Google Local takes location into account, not physical but whatever city state is mentioned in the directory. here is an excerpt from a great article here (well I cant link yet)
the time of press releases are over. just if you really have a service website with a unique or competitive service or product. but i guess the mix makes a good way of promotion and backlinks. article submission is the most effective one when it comes to real traffic that generates sales or whatever. all the rest mostly generates regular in-out traffic
Link Building must be mixed up type It's not only any one method will give you more profit I always to these Directory submission, article submission, social bookmarking, press relies and get good result
yes exactly. But we must be aware of each methods and the link weight that can be attained by each of the methods. For example directory submission never gonna help us to get great quality backlinks but blog posts do. Like this we must calculate the quality and mix the task. PRGuy!
Directory submission doesn't tell much. If you mean spammy directories that are all over internet with a tons of broken and spammy links than it wouldn't do much. If you are talking about quality ones like dmoz and yahoo, then it is one of the best ways. Once again, what counts more here is not the method, its how you work with the method.
Directories can also be useful if you add different keywords to the end of your company title for each one.
I never heard that directories are 'much useful' for link building. All they do is good help to get the site indexed soon.
The point I was trying to make was that they are good to be found for niche keywords by google, not necessarily for link building. for instance if I had a house painting company on one directory I might put "bobs painting - house painting in nashville" on another I might put "bobs painting - home improvement in memphis"
My experience says Press Release and Forum posting is the Best, Fast and Effective way to get back links.