Yes, it is rare, but possible. Given how many things make up the alogorithm, I'm sure there are many things at play that affect this, some of which have already been mentioned here:

1. content
2.relevance
3.design
4.visitors
5.backlinks

I am in favor of keeping them. One rule we live for is "Not optimizing only for Google, yahoo or any one specific platform"

If the keywords are direct and well chosen, they will not hurt you. If not, its more than likely there are some other areas of your site that could use improvements as well. You never know how people will be getting to your site, or by what means they will get there. Removing something that is well structured, even if it's only used by a select few platforms is not a good idea IMHO.

If they are stuffed, then yes, it would be a good idea to revise them, but not completely remove them. Is the keywords tag the most important factor? No, not by any means. i would take a hard look at your description and page titles before I would suggest worrying about keywords.

A quote someone once told me about SEO "If my sink is leaking, I fix the leak. I don't throw away the whole sink, or go buy a new one, unless the old one cannot be repaired."

When you submit the resubmission request, be honest and descriptive in your reply. State clearly what you have done to repair the manual penalty placed agaist your site, and that to the best of your knowledge, the issue is taken care of.

No. Goodbacklinks are one of the most important factors, as they are a source of traffic to the site, and a souce for Google to validate your site's content.

if you have a ton of good links, but the rest of the site is garbage, you probably wont get very good results. The algorithm looks at over 200 separate bits of information when determining where to rank a site. Are backlinks high on that list? Absolutely. Does that mean that you can have thin content, bad optimization and design? No.

Stating that "Backlinks are the most important factor in SEO" sounds more like a marketing phrase used by that company to sell their services.

Since you have links pointing at them both, I would just redirect the lower ranking one to the higher ranking one. 301

The one that ranks better woud be the one I would keep. Sometimes redirects and url changes can take a while for search engines to find, even if you fetch as Google.

Agreed. Spy on Web is a great tool.

Most of the sites that are bad news are pretty transparent. Tons of links, high home page rank, with 0 page rank on subpages or category pages where your link will be posted. Look closely at where your link be be placed. If the page has a ton of links to other companies, low page rank, and just plain seems....unnatural, its best to stay away.

Of course, you could always use the MOZ tools and see inbound links of your competitors, or high ranking sites within your niche.

Write for the user, not for ranking. If the users like, and share, and spend time navigating through your content, search engines will take notice.

Easiest way? Look at what is one the site, look at what the competition is writing, and how they rank. Look back at yours and compare.

"Is every post you write on your site is SERPs worthy?"

This is only something you and your traffic can answer. Reading through what you have, does it address all aspects of the point you are trying to make, or give all information on a topic you are trying to cover? What is it that makes people like or share what you have written?

"You need a content development plan."

The first place to look at is your backlinks. If they all point at your homepage, its natural that it will have a higher pagerank than the subpages.

I doubt it was hit with a penalty, unless you have noticed a large drop in rankings. When you are hit with a manual penalty, Google will notify you via webmaster tools, so be sure to check that or if you dont have an account, set one up.

Also, how is the page interlinking set up? Do you constantly promote linking to your subpages using well placed anchor text? If the home page does not link to other pages, could be Google is not seeing them. Does the site have a sitemap submitted in webmaster tools?

Is the content that will be added readable? Looking in SEO browser, it doesnt seem that it is. Check out the report here:

http://seo-browser.com/index.php?address=http%3A%2F%2Fdeepdesign.co.za%2Fprint-printer-printing%2F&button0.x=68&button0.y=15&button0=Simple

If the content cannot be read by a search engine, any content you add will no have any effect on your rankings.

The boxes that slide out (if your plan is to retain that design), should link to sub pages of focused, relevant content.

I think you should also take a very close look at the way the pages/URL's are set up. 
print-printer-printing/
with a page title of "PRINT, PRINTER, PRINTING! | DEEPDESIGN"

Very spammy, and even if Google allows it to rank I doubt a user would be compelled to click that result out of one that states something like "Graphic Design and Printing Services -YOURCOMPANY"

I would look at all aspects of the site, even if their budget is low. Doing SEO work just for the sake of getting paid will not get the company the results they are looking for. I would check the template to see what is readable text, then focus your efforts on cleaning up the on page and off page SEO.

To be clear, what type of cart system does the site use? VirtueMart? Magento?

I agree with the posts above, in that sometimes it doesn't hurt, but at the same time, you aren't doing the product pages any favors. Two ways to look at this would be:

1. Having the URL structure set up like you example will still get the pages indexed, if they are included in a sitemap, and submitted correctly, furthermore if the content on those pages is a good match.

