Need Advice on Small Push to #1

I’ve got a site that’s stuck at #2 in the map pack and organic, right behind a competitor with weaker content, slower load speed, and pretty average on-page SEO. Only real difference? His domain is a few years older and has a small edge in domain authority (mine is DA 0, his is like 1.5 or 2 max).

I’m trying to decide between two options:

1. Running a small, high-quality link building campaign (maybe 3–5 HARO or niche-relevant guest posts) (I was thinking like 200-300 dollars per link)

OR

1. Just grabbing 2–3 do-follow citations from Chamber of Commerce directories or other legit high-DA local orgs (paid but trustworthy)

I’m leaning toward the second option to keep it simple and clean, but wanted to get second opinions before moving forward.

What would you do if you're just trying to tip the scale from #2 to #1 and already have the SEO fundamentals dialed in?

Appreciate any insights.

I had same problem. Don’t take my advice directly (as I am not backlinks expert, I am more like tester), but what helped me - is just ordering 1000 cheap links with not direct targeted keywords, but key phrases around my desired keywords. Of course not all links been indexed, but it popped! I no longer believer in expensive links - Mr. G has it’s own way of seeing things

MolotovCoctail said:

I had same problem. Don’t take my advice directly (as I am not backlinks expert, I am more like tester), but what helped me - is just ordering 1000 cheap links with not direct targeted keywords, but key phrases around my desired keywords. Of course not all links been indexed, but it popped! I no longer believer in expensive links - Mr. G has it’s own way of seeing things

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You see if this website didn't bring in income then I would be happy to try it but I wouldn't want to risk penalty on google since this is an income producing website.

What is the review count, quality, and frequency for the GBP compared to yours? Look into local orgs and find the developer of the site, reach out to them and let them know you are looking to 'support the community' and receive backlinks in return. I was able to connect with quite a few local orgs this way and get links. Most will be happy to take $200-$300 for a backlink to your site.

PaperMate said:

You see if this website didn't bring in income then I would be happy to try it but I wouldn't want to risk penalty on google since this is an income producing website.

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I see your point, but I also think that google penalties are bullshit.. Think about it.. Your competitors could buy 100k cheap backlinks and would ruin your site authority and google would put penalty… It doesn’t work this way.. I know massive websites who selling leads and all backlinks they getting - is from other shitty websites with poor authority (they are linking back to their profiles).. So thing is - we cannot control all our backlinks and google knows that too