What does a digital PR agency do for backlinks?
A digital PR agency earns backlinks by getting a client quoted, cited or featured in articles that journalists write for news and industry publications. It answers journalists’ source requests, pitches stories built on data, and reports every published mention with its link.
Digital PR is public relations aimed at online publications, measured in coverage and links rather than column inches. An editorial link is a link a journalist or editor places by choice, inside the body of an article. That choice is the difference between digital PR and every bought placement: the publication decides to link because the source added something to the story.
Our digital PR service works two channels. The first is journalist requests, where reporters ask for expert sources on a deadline. The second is pitching, where we take a story to the reporters who cover your field. Both produce the same deliverable: a report of each published mention, its URL, the page it links to and the link’s attribute.
How does HARO link building work?
HARO link building works by answering journalists’ source requests: read the daily requests, pick those that match the client’s expertise, send a short expert response before the deadline, and track which journalists publish the quote with a link. The journalist decides every step after sending.
A source request, also called a query, is a short notice in which a journalist names a topic, the expertise wanted and a deadline. Request services deliver them by email several times a day. Our process has five steps:
- Collect your expertise, credentials, approved spokesperson and the topics you speak on.
- Screen every request in your niche against that brief.
- Write a response of a few short paragraphs that answers the question directly, with the spokesperson’s name and title.
- Send it under your name before the journalist’s deadline.
- Track publication and log each article, its URL and its link attribute in your report.
Speed and specificity decide most outcomes. A response that answers the exact question in its first sentence, from a named expert, beats a longer one that arrives late.
Is HARO still running, and what are the alternatives?
Yes. HARO closed as Connectively on December 9, 2024, and returned under Featured.com, which resumed its emails on April 22, 2025. Qwoted, Featured and SourceBottle run the same journalist-request model, and we monitor them alongside HARO so no request is missed.
HARO, short for Help a Reporter Out, launched in 2008 as a free email list connecting journalists with expert sources. Its recent history explains why older guides describe a service that changed twice:
- 2024: owner Cision rebranded HARO as Connectively.
- December 9, 2024: Cision shut Connectively down.
- April 2025: Featured.com acquired the HARO brand and restored the original email format from April 22, 2025.
Three alternatives carry requests from journalists today:
- Qwoted matches reporters with expert sources through a request board.
- Featured publishes questions from writers and places expert answers in their articles.
- SourceBottle posts journalist and blogger call-outs, with a strong base in Australia.
Are digital PR links DoFollow?
Some are and some are not; the publisher decides. Many news sites mark outbound links nofollow or sponsored by policy, and some publish the quote with no link at all. Every report states the attribute of each link we win.
A DoFollow link passes ranking credit. A link marked rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" tells Google not to pass it. Neither the agency nor the source controls the attribute on an editorial article, and any seller who guarantees DoFollow news links is selling paid placements, which Google’s spam policies classify as link spam when they pass ranking credit. An unlinked mention still names your brand on a publication your buyers read, and a polite request to the journalist turns some of them into links.
How is digital PR different from press release distribution?
Digital PR earns coverage that a journalist writes and links by choice; press release distribution publishes your own release on many sites at once. Syndicated release links are mostly NoFollow. Journalist-written articles carry editorial weight that syndication does not.
| Attribute | Digital PR | Press release distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the article | A journalist | You or your agency |
| Where it appears | One publication per placement | Hundreds of syndication sites at once |
| Link attribute | Set by each publisher | Mostly NoFollow |
| Main value | Editorial links and expert credibility | Brand visibility and announcement reach |
Both have a place. A release announces news you control; digital PR earns coverage you cannot buy.
How does digital PR support SEO?
Digital PR supports SEO by adding referring domains from news and trade publications, sites that link to the sources they quote. Each placement also adds a brand mention. No digital PR service controls rankings, and this one promises none.
A referring domain is a website that links to yours at least once. Search engines read links from established publications as a strong form of citation, because editors control what those sites link to. News domains also carry high third-party authority scores, so editorial links from them are among the referring domains that improve domain authority as Moz measures it. Domain Authority is Moz’s 1 to 100 score, not a Google metric.
What does a digital PR campaign include?
A digital PR campaign includes five parts: a data asset, a story angle drawn from it, a media list of relevant journalists, a personal pitch to each one, and a follow-up. Coverage depends on the angle; the work is fixed.
- Data asset: a survey, an analysis of public data or your own anonymized figures, published on your site.
- Story angle: the one finding a reporter writes a headline about.
- Media list: journalists who have covered the topic in the past year, with their beats.
- Pitch: a short, personal email to each journalist with the finding and a link to the data.
- Follow-up: one reminder, then a coverage report.
Digital PR produces a few strong links per campaign, not hundreds. New sites that need a base profile first combine it with foundation link packages.
Is there a contract?
No. Each digital PR package is a one-off order with a fixed scope and delivery window. Reorder only when the report shows results worth repeating. The 7-day money-back guarantee refunds in full when work has not started within 7 days of confirmed payment.
How do you choose a digital PR agency?
Choose a digital PR agency that names the request platforms it monitors, shows sample responses, reports every mention with its link attribute, sells without a contract and refuses to promise a placement count. A promised count means paid placements, not editorial coverage.
- Names the request platforms and publications it works with.
- Shows sample responses and pitches before you order.
- Reports each mention with its URL, link target and link attribute.
- Sells fixed-scope packages without a long-term contract.
- Refuses to guarantee placements, DoFollow links or rankings.
Which other outreach earns editorial links?
Broken link outreach is the other editorial channel: it finds pages that link to a missing resource and asks the site owner to link to a working replacement on your site. Journalists are one audience for outreach; webmasters with dead links are another.
The Broken link outreach service covers the method. To check whether a page you plan to pitch has broken outbound links, run it through the URL Status & Broken Link Checker.