2. Having the pages set up that way will limit the ranking potential of those pages, by having a long URL, without relevant keywords in place. Let me explain:

In your example:
www.example.com/women/denim-jeans/py/c/109/np/108/p/3834.html

You have the opportunity to potentially rank for "womens denim jeans" using that url. This somewhat limits the ranking potential of the items, as they are all tied into one specific category, that being "womens denim jeans". Lets look at another example:

www.example.com/women/denim-jeans/faded-wash/indigo-dye-item-details3834.html

In the above URL, you are much more specific in the style and type of jean it is, and a user will know (and a search engine) what the page is specifically about. Style, color, keyword, category, etc. Since you most likely have a large catalog of product types, why limit your item details to a bunch of unnecessary numbers and slashes?

I would also look at a way of using product markup to make the items stand out further in search results. Google likes to see "the complete package". Using clean specific URL's and schema product markup tells a much clearer pricture than /py/c/109/np/108/p/3834.html. Depending on the CMS used, there may be a component or plugin that takes care of the product markup for you, from the item description and details.

Hope this helps!

Due to the optimization and content done around your keywords, and the fact that you already have a keyword driven domian, I wouldn't worry about it.

Google will show the name of the business with the URL, and have the URL link as "website". Same with mobile LBL. It will show call, directions, and website (might not be in that exact order)

People get too caught up on having the businesses real name in their domain. You already have a site, you have a domain based around exactly where you what to rank at, and what you want to rank for, and you have domain age with your purchased domain.

"My issue is that the real busniess name is HEMA DESIGN CENTER, so i dont know if we should change the name in the chamber of commerce to CABiNETS BAY AREA or list the business as HEMA DESIGN CENTER, with this website www.cabinetsbayarea.com."

^^^ This question refers to what you should do for your citation sites, correct? The business name is "HEMA DESIGN CENTER" so use that. You will still have links going to the proper domain, and still be getting people to the site. The only reason I would not set it up under the business name, and use the keyword driven name is if you plan on building another site for the business name (under a branded domain).

Here is the kicker. Whatever you do, keep it consistant. Use the same tactics that you use on your site, and same information across the web. You dont want to lose credibilty with the search engines. Pick one strategy and run with it.

My opinion? Stick with the keyword driven domain. When used properly, these carry a ton of weight. People are not going to search for a local company by name, they are going to search by service and location. For example: "cabinet installation bay area" would be a real-world search query for your site. Mirror the same approach as your site when setting up citations, minor company name, major keyword focus. If you keep it clean and not spammy, I think you will be good to go.

I have seen similar tactics in the local SEO industry lately, so I share your confusion.

Looking at MOZ's tools, we see that our main competitor has a huge amount of spammy links pointing back to their site. Our backlink profile has been very stringent, only submitting to or accepting higher quality sources. They still out rank us, even tho their content quality score is much lower. I am looking into this now, and will provide an answer or opinion soon.

No problem, glad I could help! Sometime it's helpful to have an extra set of eyes looking at a site's seo.

Let me know if you need any additional help, and the results after your changes.

I dont think that registering a new domain is the best plan of action.

Currently, the domain has been registered since October 29, 2012. Starting over means he loses the domain age. Granted it's not been registered that long, but most of the issues on the site seem to be seo/content related.

He stated that he did not get hit with a manual action, and already disavowed the links. I think that with setting up better content and optimisation, new sitemap, moving site to a dedicated IP, (hosted in Provo, Utah so I'm guessing hostgator), and resubmitting all after revisions in GWT as fetch as google and html highlighting, he will be fine. See my post on this page regarding his on/off page issues. It is very likely the site just got slapped with an algorithm update, and that his original presumption of the hack causing ranking loss is not entirely accurate. I think he could gain all the ranking back within a month if all is corrected and submitted properly.

After looking at the site, and hearing you say there was no manual action, I think your troubles lie elsewhere, as in Google just doesnt like the site anymore due to on page/off page issues.

I'm guessing your site wants to rank for "chiropractor in pickering" or "chiropractor pickering"?

