I want to say a word of truth. After Penguin methods got implemented, it was my golden time! Most of my competitors were "banished" and the way was clear for me to walk through! My pages got so quickly on the FIRST page on Google (I was in position #5 for three of my pages), where I started to earn good amount of money, and I just thought then that optimizing search engines is a very easy job (I just did BASIC on-page optimization). I was not fully satisfied by position #5, I aspired for the TOP. I became greedy, and wanted to reach the top at any cost. I went to buy expensive high-quality do-follow back-links, and I was so happy to see my pages are going up more and more. The visitors ratio increased 500%, can you imagine??.. but sheesh!! Suddenly that was all demolished . Now my site got severely penalized, and I barely get any visitor from Google!!! Almost none. What I learned from this experience is that on-page optimization is really effective with Penguin, and.. as an adage says: "Continence is a treasure that never ends"!!
Good case study. It happened with many webmaster. Better don't go for google 1,2,3 if they didn't already rank you! I agree with you that on page optimization has greater value after penguin update.
Hmm. That is true, greediness can demolish you quickly. Always keep yourself on safe side and do not participate in Black Hat techniques. I never participated in such terms and never got affected by Google niether by Panda nor by Penguin.
Haha, great story. It's almost like an Aesop fable. Thanks for sharing! People should really avoid having their sites optimized by those who claim to be SEOs and they end up getting your site banned.
if you build links too fast or use link building methods that are questionable, then you have reason to worry. however, if you keep building links slow and steady using legitimate methods, you are guaranteed to reach the top over time.