SEO Practical Guide: How to Get High-Quality Backlinks for Free with HARO
Perhaps the highest quality SEO backlink platform in the world, bar none. Complete guide on using HARO platform to get high-quality backlinks for free, suitable for independent site sellers with professional expertise.
Anyone who has researched SEO must be familiar with HARO. You've definitely seen HARO mentioned multiple times in various international SEO tutorials, and you've probably seen many bloggers mention it domestically too.
Unfortunately, most are conceptual and confusing introductions, and their audience is mostly SEO marketers, content creators, and tool/service users, rather than specifically for global selling independent sites.
For someone like me with brand marketing and media buying experience, I can quickly grasp the logic of this strategy. But for most solo sellers who are beginners, after reading, they're probably still frustrated: Damn, these experts say this thing is so useful, but I just can't understand what it is, and I don't know how to do it!
Don't worry, I'm here to help.
Who Can Use HARO, Who Should Not?
I actually discussed this back in Part 7: SEO Guide Part 7: What Exactly is Guest Blog That Experts Keep Talking About?
And I gave a conclusion:
For new solo sellers of global selling independent sites, if you're not in a very specific niche, and if you're not an expert in that industry/category, remember not to spend too much energy researching guest blog. To be more absolute: do NOT spend ANY energy researching it!
I need to declare upfront that this conclusion still applies to this article.
Most new solo independent site sellers shouldn't bother with this, please. This includes but is not limited to those playing the trending product game, social media free traffic seekers, and those looking for quick success and explosive results. Researching this stuff is really not as good as testing more products.
In other words, to answer the opening question: It's possible that it's not that you don't know how to do it, or that you don't understand, but that this strategy simply doesn't suit you. Don't burn yourself out over it.
What is HARO, What is Guest Blog?
One sentence to summarize what HARO is: HARO provides a platform for content providers and content seekers to exchange needs, thereby achieving Guest Blog and completing a win-win situation.
What is Guest Blog? Let me give some most straightforward examples that all beginners can get.
You know "Cheng Qian Friends Circle" right? Each episode interviews some "guests". Let's ignore the business issues (like now this account has too much influence, almost every appearance is a paid commercial), who are the content providers and content seekers here?
- Content Provider: The interviewed guest
- Content Seeker: The "Cheng Qian Friends Circle" program
The guest shares their entrepreneurship story with Cheng Qian, completes an episode together, and presents it to the audience. The result:
- Cheng Qian gains traffic on social media, eventually monetizing through traffic
- The guest gains traffic exposure together with Cheng Qian in the program, gains attention. Eventually the guest's personal influence and their startup brand will also benefit
In short, a win-win is achieved. This is Guest Blog: on one side are content seekers, such as media, who need various high-quality content to fill their media columns; on the other side are content providers, it can be anyone, such as brand owners (that's us) who provide professional content output in certain fields, and use media to amplify our influence.
Someone might ask, isn't this "advertising"? You can understand it that way, it's a form of soft advertising. But in this cooperation model, as brand owners, we're not hard-selling or blatantly advertising, but providing a lot of high-value content that is scarce for the media. Eventually, a "resource exchange" is achieved - we trade scarce professional content for media exposure.
After understanding the concept and essence, you can go back to the previous part and probably have a better idea of whether this strategy suits you.
Stop Talking, Teach Me How!
HARO underwent major adjustments this year, and personally I think the operability has improved in terms of convenience. But that doesn't matter. I just want to tell you that in the past, trying to get free backlinks on HARO would take more time and effort.
Official website: https://www.connectively.us/
Step 1: Register Account and Complete Profile
Important! Be sure to provide as detailed and professional personal information as possible!
Step 2: Find Your Category, Your Expertise Area, Your Content Topics
Step 3: Find and Pitch
Step 4: Wait for Feedback and Proceed with Next Steps
For example, I received very positive cooperation feedback: the other party will publish an article with my backlink, tag me in social media posts, mention me in YouTube videos, etc. But how the cooperation ultimately works out depends entirely on how you communicate. (Some might even ask for payment, so please judge for yourself)
