smithaa02 - 2:25 am on Nov 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

I think the key is patience. You won't recovery from link-detox in a couple of days or a week. Based on my experience, I think you can make a modest recovery in about 12-15 days from the detox period. It's quite possible that this will take longer or even that you have to wait for the next Penguin data refresh (Cutts indicated this might the case in an interview with searchengineland).

Google doesn't want people reverse engineering their recipe...so if they gave you instant positive feedback for good things you did they would lose their secrecy. In fact with ANY big website change on or offsite, google seems to scramble the results downward...and only slowly trickly them back up to their new natural equilibrium. Google HATES change unless it is REALLY organic.

The other thing to consider is that google loves link velocity if natural. It could mean that your the next big thing on the internet...so google will extrapolate from a surge of positive links (if organic) and reward you disproportionately. But the same principal works in reverse...if you lose a surge of links that can look bad. But (IMO) the good news is that once the waters calm and a couple of weeks (or sometimes months) go by after link pruning or disavowing...you should very slowly recover.