HARO Link Building For Ecommerce Websites 

The HARO link building guide from @jamesethtaylor in the Summer of SEO course just blew my mind. Share the love on twitter

There’s no denying the power of link building, and obtaining backlinks from high-authority publications is often what can seperate a site from its competitors. In the world of ecommerce, this is no different. 

But, how do you actually get these types of links from huge publications? And, more importantly, how do you get these links without spending a fortune on long-term PR campaigns? 

Enter the world of journalist request link building. 

You’ll often see this method referred to as ‘HARO link building’. HARO standard for Help A Reporter Out, and is a platform where journalists can request expert insights for an article that they’re writing. 

The theory behind this approach is simple. Journalists need an expert to validate their content, and website owners can pitch their expertise. If the response from the website owner is used by the journalist, what often follows is a backlink from the publication. This isn’t always the case, but for the most part you’ll find that a link is given. 

So, how do you actually get these types of links? How do you use HARO? And how can you increase your chances of landing these types of links? Let’s take a look. 

Tips for ‘landing’ backlinks using Help A Reporter Out 

1. Reply quickly

Time is of the essence with HARO. Even if the deadline is 7+ days away, journalists aren’t going to sit and look through 100’s of replies over the space of a week.

The sooner you get into a routine with sending out responses to queries as they come through, the better you’ll get at landing at the top of their inbox.

2. Create an email signature

Create a signature that has a link to your headshot, website, a short bio, and your LinkedIn profile. Make it as easy as possible for the journalist to copy and paste your details (and site link!), and to show that you’re ‘real’. Journalists often get pitched with fake AI profiles, so showing that you’re actually who you say you are can go a long way. 

Note – HARO will strip any attachments when the replies are sent, so you’re always better sticking to a URL of a headshot rather than an email attachment of one.

3. Get to the point

No one is going to read your 100+ word introduction. They want a specific answer to a question or query, so give it to them.

4. Don’t include ‘HARO’ in the subject line

When you send a response, it comes through to the journalist or publisher as ‘HARO: New Pitch – Response xyx…’

Including something like ‘RE: HARO’ or ‘My HARO Response’ just wastes valuable space that could be used for summarising your response.

Keep your subject line as to-the-point as possible to summarise what you’re sending them.

Adding something in the subject line that shows your expertise is a great way to use that valuable initial space and to grab the attention of the journalist, e.g. ‘Interior Designer RE:’ or ‘ecommerce expert’. 

5. Use HARO alternatives

Don’t just use HARO. There are plenty of alternatives out there including Qwoted, Source Bottle and many others. Even #journorequest on Twitter.

Try a few out and see which ones work for you (or better yet, use them all together).

6. Consider (and plan) the types of queries you want to reply to

This may sound obvious, but when you’re doing this type of outreach for your site, you have to have a plan to make the process as efficient as possible. For example, if I run an ecommerce site in the home decor niche, when a HARO email comes through I would immediately ‘Control/Command-F’ for my main target keywords that would naturally sit within a query e.g. :

• Interior 
• Design 
• Product specific e.g. ‘rug’ or ‘curtain’ 
• Style
• Home 
• Trend
  

Head to the business section of the email – Is there anything relevant here that broadly relates to your service offering e.g. any responses looking for a business owner?

Go even more general…within the ‘general’ section – A quick look here to see again if there’s anything generic where you can add value with a reply. For example, requests looking for entrepreneurs or ecommerce experts could easily be responded to by an ecommerce store owner, regardless of niche. 

7. Don’t waste time with ambiguity

Whilst HARO is getting better at removing spammy sites from their index of ‘journalists’, you need to really carefully look at the media outlet of the request. If it’s showing as anonymous and the English isn’t very good in the request, then it’s likely going to be quite a spammy site.

Or, if the brand or site is mentioned, then paste it into Ahrefs and look at both the referring IP’s and their inbound links – what content are they writing, and is this evidence of a PBN (private blog network)?

8. Don’t ‘force’ a reply

Some days will be better than others when it comes to replying on HARO and its alternatives. Just like journalists have slow news days, you’ll have slow reply days, but that doesn’t mean you should try and force a request out when either a) it’s completely irrelevant to you or b) the site doesn’t meet your minimum authority metrics.

HARO Alternatives To Try 

There are a few large request sites like HARO, and some of them are actually less-saturated by online business owners and SEO agencies looking to build links for their clients. 

Here are some insights on some HARO alternatives that are worth trying, and where some of the largest publications in the world look for experts to include in their articles: 

Qwoted Premium (https://www.qwoted.com/) 

Easily the best premium request platform for the money. Reputable publications and a consistent variety of opportunities. Be prepared to write much lengthier answers than you would on HARO (but also expect much better links)

Terkel (https://terkel.io/) 

Based on the price for the premium version I think this one is great for startups looking for a HARO alternative. It’s a handy one too as everything is done within the platform, so no faffing with multiple inboxes. I would say recently that some of the sites being accepted onto the platform have dropped in quality, so make sure you’re doing your own checks for site quality before sending out pitches.

Help a B2B Writer (https://helpab2bwriter.com/) 

Free for the time being and brilliant for SaaS businesses and sites in tech niches. As ecommerce business owners, there are also plenty of opportunities to respond to broader queries in relation to marketing and entrepreneurship. 

Utilising experts to assist with HARO link building 

If you have an ecommerce site in a niche where a deeper level of expertise is required then you’re often going to struggle to build links if you yourself are not the authority. 

For example, if you sell protein powder and want to get links from health and fitness publications, the journalists are going to expect to hear from someone who is actually qualified to give medical or health-related advice.

Here’s one of the most legitimate ways that you can navigate around this:

• Actively outreach to specialists in a specific field, and offer them a link partnership or bonus scheme if they’d like to work with you in placing requests on their behalf
  
• For example, look for medical writers on Upwork who have relevant qualifications in relation to what a journalist would expect to see e.g. a doctor to comment on protein powders, or a personal trainer to comment on exercise plans
  
• Add the writer to the ‘About’ page of your site so that journalists can see they’re a legitimate part of the team, ensuring that the link is attributed to your site and not the social profiles of the writer 

This works well because it means that these often very niche specialists can get mentioned in high authority publications, and you can get your link!

Closing thoughts on HARO link building 

HARO link building (and journalist link building in general) can often be slow to begin with, and it can feel a bit demoralising when your pitches are not picked-up. 

The main thing to remember is that this is a game of momentum, and that pitches sent in your first week may take literal months to get picked-up or go live. 

Persistence is key, and it’s certainly worth it when you start to land those high-authority links (especially if your competitors are not putting in the hours responding to requests!). 

Share the love…

The HARO link building guide from @jamesethtaylor in the Summer of SEO course just blew my mind. Share the love on twitter