I've used a hosted solution which I've found to be very SEO friendly - www.instantestore.com - however, it's a hosted solution.

Instantestore offers the ability to create your preferred URL, static pages, Meta description and title, for example.

Jon,

Here's a couple of ideas for you - none of which will actually save you the hard work that is link building.

Is all your content visible or is some of it hidden behind a subscribers firewall? If all your content is visible make check to see if your CMS has SEO functions and that your editors or "online content" folks know how to handle the on page aspects of the news story - good title tag, SEO relevant headline, etc.

Your best stories to generate links are going to be positive pieces on local business or organizations. You'll have to request these links - contact the business and offer to provide them with the html link. Organizations will be glad to have been featured and it will raise their credibility to link to a story in the local newspaper.

Your newspaper probably puts out some guides - like the Spring Wedding Guide or Annual Guide on Senior Citizens. Be sure you aggregate this content online and request links from advertisers and anyone who may have been featured in the product that has a website.

List your site on local directories pointing to specific sections - classifieds, for example.

Your newspaper no doubt ranks very high for "news" and "newspaper" on all local searches - but maybe not for Real Estate, or Weddings or Pets. Find sites that compliment this content and request links with the right anchor text.

You've got an awesome problem - every site should have so much new, quality content developed everyday!\

I'm not sure I understand the downside of using an H1 tag on a product name, if the product name is the keyword phrase you're attempting to rank.

Thank you Geoff, Casey and Alan.

Great answers and exactly what I needed to know.

Would it have a negative effect on SEO to have a link from the home page to this page...

http://www.website/com/page1deep/page2deep

rather than to this page

http://www.website/com/page1deep

I'm hoping that made some sense. If not I'll try to clarify.

Thanks,

Mark

A variety of products can rank well if they are well SEO'd.

If the products are related I'd put them together on one site. If they were ten totally unrelated products - for example, toe scratchers and garden gnomes, I'd be more inclined to create 10 sites. After all, you'll want to incorporate social media and develop content for your potential customers that is relevant or related to the products you are selling.