Backlinks originate from three main sources: earned editorial links, built links through outreach, and self-created placements. Earned links happen when someone discovers your content through search, social media, or word-of-mouth and decides it's worth citing. These are the gold standard because they're genuine endorsements. A software company might earn links from tech blogs reviewing their tool, or a local restaurant might get mentioned in city guides and food blogs without asking. Built links come from deliberate outreach and relationship building. You identify relevant websites, pitch them on why your content adds value to their audience, and secure a contextual mention. This includes guest posting on industry publications, getting quoted in journalist articles through HARO or similar services, and partnering with complementary businesses for co-marketing. At Ottawa SEO, we focus heavily on this category because it scales better than waiting for organic discovery while maintaining quality standards. Self-created backlinks are placements you control directly: business directories like Google Business Profile and Yelp, industry-specific listings, social media profiles, forum signatures, and blog comments. These typically carry less weight because they're easy to manipulate, but legitimate directory citations still matter for local SEO and basic domain authority. A Canadian business should be listed on Canada.ca resources, local chambers of commerce, and relevant provincial directories. The value hierarchy is clear. A single editorial link from the Globe and Mail or a major industry publication outweighs hundreds of directory links. Search engines evaluate the linking site's authority, topical relevance to your content, the anchor text used, and whether the link appears naturally within quality content or in a footer spam block. Most sustainable link profiles combine all three sources but skew heavily toward earned and built links. If 80% of your backlinks are self-created directory submissions, you're missing the relationships and content quality that drive real rankings. Focus on creating genuinely useful resources, then promote them strategically to people who control relevant websites.