bendecko - 8:52 am on Jan 16, 2007 (gmt 0)

We got hit with this 3 days ago.

I think our example will act as a 'control' in this experiment.

The site has been static in terms of on-site optimization for nearly 2 years - steady SERPS growth as offsite optimization continued. Reaching #1 for its chosen keywords. We had a dual strategy for keywords:

'Yellow Widget Green Knobs' on each major section

About 6 weeks ago my business partner aggressively began faster link text building offsite optimisation for 'Yellow Widget'. These pages are now #950. However 'Green Knobs' still ranks #1 for some terms but there has been a general loss - further down page 1 and often further.

Looks like some kind of 'over optimization' penalty - maybe too fast link growth or too narrow link texts.

1) Does anyone have similar experience?
2) Tempted to ask link partners to remove links. If someone has had same experience how long does it take to come out of sin-bin?

Thank you

Bendecko