Hi all. I posted a reply to another post with a perspective to the actual 'weight' of Directory Links in the eyes of search engines. I thought, it needs more attention. Search engines will look at surrounding links, characteristics, inbound links etc to actually 'classify' or 'categorize' where on the keyword metrix a particular site should fall. Related links, very hard to get, Amazon, will not link to Barnes & Noble. Everyone knows that. Similarly Aplus will not link to 1and1. The related links out there are usually from sites, made to sell links, having modified content from other sites or use turnkey scripts. Or from informational sites like wikepedia, or about.com, etc, etc. To answer the question on Directories, The following are snippets from google's webmasters help section. Full story at: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769&query=yahoo&topic=&type= Google Help Full story at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432&topic=8524 So I think directory links are important and will remain to be. For 'categorizing' a site, and a pr boost.
Quality directories will always have value. Normal directories poping these days are not very much diferent from linkfarms.
Directories are OK, i wouldnt expect to see huge serp increased just from directories, aim for the older directorys, cannylink.com, rlrouse.com & theres loads more. But anywho's, theres nothing wrong with one extra link
Links from Quality Directories will give a number of value added benefits some transparent and some unexpected but it pays to link with directories that are affordable and have a solid PR rating