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I would only add that you may want to try editing the site as a user prior to claiming it or deleting it. Sometimes a users edit get priority.... not sure why. But try editing it as a user instead of as the business owner.
And I can't agree more with delete it if it's s duplicate listing.
Great points. Further using SEOmoz, they even have a section for their quality blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog and their perhaps lesser quality blog: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc
I have found it beneficial to have a separate offsite blog. But that is how we built our sites original. Honestly, I think having an offsite blog allows you a little more flexibility. You can be a little more aggressive and shelter some of the risk. But you do give up some of your direct linking advantage by hosting a separate blog. In the past year we have opted to have an onsite blog and an offsite blog. We are hoping to target different audiences with the two blogs.
If you do opt to move to an offsite blog you could still capitalize on the inbound links you currently have to your blog but consolidating your posts and then providing outbound links to your new blog. I believe google penalizes most for bounce rates back to the search engine and much less for bounces forward.
It sounds like you understand the advantages of both... so I would say that you are the best qualified to make that decision for your business.
I don't believe local optimization will hurt your national rankings. I do a lot of local search and still rank fairly well for some of my keywords on a national level. I actually believe that additional listings will help your brand name. Which will most likely help your national ranking. And who doesn't want a few more links?
I would advise against over optimizing your current site with local keywords. Don't change what you currently have going. Just add to it. Add your physical address to your contact page and perhaps create an additional local optimized page.
P.S. Google already knows you have a location and they do check your domain registration.
301 one of the domains to the other domain. That should work. You need to decide if you want a www.site.com or a non-www, just site.com. Keep it consistent from here on out.
Code for htaccess to redirect non-www to www:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.site.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L]
I agree. The only way I know of to increase Domain Authority is in bound links from other trusted sites.
Hey another SEO in Phoenix! Sweet...
Per Steven's info I would go with the following title:
Tummy Tuck Scottsdale, AZ - Liposuction by Dr. DOCTORNAME
I would also recommend having a different landing page for each GEO target. And you should get some local business links.
Dreamweaver has a way of searching an entire website if you download the site to Dreamweaver. But webmaster tools should tell you where the links are being found on your site. They typically tell you which URL has the bad links.
"Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. Listings submitted with P.O. Box addresses will be removed."
http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?answer=107528
Yes.. I believe you recalled that correctly. 
It could be possible to rank in the 7 pack with an address outside of the target city, but it's very very difficult to do. You would need the local signals like local landing pages, and you would need a very non competitive term. I believe you would have better luck getting a small office in the Houston or Dallas and manning it with some staff.
Outside the 7 pack you can easily rank for cities that you are not located in by traditional SEO methods. Creating a landing page for the GEO area and then creating local links and anchor text links will get you to the front page.
Did you add any links to that particular page? I have seen a handful of links with similar anchor text published at the same time kill a ranking.
From what I understand of Panda is that Panda is an algorithm update therefore the same exact site built on a different domain will most likely suffer the same fate. Google rarely delivers reviewed penalties. Human hands are rarely involved. You are playing a video game against a machine. The machine will react about the same way every single time.
301s only help push forward some link juice. They don't seem to pass all of the link juice forward. They will pass all of the traffic forward.
Get listed in the local UK directories. i.e.- Yelp.co.uk
I have also heard 3 clicks from a page with link juice. So if you have deep links to a page it can help carry pages deeper in. Do you agree?
If you are looking for local accounts then I would focus first on your local markets. You may get less traffic but it will be more qualified. It should be a little less competitive as well. Plus it will give you an edge in the local maps, which could completely alter the universal results when they update the UK search to match the US blended search.
But getting ranked locally for "web design" will require some focus on the generic term as well. So I would place a priority on your local target market first. Go for "web design Leicester" first. Worry about generic rank 2nd.
I would title it:
"Leicester Web Design by COMPANY NAME"
or
"Leicester Web Design | COMPANY NAME"
"Leicester Web Design & Graphic Design | COMPANY NAME"
Ideally if you want to rank for each local term then you would want a page specific to each local search.
"Leicester Web Design | COMPANY NAME"
"Leicester Graphic Design | COMPANY NAME"
Disclaimer: I am a local pest control guy so I am biased to local.
"quality content = ranks well."
Well that's what Goog keeps telling us. ... so are we talking real world or pixie land?
Honestly, I knew I was stepping into a pile of crap when I put the "Ranks Well" criteria in there. But, it sure makes for a good litmus test. So yes... quality content = ranks well. ...and the vicious circle continues.
There will be no SEO fall out due to hyphen.
It's a personal preference.
I like: footballsport.mysite.com
I don't like: football-sport.mysite.com
No hyphen just seems to be more common. Users may get confused only upon remembering the subdomain. "uh... I think there is a silent hyphen in that URL...??? Or was it no hyphen?"
