Why Your Site Will Benefit from Backlinks.

Search engines value links that websites send back to you. They are like a vote for your credebility.

The people at Google say:

"When your site is ready: Have other relevant sites link to yours."

And Yahoo's guidelines say:

"Correspond with webmasters and other content providers and build a rich linkage between related pages."

The next, obvious question is, do links from directories count as well?

Again, the people at Google say:

"Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo as well as to other industry-specific expert sites."

So, backlinking is recommended and using a directory as part of your plan to do this is also a great idea, as long as you are in the correct category. Make sure you place your websites URL in a category or categories that is/are related in some way to the theme of your website!

This allows the search engines to categorize your website under a certain topic and this makes it user friendly and search engine friendly.

So what exactly are the benefits?

1. Getting Your Website Indexed:

Search engines find your site by sending out crawlers or spiders to search the internet. They only connect through other links so if they find your link in a Directory they find their way to you. What simpler way is their of being located and indexed "naturally".

2. Improving Your Ranking:

One way links from directories act like a vote for your site. The total of these backlinks form part of a complex and very secret formulae for giving out page rankings which then account for your position on the search page. Obviously the more good backlinks the better to help your page ranking.

3. Targeting Keywords for the Search Engines:

Visitors search by keyword. The search engines list sites by keyword. The directories allow you to submit the keywords you want the search engines to see. The higher you rank for any given keyword the more traffic you will get to your website.

4. Some Traffic:

Directories do not send large amounts of traffic to your site but in certain categories, with certain keywords you will get some.

...and don't forget, the majority of Directories are free to submit to, so as long as you choose the right keywords and submit to the correct category (your website theme) what have you to loose?