Andem - 10:37 pm on Mar 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

>> we had seen a decline in influence from cheaper links since january

Sorry if I seem a little bit forward, but aren't 'cheap', AKA paid links exactly what Google is trying to discount? That example is both flawed and irrelevant since paid links are blackhat and that isn't what this forum is about.

On the complete opposite and whitehat side of the universe, I understood that branded links to inner pages were exactly what Google prefers (and even moreso since Panda). In my case though, neither branded links nor more specific, more keyword-specific links which have made a difference. I'd guess that at least 3/4 of all links to any page on my site reference either just the brand name or the brand name combined with the page topic, all organic.

Since I've heard about the newest updates to their (Google's) rankings, I haven't really seen any changes with regards to traffic, though as with almost every "Panda" iteration, traffic is just that little noticeable bit less targetted.