How to get backlinks from news websites

Your site is new, it has almost no backlinks, and everyone says one link from a news website is worth more than 100 small ones. Here is how to get backlinks from news websites with no PR budget: become the person journalists quote, by answering their requests every day, commenting on news the day it breaks, and sending local and trade reporters a small story built on your own numbers. If you wait for big news or pay for a press release, you get nothing, or links Google ignores.

Do these three things

About 2 to 3 hours a day. Judge it after 400 answers, which is 20 days at 20 a day. Most answers are never used, and some mentions come without a link.

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1. 1Today: write a one-page source kit with 5 numbers only you have, and sign up for 5 free journalist request services: HARO, Source of Sources, Featured, Help a B2B Writer and Qwoted.
2. 2Every day: answer 20 journalist requests you truly know the answer to, within an hour, in your own words and with one real number. AI finds and sorts the requests; you write the answer.
3. 3Every Sunday: list every article that mentioned you, ask for a backlink where one is missing, and count answers sent, mentions and links.

Get help doing these

ChatGPT or Claude reads this guide and works through it with you.

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1. Write a source kit so journalists can quote you

A source kit is one page that tells a journalist who you are, what you know and how to credit you, so you can answer any request in 5 minutes. Journalists pick sources who clearly know the topic: in Muck Rack's 2026 survey of journalists, "clear relevance to their beat" and "original research or data" were among the things they value most in a pitch.

News links rarely come from pitching your product. They come from being useful to a journalist on a deadline. So the kit is about what you know, not what you sell.

Bio line: [Name], [title] at [Company], [one fact that proves you know this: years doing it, number of customers or jobs, a qualification].3 topics I can talk about with first-hand knowledge:
[topic your buyers ask you about]
[a problem you fix every week]
[a trend you see in your own numbers]
5 numbers only I have: [what your customers ask most, a price, a time, a count from your own work, a result]. Each with where it comes from.Headshot: [link to a clear, recent photo].
Page to link: [the most useful page on your site for a reader of the article, such as a guide or a data page, not only your home page].
Credit me as: [Name], [title] at [Company] ([yoursite.com]).
Phone or email for quick follow-up questions: [ ].

Ask ChatGPT or Claude to draft the bio line and topics from your website and your notes. Then add the numbers yourself. They are what a journalist cannot get from anyone else, so they make you worth quoting. Your customer interviews, the questions buyers ask in your daily messages and your own orders are the best places to find them. Pick topics your ideal customer cares about, so the coverage reaches people who might buy. Use the same bio line on your LinkedIn profile, because journalists check it before they quote you.

If your site has no links at all yet, spend one week on the easy first backlinks (profiles, directories, partners) next to this. News links take longer to arrive. Keep your daily routine for getting traffic to a new website going too: this work adds to it and does not replace it.

If you run an agency: your numbers can come from client work, added up, with no client named unless they agree. "Across [number] client accounts we ran this year, [finding]" is a number no one else has. A named client needs a case study and their written OK.

• Tool: Google Docs, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft the bio and topics. Free.
• Time: 1 hour.
• You will have: a one-page kit with a bio line, 3 topics, 5 numbers with their source, a headshot, the page to link and how to credit you.
• It worked if: someone who does not know you could quote you correctly from the kit alone, in 2 minutes.
• Common mistake: a kit about your product ("award-winning, all-natural"). Journalists do not quote adverts. They quote a person who knows something.

2. Sign up for free journalist request services like HARO

Journalist request services email you questions from reporters who need a source, and most are free. Sign up for these five today, pick only the topics in your kit, and send their emails to one folder so you can check them at set times.

When you sign up, choose only the categories that match your 3 topics. Add your topic words as keyword alerts where the service offers them. Then set an email filter that sends every request email to one folder called "Requests", so they do not bury your other work.

Some journalists post requests only on social media, with the tag #journorequest. Save three searches today: "#journorequest [your topic]" on X (sorted by Latest), on Bluesky and on LinkedIn. Posts there move fast, so check them at the same times as your folder.

Connectively, the name HARO used in 2023 and 2024, shut down on 9 December 2024. HARO came back on 22 April 2025 under Featured, free again. Advice that says "use Connectively" or "HARO is gone" is out of date.

If you run a D2C store: add the lifestyle, beauty, home or gift categories that match what you sell. About a quarter of all journalist requests are about home and lifestyle, so you will have more to answer than most. Coverage in these outlets also feeds the answers that recommend products in ChatGPT.

If you run a B2B company or SaaS: Help a B2B Writer and the business and technology categories on HARO and Featured bring the requests from the trade and business sites your buyers read.

