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With this particular keyword phrase, I'm not surprised at the difference between the two search estimates.

If broad match targeting is selected for this phrase, ads would be eligible to show for searches containing the words find and deal, either together or separate, and possibly with other words included in the search query.

If phrase match targeting is selected, ads would be eligible to show for searches including the words 'find a deal' in that order (I don't believe the "a" is factored in), in addition to searches including other words, as long as the keyword phrase is in order within the query.

See: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100 for more details on keyword match types.

Without doing any additional research, I would suspect that the keyword phrase "Find a Deal" when targeted with broad match would include wide ranging possible searches, e.g. "Vacation Deal", "Deal on Umbrellas", "Find Shoe Stores", etc.  Obviously, the numbers from broad match targeting here are going to be higher in volume but much lower in relevancy.  In contrast, analyzing "Find a Deal" with phrase match is going to be limited to searches such as "find a deal on electronics", "how to find a deal on hotels", "find a deal on Seattle hotels", etc.  This limitation should result in lower impressions but greater relevancy and conversion rates.

So as far as what match type numbers are most important to you, I would say that it depends on what your business offers and how precise you have to be with your targeting in order to attract a relevant audience.  If you offer every possible deal on anything under the sun, broad match becomes a bit more attractive.  However, I imagine this isn't the reality of the situation, in which case you'll end up often having a mismatch between user demand and website supply, as well as lower CTR and CPA with higher cost if employing paid promotion.

It's hard for me to say whether 32% is 'normal', as I'm not familiar with the average stats of your industry and more specifically your competition.  On the surface, yes, 32% seems impressively high, and I'm sure your client is excited about 1 in 3 converting into a lead.  That being said, what ultimately matters, of course, are the closing rates of your client.  100% of the traffic could convert into leads, but if they don't close, the efforts are not producing actual value, regardless of how well the audience responds to the website.

I checked out the site you are referring to, and my initial thoughts were that it was a pretty good looking, clean, non-spammy site with a clear call to action.  There does not seem to be anything misleading or incentivizing that would artificially inflate form conversion rates, so I would suspect that the users are genuinely interested in receiving an estimate for shipping, which would help closing rates.

One thought I have stems from my own experience transporting a vehicle across the country.  When looking for free estimates, I went to as many sites as I could find, and as long as I wasn't completely turned off by the site, I requested an estimate and therefor converted into a lead.  Of course, if I went to 10 different companies, that is a lot of entities competing for my business.  I based most of my decision on price, as I believe most do, and so for me, when I was checking out my options, comparing many estimates was free and required minimal investment on my part.  Therefore, I happily converted into a lead for several companies.  I didn't have any obligation or to buy anything, and because the move had to occur and I had to select a company, I took the path of least resistance and gathered multiple quotes in a short time.  It wouldn't surprise me if many others view this research and decision-making in a similar fashion.

Bottom line, I don't know whether or not 32% is abnormally high or in line with competition, but it doesn't surprise me that conversion rates would be high, given the nature of the service.  Like I said, for the company what ultimately matters is sales, but that is the responsibility of the company and a result of the value potential customers perceive from the services offered.  Since I don't see anything that suggests that users are misled when visiting the site or anything strange with the quote form, if your data continues to confirm what you've seen recently, I'd suspect that you are doing your job, and doing it well.

I used RPWeb years ago with a prior company, and it seemed to be of benefit.  That being said, I did not use the service extensively nor for any significant duration of time, so I cannot make a strong endorsement.

The only other thing that I can share is that this topic did come up in a few conversations I was involved in at MozCon, and the general sentiment seemed to be that PRWeb is at the very least of reasonable value.  The subject just wasn't discussed exhaustively.

I'm sorry I can't offer more specifics, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable can add to this thread.  I'm looking to incorporate press releases into my SEO startegy ASAP and would appreciate any insight.

Thanks for the explanation - I've got a better understanding of what is going on.

I think 301 Redirects are going to be the way to go.  Some PR should be passed along to the new target page, though I imagine a significant amount will be lost due to the lack of relevant content to the user.  I agree that the bounce rate will be higher, and the degree of that change will be directly related to how much overlap the new and old pages have.  At the very least, though, you won't have 404 errors.

I'm not aware of any risk of penalty from the search engines as a result of redirecting an old page to an unrelated, or less-related page, but you may want to research a bit or check with other resources to make sure.  That would be my only concern, though it doesn't seem to me that it likely to become an issue.

If you continue using 301 redirects, you may want to consider installing a plugin into wordpress to help you execute and manage them.  I haven't used any, but I searched around a little bit and found some options.

If interested, you can check out:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

or

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=301+Redirect&sort=

for other options.

Hope this helps.