Backlinks are incoming links from external websites to your domain. A backlink exists whenever someone clicks a hyperlink on Site A and lands on your Site B. The most straightforward example is a guest post where you write an article for another blog and include a link back to your site in the author bio or naturally within the content. Another common example is editorial backlinks from news sites or industry publications. If a journalist writes about local businesses in Ottawa and links to your site as a reference, that's an editorial backlink. Resource page links also fit here: someone curates a list of useful tools or guides in your niche and includes your content because it's genuinely helpful. Directory and citation backlinks come from business listings like Google Business Profile, Yelp, local chambers of commerce, or niche directories relevant to your industry. A plumbing company might get backlinks from HomeStars, the Better Business Bureau, or the Ottawa Construction Association directory. These typically carry less individual weight than editorial links but still contribute to your domain authority and local SEO signals. Partnership and sponsor links appear when you sponsor an event, support a nonprofit, or collaborate with another business. If you sponsor a community hockey team in Kanata and they link to your site from their sponsors page, that's a backlink. Academic and government backlinks (.edu and .gc.ca domains in Canada) often carry higher authority because they're harder to obtain and signal credibility. Broken link building creates backlinks by finding dead links on other sites, then reaching out to suggest your content as a replacement. If a Toronto marketing blog links to a defunct SEO tool and you offer a live alternative, you can earn that link position. At Ottawa SEO, we prioritize contextual backlinks from relevant sites over sheer volume. A link from a marketing blog with 5,000 monthly visitors beats ten links from unrelated directories with no traffic. The key is relevance, editorial placement, and whether the linking site itself has authority. Avoid paid link schemes or link farms, which can trigger manual penalties from Google and tank your rankings.