• Tool: HARO, Source of Sources, Featured (free plan), Help a B2B Writer, Qwoted (free plan), and X, Bluesky and LinkedIn search. All free.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: accounts on 5 services with your topics chosen, one "Requests" folder and 3 saved searches.
• It worked if: by the next day, at least 30 requests have arrived in your folder.
• Common mistake: ticking every category. You then get 300 emails a day and answer none well. The other mistake is paying for a plan before you have sent 400 answers.

3. Answer 20 journalist requests a day in your own words

Answer 20 journalist requests a day where you truly know the answer, within an hour of seeing each one, with one real number in every answer. Each request gets many answers: on Featured, 42,392 requests drew about 1.4 million answers between June 2025 and July 2026, about 33 for each request. Being quick, on topic and specific is how you get picked.

Check three times a day, at set times. Morning, midday and evening work because HARO sends three emails a day. Open your "Requests" folder and your 3 saved searches, and keep only requests where you have first-hand knowledge. Answer each within an hour of seeing it; BuzzStream's advice to sources puts speed first.

Let AI sort; write the answer yourself. Paste the day's requests and your source kit into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask it to list the ones your kit can answer, with the deadline of each. Once you have written an answer, ask it to check that you answered the exact question and kept to the word limit. Do not let it write the answer. In a 2026 study of Featured's data, fully AI-written answers were picked about 1 in 10 times and human ones about 1 in 3. More than a third of journalists on Featured choose to block AI-written answers, and HARO scores every answer for AI writing.

Subject: Re: [the request title, word for word] – [your credential in 5 words]Hi [journalist's name],[Answer their exact question in 1–2 sentences, with one number from your kit.][One example or reason only you know, in 1–2 sentences.][Optional: one more point, 1–2 sentences. Stop there.][Name], [title] at [Company] ([yoursite.com/page-to-link])
Headshot: [link]. I can answer follow-up questions today at [email or phone].

Keep each answer under 150 words, and write it so they can paste it into the article as a quote. Answer only the question asked. Do not add a pitch for your product, attachments or a "let's jump on a call".

How the 20 a day is possible. Sorting takes about 20 minutes with AI. Each answer takes about 5 minutes, because your kit already holds your bio, numbers and link. That is about 2 hours a day. If your topics bring fewer than 20 good requests a day, add more of your topic words to the saved searches and make up the number with same-day news comments (step 4). Never answer a request outside your field to hit the number: HARO bans sources for that, and journalists remember.

Know each service's limit. Qwoted's free plan gives you 2 answers a month, so use them on your 2 best fits. Featured's free plan limits its AI help each day. HARO has no answer limit, but off-topic answers get you banned. Featured also lists shows looking for guests; answer those the same way, and use the steps for getting booked on podcasts for the rest.

If you run a SaaS: requests about work tools, remote teams, productivity and small-business software fit best. Your usage numbers, added up and with no customer named, make strong answers: "Across [number] teams using our tool, [finding]." Check first that your terms and privacy policy allow it.

• Tool: your email, the 5 services, and ChatGPT or Claude to sort and check. Free.
• Time: about 2 hours a day, every day.
• You will have: 20 answers a day, 140 a week, each logged in a sheet with the date, outlet, request and topic.
• It worked if: after 400 answers (20 days at 20 a day), at least 10 have been used in an article. This is the guide's pass mark, not a promise. One agency's 2026 test got 143 mentions from more than 1,000 answers, about 1 in 7, but a new founder with no press yet should expect fewer. Below 5 used, rewrite your first lines and cut to the topics you know best before you send more.
• Common mistake: pasting AI-written answers, or answering hours late. Both put you at the bottom of a pile of 30.

4. Comment on news in your field the same day it breaks

When news breaks in your field, send a short comment with one new fact to the reporters covering it, within 2 hours. Reporters writing follow-up stories need a quote fast, so a quick comment with a fact they do not have is often used. This is how you get into the news without having news of your own.

Set up the watch once. In Google Alerts, make one alert for each of your 3 topics, set to "As-it-happens". Then every morning, spend 15 minutes on Google News: search each topic, choose "Past 24 hours", and read the headlines. A new rule, a price change, a study, a product recall or a competitor's big move all count.

When a story fits, look at who wrote it and at who else covered it that day. Find the 5 to 10 reporters' emails in their author page or bio, or with the steps for finding someone's email address. Then send each one the comment as a personal message, with their name and their article in the first line.

Subject: Comment on [the news, in 5 words] – [your credential]Hi [name], I read your piece on [the news] this morning.[What it means for [the people affected], in one sentence.] [One fact or number from your own work that the story does not have yet.]Happy to be quoted as [Name], [title] at [Company] ([yoursite.com]). I'm free for a call until [time] today.

