It is true: Links that lead from outside to one of your websites help the ranking of your site.
False: Entries in link directories and industry directories help the ranking of your website.
This used to be a common method of search engine optimization, and it is still going strong today.
I still remember calls I received shortly after I founded my company in 2003: "We will enter your website into hundreds of search engines and directories." That ecuador telegram screening was questionable even back then and more like spamming, and I politely declined it.
But where does the idea of improving your positioning on Google actually come from?
Especially in the early years (Google was born in 1998), the search engine had a hard time deciding which content was useful and relevant for readers. The idea of the WWW and the inventors of Google came from the academic world. And in this world, the person whose publications are cited and used as a source as often as possible is particularly important. Consequently, pages that receive a lot of links from others are more important than other pages.