Yes, they do. But not as much as I'd like them to. It took me 5 months to get into DMOZ, and my site is the definition of the "rare niche" site by their standards. There's plenty of backlinks, but so far search rankings aren't as high as expected. We'll see...
yes, it help rank... ...just submmit your website to all directory from pr 0 to pr 9 out there ..and you will see great result at your keyword. make sure you type your keyword at titel and submmit to relevant category.
Directory submission is helpful to get good page rank. It creates back links too that is counted to offer PR. If you use keyword as a title in directory submission and submit websites in popular directories then definitely will get fastest indexing, back links and good PR.
The problem is in the word "ongoing" because it is difficult to maintain the work to submit all the time. .
Choose the best service. Ask whether it's going to be manual or automatic. Automatic mostly suggests SPAMMY DIRECTORIES or link farms. Check the report always. Check on each link provided. Or else take time and submit the links by yourself. It might take time, but, the benefits are huge.
basically directories are used to get backlinks. so, for simple, if your page is listed on high pr, then it will help your page/site..
Yes directory submission help your website for optimization keywords position on search engine and also help to improve PR of your website, main thinks is that you submit your website in well PR directories. Thanks
as mat cutt said "link is a link" no matter where they come from.. do you know that google love backlink from diversity IP & high authority? so submit to high PR & different IP directory with relevant catergory...and off course if you only submit to several directory you will not see any impact..., but if you submit to at least 100 directory i'm sure you will see great result. Believe me ..because my web rank jump 10 page with only submitting my website to directory.