Post the same comment on LinkedIn or X too, with the topic in the first line. Reporters search there, and it shows people you have something to say. How to grow on LinkedIn as a founder and how to build in public on X show how to keep those accounts busy the rest of the week.

• Tool: Google Alerts and Google News, your email, and LinkedIn or X. Free.
• Time: 15 minutes a day to check; about 30 minutes more on days with a story.
• You will have: a same-day comment for every story in your 3 topics, each sent to 5 to 10 reporters.
• It worked if: at least 1 comment in 20 is quoted. Below that, add a harder fact to each comment, like a number or a date.
• Common mistake: an opinion with no fact, like "This is a big step for the industry." Every reporter already has ten of those. Send the number only you have.

5. Send local and trade news sites a story from your own numbers once a month

Once a month, turn a count of at least 100 things into a short story, put it on a page on your site, and send it to 100 reporters the same day, starting with local and trade news sites. Journalists say original data is one of the things they value most, and the page on your site is what they link to.

Pick one data source. Use the first one you can:

1. Your own counts, if you have 50 or more of something: quotes sent, jobs done, support questions, signups, orders. Add them up; never name a customer without their OK.
2. A count of public things: prices on 100 competitor pages (the same pages you read in a competitor analysis), the ingredient lists on the 50 best-selling products in your category, 200 job ads, 500 public reviews. AI helps you collect and count; you check every row by hand.
3. 100 answers to one short question. Put one question in a free Google Form and ask it in your daily messages and in the communities where your buyers talk. Stop at 100 answers or more.

Fewer than 100 data points is not a story, and a journalist will spot it. If you know a company that sells to the same buyers, you can run it together and pool your counts. A small free tool, like a calculator, is another page reporters link to, once you have one.

Put it on one page on your site. The headline is the finding, as a plain fact with a number: "[Number] of [the 100 things you counted] [what you found]". Put the words people search for in it, found with a quick keyword check. Under it, give 3 findings with a simple chart, how you counted (what, when, how many), who you are, and how to reach you. A reporter who quotes your data links to this page, so it has to be the best place to read it, load fast and pass the technical SEO checklist. Write it like any page that ranks on Google, and ask Google to index it the day it goes live.

Build a list of 100 reporters who wrote about this topic in the last 3 months. Search Google News for the topic, choose "Past month", and write down each writer's name, outlet, article and email. Start with:

• Local news: your city paper's business desk, local TV news sites and your area's business journal. Muck Rack's 2026 survey found 78% of journalists call a pitch relevant when it affects their readers' community, so give them a local angle: "[City] founder finds…", or the numbers for your area.
• Trade news: the magazines and newsletters your buyers read for their work.
• Topic reporters: anyone who covered this exact topic recently, at any size of outlet, including writers of the "best of" lists that AI tools cite.

Send all 100 on the day the page goes live, one by one, each with the reporter's name and one line about their recent article. AI drafts the personal first line from their article; you check it and add anything true you know. The wording, follow-ups and timing are in how to pitch journalists. Follow up once, 3 days later, the same way as a cold email. Then turn the chart into posts for your own social accounts.

Subject: [The finding, as a number, in under 10 words]Hi [name], your [month] piece on [topic] made me count something.We looked at [what, how many, when] and found [the finding]. [One more surprising number.] [For local reporters: what it means for people in [city].]The full numbers, a chart and how we counted are here: [link to your page]. You're welcome to use the chart with a link back.[Name], [title] at [Company], [city]

Do not pay for a press release wire or a "featured in" package to get the links instead. Google's spam policy lists links with chosen words in "press releases distributed on other sites" and "exchanging money for links" as link spam, and paid links must be marked so they pass no ranking credit.

If you run a D2C store: a data story about your product type fits beauty, home and gift writers. Put the page on your store's blog, set up as in SEO for a Shopify store. For holiday gift guides, send samples with no strings attached. Google names "sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link" as link spam, so never make a link a condition.

If you run a B2B company: your buyers' trade magazines are your main list. A count from your own quotes or jobs, such as average order size or lead times in your buyers' industry, is the kind of original data their editors ask for. Trade coverage also helps you get recommended by ChatGPT as a supplier.

If you run an agency: do this for your own agency first, in marketing trade news, then for clients as part of the SEO work you sell. Coverage you earn yourself is proof when you win clients without case studies.

• Tool: Google Sheets, Google Forms, Google News, your site, your email, and ChatGPT or Claude to help count and draft first lines. Free.
• Time: 1 day to build the data and the page, then about 3 to 4 hours on the day it goes live to send 100 pitches (about 2 minutes each with the AI-drafted first line).
• You will have: one data page on your site each month, and a list of 100 reporters with their recent article.
• It worked if: at least 3 pieces of coverage (a mention or a link) from every 100 pitches. Below that after 2 data stories, pick a finding that surprises more people, or a local angle.
• Common mistake: a "survey" of 12 friends, or a story that is really an advert for your product. Both get deleted.

