I’ve gone back and forth several times about the value of submitting to directories. Right now, I feel that directories are a good option for site submission for several reasons. First, you might get some traffic because of your listing. Second, it gives your site good search engine exposure and means that your page should get crawled more often. Third, the one way link always helps. And finally, because there are lots of options out there for both free and paid submits.

I do understand that directories are not considered as authoratative as websites in your niche with the same them. It’s hard to relate a general web directory with a subject such as Real Estate when there is probably only a single category and perhaps a handful of subcategories related to the subject. Also, many of the free-submit directories tend to go defunct or never rise above the crowd, meaning that your listing will probably never count for much.

However, there are several large directories that are useful - the Yahoo directory for one. This authoratative directory is bound to help drive traffic to your site and also lends weight to your page as being an authority site. Some other directories have gained good traffic and are very worth it to submit to.

Now that reciprocal linking is greatly de-valued, one way links are very important for building the value of your website. Directories often represent one of the best ways you can capitalize on one way links. Plus, many of these directories being free to submit to, you might get on one in the early free stages and wind up with a solid backlink in a year or so. Can’t beat the price of that!