I have a new site thats about 2 weeks old and I have submitted it to 40 directories. As well as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. I know I need to be up to around 5-700 directories but is there a certain point where the number of directories your site is submitted to hurt your site's SE rankings? Or do I jshoot for the moon?
You should submit your web site into directories in gradually.. You should not submit into all the directories at once... More number of Submissions in short time period can penalize to your site.
I have heard you can be penalized, but I submitted my first site to 400+ directories in a weekend and did not see any penalty, only a gradual rise in rankings. Remeber, each directroy has its own timeline. Some will take six weeks to add a link. Six months later, I'm sure some still haven't looked at it yet.
Thats what I thought, the site is still relatively new so I guess no rush but like it was mentioned each directory is on it's own schedule. So maybe I'll do another round of submissions in a 6 weeks or so.
WHAT. That many directories. I would find a few good ones and just submit to those. There are alot of very good paid ones. Mine is submitted to only maybe 10 or 12 directories max and gets regular traffic from google, msn and yahoo.
Personally if time allows you, i wouldn't put a limit on the amount of directories that you ever submit to, ive submitted one of my sites to 1994 directories by hand and continue to submit. And as others have pointed out with regards to submitting to too many in a short time, many of the directories will approve over various time periods, some being 6 months down the line or more.
Keep submitting in all directories becuase all these directories will not accept your sites in same time some in days some in weeks and some in months even years... Saad
Also some directories disappear after a while, suprising how many are no longer around a year later when your checking things.
It would be good if you managed to get some links from non-directory sites to balance your IBL profile IMO.