Monthly Submissions - engine search et directories

I am an SEO professional for the first time, and working with a client is a much different experience than simply learning what to do. Demands are being made of me I never expected and questions I had not made up answers for are beng asked. My client asked that I submit monthly to a list of 20 +/-; is this necessary, or even beneficial? How about directories? ODP and most of the other human run directories are already heavily backed up, and monthly requests will only make it harder on them, but should I be selfish and submit?

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je t'aime,
Anthony

there is no real benefit to submitting monthly. Some may even consider it spamming them. 20+.. hmm I don't think there are 20 engines to submit to that are free, unless you go looking for small localized ones. What you need to do is search for industry specific directories to submit to, places where you can add the URL, and have it in a directory of similar sites. Also look to local directories, do a search for them, and submit the site.

Get links back to you and have the content on the opening page good and keyword rich, but not over-the-top.

zen

my client is a photographer, so there are many many industry specific search engines/links lists/directories to submit to.

keywords on the first page? do search engine grant first-page keywords more points? my client is very determined on keeping her entirely flash page, but i am adding an html one, which will be accesible from a link beneath the swf file. the html site will, of course, use keyword-rich copy, ALT and TITLE tags, pages with keywords, header tags, page-specific titles, etc. will this pose a terrible problem, or only a minor setback?

by "seo professional for the first time" i meant that this was the first time i am being paid for my services, so there is no need to hold doors open and explain how babies are born, if you know what i mean.