So if you use football-sport.mysite.com then redirect footballsport.mysite.com to football-sport.mysite.com.
I agree. You want to use the Yoast plugin and don't index your tag pages. That should help with cannibalizing keywords.
You know you typed that out load. Yet another political fail. #WeinerClub
You shouldn't experience any problems with a hyphen in the domain name. Exact Match domains seem to rank better, but most likely not directly associated with the exact match but the domain history and content. Even with a hyphen you get a close match. I have seen hyphen domains rank just fine.
The only concern I would have is consistency within the domain name. You may throw of users by adding a hyphen to an unhyphenated domain. Personally I would opt against using the hyphen. People have learned to read through domain names at this point.
If you do go with the hyphen make sure you redirect the unhyphenated version to the hyphenated version.
I am surprised that as a bunch of SEOs that no one has said SEO friendly.
So can I add:
Demand researched content also makes for more engaging content, but any of the current list could be classified as engaging. The difficulty with defining "good content" is that it's an opinion. But you've got a great list going. I wonder how individuals would prioritize that list based on their verticals.
Take the time and do it right. Add your "description meta tags".
While it may not directly affect rankings it can indirectly affect rankings. You want the description tag to add a little bait on your hook for the searcher. Google monitors CTRs and therefore having a higher click through because of better description will improve your rankings.
I am not, but others appear to be http://twitter.com/#!/ReubenYau/status/79159856245903360
So I guess my site is doing fine.
For character sake I would opt to not use the www and have it redirected. But once you have decided make sure you are consistent. You can advertise with either, it's more the actual linking that makes the difference.
Agreed. The risk of losing juice from a redirect would keep me from moving forward. The only way that I would consider redirecting the old page is if the new page provides better and more relevant/current content.
If you don't plan on improving the content and are only using duplicate content then there is no need to change the page or URL.
Seriously. That is pretty amazing. It looks like you have really captured your audience.
At first glance it looks great! But really hard to say without knowing your history further. Overall you have a very balanced traffic set with a 1/3rd split between all your traffic sources. it looks like you are climbing so I would continue to monitor positive or negative effects of link building. Direct traffic at a 3rd of traffic is very impressive and could denote a good following and good branding.
But really this is hard to diagnose without further info. How long does your search traffic stay on the site? What is the bounce rate of your referral sites?
Test, test, test.
It seems that the general rule of thumb on old URLs redirecting to new ones is that you will lose some of the linking value in the redirect.
But I must agree with Richard Getz, in that you may want a middle ground. You certainly shouldn't over kill KWs in the URL and I would advise never using the Keyword twice the way you have in Example 1.
Length may not directly be a factor. They do look at full views of videos. Compare it to bounce rate. You want the viewer to watch the entire video, 20 seconds or 2 minutes.
Thanks Matt. This helped a lot.
And lets say I wanted to do this over an extended period of time. And for bonus credits... is there any program that would notify me of each new tweet as it happens.
Great answer.. +1
But just to clarify:
"the linking power it had"...
Assuming that the old site actually has links, right?
301 Site redirects only seem to help if there are links being redirected with it. A domain with no links does not really offer much, correct?
Yes... It's not just what you are doing but what your competitors are doing. It's an on going war out there. Bunker down boys.
Do feel the being more consistent is a ranking factor or just a reliable way to get views which helps your rankings?
That's a lot easier to make a connection than say a travel website... What, you don't want your hotel to associated with roaches?
I guess if somebody wants it bad enough they will pay for it. Funny, but can't imagine too many buyers are coming out of those 500 views a day.
I agree... Google doesn't like sites that show visitors and robots a different page.
I used reach local at one point. It was all ppc traffic. Your client should know about this. It seems odd that if they are not paying reach local that reach local would continue to send them traffic.
Letting like minded link friendly people know that you have a site you'd like links for. Honestly, be direct and ask. I am pretty sure I could find you a link if I knew what site you wanted it to and as long as it's not a bad neighborhood.
This may not be the best place to try it but let's see... Can anyone here find a me a link for www.BlogPestControl.com?
Well if it doesn't work here try Twitter. Twitter is a great link building tool.... not Tweets but DMs. Feel free to DM me your website. 
So if I were to create a contest for YouTube then someone could inflate their views?
Does anyone have any guesses on how YouTube views are counted?
Are views unique or can a single individual view a clip multiple times?
I have also heard rumor say that AUTOPLAY views from your profile page do not count.
I have never tried to measure this. But following traditional SEO rules, you have to name your images properly if you want them to rank. Therefore, having keywords in the file name could potentially help. It certainly isn't going to hurt. But the benefit for you place rank, if any,is going to be miniscule.
Never measured it because I stick to the same patterns when something works. I name my images uniquely.
So does anyone believe that telling Google within the coding of the site that you are using the wordpress platform hurts your site for long term?