If you pick a low competitive niche you won't need too many expensive backlinks that burn your pocket & budget.
When I make my niche sites I do am in depth research to create a plan accordingl to my budget.
And my preference to buy a powerful recently expired domain brings down the backlinks spending.
That's why niche & keyword research becomes crucial here.
If you have on page covered check the following too:
Your website ui & ux from a users perspective .
Your content organization & structure, this includes silos, internal linking etc
Core web vitals for performance on mobile & desktop.
Thing is, when I started my sites, they were low competition niches.
On-page was decent enough to outrank DR50 renowned niche authority sites prior to HCU (with near-0 DR myself - content quality and user metrics actually mattered prior to HCU).
The content was meticulously planned out and deeply researched. In addition, I used a handful of powerful tricks from psychology to hook and convert the visitors with engaging (+ SEO friendly) content. I never went overboard with optimizing because I knew the high authority sites would try and copy my content (including techniques) each and every year (each year the industry would come out with new and upgraded line of products which the bloggers and reviewers would then have to re-test and write about). It allowed me to stay 2 steps ahead of my competitors. I used "topical authority" before it became mainstream in SEO. Same with bolding, the lot...
...Come HCU, none of it matters anymore. It's all about off-page SEO, overnight at that.
When it's Forbes (and equivalents) at the top outranking even the niche authorities just because they've got the backlinks (or rather, Google just designated them as "trusted sites" probably, ranking for Anything they fart on), for me there's 0 room left even with backlinks (the main niche authority site is barely on the 1st page, too, slowly dropping out). The behemoths barged in, copied things said by the niche sites, farted on some extra keywords, and Google put them at the top, no questions asked... How can any1 tell me blogging is not dead is beyond me.
I'm not some SEO agency offering OVERPRICED services and managing a team of VA's on a payroll that would allow me to bribe every1 around me for backlinks. It's just not going to happen. I'm an average Joe. I think blogging is officially dead for people like me. I have yet to see any1 recover from this.
I appreciate the help though, unfortunately however, it's kind of the stuff I was very well aware of already. You do help with hammering in the primary problem, of course - that is, lack of backlinks.
Starting over in new niches kind of runs into the same issue - it's only a matter of time till Forbes (or equivalents) fart in its general direction and rank at the top for any and all semantically related keywords and topics (basically covering the entire niche... a la: "
Oh, you want to know how the integration of advanced adaptive optics and interferometry in large ground-based telescopes could potentially enhance our capabilities beyond those of the James Webb Space Telescope, especially in the realm of examining exoplanet atmospheres and identifying biosignatures within their spectral data? Boy, do I have the article for you! Here, Forbes has written a very compelling article on the subject, titled: Best Telescopes for Beginners"). Replace the niche, the question, and Forbes with an equivalent, and you've got yourself the new Google formula where blogging does not exist...
What about selling your online presence you already built? Can't be useless.
