Chris Wondering about using HARO (or similar?) as a way to generate backlinks. Someone mentioned they provide quotes or content in exchange for backlinks. Is this a viable long term backlink strategy? Any idea on the Domain Authority to Cost ratio? Thanks! 1 👍🏽 1 [filtered from 22 💬🗨]
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Milad I was doing HARO every single day for one of our bad credit web properties. For every 20 I sent, I would get 1 or maybe 2 responses. Granted that there are lots of people in the finance sector trying to get backlinks, and obviously, a competitor may be reluctant to use you as a source (something I found in my situation, lots of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) requests are from our competitors). You need to become a "source" and then you answer requests sent out 3x per day. If you're chosen, you may not even know so check your backlinks continuously.
Chris » Milad Thanks! did you pay for HARO keyword alerts? Did you need to provide content without knowing if they would use it or was that after reaching out? Milad I never paid a single cent. I honestly became an expert at anything credit/bankruptcy/debt related since I was spending 2 hours a day created 3-4 articles daily for many months. So because of that, I was able to answer everybody's credit related questions with ease. Just make yourself come across as a valid source for your niche. Chris Ok cool, thanks! Bushra » Milad How do you create 3-4 article daily. I struggle with one post. But I work fulltime and have kids. Then do blogging part time. Milad » Bushra Well I just have learned a lot about credit and finance over my life so it has become easy for me. Also, when I create content, it's not always "different". Although I never duplicate a piece word for word or use the same exact title, I'll answer the same question asked in a different way etc what obviously had some search queries. There are only so many things to answer or write about. Sometimes it outperforms the original piece. I also studied the crap out of other competitors and tried to replicate their writing style. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy. The hardest part for me was coming up what to write about 😅 Chris » Milad You're a pro! That's how! Milad » Chris Thanks man, always more to learn though! 👊🏽 Bushra » Milad What tips would you give a newbie like me. I don't write about credit, although I helped my husband to improve his credit score from 320 to 830 within no time. Also helped him paid off his student loan almost 50 grand within a few years. My blog is about lifestyle but I am new to everything. An extremely quick learner though. I was the sharpest student at the med school. I will highly appreciate any suggestions. How do you study your competitors? I feel like asking you a dumb question. I mean you use any tool for that? Thank you in advance Milad You're all good! I was clueless not long ago myself 😉. If you are looking to drive maximum clicks to your content at the lowest cost, I would download this tool called Keywords Everywhere (chrome extension that's free.) It will tell you the search volume and competition to rank for a certain search and also related queries. See if you can find a keyword with that tool with 1,000+ search volume with .3 or lower competition (that's just me, others may have another approach) and write about that. When it comes to studying competitors, I use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to see what content they're ranking for. I also look at their headings and what not when it comes to a certain query you are trying to rank for. You never know what some people will search for unless you're in their shoes. For instance, as I write about the credit industry, I found a competitor was ranking for the search "banks that don't use chexsystems", a software that tells banks if a savings account applicant is at high risk of defaulting. I would have never known about that since I have never experienced that myself. Only study medium/large competitors and see what their top pages/content are that have keyword that are easy to rank for. Bushra I have been using keyword everywhere and Ubbersuggest for last 4 weeks and I saw two of my posts were on second page of the Google which is may be no big deal but as a three months old blogger its really big thing for me. I will learn Ahrefs and SEMrush to see that. I was checking things on maz. I have been learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for last 4 weeks and I feel like I have been making difference. Okay I will shoot for 1000vl. I was going with over 1000or under. It's very kind of you. I am very overwhelmed though. My husband is a computer engineer but don't do coding or so. I don't know much of computer. The only thing is helping me that I am determined to learn and get serious about learning. I get very little organic traffic though. I have no clue about backlinking. Some days it feels hard.
jason biddle In my experience the beauty of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is that it is never time wasted if you plan it right. Here's the criteria I used to make sure I was being smart about it (I followed these steps in this order based on my own priorities): 1. Do homework on the source AND the author to see if they typically include dofollow links to their sources. If it seems like they don't, then don't bother. 2. Only answer questions that can either be answered from an existing blog post (so you already have an answer that you can paraphrase from that post) OR can be repurposed into your own blog post in the event they don't use your response. Don't waste time writing content you can't use. 3. Only answer questions when the source matches your niche. The referral traffic and topical flow is less powerful if you are quoted on an off-topic source. Sometimes I make exceptions to this if the source is particularly authoritative and I'm willing to take a chance to get a link from a top domain (even though the relevance isn't quite there). 💟👍🏽3
Chris Very helpful. Appreciate the tactical advice. This particular client is in the education niche. Any idea on the volume of valuable opportunities for a niche this size? jason biddle » Chris There is an education category, so I'd say your best bet is to sign up for a free HARO account and see for yourself. When I get a HARO email I run a quick find function in my browser and search for common terms in my particular niche. I'm sure I've missed good opportunities but manually reading all the HARO requests would take too much time. A lot of times I simply delete the 3 daily emails if I'm not currently focused on HARO. Getting the emails can be a pain since it clogs your inbox, but I think it's worth it.
