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Thank you for your input, your hypothesis that the initial increase to page 2 or 3 allowed the site to get traffic and gain traction through improved user engagement is an interesting one; however the traffic to those sites has been so minimal with the non top 10 rankings that I don't think it can be a key contributor. I continue to wonder why these recoveries happen so gradually; I also noticed that the higher the keyword volume for a key word the slower the recovery.

Hi, the higher up the architecture the links are pointing to, the more pages the authority has the potential to influence if. For example building links to the homepage will also help any pages that it links to. Building links to one page only will have a larger impact on that particular page but won't benefit others as much. Does this make sense? I hope this answers your question, unfortunately I don't know of any case studies since it can't really be compared. I'm still not 100% sure of the question if I'm honest. Craig