Posted by great scott! Anyone who's been in internet marketing long knows the feeling: you go to check your rankings one day and something's different. Your pulse quickens, a cold sweat spreads across your brow, your eyes widen...they're gone. Your precious rankings are gone! Where did they go? What happened? Penalties. They can bring the strongest of us to tears. But sometimes we can be too quick to blame a penalty on sudden changes in our rankings.