Submission to online directories still works. Contrary to the widespread rant that directories are dead, they are not. Good directories can still help you rank in Google; you just have to watch for signs of quality. You can still make a website rank for relatively competitive three-keyword-long terms with directory submissions.
One of the best signs of quality is whether a directory is found in search results. If it is, especially on Google, take it as a good sign. It's usually worth the money to buy a link from that directory.
Don't submit to too many directories too fast. Space it out over several months.
Avoid free directories.
Directory Description and Anchor Text
Search engines are well aware that SEOs use directories to promote websites, so they've developed technology to spot directory submissions designed to manipulate search results. One of the biggest clues is the use of similar anchor text and descriptions on many directory listings. Some SEOs simply copy and paste a paragraph from the website, which is never good. Try varying your anchors and descriptions.
Directories also watch for SEO submissions, so if your URL is whitehorse.com and your anchor is "real estate agent," then there's a problem. Try varying that anchor to something like "white horse real estate agent" or "white horse real estate," something that still has targeted keywords but is not as obvious.
Watch competing websites in a directory and see what behavior is accepted. If competing sites are pretty aggressive, it's a sign that you can be aggressive as well.
Number of Links in a Category
The more links are on a page, the less PR is passed, so look for the number of links in each category. If the "real estate" section has 150 links and "real estate agents" has 25 links, then the second section can pass more page rank. Watch for the inbounds to each section to judge whether or not the link is valuable. If "real estate agents" has 25 outbounds and 5 internal links, but the "real estate" section has 150 outbounds, but 50 internal links and 20 inbounds, then the latter link is better.
Also watch to see if the site fits in a specific category topically.
Web Directories 
