in irrelevant queries and you’ll stop responding after three days. This is usually where most people fail.
Keep it tight: only categories where you can provide niche expertise, real examples, and a quote that sounds like it came from someone who’s done the job.
Step 2: Build your “expert profile” assets once (and reuse them forever)
Before you reply to any journalist queries, prepare a small kit you can paste and tweak quickly.
You want a short expert bio, your role, your company name, and a sensible link target. I usually point journalists to a relevant service page or a useful blog guide.
Have two versions of your bio ready: one short for tight word counts, and one slightly longer when you need to establish credibility and E-E-A-T.
Step 3: Choose the right queries (most are not worth your time)
This is where HARO link building turns into a system.
Look for queries with a clear angle, a publication type that fits your goals, and a topic where you can add a proper insight. If the query is vague, you’ll be competing with hundreds of generic replies.
Also watch out the deadline and turnaround time!
Step 4: Write a response that gets picked
Most pitches fail because they don’t get straight to the point. Remember, these journalists are reading hundreds, if not thousands, of applications a day and yours needs to stand out.
Open by directly answering the question in the first sentence, then back it up with a quick example, a mini process, or a simple stat from your own experience running campaigns.
Keep your writing quotable. Journalists love lines they can lift and paste with minimal editing, so think “clean and bitesized”, not “essay style”.
It’s much better to send five excellent pitches per week than fifty rushed ones, because the hit rate is massively better and you don’t burn out.
Step 5: Make it easy for the journalist to credit you
If you want the link, don’t make the writer hunt.
Add your name, role, business name, and a single suggested URL.
Some publications will use nofollow links or skip links entirely and just cite your brand. That’s still useful because brand mentions can lead to future citations, and you can sometimes turn them into links later with link reclamation.
Step 6: Track your pitches (otherwise you’ll never improve)
If you’re doing HARO properly, you’ll send enough replies that you won’t remember what went where.
Track the query topic, publication, deadline, whether you responded, and the outcome. Over time you’ll spot patterns like which categories convert, which angles get chosen, and what style of “quote” gets lifted.
This is also how you learn which types of publications consistently give you dofollow editorial links compared to just a mention.
Step 7: Follow up the smart way
Most HARO pitches don’t need a follow-up. Journalists are on deadlines, and chasing them can backfire.
But if you’re featured and the link is missing, a polite nudge can work well. Keep it friendly, thank them for including you, and ask if they’d be able to add your website for readers who want more context.
If you make it about helping the reader rather than “I want my backlink”, you’ll get better results.
Step 8: Turn one HARO win into multiple SEO benefits
When you land a feature, add it to your website as a trust badge, mention it in outreach, and repurpose the quote into a LinkedIn post or a short case-study snippet. It reinforces authority, and it makes future journalists more likely to use you.
Also, check the anchor text. If the publication uses weird anchor text or links to an irrelevant page, you may want to request a small change, but only if it genuinely improves user experience.
Avoid these HARO link building mistakes
- Treating HARO like a link farm rather than earned media
- Writing generic responses such as “We are thrilled to share…”
- Ignoring topical relevance and pitching just because the publication has a big name
- Forgetting that your job is to help the journalist create a better article
In Summary
HARO link building works when you treat it like what it is: a fast, honest way to help journalists and earn editorial backlinks as a by-product.
Get your setup right, pick queries you can genuinely answer, reply fast with a quotable insight, and track what’s working so your response rate improves month by month.
