I’m currently handling SEO for an M&A advisory client, and recently I built several backlinks from high DA general websites to improve the site’s authority. The sites weren’t spammy and had decent metrics, so I thought they would still help overall rankings. However, the client rejected most of them and said he only wants backlinks from niche-relevant websites related to M&A, private equity, investment banking, finance, or business acquisitions. According to him, topical relevance matters much more than pure DA, especially in finance-related niches. Now I’m a bit confused because I always believed high-authority backlinks still pass value even if they aren’t directly from the same niche. At the same time, I do understand that Google has become more focused on topical authority and relevance, particularly for YMYL industries like finance. So I wanted to ask people who actively work in SEO — are niche-specific backlinks now significantly more powerful than generic high DA backlinks?…