Ranking still dropped :(

Ya, I thin PBN's are the safest bet for now.

We experienced something similar but it started in early September. However we're starting to see some recovery now.

We dropped from pos 1-3 to top of page 2 at the worst. We're now top 4 for our 3 target keywords. Not perfect still but a lot better.

I did a lot of technical stuff which I had been mistreating. canonical urls, redirecting www. http:// etc. (Got some helpful advice on BHW for this)

I'm now putting a lot more effort into good quality backlinks too. We've gained one or two which I think has helped with the recovery.

Still interested to hear how others are doing?...

It is due to latest algorithm update by google, not only your website but websites are facing the same problem. To move out of this you have build quality backlinks and link your site to high authority sites. The content should be of high quality in your website.

I think the main problem here will be your anchor ratio. It was one of the targets of Penguin and I have seen these continuous drops as well on the sites, where my anchor ratio wasn't exactly amazing. If you anchor ratio sucks, it's best to dillute it. Don't necessarily have to be super amazing powerful links, but they need to get indexed. PBN links will also help for sure. Go for brand/URL anchors.

Has anyone mentioned building high quality links and PBN links. Just thought I would mention it on case OP did not read the first 80 posts that all suggested the same thing.

Try to get some backlinks from content marketing (Blog Posting, Article Posting and Guest Blogging). Apart from that you need to check your competitors backlinks and promote your website on those websites.

Everything depends on your site content quality and for sure keyword popularity and competition. If keywords are highly competitive it will be always hard to rank high.

Just continue building the best quality backlinks you can find.