How best to improve SEO for commissions based interactive guide for online therapy?

Hey everyone,

The thing: I built wellmentally.com/guide, an interactive guide based on the best-available scientific research/opinions and in-depth product knowledge to help people determine the best therapy options for them in seconds/minutes instead of hours.

My guide is unique in that it is interactive and can be finished in minutes - most reviews take hours. It contains links to scientific research whenever claims are made and genuinely does not try to twist the user's arm into choosing any of the online providers if they'd be better off with traditional face-to-face therapy.

The goal: increase ranking on google so its near the top for online therapy review related keywords. Keep in mind this is from scratch, and I know this will be a slow and long process.

I ultimately am just hoping to mostly cover costs associated with future time spent updating the guide / writing helpful research articles while learning some SEO skills along the way. Anything else is gravy.

The challenge: Lots of places do reviews of popular online therapy providers - some of the better ranking ones have published resources, such as lists of crisis help lines, that other websites (including Governments) frequently link to spontaneously.

Since most mental-health blogs that I might contribute towards to gain backlinks/DA make money through commissions like this too, I am finding it hard to find opportunities to meaningfully build a backlink portfolio. Instead, I am reaching out to webmasters whose blogs/websites are somewhat related, such as health, personal fitness, and self-improvement - but I worry this won't help as much as it could. I also intend to build out further free resources, such as lists of how to access/evaluate face-to-face therapists in many areas, but I feel like I've already got a pretty powerful one in the guide and would benefit from spreading the word.

The ask: I'd love some advice on where to focus my time, if there are resources for finding meaningful blogs to contribute towards for improving SEO, etc. I'll take any advice offered, and I'd like to document my journey as I do it so others can learn, too. Thank you and cheers!