Before you buy a single link on a new site, do these four things in order

Most link questions here start at "where do I buy" and that's about three steps too early. Full disclosure: we run Hetneo's Links, so links are literally what we sell, and I still tell new site owners the same thing -> the first few months of link work is mostly not link work. Rough order I'd use: 1. Name the 5-8 pages you actually want to rank. Not the site. If you can't name them, nothing external fixes that, you just spread the budget thinner. 2. Internal links second. New sites bury their best pages four clicks deep behind pagination and then wonder why "discovered, currently not indexed" sticks. Pulling a page up to two clicks from the homepage is free and it works more often than people expect. 3. Then check the anchors you already have. Most new sites are 90% brand and URL anchors, which is fine, but it means the first few paid links will swing the ratio hard. Know where you're starting before you add. 4. Only then go looking outside, and start with the boring stuff -> places that would mention you anyway. Suppliers, tools you use, local orgs, a podcast in your niche. The part I'm less sure about is timing. I've seen sites where links did nothing for two months and then everything moved at once, and I honestly can't tell you whether that was the links or a core update landing. Might be niche-dependent. What's your own cutoff? How long do you give a new site on internals alone before you start paying for anything?