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I see a number of pages indexed, including the home page. I notice that you're running on an older version of WordPress. While likely not related to your question, I highly suggest that you make a backup of your site, and upgrade to the current version of wordpress to prevent attacks on the site from security vulnerabilities (that can end up killing your rankings). I also suggest logging into Google Webmaster Tools, if you haven't already, and seeing what information is there about your site that could help. I agree that the sub-pages seem a bit keyword-stuff and repetitive.

yeah, that was the question Thanks for your answer

Recently discovered this: Indicate the canonical version of a URL by responding with the Link rel="canonical" HTTP header. Addingrel="canonical" to the head section of a page is useful for HTML content, but it can't be used for PDFs and other file types indexed by Google Web Search. In these cases you can indicate a canonical URL by responding with the Link rel="canonical" HTTP header, like this (note that to use this option, you'll need to be able to configure your server). Link: <http: www.example.com="" downloads="" white-paper.pdf="">; rel="canonical"</http:> Google currently supports these link header elements for Web Search only. -http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394

maybe 5-10 per week. In my view 5 high quality links are worth more than 1000 spammy links. Spammy links often won't even still be there in a years time.

Agreed. Domain authority will play a significant role and more authoritative site may get away with it easier than a small one. I speak from what I have seen (not a speculation).

My vote goes for 301. It makes more sense.

Thanks. We've decided not to go down the no index route because although these pages don't have significant rankings and therefore don't drive much in the way of SEO traffic, they do contribute to the overall authority status of the site and the directories in which they sit. For example, a hotel deal will sit within the hotels directory/sub folder so to no index all these details we fear would undermine the overall authority of this directory. I think we are going to go with making the first paragraph visible to the users and search engines... and probably look at combining that with First Click Free

This is definitely not the best technique to quickly see competition heat as it could be easily misleading. Why? The # of results with certain keyword phrases in title does matter as it does show the # of competitors but what it doesn't show is the authority of those competitors and if they are active as of now, and its anybody's guess what could happen when you go into a fight and without knowing your opponent. Say, you are optimizing for entertainment/celebrity related keywords, you can do quick 'intitle' search and get quickly scared as it may seem as there is a lot of competition looking at the # of results.. however, if you dig a bit deeper its easy to see that majority of pages are low authority pages and are easy to beat as they do not do heavy optimizing (since entertainment traffic doesn't convert well...which means less $ for optimizing).  So my 2 cents...dig a bit deeper, check the top results in first 2 pages at least and look at their authority. Its worth spending a few hours to  know your enemy before you go against them.. rather than spending months in optimizing later and realizing your enemies are much stronger, more active, aggressive and have deeper pockets.

Does bounce rate affect your rankings? Here's an oldie but goodie: http://me-in-seo.blogspot.com/2009/02/does-bounce-rate-affect-sites-google.html How can you lower your bounce rate: http://searchengineland.com/two-simple-rules-for-fixing-high-bounce-rate-pages-35125 What happened with Google's Panda update? http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-farmer-update-analysis-of-winners-vs-losers Note that Chrome collects direct user feedback on bounces. After you hit "back" from a SERP result it lets you block that site. No doubt doing so signals spam to the algo.

Thanks Louis, I appreciate the time you spent to answer my question. I feel better and more educated now!

"Does Google update often?" Google unrolls minor algo updates roughly every two weeks. "Is a jump from a PR of 0 to 3 reasonable?" Maybe this will help you conceptualize what PageRank is and how it behaves: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/ "If my site does go to a PR of 3, will I see a noticeable change in my keyword rankings?" Since PR is only one value in the overall ranking algo, the answer to this question depends on how strong your other signals of authority and relevance are in comparison to those competing for the same keywords.

Ryan--I have to agree with you!! Check out what Starbucks did to create an April Fools caffeine buzz Great example of how social media + hillarious content combines for juicy link bait!