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HARO vs. Guest Posting Links: Which Are Better?
SEOs always talk about the power of backlinks, but rarely about the power of different types of links.
So I decided to conduct a 6 month experiment of 5 HARO (Help a Reporter Out) links (DA 70+) vs. 3 guest posts (9 DA40+ links) on 2 of my blogs. I wanted to see which one would have the biggest impact on traffic and DA.
To help me get HARO links, I hired Linkifi – a backlink building agency – to pitch HARO links on my behalf. I spent $6,500 for 10 backlinks, then used 5 for the test.
Overall, all the links helped grow my 2 sites, but which did it faster and which helped my traffic the most? Let’s find out!
Get 10% Off Linkifi!
HARO is hard – there’s a reason they’re almost spelled the same. But you get EPIC links from sites that can really build your brand.
With Linkifi, you can set it and forget it! The team will build you high quality links without you having to do a thing.
Setting Up the Test
One of the sites had a domain authority (DA) of 12 and approximately 15,400 monthly page views, while the other had a DA of 4 and 400 monthly page views.
Both sites are in competitive niches – travel and pets respectively – so it felt about even to compare them.
How I Built Links
HARO Links
HARO is a short form for Help a Reporter Out. It’s a way for journalists to connect with sources that they can cite in articles. Big names like Business Insider and the Washington Post look for sources this way.
I purchased 10 HARO links through a service called Linkifi – I used 5 for this experiment and 5 for She Knows SEO.
I used these on Site 2, in the pet niche.
Guest Posting
I built 3 guest posts for Site 1. Each guest post included 3 do-follow links from DA 48, DA 47, and DA 41 sites.
I did run out of time while travelling, so the DA 41 site is my other travel blog.
How I Tested
I built the guest post links in April, and had all of the Linkifi links by the end of May.
Links typically take 90 days to reach full effectiveness, so I knew I needed to wait at least 3 months for them to kick in.
But I waited 6 to give them plenty of time to take effect and to see the traffic effect, if any.
How It Went
I tracked the results monthly for my now-retired Private Jet SEO membership and my
Profitable Part-Time Blogger members.
Every month, we’d check in on traffic and DA.
The travel site saw changes within the first 30 days!
But the pet site took 95 days before we started to see any effect from the links. The DA didn’t rise for another 20 days after that. But once the power kicked in, the growth became exponential very quickly right up until September.
The Results: Which is Better?
Site 1 Results
I built 3 guest post backlink from DA 40+ sites, so 9 links in total.
The DA grew by 4 points, then dropped down to 15 after a Google Update.
Traffic went up by 9k pageviews to 25k/30 days.
Site 2 Results
Linkifi got 5 DA 70+ backlinks, plus 6 extra syndicated backlinks.
DA grew by 4 points then dropped down to 7 after a Google update.
Traffic went up by 4.5k pageviews to 5k/30days.
Helpful Content Update Side Note
This experiment ran into the Helpful Content Update in September 2023 and both of these sites were the ones in my portfolio hit the hardest.
The travel site dropped down to 10k pageviews and the pet site dropped down to 2k pageviews. The travel site is in the off season so I suspect some of the drop is seasonal, but largely it is the HCU.
I know a lot of people theorize that new links or high DA links are the sole saviour to these sites, but it definitely wasn’t for these ones.
Both link building approaches yielded positive results, with an increase in DA and traffic for both sites. Notably, the site in the travel niche experienced a quicker impact from the HARO links within six weeks, compared to the pet site, which took over four months to see noticeable changes.
Types of Links Acquired
It is important to note that the HARO links are homepage links and 6 of the 11 I ended up receiving were no-follow.
Homepage links still carry authority, but they have less relevance to posts on your actual site and require manual work within your site architecture to pass that link juice through to your posts.
Guest posting got me in-context links to specific posts on the site. I tried to spread them out to different posts for 2/3 of my links in each, and then 1 was the same for all 3 guest posts. That post went from #3 to ranking #1 within 20 days of getting the links.
Should You Buy HARO Links Too?
Since both links paid off pretty similarly in the end – a bit anticlimactically may I say – it can be hard to figure out which is better for you.
So let me break it down for you:
Guest Post links are better for you if…
✅ You are money poor, but time rich
✅ You are an established blogger who already has some big brand mentions
✅ You have specific posts that need a bost
✅ You want results faster
HARO links are better for you if…
✅ You are time poor, but money rich
✅ You have 0 big media or brand mentions for your site
✅ You want to grow your DA quickly
✅ You can wait a bit for the results
Get 10% Off Linkifi!
HARO is hard – there’s a reason they’re almost spelled the same. But you get EPIC links from sites that can really build your brand.
With Linkifi, you can set it and forget it! The team will build you high quality links without you having to do a thing.
Final Thoughts
I’m honestly shocked at the results. I thought HARO would either massively out perform guest post links or severely underperform. I never expected them to go nearly head to head.
In the end, $650 per link feels steep to my budget bitch heart, so I don’t plan to buy all of my links from Linkifi.
But I think it’s an amazing way to give your name more credibility, to boost a site’s DA quickly, and to grow your backlink profile in a diverse way.
It looks way better to have some HARO and some niche site backlinks, so I’m glad I spent the money to some degree (and mad it worked well enough that I keep considering buying them again).
But I’m still a guest post girl through and through!
