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Joomla is very duplicate content challenged.  I wrote a blog post about it a while ago, but I won't link to it so I don't look like a spammer.  Here are the highlights:

1. The natural installation of Joomla comes with silly things like "print" and "pdf" icons. Both of these will lead to duplicate content issues.

2. Joomla's categories will lead to duplicate content

3. Different URL structures will lead to duplicate content issues

Still, not being indexed for the branded terms is a tough thing to be a part of.  What is the niche you are in?  Could you possibly be black listed? Is the domain new or did he buy it "used"?

I don't think it's a bad move if you have the needs of your consumers in mind.  If it's specifically for the consumer, you might think about not allowing this new category to be used.  If it's for SEO, I don't really see a lot of value there?  Maybe I'm misunderstanding?

What you need is a reoccuring payment processor of some sort.

I have used Authorize.net & PayPal - I don't know if Google checkout has that option or not, but it might be someplace to look.

For you guys, I would really recommend focusing on off-page ranking factors rather than on-page ranking factors.  On-page ranking usually only accounts for about 30% of all SEO - off page factors count for about 70.

You need more links, need a strong social media presence, and need to be publishing tons of high quality content about trade shows, trade show marketing, etc.

Your on-page SEO looks great - get rocking on off-page!

Could you give the actual keyword and domain name?

The "too many outgoing links" (less than 100 links per page) was originally created because Google could only index 101KB of a page, and so they needed some sort of rule that would help it's users.  However, this rule is no longer in place, and the guideline has been removed.  I would suggest you don't have 50000 links on a page, but your website looked fine.

Wow, I love your website - can you send me an email to alhallinan@gmail.com with some info?

I'm pretty sure this is the domino effect.

Google's Panda update made content farms lose Page Rank.  Therefore, outgoing Page Rank was reduced from the content farms.  A lot of us had a ton of links from content farms, which were then devalued as well.  Voilà, Page Rank reduced.

I agree, but that's not really a question, is it?

Can you show me the domain in question?

A great test on those paid links would be to change the directory listings to point to another website or domain that you own which has been ranking pretty steadily over the past few weeks.  If you see a decrease in organic rankings on that site as well, then you'll know for sure that the paid directories were the problem.

If the directory listing was cheap, then it might not be worth your time - you'll need to weigh the pros and cons.

How did you add these links?

Also, you have some characters in your title that shouldn't be there, like "&" and the such.  I would try to keep those out of the titles as much as possible.

I would also start becoming heavily involved in social media because I think social media is going to be the SEO of the future...

Ah, certainly interested.

Yup, I would absolutely email them to remove those links.  If there's any risk whatsoever, I would ask for the links to be removed.

How can you tell that these two websites have a penalty now?

I would disagree with both of the responses below.

To be honest, what I would do with $200-$300 per month is hire a data entry person.  I would then train this data entry person in link building and pay them about $10 an hour.  I would also recommend keeping this person in the office because link building is super tedious - submitting to directories, participating in forums, participating in blogs, requesting links, etc. The not-so-moral person might spend their entire day on Facebook instead of actually working on the links

From there, I would suggest having you work on the content - business owners always produce the best content - and your link building will perfectly supplement your activities.

Actually, I've had the same sort of experience over the past 48 hours with one of my websites - it has completely disappeared from Google over the past 48 hours.

I suspect it is indeed another algorithm change that has affected the website, however, my recommendation is that you continue to add links, add high quality and unique content, etc.  Just because it dropped now doesn't mean that it won't come back.

On some of my websites, I've seen the rankings disappear, and when it comes back, it's in the top 15 results - which is great.

Keep SEOing and don't lose hope.

Do you have a Google representative?  If not, you'll need to hop on the phone with Google's support and try to get to the bottom of the issue.  Here's the best number: 877-721-1738

That's good news!

I always keep a completely separate browser that I don't use, and when I do searches and experiments, I always clear the cookies and make sure I'm not logged in.  That way, Google is giving me generic results instead of personalized results.

I'd suggest opening a different browser, or downloading RockMelt or Safari, and testing the search there.  If it still doesn't show, then hopefull it's gone for good!

Agreed!!!

No, no, I only block the Whois data on one website, which is just a fun blog I do to make people laugh in my small community in Florida.  Being anonymous is half the fun

What I try to do when I create mini-sites is somehow provide value to the users - that's the best policy.  If you create a mini-site ONLY for SEO, you're not going to add much value.  But if you create a mini site that gives your users something different than they can find on your main site, you'll be adding value and SEO value as well.

Here's a for-instance.  Let's say you are a mortgage broker and your primary website has tons of content on mortgages and the call to action is to submit an application.

Then, you create a mini site that has a ton of generic info and calculators for mortgages, and has listings of data in whatever location you're focusing on ranking your primary site.

This mini site could be a simple Wordpress install and wouldn't take too much work, but it's adding real value for your users.

Does that make sense?