I have heard that many say the traffic is not really a consideration because you only get a few referrals, if that. But are there other advantages i.e search engines.
I am or was in zeal dir since years, you only get into zeal if you are a clear NON-profit site benefits are absolutely zero the last 2 months with some 5 Mio hits = ZERO zeal referrers any single blog post about a good topic brings more traqffic in a day or week than zeal in a full year
I remember Matt Cutts at one time saying that the only directories of any value are DMOZ and Zeal. Being listed in these directories does provide backlinks to your site. But i think the more important aspect is that perhaps G somehow uses these directories to build there database of indexed sites.
Well, that would be great. I have just been added to Zeal. It took me 5 attempts to pass the quiz a month ago. I guess it was worth it. One thing for sure is that hundreds of smaller directories (maybe thousands) use DMOZ for some feeds. However, I wasn't sure about Zeal. Hopefully, I will get an email from DMOZ and Yahoo directory soon to tell me that I have been added to theirs as well. However, I am not holding my breath as far as DMOZ is concerned. Getting into DMOZ could give my trafffic a tremendeous boost though.
One of the first things I did when I got started in commerical web publishing was get one of my sites listed on zeal. I've never seen a single referal from them. Judging by the Google traffic from this site as well as new sites, zeal does nothing for you. I may be wrong.. but I can't see any indication that it helps.
I got into Zeal after several tries and I can say - I haven't generated any traffic through them at all. I'm glad to hear that Matt Cutt thinks Zeal is a good thing though.
What is in question is not whether Zeal gives you direct traffic but whether it helps you indirectly i.e. through Google.