The announcement o the Penguin 3 update worried me, just as it did everyone else, I’m sure. Finally, I think I can safely say that my sites came through fine. No drops in rankings at all.
In fact, a few which I was rehired to work on – after the client realized that SEO isn’t a one-short deal – came back strongly during the change up.
I’m very grateful as even well-optimized, fully ‘white hat’ sites can be taken down with everyone else. Over the long hall, though, I’ve found that those will bounce back, though that time in the wilderness is completely confusing and can make you feel helpless. Hard to explain to the client that if they’ll be patient it’ll return to the levels you were at just a week or two before.
Still, it’s a vindication that well written, intuitive and content-filled websites are the path to enduring success in Google. Write that down.