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So here's what I would do: Follow Google's instruction and use their disavow those bad links.

Link Detox produces the file that Google requires to disavow links. Perhaps your old SEO sent it to you? Anyway, I would get that file, browse through it and make certain that those links are indeed bad or at least questionable, and then follow the steps in the article to remove them.

This eliminates the hassle from emailing 15k webmasters requesting they take time out of their day to remove your link. SEO Snobs may frown on such a 'baby with the bathwater' approach, but desperate times call for desperate measures and it sounds like the next steps for you if you don't take action, would be to close your business. Working from that as a worst case scenario, this is exactly what I would do.

That is a really tough, but all too common story. I definitely would not start over on a new brand if that's the case. Would it possible to switch from Brand.com to brandwidgets.com? Just wondering.

Either way, before I scrap the domain or hire this high priced company, I would check these guys out: http://www.linkdetox.com/plans-pricing/. You obviously are smart enough to use Moz so I think this tool could help you disavow the bad links. It would take a while to see the results but using a tool like this to get rid of bad links would be the first step I take before you pay a kings ransom to a firm (assuming you cannot afford) or (gulp) shut down your business (<------don't do this!!).

p.s. I'm always a little skeptical when people push a product on me so for the record, I in no way benefit from the product i mentioned earlier. There are plenty of competitors who do what they do as well.

Has the robots.txt file been switched to nofollow recently? was it ever not there?

Trung is exactly right. You might as well pick any domain name and ask that question again.

Personally, I would try to differentiate myself from my competition with my domain name to some degree.

If money/time are at your disposal then

a) yes

b) yes

c) yes

If not, I would start with the disavow tool and work your way down. I would guess that 90% of your problem is the 2% toxicity and 71% suspicious. I would address that and put better content on my list of long term goals.

Without knowing the URL or the competitors, obviously we have to guess. My money is on they probably have a weaker domain authority and less authoritative links than their competitors. If you want to share the url, I can give you more details, but that's my guess.

You're probably not looking at a quick fix any way you slice it but here's what I would do:

1. Create a new Google Plus Local page for the Dickerson address.
2. Claim/Create as many listings as possible for the Dickerson address
3. Create a landing page on the client's site for both addresses
4. Link each Google Plus Local page to the location specific landing page you created

I think you do those four things, you'll be fine.