Hi Alex,

Sorry to hear your client got hit. Unfortunately its impossible to diagnose without taking a deeper look at the site. However a few things to look for:

- Technical Onsite issues - is the site large? In which case it could be being dragged down by onsite issues.
- Advertising - Is the site heavy on advertising?
- "Bad" Links - as you have already mentioned this can be a factor
- You mention the payday update. Is your site in a niche with particularly spammy terms?

In what way was the site hit? Did you see a drop in rankings across the board? Did traffic drop off a cliff? Or was it a more gradual demise?

In some cases we have seen sites "hit by panda/penguin" actually lose visibility due to other sites that linking to them being devalued.

If you are able to share the domain I would be delighted to take a further look for you.
@tobiasmason