Directory submissions can be a long and tiresome process, even if you have tools that reduce your cutting-and-pasting. While adding your websites to directories is a no-cost method of adding backlinks to your site, there is still the inherent cost to you measured in time.

Outsourcing directory submissions is a challenging and often frustrating experience. To be honest, there are few "trusted" directory submission services, as most will often state that they are "manual" submissions, however in truth, they are often using automated directory submitters, as the key to making money for them is in volume. Even for them, there is no simple method of getting a lot of submissions done in a short amount of time.

Other services will simply submit to their own networks of cloned directories, sometimes as many as a couple of hundred duplicated sites with only a separate domain name to distinguish them. Now, there's hardly any value in these services, however some will argue that "a link is a link is a link".

Still, your best option is likely to be the do-it-yourself method, where you hand-pick the quality directories, ones that are indexed, promoted, backlinked, and have some measure of quality control as to what websites they allow into their directory, as well as valid links, spelling, and appropriate categorization.

While we all want to have our sites to have as many relevant backlinks as possible, the jackrabbit approach is only likely to get your burned, or penalized by the search engines. As most people will tell you, slow and steady will help you win the race, even when it comes to directory submissions. Some of the most successful people are stilling submitting their sites one by one, a few at a time, selectively and smartly. These people will tell you that it's a long process, and that it's all part of the bigger plan.

Remember, that you're not likely to get much (if any) traffic from these directory sites, even the most popular ones, as most people use traditional search engines to find their information. However, as an SEO tool, directories have their role to play, big or small. It's up to you how much time you want to invest and the value you can obtain from this link building tactic. Good luck!