Marketing_Guy - 12:45 pm on Nov 21, 2012 (gmt 0)

I should also add, while some of the rankings didn't return specifically - i.e. a previous top 5 is now second page, most of the long tail traffic the page brought in did return fully.

For example, one word has 17k+ variations over a 12 month period. The traffic in total returned to about 80% of its previous level (the other 20% can be attributed to a single ranking - the main use of the word.

I'd theorise my 10 month(ish) absence from SERPs for this site gave competiting sites some time to advance, so when the site recovered, competition was tougher, hence the lower ranking for the competitive term, but same rankings for long tail terms.