Linking back to search engines

does this effect ranking

[beasscr]

I noticed a site today that has inconspicuously put links back to the pages their site is indexed on for various search engines. Does this help in achieving high rankings and/or keeping your placement?

They are indexed very well I might add.

I have also noticed that they have more than one <Title> tag. What if any purpose does that serve? Isn't that spam?

[TWhalen]

I actually use that same technique for every site I work on (linking back to search engine/directory listings achieved) and get great results from it.
If you run a site about "product X" and get listed in the Yahoo "Product X Directory Category", a link to that category is a great way to send spiders to an "authority" source, only to find you listed there, thus giving you added relevancy.
Seems to work like a charm for every site I've done that for...

As far as using more than one title tag, I've also tried that one before, but it seemed to hurt me more than help.
Your results may vary.

[Craig_F]

Multiple titles is absolutely spam. Don't do it.

-Craig

[brotherhood of LAN]

> multiple titles

I accidentally left some of those when re-doing a site, im sure the engines will just read either/or....in my case, I was using my own SE and it picked the bottom title tag

But i wouldnt do it, it breaks the mould of the natural web ;) Its spammy, and there is no reason otherwise apart from spam in making a second title (and waste bandwidth)

[okedokeseo]

When I win top three on a Yahoo! or Open Directory search, I put a link to that search on the page I'm winning. This leads to that page eventually climbing up the ranks in Google and MSN. Not sure about the others.

When I've tried the same by linking to my winning LookSmart search results pages, it has had no effect. If you use a Google menu in your Explorer, then you can see the relevancy of the page you are linking to. Yahoo! search results pages are highly relevant. LookSmart search results have no relevancy according to my Google menu.

[TWhalen]

"I put a link to that search on the page I'm winning"
Hey oke - I get better results by actually linking directly to the category I win in, rather than doing a search than copying that URL to link from my page.
Like this:
[dir.yahoo.com...]
rather than:
[search.yahoo.com...]

[okedokeseo]

Yeah, I've done that as well, but since I'm in the SEO business, linking to the winning search serves a double purpose - demonstrating that we win, and building "popularity". For sites I manage, I've linked to the directory pages instead.

Thanks for the clarification - if anyone's reading, it will help them out.

[Craig_F]

I'd like to see more on this, so anyone else have this work? Seems to easy...