I had a website back in the late 90s/early 2000s that was one of the most popular sites for its niche (at the time) topic. It was on several topical Webrings and got noticed enough to get several of those silly thinly-veiled advertising "<company's> choice on the web" award badges.

If I brought that site up today as it was then I doubt it would show up on the first 3 pages of a Google search for the topic. But hay, at least you could view it with noscript turned on.