Frequently
Asked Questions
HARO or Help A Reporter Out allows journalists and bloggers to seek input from subject matter experts on various topics. They receive dozens, sometimes hundreds, of pitches for every query. They choose which responses to use. Most of the time, they link to the source’s website—both the journalist and the source benefit from this arrangement. Working with a trusted website, the journalist gets help creating content; the source gets exposure and backlinks.
Known for its high-quality, Google-compliant link-building strategies, Search combat has earned a reputation as a leader in the SEO industry. Our team knows what it takes to master HARO outreach. We monitor your HARO account, craft original pitches to every relevant HARO query, and showcase your linkable assets on higher authority websites.
Here’s what you can expect:
- Monitoring HARO emails daily to find suitable matches for your business
- A minimum of 75 responses per month
- Researching media outlets
- Tracking backlinks
- Discovering and reporting published links as soon as possible
One of the major selling points and weaknesses of HARO is its high volume of requests. It can be challenging to find the right opportunities, and you need to know what to look for.
HARO can be a very effective for building tier 2 links over time and growing your domain authority fast.
This is a service we have consistently delivered for our websites, and we are pleased to offer it to our clients now as well.
Our response time is fast.
When building links with HARO, timing is crucial. Due to our system replies faster than other users, our responses are at the top of the journalist’s inbox.
Choosing the best opportunities is what we do.
Most requests on HARO do not originate from a respected website with significant domain authority. We identify your website’s best, most relevant opportunities quickly.
Journalists Love Our Answers
A source that simplifies a journalist’s job is a favorite of journalists. The answer we provide is actionable and quotable, which journalists love. This results in successful link building when combined with our fast response time.
Any company that wants to improve its DA can contact us. The HARO platform performs exceptionally well with professional services, SaaS, and eCommerce sites. It is common for HARO emails to include questions about technology, travel, business, finance, and lifestyle.
Regarding organic traffic, yes, if you are serious about it. You can expect lower performance if your website does not have any backlinks. The topics we pitch are marketing-related, and we recommend acquiring some industry-relevant backlinks before ordering this service.
Businesses can use HARO providers to pitch journalists directly. Business owners can benefit from working with a quality HARO provider in the following ways:
- Link-building increases the visibility of your services.
- This is an organic way to build strong backlinks from highly-trusted sources.
- It’s more appealing to journalists to have a trusted provider list your business than to use DIY link-building techniques.
- Quality providers understand what journalists are looking for from a source, so they can help you create a powerful pitch.
HARO is simple to use but highly time-consuming. Check every HARO email for opportunities that fit your business, skillset, and knowledge. Just finding the right emails to reply to is time-consuming. Afterward, you’ll have to spend a lot of time and energy writing responses. Instead of doing what you do best, you could have spent time building your business. Even after spending all that time and effort, fewer than 5% of pitches result in backlinks.
A professional writing team handles HARO pitches so you can focus on running your business.
Get links and brand mentions from
the World's most popular media outlets
Getting links from major publications like Forbes, Business Insider, Huff Post, USA Today and Cosmopolitan is hard!
Help A Reporter Out (HARO) connects journalists from major media outlets (like those above) with experts who can provide quotable insight.
It’s an incredibly powerful way to build premium backlinks and get epic brand mentions.
The challenge is that it is very competitive.
To succeed on HARO you need to:
- Respond very quickly: Some requests receive over 200 responses. If you can’t respond quickly (ideally within 30 minutes of the HARO notification) your pitch will be lost in the shear volume of responses that a journalist receives.
- Provide compelling insight: Journalists are looking for relevant experts they can quote. This means your pitch needs to quickly demonstrate genuine expertise and include a short piece of copy (200 words max) that is uniquely insightful and relevant to their article topic.
- Consistently pitch: It’s no use doing a couple of random pitches every month and hoping for the best. Our research shows that on average only 15-20% of pitches get used and include a link. This means for every 10 pitches you can expect at least 1 link. Doesn’t sound much! But that’s one link from a major publication like The Washington Post!
Each day we check HARO for relevant requests and then craft engaging pitches in your voice.
Our proven method takes the guess work out of HARO link building by following the core principles set out above: speed, expert insight and consistency.
How It Works
Review our HARO packages below. Pick a plan that works for you and checkout.
Ranking higher in local search results will increase your leads as 92% of searchers pick businesses on the first page of local search results.
Every week day (Monday-Friday) your account manager will check the daily HARO notifications, filter for relevancy and craft compelling pitches in your voice, from your corporate account.
At the end of the month we'll send you a report of all the pitches we sent and any links that were secured.
Still have questions?
Example Pitches and Results
Here's one of our recent pitches


HARO Packages
filter requests by relevancy and craft compelling pitches
Get all the juicy details and tactics we're using to deliver insane results!
What's included
All our plans include…