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I've had two different sites recover from manual spam actions.  The first one regained all of it search positions (and even ranks better now) within one week after receiving the "manual spam action - revoked" message.

The second one received the same message, but hasn't been able to regain its rankings.

The difference between them is that first had really good links and some bad ones that Google probably wasn't even counting in the first.  So when the penalty was revoked, the rankings returned as they were before.

The second though had alot of bad links.  Many of those were helping it rank, so when they were removed ...the rankings went with them.   But it was clear that the penalty was lifted at about 10 days after receiving the revoked message.

No reason not to.  It's still a legitimate way of getting links to your site.  I'd only be careful of the anchor text you suggest in your embed.  You don't want to make it too obvious or  spammy.

My experience, has been a few days usually.  It really depends on how deep the categories are.

I wouldn't expect a large boost immediately after them being indexed or cached.

Depends.

If it has alot of bad links, it might be better (and alot faster) to start over on a fresh domain with legitimate whitehat tactics.

If you have fewer links to clean up and alot of good links, then I'd try to resurrect.

If you have 50/50 good and bad links, my preference again is to start over on a new domain.  From experience, it is MUCH easier to get GOOD links updated to point to the new domain than it is to get BAD links removed as sites which allow themselves to be spammed with easy links or sites which accept low quality content are often not actively managed or maintained.

Press releases really should be saved for content that is really newsworthy.   Does that happen for you every week?

I believe links that come directly from press release sites (such as PRWeb) and the sites that immediately republish them (such as news.yahoo.com) offer very little or no seo value.  The real value comes when a journalist, publisher or blogger notices your release decides to write about you or your product.

Also ...If you must do them weekly, I'd avoid including any targeted anchor text in the releases.

If your idea is to slap on your signature with anchor text heavy links on every forum possible, then no they are not a very good thing to be doing post-2012.

There's a place for them though.  If you're participating on a forum that's relevant to your website then I don't see why you can't place a link or two to your website in the signature.  But I would avoid trying to put manipulative anchor text in there.  Just use the plain URL or a branded term like your business or domain name.

Also, google recently updated their webmaster guidelines with a forum signature example of what you should not be doing:

Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
_Thanks, that’s great info!

• Paul
  paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego_

They won't.  It seems DMCA requests are handled differently for those sites and not counted the same way.

...and even if you were counted, you have to remember this isn't a "penalty".  I don't understand why SEL is calling it a penalty when the official announcement says it'll be one of the 200+ signals.

So I think it's an algo factor.  Just like Site Speed is a factor.   Slow sites still rank today because there's 200+ other factors also being considered.

I don't think Rand has ever said that going greyhat or blackhat doesn't work, or isn't alive.   The real question is ..for how long ?  Those doing Greyhat/Blackhat usually understand the risks and are content to reap the short-term rewards for as long as they can.  When they lose, they are start over OR they switch to the next thing that works.  There will always be that "next thing" that works for now.

What I think Rand endorses ..is a strategy where you're not chasing the algo or trying to artificially create popularity.  It takes longer, is harder ..but almost always is better way to go.

The current data is from around the middle of April.

They're rolling out another update today that should take us into May at least.

My thoughts are you should avoid these types of directories (especially the ones that let you in only after you link to them).

Stick with the few general ones that are worth it: Yahoo, DMOZ, Business.com and maybe BOTW.

For the niche related ones you're looking at, have a set of criteria for them to meet in order for you to consider paying them for a link.  I go by:

• Does the directory rank for its homepage keywords and related keywords?
• What's the quality of sites already in the directory ?  Do they rank ?
• Does the directory list sites which you would expect to be listed?  For example, if the directory has a "Social Media Blogs" category, you would expect "Mashable" to be listed even though the owners of mashable may not have submitted their site to it.  In order words, Does the directory add sites on its own or do they just wait on submissions?
• If there is a fee, do they make it clear that the fee is for a review and that a listing is not guaranteed?
• What types of incoming links does the directory itself have?  If they are all spammy, you should avoid it.
• There's a few others, but i forget.

He has a wordpress.com site.  How is he going to install plugins?

Those are mini-site links.

No one will be able to tell you when you'll get the big ones.  But from the looks of it, it'll very soon for you.  I'm seeing you at positions 1 - 4 for that keyword.  I would try to acquire more links and social mentions for each those four URLs.

Edit: Very nice site btw.  Sending to my nieces

Go to Bing.com

Put:

linkfromdomain:yourwebsite.com

into the search box.

The obvious drawback is that Bing's index isn't very quick to update ...especially for sites with little authority.  But it's still handy for a quick check, rather than crawling the target website.

I'm listed in those two.  They both have editorial staff. I think they are safe to use.  Also listed in Yahoo Directory, BOTW, business.com, goguides.  Have been trying to get listed in DMOZ, but my competitor is the editor

In addition to directories, look for general and niche reference sites/desks.

Looking at Pagerank or DA is not a good way of determining a bad link.

It's usually the ones you created yourself or ones created by somebody you hired.  And it often resides in those dark corners of the internet like:

• 100% of the so called article directories
• 99.99% of the general link directories [there's only like 6 - 12 worth submitting to ]
• social bookmark mass submissions
• "Web2.0", Wiki, or .edu pages created for the sole purpose of passing link juice and page rank.
• spammed to death blog comment pages
• blog networks or groups of sites created for the same reason as above
• Unnatural Forum Profiles that are never used and created for the same reason as above
• Forum Posts with anchor-text rich signatures
• over-optimized press releases on websites that no human reads

Unnatural links might also include:

• poorly executed "guest posts" that border on blog network type schemes.
• widgets that are distributed with targeted anchor text
• paid links
• When you interlink sites you own in a way that's only meant to manipulate search rankings.
• Any other links with unnatural anchor text [people seldom link to you naturally with the exact keywords you want]
• Obvious Link exchanges
• and more...

Blocking it in robots.txt will work to hide it from search engines.

If you want to hide it from users or people to who type in the url, you can simply drop a blank "index.html" in the /pdf folder.

It really does not matter.  But if given the choice, I would go with either the .net or .org.  And keep an eye on the .com in case it drops.

Or better yet, I'd try to pick a brandable domain where I can register all the TLDs to secure it.  Having all the keywords in your domain isn't worth much these days.  Once users start to associate your unique name to "super domain", the benefits will be multi-fold.

I would avoid the .info and the OPT1 for the same reason.  Marketers abuse them.

Create a sitemap.xml file on website that updates whenever you add new content.  Then go to Webmaster tools and add the sitemap.  That'll be enough.

I sense I may have hurt your feelings or something.

How about seomoz.org ?  #3 for SEO, among thousands of others I'm sure and they're not doing any of the junk above.

Here's a few more: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/white-hat-seo-it-fing-works-12421.  A fairly diverse set of "niches".

Blaming the "niche" because it's boring is a poor excuse.

With a 301 all those links will follow over to the new site.

Start over on a new domain with the same content.

It's easier to get GOOD links updated to point to your new domain, than it is to get BAD ones removed.