Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Thanks for taking the time to come up with a 'solution' to the problem

---> SEO's often say "build a blog" blah, blah, blah. If you believe you'll have a 'following' with your blog, or if you believe you can create 'compelling' content on an ongoing basis that is related to what your site is about, and if you can create unique (no duplicate) content on a regular basis... go for it. If not; don't waste your time.

Recently I heard an SEO 'Content Representative' for an SEO company advise a small local oil pipe fabrication company to build a blog... Well, I could have advised 10+ considerably more important things they should have been doing that would have been much more important at bringing in targeted traffic than starting a blog, for almost no one who could care less

"If they are good sites I don’t see why Google should penalize them just because of their domain name"
"If they made a really good site, would the domain name still be a problem? "
---> Google has done this to a good number of 'good sites'.

"a blog would make more sense on their main site because it would attract links."
---> that would not be the reason I'd create a blog. 
---> I wouldn't bother using the kw rich domain name if you choose to go with a brand name domain name.

• my name is Andy Kuiper, andykuiper.com ranks #1 for most (and in the top 4 for the rest) SEO related search terms in Edmonton 'and' Calgary Canada. (each city is 1 million+ population). "andykuiper" clearly isn't a commercial kw... I think you might be putting too much emphasis on the kw

* and - just reading the comment posted above, if you add a geo modifier to the KW, you're "unlikely" to have an issue with Google It wouldn't be an EMD, and Google (so far) has been pretty good about not giving a hard time to domain names that contain KW's and 'city name' (as an example) URL's

---> ..."dynamically generated string of random characters" instead of targeted kw's in URL's

ack! - I definitely wouldn't do that

yes you do

The 2 answers you have received are dead on - whatever you do, I wouldn't create an exact match domain name period. You're likely asking for trouble down the road if you do that. Partial match domain names are much safer. As for the company name - I wouldn't bother trying to create a company name with the intention of making it 'work'; as a domain name

Andy

---> build landing pages targeting the states you are after - as for other countries... that's a whole different topic, and requires considerable planning and implementation.

---> give it some time, moz will update your DA soon enough

"...duplicate content and penalize my website"
---> duplicate content is not penalized, it's often just deemed somewhat irrelevant as Google has seen the content before and has an 'older' or in some few cases, 'considerably stronger' version of the content in its Index.

..."about 301 redirection from non WWW to WWW using htaccess ..."
---> perfect solution (this is the correct thing to do), and if anything, your site will be stronger. While 301's do lose a teeny bit of link equity, any links to the non-www version of your site will now be making the www page that much stronger.

"I don’t want to lose my current rankings or organic traffic"
---> this is highly unlikely

*you may want to set your webmaster tools setting to "www "as well

All the best - Andy

It's not just PR that you have misunderstood, it's that, as I pointed out, everything your last post posited was incorrect.

As for your link to how PR works... a lot has changed since this article was published in ---> 2007 <--- no-follows weren't even a figment of anyone's imagination back then, let alone a reality.

The article closed out by saying, "__Rand and I both tend to believe that it is likely Google has changed and refined the PageRank algorithm many times."

I'm done spending time on this.

I'm sorry Alan, I don't have the time to update you on all that you have incorrect, which is most of your last post.

Link equity doesn't "amass" on pages, unless there is link equity sent there, either internally, or externally. If you no-follow a link (either by tag or other ways) from the home page (where the majority of most sites have the most link equity) the page you no-followed the link to will only get link equity from other internal (or external) pages that link to it.

If you're suggesting that no-following a link "keeps" more link equity on a page, you are incorrect. As I mentioned earlier to Kimberly:

---> All followed links on a page pass link equity, and will reduce the link equity on the page the link is on.
---> All no-followed links will not pass link equity, **however they will reduce the amount of link equity on a page the same as if the no-followed link were a followed link. **

Keep in mind, we are talking about navigational links, which the search engines treat differently than links within content. This whole conversation is sort of ridiculous; "how to PageSculpt navigational links..." nobody does this any more, for so many good reasons.

*Kimberly, As I mentioned earlier, "Responses you receive to your questions here, may be correct"... and some may be just nonsense. Learn about how link equity flows, as I suggested, and you'll be able to discern the facts from the nonsense.

"I would suggest having a real link to your contact page from your homepage..."
I suspect 90%+ of backlinks and social signals (link equity) lands on Kimberley's home page, so this sounds like a lot of work for almost no return. However, as you mentioned, she does seem to really want do this

You are spending waaaaay too much time on this I, and my clients, rank extremely well without worrying about link equity being lost from navigational links to a contact page. Removing one 'extra' set of navigational links may result in a tiny bit of link equity gain for the page. However Kimberly, what is much more important, would be for you to do some web research around "link architecture for SEO", and "siloing for SEO". Learning about all of this from a more macro standpoint will allow you to truly understand the why's and wherefores so much more than seeking advice about the micro aspects of all of this. Responses you receive to your questions here, may be correct (and often are), however they may just confuse you if you don't have a better understanding of how link equity flows on web pages.

It's clearly awesome that you care and are conscientious enough to seek the right way of dealing with link equity

However I get the feeling from your questions, that you would be much happier and considerably more adept, if you really understood how all of this link equity business worked. If you don't get the whole picture, it may be like that you could be making small changes that share a resemblance (hopefully not), to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Andy

@ThompsonPaul - My SEO Company is in Calgary, a stones throw from your place... a small World indeed

Here's what Matt has to say about no-follow on internal links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVOOB_Q0MZY

@ThompsonPaul ...makes sense, I agree with you, it does appear that Kimberley would benefit from a thorough, reasoned response. And I suspect, if I were in her shoes, your kind of response would be a lot more helpful.

@ThompsonPaul - what an awesome answer!... 5 thumbs up

Correct Kimberly, "just totally ignore the fact that Webmaster Tools is showing the most unimportant pages (rankwise) as the highest linked internally"

You have answers from two different people saying very much the same thing; I'll add my name to the list: ---> your instincts were right on this one, just do what is recommended from the two responders above, and your client will thank you later

*As for your client, Just because some of the 'others' are doing it, doesn't mean it's the right, or practical thing to do. Your patience and good practices will pay off with Local Search, in time

Andy

If you are trying to conserve link juice by using the no follows, it won't work. This type of thing was utilized shortly after no-follows were introduced, the practice was referred to as 'PageRank sculpting'. The search engines changed the way they dealt with no-followed links "with regard to link equity" as a result of page sculpting.

---> All followed links on a page pass link equity, and will reduce the link equity on the page the link is on.
---> All no-followed links will not pass link equity, **however they will reduce the amount of link equity on a page the same as if the no-followed link were a followed link. **

So your hypothesis, about not passing link equity to internal pages that really don't need it (contact, etc.) is a good one. However, you won't "save" the link equity on the page that has the link... followed or no-followed.

And, you are also correct in deciding to not use the no-followed links in this manner. I wouldn't bother using no-follow links for the purposes you've described. As for navigational linking, I wouldn't worry to much about link equity, as the search engines are getting better and better at determining the importance, or lack thereof, of links based on their location within a page. If you feel you might have too many nav links, perhaps eliminating a nav section might be a solution.

You may want to search around the term PageRank sculpting, as there may be more information provided to you this way.

Andy

I agree with Miriam, who btw, has an excellent reputation in the SEO community. You're on the right track with URL's something like:

website.com/butcher-mytown
and for deeper pages: 
website.com/butcher-mytown/suasages
website.com/butcher-mytown/pork-chops

Andy