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Go with David's method, or a hybrid. Present them useable text and ask that they put that on their sites and if they won't then ask they they use canonical or noindex directives.

Are these dropshippers people who have to obey by your agreements in order to continue doing business with you? Would it hurt your business to create a requirement that they either create unique content or have their pages use the noindex code to prevent google from finding the dupe?

Do most of your dropshippers get their traffic via Organic Search? Or are they using other advertising sources?

It will vary per niche and geography, so in general no I cannot say.

With some phrases, the industry, and language people use will affect the volume. I would say find a set of local variations that you can rank for (perhaps a bit longer tailed) and compare them... but either way optimizing for both can provide good value.

Your 404's should filter out over time as long as you are not linking to them or listing them in your XML sitemap. It can take quite a while. 301 them if you have proper pages to do so, but if you don't - just let it play out.

Google webmaster's stance on this is that 404's are natural, and they are more of an awareness alert, than a huge issue. If you see a spike make sure it is supposed to be happening.

Target both.

In most cases like this, you'll find that people search in both ways. Google used to find them synonymous in a way and provide the same results, but don't now. Difficulty will depend on competition and your domain authority. Watch both keywords and write your text in a natural varied direction that also includes an exact match or two of each.

Yes, that is a super logical way of thinking about it. Good work!

Big question. Exact match KW domains aren't quite as valuable as they were in some instances. I would lean toward using a branded domain, as it will be more cohesive with your overall marketing. It may also help the user in that they could have an easier time remembering your URL which could increase direct visits, and you may get higher CTR via organic due to recognition.

Ultimately, yes I believe it does come down to content - but why not use what works best for your overall marketing scheme...

There are no guarantees, as you know. I would be weary of that strategy long term as I mentioned. If it doesn't raise a flag with Google now, it could someday.

I think you raise a great question.

The only way I'd probably consider a directory at this point is if they are directly related to my niche AND they provide more value in general site content combined with an active social media community. I would want to watch their social media and make sure that people are actually using the directory/site. Google is about users, and for the most part - who is using directories unless they are undoubtedly adding value to a niche.

I have seen this implemented many times. It seems as though as long as you make it clear to the user that there is more text for them to interact with, that you may be ok. I can't say I've seen anyone be directly penalized for it.

With that said, I am not the biggest fan of it - and I haven't found a reason to need to use it yet.

Are you saying you lost rankings? With a redesign I would examine the old code compared to the new code. I would check the page speed. I would examine how the text was placed before to how it is now.

Use the "fetch as googlegbot" option in webmaster tools to make sure they are accessing all text. Do some exact phrase match queries to make sure they are relating that text to your site in search. There may be other things in the redesign that could impact your rankings, but ultimately how likely is a user to expand that text? Would you? If Google is sophisticated enough to recognize that (likely) and notices that no one is interacting with that text - then they may not use it in relevancy.

I'd suggest starting out a bit more modestly. Follow SEO best practices as outlined via the SEOmoz tools and Google SEO 101. Present the keywords in a natural way which lets the user know what the page is about. If you find you aren't gaining traction in terms of visibility for those terms, and your competitive analysis tells you, you should, then perhaps increase the optimization.

Exact match domain value is something Google is looking with a sharper eye on now so don't overdo that just to rank for a city phrase out of the gate.

Rand reiterated in a recent whiteboard that yes, only the first instance of the link would provide value.

"Now, we all know as SEOs that the first anchor text link counts and only one on the page is going to pass that value. Linking repeatedly to the same page with the same anchor is not helpful for SEO, and it makes our sites look really spammy and manipulative and questionable to someone who's browsing it."

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-changes-every-seo-should-make-before-the-over-optimization-penalty-hits-whiteboard-friday

Think about the user 1st, do they need another avenue to find that page, or is the naviation well structured enough to get them there.

I can get way up in the clouds on this one.

Fluctuation is a natural part of the SERP. I would say this increases with the less domain authority you have relative to a search query. If your domain is not as strong as those ranking in the top results, Google may have less trust in your site, and thus move it around a lot more to see how it performs. The fact that you are jumping around on pages deeper than the 1st 2 leads me to believe that your domain authority is not competitive enough for the keywords you are monitoring.

We know that Google and Bing both measure CTR. It could be one indication to how relative a site's content is to a search query. Google may drop a site in a new spot, measure the CTR, and see if that site is more relevant than most sites that fall into that position.

Ultimately try to pay more attention to ranking averages - focusing on the jumps my drive you mad.

Good luck.

I don't see a problem with this. I imagine when Google reviews a social media page they are understanding in that the messaging might be a bit more stock. They are likely more concerned with engagement. Your website URL is a consistent message that will help connect your brand and website with your social media. Most of the ranking value on these profiles comes from the fact that they live on their specific domains.

Consistency would be good for your users, as they follow your from profile to profile.

If you want to increase the chance of each unique combination being found via organic search, unique titles would be the way to go. Duplicate titles might increase the chances of Google filtering one ore more of your pages out of the search results in favor of a similar result from your site.

Another solution would be to choose the most relevant item in the set and use a canonical tag to the different color combinations. That way someone searching can find your page and decide from there if they want a different color but you wont face the duplicate content issue.

Yes, if you have gone to the length of creating worthwhile posts, you should give users an avenue into finding them. Google is likely very familiar with this type of sub navigation and unlikely to ding you for something like this. I might suggest thinking about what content within your site you'd like your users to find and whether or not these links satisfy that.

Otherwise, yes archive links are pretty standard for blogs. As long as you are providing a decent amount of content in your posts you should be fine.

Have you registered your site with Bing Webmaster Tools? From there you can get an idea of how they are viewing your site, get notification of any issues, and work toward fixing things to get your site content in good standings with what they want.

From what I've seen, Google is sophisticated enough to look at the bigger picture of your content - prior to handing out penalties. It is likely they will compare the two pages, identify the duplicate content, hit the 301, and proceed with that directive. If you've set it all up properly you should be alright once they get through all of that crawling.

Erin, it does take some time for these changes to happen. That amount of time varies per site and it can depend on your authority. Your site is less than a year old and according to OSE has little to no inbound links to it. Keep working on the content and drum up some excitement about the site.

What are you doing to drive interest in your website?

Big question. Exact match KW domains aren't quite as valuable as they were in some instances. I would lean toward using a branded domain, as it will be more cohesive with your overall marketing. It may also help the user in that they could have an easier time remembering your URL which could increase direct visits, and you may get higher CTR via organic due to recognition.

Ultimately, yes I believe it does come down to content - but why not use what works best for your overall marketing scheme...