Sites that lost links need to replace them. New sites are actually in a good place right now as they only have a good history and even a few links can push them up fast.
I've been seeing this happen on fresh sites.
I've been building up some new sites doing the same basic strategy as always and have found that the home pages rank fast with just a few links to the traget keyword.
(Note: I am being more careful about OVER optimization on page)
AND I have also found unless I have new pages going up and new links coming in the ranking on the new site will drop a little (staying on front page most times).
Simply adding a few fresh posts internally and getting a few more links externally to the home page is pushing the page back up almost to the top.
This happened on several brand new domains.
So what I believe is happening is that so many OLD sites that have lost links are getting beat out by new sites that only have a few links - but the links the new sites have are GOOD LINKS and that appears to be enough for page 1.
So my guess is - this should also work on the older sites that have dropped - it'd be a good idea to get some good and fresh in content relevant links coming in as well as adding fresh new content to the site and the rankings should improve.
It's not so much about what you LOST as what YOU DO NOT HAVE RIGHT NOW.
If you lost links you need to replace them.
