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Could this be a case of being sandboxed? If that is something that is genuine?

RE the junk links. I had a "partner" who was going to do the SEO side of things and I were to do the design side of things. I assume if that is the case, I'm glad I sacked him off.

Are junk links really devalued by Google? I was always under the assumption that a link can never be given a negative weight otherwise I could blast a load of junk links to a competitors website and have them drop down the SERPS?