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i would say that it's ok to have outbound links on your site as long as the links are to established trusted sites.
More on the topic on this link including a quote from Matt Cutts on this question . http://lincontex.com/the-missing-link/googles-matt-cutts-vindicates-controversial-theory-behind-lincontex-com/
it also depends on what domain you have already done link building for. Choose the one that has more backlinks pointing to it.
Your keyword selection should depend on the conversion probability related to the keyword combined with the search volume. You dont want to put too much SEO effort on a keyword with very little search volume however as you mentioned correctly, Google's keyword tool info is not always accurate.
Low volume search terms might be very valuable for some industries as even one sale resulting from those keywords can mean a lot of revenue for the client.
Wordpress is good or you can provide both the options for commenting. The disqus comment plugin for wordpress is great.
i would recommend compete. You can review the features here http://www.compete.com/us/pro/features/
You should also review this post http://www.seomoz.org/blog/monitor-competitor-traffic
How valuable is the site traffic to you. If you monetize the site traffic well then you should definitely invest in creating unique content for the site. You could have avoided these issues if you had used the rel canonical tag to identify the source of the content. It also matters on how much of the content is duplicated . If it's only a small percentage then it should make that much of a difference.
Based on the info provided and the fact that you have already been hit with google's updates, you should invest in creating unique content. Along with content also create unique meta tags for the pages as well as encourage user interaction on the game pages with reviews /comments.
I'd recommend focusing on the keyword phrase "Business Consulting" in the title tag of the home page along with the company brand as well as the meta description so that it clearly indicates the company's main business focus. You can have a specific "Business Consulting" page under the services section of the website and optimize that page for this keyword.
I'd suggest using it in the body as appropriate. If it goes with the flow , use it. Dont try to add it in just for the sake of impacting keyword density. Same goes with the internal links. One internal link related to the keyword should be safe.
You have to be very careful because Google has gotten very aggressive with the over optimization penalty off late. I would recommend sticking with just one keyword and the brand name in the title tag ( Keyword | Brand Name) , use the keyword only once in the meta description and 1 for the alt tag.
You can probably get away with 2 keywords however it's better to be safe than sorry and use just one keyword.
I suggest hosting it on you tube and then embedding the you tube video on the site if the reason is purely SEO benefit. You Tube videos tend to rank really well as opposed to the ones hosted on the site.
Phil did a great post on a related topic . http://www.seomoz.org/blog/hosting-and-embedding-for-video-seo
David, we've tried SEO campaigns with and without business.com links and it did not make much difference in the results. I will however tell you that their PPC offering works. We have run quite a few campaigns for our clients in the franchising vertical with very good results. The cost per acquisition is quite lower than adwords.
Just tested it, it's working fine for me. Email help@seomoz.org if the issue persists.
The first question i would ask is how big is the difference. If the difference is a large in the # of pages on your site and the ones indexed by Google, then you have an issue. The blocked pages might be the ones linking to the ones that have not been indexed and causing issues. Try removing the no follow on those pages and then resubmit your sitemap and see if that fixes the issue. Also double check your site map to make sure you have correctly added all the pages in it.
Andreas, start with doing some backlink research for the top 10 sites that are ranking for that keyword. Find the backlinks that you can also get your site. Analyze the on site activity that those top 10 sites have engaged in for that keyword and try to emulate some of the best practices that you observe. Keep doing this regularly and track the rankings weekly, monthly. You should see progress.
it's essentially the same however if you go through go daddy's reseller service they have a specialized dashboard to assist you. More info below:
http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/reseller-hosting.aspx
they also have a nice comparative chart however i would suggest double checking the pricing with hostgator and blue host as they keep updating it:
thanks Joseph, much appreciated.
i would not recommend deleting it. If you have already verified the preferences, then no harm leaving the other domain in the account.
Go Daddy allows you to host mutiple sites in the same account, Google will treat them as separate domains unless you have a link that connects both the domains.
Here's a link to a very good post explaining this in details:
http://ivetetecedor.com/51/use-one-godaddy-hosting-account-multiple-sites
In our experience, having a country specific domain name makes a lot of difference in your placement for that keyword . For example, if you're only looking for Canadian traffic and want to rank high in Google.ca , then having a .ca extension makes a difference. You should also host the website with a hosting provider in that country itself.
Google's official response on the issue below:
Once you've set your preferred domain, you may want to use a 301 redirect to redirect traffic from your non-preferred domain, so that other search engines and visitors know which version you prefer.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=44231
i agree with Amit. Redirect all the error pages to either the home page or related links on the existing site immediately. Once you have done all the redirects , submit a new site map in WMT. Another useful tactic is to use custom 404 pages that have links back to the home page, so the visitors do experience any errors , they have the option to go back to your home page.
Focus on the main domain and review the backlinks for that domain. If you identify any questionable links use the google disavow tool to submit information on those links.
Check the .org to ensure that the robots.txt no index is properly in place and none of the pages are getting indexed by Google.
i'd agree with Klarke, the first choice should be .com because people just assume that extension with domain names so you might miss out on traffic If the domain is not available, then you can choose either the .net or .org .
