Aviva Diretory was one among the many popular web directories that was penalized by Google. As most suggested, this was the effect of over optimization and aggressive backlink building.

Some time back Aviva was not even ranking for it’s own name when searching in Google. Now Aviva is back on top of the SERPs and I guess it soon will regain it’s keyword ranking position in the SERPs. Aviva Directory

Jeff has now made a comprehensive post on how and what he did to recover back his position in the SERPs.

I would highly recommend that you read this if you have a website of your own and especially for directory owners.

How You Can Get Your Google Rankings Back

I might not agree to everything but have implemented most of the tips suggested by Jeff.