What Was HARO?
HARO ("Help A Reporter Out") was a free service that emailed journalists' source requests to a list of experts; you'd reply with a quote, and if the reporter used it you'd often earn a mention and a link on a high-authority news site. It became a staple digital-PR link-building tactic — but the brand itself is gone, so treating "HARO" as a live tool in 2026 will just waste your time.
The short history: Cision rebranded HARO to Connectively in 2024, then shut Connectively down in December 2024. The tactic — answering reporter queries to earn expert-quote links — lives on, but now runs through successor platforms, not HARO.
A Real Example
A personal-finance blogger used to scan HARO's thrice-daily emails for queries like "Looking for CFPs to comment on 2026 tax changes." She'd send a tight, quotable two-sentence answer within the hour. A national outlet ran her quote with a link to her site — one strong editorial link, zero payment.
Today that exact workflow still works, she just runs it on Qwoted and Featured instead. The pitch is identical: fast, specific, genuinely expert. Only the inbox changed.
HARO's Successors at a Glance
| Platform | Status | Notes for link builders |
|---|---|---|
| HARO | Gone — rebranded to Connectively in 2024 | The name still floats around; the service does not exist |
| Connectively (ex-HARO) | Shut down December 2024 | Cision retired it entirely; don't chase it |
| Qwoted | Active | Popular HARO replacement; free and paid tiers |
| Featured (formerly Terkel) | Active | Question-and-answer format; answers can earn citations |
| SourceBottle | Active | Long-running query service, strong in AU/UK/US |
Why the Tactic Outlived the Brand
HARO's name is gone, but the reason it worked never went anywhere. Journalists still need credible sources on deadline, editors still credit the experts they quote, and authoritative outlets still hand out coverage to people who make a reporter's job easier. That supply-and-demand didn't die with Connectively — it just moved addresses. The link builders who kept winning are the ones who understood they were buying attention with expertise, not with a platform login.
There's also a quality angle worth naming. The old free-for-all HARO inbox got flooded with low-effort pitches, which is part of why the successor platforms lean harder on vetted profiles and paid tiers. That's good news if you're genuinely qualified: less noise to compete against, and reporters who trust the source pool more. The bar is higher, and that favors real experts over volume spammers.
How to Run the Expert-Quote Tactic Today
- Pick a live platform — Qwoted, Featured, or SourceBottle — and set up a profile that makes your expertise obvious. Reporters vet the source, not just the quote.
- Filter to queries you can genuinely answer. Relevance and real authority are what get you picked; spraying every query gets you ignored.
- Respond fast. Journalists work on deadlines. The first strong, on-topic answer often wins the slot.
- Write a quote they can paste. Two or three sharp sentences, a concrete number or example, no fluff and no sales pitch.
- Include a credible bio and site URL so the reporter can attribute and link you correctly.
- Track placements. Set an alert for your name and brand so you catch the coverage — and any mentions that ran without a link, which you can then reclaim.
Common Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
- Still hunting for "HARO." Fix: it's gone. Move your workflow to Qwoted, Featured, or SourceBottle and stop searching for a dead service.
- Pitching outside your lane. Fix: answer only where you have real expertise. Reporters spot filler instantly and blacklist the source.
- Burying the quote in a wall of text. Fix: lead with the quotable line. If they have to dig for it, they'll pick the source who didn't make them.
- Treating it as a link-only play. Fix: even a no-link citation builds authority and entity signals — and you can pursue the link afterward via outreach.
- Ignoring quotes that ran without a link. Fix: a mention with no link is a reclaimable link. See Unlinked Mentions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is HARO still around in 2026?
No. HARO was rebranded to Connectively in 2024, and Connectively was shut down in December 2024. Anyone selling "HARO links" today is describing the tactic, not the original service.
What replaced HARO?
Qwoted, Featured (formerly Terkel), and SourceBottle are the main active alternatives that carry reporter source requests. They work the same way HARO did.
Are HARO-style links follow or nofollow?
It varies by outlet. Many major publications nofollow outbound links, so treat the authority, referral traffic, and brand mention as the real prize — a follow link is a bonus, not the point.
Does the expert-quote tactic still work for SEO?
Yes. Earning citations on authoritative sites through genuine expertise is exactly the kind of link building Google is comfortable with — it's the opposite of paid link insertion.
How is this different from digital PR?
Answering reporter queries is one tactic inside digital PR. Digital PR is the broader practice of earning coverage and links through stories, data, and commentary. This is the fast, repeatable, one-quote-at-a-time end of it.
Related Reading
Claude Vincent is a technical SEO consultant focused on crawlability, rendering, and AI-search visibility. He writes the field guides and case studies at SEO ProCheck, with a bias toward the durable, unglamorous work that decides whether search engines and AI answer engines can actually read and cite a site.
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