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You're much too kind Happy New Year!

Good news!

Sounds like it. You said: Before our company started doing SEO for this website, they hired a company that generated a large number of backlinks that Google would probably now see as spammy. Penguin targeted low quality links (and seemed like you have them). Prune those links out and see what happens. Also, focus on reducing/eliminating any over-optimization (specifically anchor texts/kw stuffing and etc). I'm sure other mozzers will weigh in, but at face-value, that is what I'm guessing.

I'll just accept that the previous link building that was done was crap and the links are too deep.

In the Pro account, it shows it as an error, but when looking at the live version, it redirects like it should. Must have been a hiccup in the crawl

Thank you Ann. Didn't expect to get a response from you personally, but what a nice touch. Your detailed response really cleared some things up for me. I am hiring a content writer for my blog posts, and I will make sure he goes off of the checklist. I am hoping that this works out well, and now I feel I have a more clear understanding of your site's functionality. Thank you for your quick response

Hi Stevej24, Just thought I'd respond to your comment. According to the Optilocal post I linked to in my longer response to Ryan: Howard Lerman (CEO of Yext) confirmed that an expansion in Europe and Australia is scheduled. However, according to him this would not happen before 2013. So, looks like expansion will happen in a year or more. Cheers! Miriam

Early on in the linking days, the number of links mattered.  Then, things evolved, and quality and authority were factored.  I see the same thing happening here;  I think some of the lower quality, semi-automated, mass bookmarks are losing value. I believe value is passed from the higher quality bookmarking properties, especially when shared by an authority's profile. Beyond any juice, there is also benefit to mentions, and activity in the social sphere.  That is why it continues to be part of our strategy.

Hello Ryan, Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I want you to know that your query inspired me to ask two of the best Local SEOs in the country for their opinion on this, and they both agreed that this oft-repeated advice about building links to Place Pages is bogus. I wanted to check with some of my chums before answering your questions, because I see this advice being given all the time on websites, and it's one of those strange myths of SEO that are self-perpetuating. The reasoning that it is not worth it to build links to Place Pages is that they are not indexed, therefore, building links to them is like throwing stuff into a black hole. If you feel linkbuilding will be necessary to enabling your client to rank better, build links to his website. Not his Place Page. Hope this helps! Miriam

Never tried the geotag, I will give it a shot. I am redesigning the HTML format, to try and better fit it into Panda's regulations. So, if it looks a bit "wonky", that is why. I appreciate the advice. I still don't know why it plummeted down so fast, but I will certainly implement your techniques. Lastly, another tidbit of info, I performed a lot of social bookmarking and other forms of link building in August, September, October...  I have yet to see ANY backlinks from the work I have done on SEO Moz or in any other 3rd party tool. Don't know if that sheds any light on anything