6. Check every mention every Sunday and ask for missing links

Every Sunday, find every article that mentioned you that week, write it down, check whether it links to you, and ask once for a link where it is missing. Many quotes are printed with no link, or with a link that tells Google not to count it. You can often fix the first with one short email.

Set up two free checks once. Make Google Alerts for your name, your company name and the headline of each data story, in quotes, set to "As-it-happens". Then open Google Search Console, go to Links, and look at "Top linking sites". Google says this report is only a sample and "doesn't specify if a link is marked as nofollow", so use it to spot new sites, not as a full count.

Every Sunday, fill in your mention log. Add every new article from your alerts, your answer log and your inbox. For each one, open the article, right-click the link to your site and choose Inspect. If you see rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", Google will "generally not" follow it. Some news sites add nofollow to every outside link; that is their choice, so log it and move on. A mention still counts for something: in Muck Rack's May 2026 study of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, 84% came from earned media such as news coverage. That is how news helps you get mentioned by ChatGPT and in Google's AI Overviews, even without a link.

Date | Site | Article link | Mentioned? | Link to my site? | follow / nofollow / sponsored | Page linked | How it came (request / news comment / data story)
This week: answers sent __ | answers used __ | mentions __ | links __ | followed links __

Ask once for a missing link. If an article quotes you or uses your data but has no link, email the writer the same week. Thank them first, give the exact page, and make it one easy edit. Ask once only. Never ask them to change a nofollow link or the words in the link, the anchor text: that is their site's rule, and pushing it costs you the next story.

Subject: Thank you for including [me / our numbers] in [article title]Hi [name], thank you for quoting [me / our data] in your piece on [topic]. [One true line about the article.]If it helps your readers, the full [numbers / guide] are here: [exact page link]. Would you be able to add it where [the quote / the numbers] appear?Either way, happy to help with your next story on [topic].[Name]

Put your best coverage to work, too. Add an "As seen in" line to your home page with the outlets' names as plain text, which also helps a new store look trustworthy. Share each article on LinkedIn and your other accounts, and add "Where did you find us?" to your forms, a kind of self-reported attribution, so you can track which channel brought each customer. Each new link can help your pages over the following months; how long that takes is in how long SEO takes to work.

Judge the whole routine at 400 answers. Compare your log with these rules:

If you run a SaaS or an agency: keep your mention log next to your SEO numbers, so you can see which new links came before your pages moved up.

• Tool: Google Alerts, Google Search Console, your browser's Inspect, and Google Sheets. Free.
• Time: 30 minutes every Sunday.
• You will have: a log of every mention and link, with follow or nofollow for each, and one email for every missing link.
• It worked if: every mention from the week is in the log, and every missing link has been asked for once.
• Common mistake: asking twice, or asking a journalist to change nofollow to follow. One polite ask, then let it go.

Where Scout7 helps

Scout7 does part of step 5.

Step 5. Content Co-Pilot turns your data into the page reporters link to. It asks research-backed questions about the topic, then drafts the article with sections, sources, FAQs and structured data, and links it to your other articles. You bring the numbers, check every one, edit the draft and approve it; nothing is published without your approval. It can host the page on your own domain at /content, with the sitemap and robots.txt made for you.

Your news backlink checklist for the next 4 weeks

0 of 12 done

Work through this list with an AI assistant

It drafts the work and keeps track of what is done.

Do this with ChatGPT(opens in a new tab)Do this with Claude(opens in a new tab)

Step 1 · Write a source kit

• Write a one-page source kit with 5 numbers only you have.

Step 2 · Sign up for free journalist request services

• Sign up for the 5 free services and filter their emails into one folder.
• Save 3 #journorequest searches for your topic.

Step 3 · Answer 20 journalist requests a day

• Every dayAnswer 20 journalist requests in your own words, at three set times.
• After 400 answersCount how many answers were used and apply the rule for 400 answers.

Step 4 · Comment on news the same day

• Set up Google Alerts for your 3 topics.
• Every dayCheck the news for 15 minutes and send a same-day comment when a story fits.

Step 5 · Send a data story once a month

• Once a monthTurn a count of at least 100 things into a data story page.
• Once a monthSend the data story to 100 reporters who covered the topic in the last 3 months.

Step 6 · Check every mention every Sunday

• Set up Google Alerts for your names and data story headlines.
• Every SundayFill in the mention log from your alerts, answer log and Search Console.
• Every SundayAsk once for a link on every mention that has none.

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