We were penalized for a specific key phrase due to incoming links. How long to come back?

[absoauto]

We were penalized for a specific key phrase, I had included a link using that phrase to the targeted page in a header on another site. This resulted in hundreds of identical lincoming links using that key phrase to the page, so I'm guessing that's what did it. I've since rectified the problem but about how long do you think it will take for the penalty to be dropped? We were knocked down about 10 places.

[absoauto]

Well this penalty actually occurred back in February and I think we did add a paragraph or two of descriptive text at the time which may have been slightly over optimized but has also been fixed. The specific page is "http://www.absoluteautomation.com/driveway-alarm.html" <-- it's been penalized for the phrase "driveway alarm" it's still doing alright for driveway alarms,driveway sensors, etc.

[irvingw]

It definitely doesn't hurt to completely remove the links from their site if you suspect that it could be hurting you. it's the exact anchor text in the links? Is the site that the links are on penalized?

Did you do any on page content changes recently?

[absoauto]

Darn, thanks. I thought for sure that had been the problem, all other keywords were unaffected, but there was that 10 position drop on one specific key phrase. I thought that must have been it.

[irvingw]

I agree that this is not your problem or a penalty.

Sitewides are discounted by Google anyway and one site is not enough to get you penalized. If you get penalized you will also be kicked back further, usually to the 3rd page or 5th page or sometimes completely off the map. Always avoid sitewide links though. Ask them to make it a homepage only link if possible.

Look somewhere else for your rank slipping problem

[Maximise]

Was this link in the header of only one website? If yes then I think it's very unlikely you've been penalized for one site wide link, or else it would be far too easy to get your competitors penalized. It's more likely that you're been bumped down from one of the recent Google updates in which case you will need to work to get your rankings back.