Help, really struggling with fixing mistakes post-Penguin

[LilyRay]

We had previously implemented a strategy of paying for lots of links and focusing on 3 or 4 keywords as our anchors, which used to REALLY work (I know, I know, bad black hat strategy - I have since learned my lesson). These keywords and others have since plummeted up to 100 spots since Panda 3.3 and Penguin.  So I'm trying to go in and fix all our mistakes cuz our domain is too valuable to us just to start over from scratch.

Yesterday I literally printed a 75 page document of all of our links according to Open Site Explorer. I have been going in and manually changing anchor text wherever I can, and taking down the very egregious links if possible.This has involved calling and emailing webmasters, digging up old accounts and passwords, and otherwise just trying to diversify our anchor text and remove bad links.  I've also gone into our site and edited some internal links (also too weighty on certain keywords) and removed other links entirely.

My rankings have gone DOWN more today. A lot. WTF does Google want?  Is there something I'm doing wrong?  Should we be deleted links from all private networks entirely or just trying to vary the anchor text?  Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[MarkHIggins]

I would go through your list and remove the links and not try to vary anchor text at this point. I've been hit was well and moved to a domain I have held for years, but am slowly removing bad links that are on networks or painfully outside my niche. I would suggest naturally building links slowly with partial match anchor text and with the majority of the links having anchor text of your brand

[grasshopper]

Hi LilyRay,

Regarding your Penguin penalization, I would treat it like any other pre-Penguin link-based penalty.  I have worked with many sites that have been penalized for manipulative linking, and the process to get the penalty lifted is always the same:

1. REMOVE as many of the manipulative links as you can.  It's the link that Google has classified as manipulative.  The anchor text was just the identifier that helped them find it.  Changing the anchor text of a manipulative links and leaving them up will keep the penalties associated with those links in place.

Document all of the steps that you're taking to eliminate manipulative links.  Make a neat, bulleted list, with the link(s), network(s), actions taken by you, and the results.  In some cases, you won't be able to remove a link.  That's understandable, as they're not in your control.  While you're at it, clean up ANYTHING else on your site that could be perceived as on-page spam.  You're trying to prove to Google that you are a good citizen of the web, so make your site as sparkly as you can.

Once you've completed these steps, submit all of your documented work as part of your reconsideration request, to show Google that you're operating in good faith.  Under normal circumstances, wait times for reconsideration requests can be anywhere from a week to a month.  With the mass of reconsiderations that Google is getting right now, I'd expect a longer wait.

I'm sure this process sounds painful, and it is, but it's the only way to get back from a penalty that I've seen be effective.

[LilyRay]

It was partially out of my control. Pressure from higher ups for instantaneous results. I've always supported and wanted to stick to white hat seo.

[polarking]

And promise yourself never to go for the quick and easy again.

[zigojacko]

Google since released a 52 pack of updates since the roll out of Penguin and Panda 3.6 which you may have been stung by almost immediately after the first hit.

SEOmoz provide up to date change history of algorithm updates as soon as they are released.

Any backlinks you have which are associated to blog rings / networks - I would delete as many as you can. If the network has been identified and blacklisted by Google, then they'll be rolling out penalties for any domains that have used them. Parallel to this, build some natural links to balance out your link profile as soon as you can too.