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HARO connects journalists with sources for stories.
HARO is an active free digital-PR/media-source network, not a conventional SEO product: its official pages focus on journalist queries, expert pitches, profiles, and earned media.
A free media-opportunity service that sends source requests from journalists and lets experts respond; journalists can submit queries, manage responses in a dashboard, and use profiles and moderation features.
Good fit for Experts, founders, PR professionals, and organizations seeking earned-media opportunities, plus journalists who need qualified sources for stories
Free access for journalists and sources; no paid HARO tiers are publicly listed.
HARO Free
$0
Free forever / ongoing
Daily media queries for sources; source responses; journalist query submission; journalist dashboard and moderation features; journalist profiles are free forever.
The source page describes three daily emails; the journalist submission form limits a query summary to 75 characters and the query to 2,500 characters.
Last verified September 2026 against helpareporter.com/sources. Vendors change packaging often; confirm before buying.
Scorecard
1.6/5 overall, weighted for Digital PR tools. How grades work.
No SEO research database or research workflow is documented.
The official product pages describe media queries and source responses, not SEO research; https://www.helpareporter.com/sources
No keyword discovery, volume, difficulty, or clustering feature is documented.
HARO's source workflow is based on journalist requests and expertise matching; https://www.helpareporter.com/sources
It gathers contextual information through journalist queries and source credentials, but not company or search context for SEO.
Queries specify outlet, category, deadline, and expert needs, while sources provide relevant expertise; https://www.helpareporter.com/submit-query
Competitor context
No competitor or SERP comparison feature is documented.
HARO does not generate, edit, or publish SEO content.
The documented output is a source response that may be quoted in a journalist article, not content production; https://www.helpareporter.com/sources
No generative-search visibility, citation, or GEO optimization feature is documented.
HARO documents AI detection for pitches, which is moderation rather than AI-search optimization; https://blog.helpareporter.com/haro-now-detects-ai-generated-responses/
No crawling, indexing, schema, performance, or technical SEO diagnostics are documented.
HARO's submission form and guidelines concern media queries rather than websites' technical SEO; https://www.helpareporter.com/submit-query
It supports submitting queries and responding to them, but does not publish or update customer web content.
Sources submit responses and journalists manage queries; publication occurs in the journalist's story; https://www.helpareporter.com/sources
Journalists can track queries and responses, but HARO does not document SEO ranking or conversion measurement.
The Journalist Dashboard provides query/response management and pitch status actions; https://blog.helpareporter.com/haro-journalist-dashboard-view-manage-queries/
There is limited automation such as AI-likelihood filtering, but no public autonomous SEO agent workflow.
HARO documents automatic filtering of pitches flagged as likely AI-generated, not autonomous marketing execution; https://blog.helpareporter.com/haro-now-detects-ai-generated-responses/
Agentic workflow coverage
Core access is free for both sides and signup is email-based.
The official announcement says HARO remains free for journalists and sources, and signup sends an email link; https://blog.helpareporter.com/help-a-reporter-out-haro-is-back/
The free product includes source emails, query submission, dashboard features, and free-forever journalist profiles.
HARO publishes a first-party 100k-plus journalist profile claim, but not a verified total customer count.
The current Journalist Profiles page says Join 100k+ journalists showcasing their work; https://www.helpareporter.com/journalist-profiles
Internal company data
No connection to a company's internal data or knowledge base is documented.
SEO data grounding
No first-party SEO datasets, rankings, or search metrics are documented.
Third-party app grounding
Journalist profiles can connect Substack, LinkedIn, newsletter, and YouTube accounts, but this is distribution rather than SEO grounding.
Custom API grounding
No public custom API or data-grounding interface is documented.
No GEO readiness audit or AI-search recommendation feature is documented.
The official capabilities concern journalist-source matching and profiles; https://www.helpareporter.com/journalist-profiles
The product directly coordinates journalists and sources and provides response, bookmark, and quick-response workflows.
HARO describes one-click responses, bookmarked sources, and a shared query dashboard; https://blog.helpareporter.com/quick-response-feature-for-journalists/
HARO automates limited moderation and profile updates but does not cover an end-to-end SEO workflow.
Autonomous execution
Automatic AI-response filtering and profile updating exist; humans still handle query and pitch decisions.
Human control and review
Journalists retain control through query review, pitch feedback, quick responses, bookmarks, spam reports, and selection.
Integration surface
Public pages document social/newsletter connections and a Substack integration for profiles, but not broad SEO integrations.
Memory and persistent context
Bookmarked favorite sources and automatically updated byline portfolios provide limited persistent context.
Evaluation and feedback loop
Pitch thumbs-up/down feedback triggers manual review and possible feedback, quarantine, or bans.
One-click replies and automatic profile updates reduce manual work, but humans still submit queries, review pitches, and choose responses.
The dashboard offers one-click quick response while pitch review and selection remain journalist actions; https://blog.helpareporter.com/haro-journalist-dashboard-view-manage-queries/
The source page describes free daily queries and the profiles page says profiles are free forever; https://www.helpareporter.com/journalist-profiles