Hit hard by Penguin
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We've been hit hard by the Penguin update. To start - we have never paid for a link or participated in any link scheme. Never. I'm sure you've heard that - but in this case it's true.
Our site - www.annuity.com - has been in existence since 2004. Because of our name, we've always been ranked on page 1 of Google for the search term "annuity". Now we aren't even on page 50.
We got the dreaded letter about links, but we've never bought, exchanged, paid, etc. or participated in any link scheme. We have not needed too.
We are referenced by sites such as Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bankrate.com, etc. Our content is original and our own. We've spent years writing it. Because of our sites name - Annuity.com - we get a lot of web spam. Looking at some of our inbound links - companies are linking to us because of our name (keyword - looks like a auto link generation or something like that) or our reputation.
Any suggestions or advice on how to get our ranking back without becoming the Web Police? We don't buy, purchase, spam, or need links that are not earned by the quality of our content. I'm at a loss.
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Identify and actively report those sites/links to Google.
Here are some links to help understand and to report your issues:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/negative-seo-myths-realities-and-precautions-whiteboard-friday
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/how-to-help-google-identify-web-spam.html
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/calling-for-link-spam-reports/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164734
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I'll try your link and see what happens - thank you!!
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Sounds like you have a pretty good case for a reconsideration. Go here and explain:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ
Make sure to talk about what a great user experience your site provides. Mention your low bounce rates and high authority links. You should be ok, but unfortunately it will probably take some time.
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