Xml Sitemaps is a very good tool. If you want to have a collaborative process discussing the sitemap with the rest of the team i also recommend http://writemaps.com/tour/
Have you tried the new disavow links tool introduced by Google. Try submitting all the links you think are impacting your site in that tool . http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2012/10/a-new-tool-to-disavow-links.html
If you want to get more attention, you could try posting or commenting on related posts on Matt Cutt's blog. 
i agree with Thomas, free tools come with lots of limitations. It's worth it to invest money on solid SEO tools.
i agree with Edward as well. With Google cracking down on exact match domains , you would be better off focusing your efforts on building all the keyword related content on one portal related to that industry. You can have a resources section on the site and write good content on the different topics and over time establish your site as a credible repository of information.
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster tools
Google Insights/Trends
Google Keyword Tool
SEO Quake
Backlink watch
SEM Rush
Majestic SEO site explorer
Xenu Link Sleuth
Woorank
Good collection of free tools on SEO Book (http://tools.seobook.com/)
Go into Google Webmaster tools and choose the way you want google to index the site. Choose either the www or the non www version of the domain name. This should fix it.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=44231
It is not recommended to add the no follow attribute on those pages because it might be treated as scupting and harm the site. Typically only have pages behind an admin login not indexed using the "no follow" for obvious reasons. (you dont want those URL's Indexed by google and the info pubicly available without logging in.
More details in the posts below:
Hi Joseph,
Some mentions below of tools:
http://www.sysomos.com/products/facebook-page-central/
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/insights/ ( the facebook insights tool provides good info on user engagement levels and audience demographic)
www.sproutsocial.com ( popular facebook analytics tool)
http://webtrends.com/products/analytics/social/
www.crowdbooster.com (did a webinar with Ricky Yean , the cofounder and CEO of this tool . Have been using this tool regularly for clients)
http://www.wolframalpha.com/facebook/
Be smart about it, as long as it is relevant for the user and genuinely gives them related information to other subject matter on the site. Having said that , it is mentioned that Google can index upto a 100 links on a page. More info on this link: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/an-internal-link-juice-tool-14969
Take a look at this site that does quite a lot of internal linking and is ranking at the top for all "office space for rent" and "office space for lease" geo targeted keywords (www.loopnet.com)
To answer point 2 , if you have a 400 word article having 1 to 2 internal links in that sounds like a good balance.
lol , that's always fun 
, all the best..
Kristian,
Dr. Pete has a really good post discussing your exact question:essentially if you have a keyword rich domain name you are not going to be penalized just because you have a keyword rich (exact match) domain unless you go aggressive with the exact match anchor text backlinks. Link to the post below:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/are-exact-match-domains-in-decline
Barry had an interesting post on this topic basically stating that paid ads do influence organic ranks .Link
(http://www.seroundtable.com/google-organic-paid-study-14942.html)
i do see the site ranking # 1 in Google.de , not for google.com and google.ca. It's definitely ranking at the top because of the exact match in the URL as well as keyword stuffing on the actual page itself. Google may not have rolled out the updates as aggressively for the international sites as they did for .com. I agree with eyepaq its only a matter of time before another high quality site knocks it off the top position.
i would recommend Next Gen, we have had positive experiences using it:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
Other good sliders include:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easyrotator-for-wordpress/
Yes in my opinion directory submission is a very valid SEO practice however there are ethical ways to do directory link building and the unethical/borderline black hat methods. Adding your client in sites like local and national directories related to the client's subject matter expertise is a recommended method for link building. A good list is the one recommended by SEOMOZ below:
www.seomoz.org/directories
Kurtis did a great post on this topic that you can read here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-directory-submission-danger
you can add sproutsocial , crowdbooster and kred.com to the list.
in addition to Google Analytics, i would also recommend piwik , it's a free software like google and provides good info. Link below:
There are a lot of very powerful paid analytics software solutions like omniture and webtrends that provide terrific insight into visitor info.
Dont have specific thoughts on the company, however i would stay away from article marketing / spinning of articles especially right now with all of Google's updates taking place. You should try blogging on industry related sites specific to the client and trying to submit content to authority sites.
just to add to that , please refer to the post below for best practices:
Alex,
I'm not sure about the 3rd path you mentioned however i've seen sites rank high with both 1 and 2. The idea is to have a clean URL structure without any dynamic strings associated with the URL. The URL itself however is not enough to get the page to rank high. It must be combined with strong on page SEO to get the full benefit.
When you are on this website, one of the links clicks to http://www.monsterbacklinks.com/ where you have this company advertising 1200 backlinks for $157. This is definitely stuff i would stay miles away from. (I can see Rand shaking his head in disappointment at this company and getting really really mad :):)
Here is the simple answer. Why would you want to put your site or your client's site in jeopardy by engaging this company for link building. If you do get penalized , it will take a lot of hard work and effort to get your rankings back. The bottomline is "nothing comes easy". Top rankings for competitive keywords require a lot of hard work and effort for long lasting results.
Use the open site explorer to check links (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/) . Before you start using it, i suggest you view the presentation in this link (http://www.seomoz.org/help/ose-overview) and the FAQ (http://www.seomoz.org/help/open-site-explorer-faq)
Hi Andreas,
A very open ended question. It depends on a lot of factors, the competition, the industry, geo target. The fundamentals involve 3 aspects:
Strong On Page SEO (www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/on-page-factors)
Strong Off Page primarily link building (http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links)
Social Media (www.seomoz.org/blog/the-social-media-marketers-seo-checklist
As long as you have these 3 aspects covered, you are off to a very good start. Keep monitoring your progress regularly. Setup baseline metrics for rankings, traffic and conversions and keep marking progress each day,week, month, quarter, year.
All the best.