Secret SEO Expert Link Building Methods
If you’re a blogger or social media journalist and need quality content and powerful backlinks pointing back to your site, HelpAReporterOut.com, or HARO, is a method you should definitely check out. It’s being used by top news outlets, such as The WSJ, Reuters, Time, Mashable, and Fox News, and for good reason. Let’s look at what HARO is, what it can do for you, and how to use it.
What is HARO?
HARO is owned by the Chicago-based global media intelligence company Cision. In a nutshell, this innovative online tool allows journalists to connect with the top search engine optimization expert sources from around the globe. Reporters and bloggers can sift through an array of expert sources that have made pitches for them to use within their writing.
How Is HARO Beneficial For Experts?
From the perspective of an expert submitting content, you will make a pitch on a source and then the source has a chance of being picked up and quoted in a news article, blog, marketing page, or other online work when a user chooses to use your content within their own work. It’s a way to be seen and heard, quoted and re-quoted.
Why Is HARO Beneficial To Bloggers And Journalists?
Young business woman in specific stance
HARO touts over 800,000 current users, an astounding feat for a relatively new idea.
As someone who writes online content, you will have a single portal whereby you can gather content written by experts to use within your own published works. It’s like having a panel of experts on any subject imaginable at your disposal. You can even send out emails to experts in the system to ask for an opinion on a specific topic. According to HARO, it distributes over 50,000 queries yearly from various media outlets.
Quality Content
Most writers must have topics that are interesting and in high demand by readers, and, for it to have any chance of ranking, it must also have quality content. Plus, it needs to have the longtail keyword variations that will get it seen by those actively looking for the topic. Oh, and backlinks never hurt either, right?
Clearly, HARO is giving writers of various calibers and niches a quick and efficient access to ready-to-use quality content that’s composed by vetted experts in their field. You’ll easily be able to pull sections of opinion and/or direct quotes to piece together your own piece of writing with high-quality substance.
How Is HARO Used By Journalists And Bloggers?
Step One: Create your website.
You’ll want to have your website up and running at least one month prior to signing up for HARO. That’s a HARO rule, not a suggestion.
Most novice writers use WordPress for their initial websites. It has a very professional feel and look without it costing an arm and leg to create. It’s simple to set up on your own, too.
HARO does not accept websites that are subscriber-only content. Your Alexa.com ranking must also be less than one million.
Step Two: Create your HARO account.
You’ll sign up for a HARO account as a journalist. This is a free process. When you register, you’ll provide your name, email, and media affiliations.
Step Three: Start sending out queries and source requests.
Before you send out source requests and queries, be sure to understand the HARO guidelines for what must be included and excluded within the various specific types of requests.
Generally speaking, you will include a headline; a brief synopsis of your article or guest blog post; and what you require from the source, such as a specific deadline or qualifications desired. Do remember that, like readers, experts want a quality, hot-button subject for their quality content to be placed within. Boring, convoluted, trite subjects will draw less attention from experts.
Step Four: Accept pitches and write your article.
HARO will automatically send you pitches that are relevant to your source request. You can peruse them and pick those that work best for your style and direction. If you need more info, simply reach out to the source via your HARO account.
Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to one source, either; the more sources you implement into the article, the more backlinks you’ll be able to attain.
Pay careful attention to the transitions, intro, and summary of the article you write and let the experts take up most of the bulk of the article.
Step Five: Set up your backlinks.
Now it’s time to email your sources and ask them to share the published article, include it on their own pages, and reference it as they can. This is a win-win – you get traffic and they get even more accolades and recognition.
There you have it. HARO enables you to spend less time researching and gathering up data from sources scattered across the net and more time actually writing that quality content that’ll get you seen and heard. It ensures that you have vetted sources providing quality content upfront and without delay. Plus, it provides invaluable backlink opportunities.