Hi there,

The Rel=canonical will not de-index those pages.

To de-index, add a rel=robots with a noindex tag. And also add the rel=canonical or just redirect 301 the page. Of course, do it to those selected pages only.

Hope it helps.
GR.

Hi there.

I've found no SEO problems in hosting many sites in the same hosting space.

Best Luck.
GR.

Hello there,

In my experience it depends on the case, some cases  took a few days and some other took over 3 weeks.

Remember that there is no guarantee that new page will ocupy the same ranking position because depending on the optimization and page rank, google will rank that page in the position it deserves.

Hope it helps.
Best luck.
GR.

Hi!

Yeap you can target UK market with US site version. Always keep in mind that its possible that you might perform as well as in the main market (US).

Also, before making any desition and/or implementing, take a look at these articles:
Multi-regional and multilingual sites - Google Search Console
International checklist - Moz Blog
Using the correct hreglang tag - Moz Blog
Guide to international website expansion - Moz Blog
Tool for checking hreflang anotations - Moz Blog

Hope it helps.
Best Luck.
GR.

Hi Shawn,

1, if you spot clearly spammy and unnatural links.. go ahead and disavow them. Keep in mind that there is the possibility to disavow entire domains. Here for more information about it. Disavow backlinks - Google Search Console.

2, No, sitewide links from a blog or in any part of your own website won't be a cause of penalty like this one. Google is able to recognize sitewide links a few years back. I wouldn't worry about that.

3, There are many areas to focus after an organic penalty. I'd suggest trying to understand which queries and URLs are the ones losing traffic and rankings, mostly from Google Search Console. Then, analyze what's going on with the User Experience and Site Speed, comparing your website with the ones that outrank you. And, last but not least, content! Check your content whether is the one that should be answering user's queries.

Hope it helps,
Best luck.
Gaston

Hello Bill369,

I do not know about link juice, whether is passed or not. For that you should use a 301 redirection.
As for ranking, it DOES pass PR (Page Rank, something used internally in google search engine algorithms).

Remember always to point canonicals to pages that have the same user intent, not just canonicalize some pages in order to gain that page "link strength".
Here some other Q&A:

Does Canonical Tag passes link juice to the original URL? - Moz Q&A
Does rel= canonical combine link juice for 2 pages? - Moz Q&A
Does "Canonical" tag pass link juice? Which URL should we prefer for link building? - Google Webmaster forum

Hope it helps.
Best luck.
GR.

The links are new (only 2 or 3 days old) and all of them are DoFollow and all links are from relevant blogs.

In my opinion it's too early to impact that much in rankings.

The site-wide links are branded links (not rich anchor text links), I don't see how branded site-wide links could warrant a penalty.

That's why i've stated that some people believe that it might get you a penalty. It depends. In this case, being branded will cause not harm. You should've said that were branded.

There are many blogs which list their favorite websites on their sidebar, it looks to be common among average bloggers. Should I ask these bloggers to remove the links or should I wait for 2/3 weeks and basically see what happens.

Yeap, let's wait a little longer. And no, in the case that are branded there is harm.

Could it be that Google is just "shuffling" my website around after they noticed new back-links and I am on the downside right now and may rebound? Is this something that happens?

I dont think that this "shuffling" is only related to the backlinks. It may be a reason. There is no garatee that you will remain in the old position, or if you will stay in a different. I'd advise you a little patience. And dont make any major changes so to be able to analyze after.

Best Luck.
GR.