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Well ... no one responded to my question here, but it seems the problem has already corrected itself.  Perhaps it just took 2-3 weeks for link juice to be properly attributed to the new location of the 301'd site and subpages.  I'm not back 100% in terms of traffic yet, but I'm 80% there.

Thanks Keri!  I thought it might be something like that, so I'm glad you could confirm.

Yes, still trying to track the down the issue. Steve

It probably depends on what you're looking for, but you might want to specify what type of SEO you're seeking: linkbuilder, auditor, strategist, content creator, etc, etc, etc. I know a lot of people that prefer to just create content or just build links or whatever else.

One other thing to consider is that you have a lot of that text in graphics.  I would especially get your links on the bottom (sitemap, stamp atlas, help, etc) out of the images and onto the page so it can be read.  Check out Google Webmaster tools and view your page as Googlebot. That can really give you a good idea on the best way to optimize your site.

I would not add it to every page - Also it looks very spammy to have it that long Use keywords in urls to signal google what the page is about

Thank you Alex for your response! I am going to include more keywords in my meta description than just my h1 tag. I am starting to figure things out. Thanks again!

Thanks for the quick response. Would the client risk being penalized by Google by leaving the old pages up?

If you are able to use domains from 10 years ago with even say 10 back links I have seen them to work well in comparison to domains which are registered that day hehe But if you have a domain which is say 4 years old and it has 200 root domain links from quality sources, good content it will be better. But it is not just about the age of the domain it is more so about the age the domain has been in the index's.

Thanks Daniel. The link/ranking competition for these individual category product pages is very low, so it might be very beneficial to have a handful of links pointing to each product specifically. I know that if you have 2 or more links pointing to the same page, Google only counts the first link. I wasn't sure how Google responded when you had multiple links to multiple pages.

Thanks for the reply, sorry it's taken me a while to respond. I've used a variety of PR sites for the best part of a year now so it seems strange that barely any of them are being picked up.

The action I would recommend would depend on two factors: are there backlinks to the page, and how frequently are the links used (check Google Analytics). If you have a page without any backlinks that is rarely used, then I would allow the 404 to occur. If you have a page with link juice and is frequently used, I would make an effort to ensure user's are happy with what they find when clicking to the page, otherwise they may bounce off my site. In this case I would rebuild the content. 404s are a natural part of the internet. Content is moved and removed over time. It is not necessarily a bad thing for a 404 to occur if your site is prepared to handle it (i.e. your 404 page is helpful and friendly).The only point I am making is some webmasters view 404s as an issue with their site that must be resolved, and that is not the case. You should be fully aware of any 404 links and be able to adjust where necessary.

The amount of link juice you will receive is the same in any of those examples. Your question is similar to "which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead". A link's value is determined primarily by the linking page's DA/PA/ or PR (however you measure link value) and the number of links on the page. There are other factors such as a link in the content area of a page offer more value then links in footer areas for example. Based on your question it seems the link will appear in the content area of your page. We know Google associates anchor text to a link's value, but I am not aware of that text influencing the amount of value that is passed.

I found that post to be very useful in regards to my local ranking questions. Thanks for the link