Hello Sandra,
If I would be at your place I would have gone through the following process.
Step 1: I would have gone through the Google Analytics and check on which dates the traffic is dramatically going down then compare it with the algo updates to see exactly what update hit the website.
If it is panda, most probably the problem is with the content of the website and in case of penguin the problem is with the backlinks that are pointing back to the website.
In case of Penguin Update:
Collect all the back links from Google Webmaster tool, Open Site Explorer, Open Link profiler, Aherfs.com and Majestic SEO and then put it in Link Detox to see how many of them bad links are. One you get the list of bad links (in order to complete the list of bad links you need to do the manual audit as well).
Once you have the bad links, remove as many bad links as possible by manually reaching out to them and then update the link disavow file accordingly.
In case of Panda Update:
If you are majorly attacked by panda update, chances are you need to completely re develop your content of the website as Panda usually attack when you have low quality or thin content on the website.
What you ideally should be doing:
- Recheck what update you are facing at the moment
- In case of Penguin follow the process given above
- Build quality links continuous basis so that Google can get a clue that you are working on quality stuff.
- In case of Panda update, redevelop the content of the website to make it user friendly and unique
- Try to get as many social shares on your website content as possible.
- Try to plan and execute a strategy that gives Google a hint of your quality work.
If you have a manual penalty, you probably should work on it to lift it at step1 and later work on aggressive promotion of your website and get quality and relevant links to regain Google’s attention and rankings from the desired key phrases.
This might take few months but you will get the rankings and traffic back.
Hope this helps!