Would a Link from a Specific Directory Hurt?

[taxpod]

Just found a link to my site from the SearchKing directory on my subject. I don't know how it got there. I didn't submit it. Now I'm wondering if this can have an adverse impact on me. My main site gets plenty of traffic from Google but I noticed that on one very important main keyword I have not been able to go anywhere. I stood at #65 on a word that has almost 8 million results. I was moving up and then one update I found myself back into the late 100s. Now I'm wondering if SearchKing has anything to do with this. The SK page on which I found my link is exclusively about this one keyword.

Anybody have any thoughts?

[nutsandbolts]

Unless you're linking back to them, it shouldn't make any difference at all.

[Mike_Mackin]

It may be a link from a "portal partner" if it is a sub-domain.

Those portal partner publishers act like directory editors and fill out their site with relevant links.

Just don't link back.

[WebGuerrilla]

The only effect it will have is the loss of any PR the page once passed. (assuming that the current page is penalized). If the link was there before they got whacked, it would have contributed to your PR, which might have helped you climb up the SERPS. If the page is now penalized, you would loose the PR from that page. That in turn could cause a slip.

The key thing to remeber is that PR is a trickle-down system.

[taxpod]

Thanks.