Worried about linking with Directories

Could this hurt my site?

[Maxnpaddy]

I have about 22 links swaps I did with some directories, the traffic I get from these isn't much - a trickle if that, but it's some.

Now I have placed these links on a link page, on the main site, but can these links hurt me? I feel my links on these pages are worthless, but am scared if I remove their links, they will remove mine and then lose traffic.

Suggestions on what I need to do would be appreciated. Do I get brutal with this and clean up my links page?

[edited by: Maxnpaddy at 3:26 pm (utc) on Sep. 20, 2007]

[Rosalind]

Those links could hurt you, if they are part of a bad neighbourhood. That would be the case if some of those directories are interlinked with each other with sitewide links, which sometimes happens when a number of directories are owned by the same person or business.

You should probably get rid of the links, and consider a different strategy for getting links and traffic. But if you do so, expect to lose the links back to your website: it's only fair, after all. Just work on building a couple of other links for every reciprocal link you remove.