if you go to your subpages, can you check the source if it's noindex? If it's not, then there's a conflict with the plugin, probably with the theme (and rarely, another plugin)

Let's start with that

just leave it. Double check for errors on it.

if it was indeed caused by submitting the sitemap, its too late for you to worry about it. My vote, another coincidence. Ive actually experienced this twice and i got my rankings back by analysing where i went wrong with the tech/structure.

With an alexa like that, you probably have a big site. Try to find a "main" problem and fix that first rather than going for different changes all at one time.

Personally, I wouldnt. Scrapers have been around for years and it's "natural" in my eyes. all the good sites out there, even moz, have thousands upon thousands of scraper sites linking to them. I it's about penguin, then id look into the other links deeper.

For client work I do, I just disavow them if the DA of the site is below 30. LOL.

Hi Roy

I would make sure the descriptions are different on each. If not, at least make the one's on your page different.

Next would be to make sure your categories have unique description/content as well. It goes a long way.

BTw, no, it's not going to be a duplicate penalty, it will just help you rank them all better and easier.

and with the current tests of google omitting results, you might get your site omitted instead of the copies.

You might also want to take a look at pinterest with your ecom site. Their new changes are amazing