Search engines have come to dominate the internet as the ultimate portal for information retrieval. However, even before directories came to existence people used to rely on link directories to get them to the website they needed to view. When search engines first surged in popularity a lot of people thought that they would eventually fade into existence as they would no longer be relevant. Contrary to that expectation though link directories have been making a come back and are in fact gaining popularity again. The reason behind this, however, is ironically linked to search engines.

When people look for information using search engines the search engines actually use an algorithm to calculate or come up with a list of web pages most relevant to the search string the user has entered. Though the algorithm of each search engine is unknown to the general public, website designers or engineers still try to find ways to quantify the factors that affect the algorithm's calculations. This is of course in hopes if being able to boost their website or their clients? websites page rank. The techniques used by website designers to optimize the websites are called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

A common SEO practice is called link building. Link building is a process of creating relevant and quality inbound links to a website with the intention of increasing the website's importance resulting to an increase in page rank and thus generating more traffic. However, those who have tried to build links the ?organic? or natural way have found it a very difficult thing indeed. It does take much effort after all to create a very good site that people will want to link to much less get the people to notice your site if your page rank is still quite low. Although some websites have succeeded in link building using organic means it makes much more sense to employ SEO techniques to hasten one's link building efforts.

A very common way to build links is by submitting in link directories. By being listed in a reputable link directory a website can be sure to gain a huge number of reciprocal and inbound links in a way faster time than you can ever hope to by trying to build links organically. Furthermore if you are part of a very good link directory then you can be sure that the other websites listed in that directory quality sites to and are bound to give you quality links. With the way link directories help in SEO efforts people are noticing directories again and this is the very reason why link directories are thriving.

The only down part in submitting to link directories is that some website owners fall for the more unsavory link directories, which are actually called link farms. Make sure that if you plan to do link building this way submit only to directories that accept quality websites like your own. Being listed in a link farm will only do your SEO efforts harm instead of good since search engines are biased against them.