This is a tricky question because increasing a website’s audience depends largely on how it is promoted.
Short answer: if your website has a good hosting server and has its own content, such as a blog or a news website, you just need to be consistent, maintain the quality of the content and always seek to improve SEO and that will be enough. You may need a few more months, but it is totally possible. If your website does not have its own content, unfortunately you will need another website/platform to serve as backlinks or invest in ads.
Are social networks really necessary?
It is important to understand that they are just a means of disseminating content and that there are other platforms that allow you to obtain results in the same way: video platforms (YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo), forums (Quora, Reddit), partnerships with third-party websites and ads (but I do not recommend them until you have results in organic). They increase the visibility of your website through backlinks, which helps a lot, but the main thing is your own website.
When it comes to a website focused on creating content, we need to understand that in most cases we are talking about written content that may contain some images and maybe some video(s), and whether we like it or not, videos and images capture the public’s attention more than texts. Thus, social networks and video platforms tend to have a better reach and better conversion, but this is not a rule, because what matters is the quality of the content, originality1, consistency and SEO techniques2 applied correctly. For example, when we search for information that we consider to be more reliable, we eventually read some text/article on the internet, and that is where forums are really important. Therefore, you can choose forums instead of social networks and off-page SEO would already be guaranteed with backlinks.
(1) Originality: maintaining originality means not blatantly copying content from third parties. Addressing content and concepts that are considered common would not be plagiarism, but entire excerpts that are the same as third-party sites are no longer common content and are characterized as plagiarism.
(2) SEO techniques: SEO (Search Engine Optimization): A Comprehensive Guide to Driving Organic Traffic
Can I run just the website without forums or social networks?
Yes, you can! As I mentioned, it may take a little longer because backlinks help a lot in the medium and long term, but remember, the main thing is your own website, not a forum or social network! Maintain the quality of the content/structure3, originality, be consistent, apply SEO techniques correctly and that will be enough.
(3) Structure: I am referring to the speed of your website and the ease with which your audience navigates your website.
The point is to ensure the basics and gradually improve the rest. For example, the loading speed of your website is crucial. Google penalizes websites that take more than 5 seconds to load. This isn’t really a big problem. Just choose a good hosting site with good customer service. I use Hostgator (affiliate) and it has served me perfectly. Choose one that has the services you need. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive plan, but I recommend that it has a CDN (Content Delivery Network) service included.
This post contains an affiliate link (Hostgator), so if you purchase Hostgator services through the link I will receive a commission. You don’t pay anything extra, but you help me to always bring you more content.