If I was new to SEO and was told that I needed to submit my site to directories I would ask myself why?

If I want people to visit my site then why not just telling your friends. Or maybe running an ad campaign? You may figure that the majority of people who are searching for something online will never use a directory to search online. Most likely they are going to use google, yahoo, or msn.

Here are some things that Web directories can accomplish that regular brick and morter type retail advertising can’t accomplish.

1. Web directories give a link to your site with a specific text link. This lets the bigger search engines know a little more about your site.

2. Web directories are trusted by search engines. Incoming links to your site are not all equal. Some will have more value than others because they come from a more trusted source. For example a link coming from a dot .edu or dot .gov site, or a site with a high page rank  (cnn, espn, etc) much more value and positive effect in your SEO efforts than a brand new site that your neighbor made but never quite finished and never ended up using.

There are many more reasons why web directories are important but we will get into that later.