Let's get started (cracks knuckles):

The home page currently has 4 versions.
http://www.drkevinfinn.com/
http://www.drkevinfinn.com/index.html
http://drkevinfinn.com/index.html
http://drkevinfinn.com/

You have duplicate home pages, and need to process a redirect in cpanel/htaccess to prevent this. Here is the code you need to put in place in htaccess after the # RewriteBase /

force www

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.drkevinfinn.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.drkevinfinn.com/$1 [R=301,L]

remove index.php within the URL

RedirectMatch permanent index.php/(.*) http://www.drkevinfinn.com/$1

remove index.php at the end of the URL and change to /

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /./index.(php|html)\ HTTP
RewriteRule (.)index.(php|html)$ /$1 [R=301,L]

Remove index.php from root URL

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.(php|html) [NC]
RewriteRule ^index.php$ http://www.drkevinfinn.com/ [R=301,L]

#end code

Keyword selection:
The keyword selection on the pages is pretty jarbled, and could use a bit of cleaning up. For example on home page:
name="keywords" content="DR. Kevin Finn,Chiropractor Pickering,chiropractor services in Pickering">
could be changed to: (DC is the abbreviation for "doctor of chiropractic", CA stands for both Canada, and for Chiropractic assistant, a double benefit!)
name="keywords" content="chiropractor, chiropractic, care, clinic, service, pickering, CA, Dr Kevin Finn, DC, doctor">

Site meta description: Also, the description for the site is not very.....descriptive:
name="description" content="Chiropractic Dr. Kevin Finn offers chiropractor services in Pickering.">
let's elaborate a bit further, based off of your services page:
name="description" content="Dr. Kevin Finn is a chiropractor clinic in Pickering, CA offering chiropractic care and services to clients suffering from back pain or injury.">
On page copy:
On page copy is a bit thin. Your headings list the main keyword and location, but the body copy does not. From the homepage:

"Chiropractors are experts in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries or conditions related to your nerves, muscles, bones and joints and how these conditions may impact your overall health and ability to work, perform and enjoy life.

People most often think of  visiting a chiropractor for back pain or neck pain and headaches, but chiropractors can help with problems in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, hips even your feet! Research studies have demonstrated that chiropractic treatment provides excellent relief for these conditions."

^^^^^^^ NO LOCATION LISTED!! Also, the phrase "chiropractors" is used often, but not chiropractor, chiropractic, etc etc and anything else you want to rank for. Many pages only have 2 short paragraphs, which limits how often and where you can link to.

No Interlinking of pages in content.
Google hates dead end pages, and users dont spend much time on them. Add in additional copy, and link using anchor text to those related pages as you talk about them.

No authorship or markup:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?url=http://drkevinfinn.com/index.html

Click-through ratio is probably getting hit hard because of this. You have the google+ page linked in the footer, so what is stopping you from creating the markup? Also, does he have any reviews? I'm sure one or more patients would be happy to write some reviews, and them you can add in aggregate review markup and make the indexed links shine. Don't know how? here you go: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/get-started-using-schema/

Start looking objectively at these areas of your site. I dont think you are being affected by the hack, as much as areas of SEO that need more attention to detail. If the hack was a major factor, you most likely would have received a message from GWT saying that malware was on the site.

Best of luck, and let me know if I can help with anything!

Press releases are a common misunderstood concept in SEO.

The main purpose of a press release should not be to gain links, at least not directly. (before any calls blasphemy, hear me out.)

"Remember: As I wrote on Moz, press releases and related items should be used to get coverage, not links." Samuel, completely agree.

A press release should be used to promote useful, or "newsworthy" content about your business. By having your news or PR listed on a site, you are promoting info, not trying to gain links. Press releases net you additional traffic by having people interested in what you have to say, not simply because there is a link on a major site. We wrote a bit about this on our blog: http://www.webdesignandcompany.com/10-old-seo-strategies-you-should-stop-using

"Creating press releases just for the sake of links alone is not a good practice, and can become expensive if done regularly. A good press release is one that can help other people. Remember, humans are social creatures, and when we find something that helps us, we share it. By having people share your information and providing something that is truly newsworthy and good, this can help your media relations be more effective, and believe me, the links will follow. Think long term, not quick fix. Zach Cutler wrote a good article for The Huffington Post about 8 Tips for Writing a Great Press Release."

My second question is, why would there be a concern of duplicate content? If you create a press release, that info should not be directly matched to any content on your site. If it is, more than likely it is not "newsworthy" content, but something that was created from your site content to gain backlinks or additional rank. If you have content somewhere on your site that directly matches the info in your press release, then I would revise it so that the subject matter and keyword focus stays the same, but the content is varied.

1. How long has it been since the site was hacked?
2. Have all linked been resubmitted in GWT (fetch as google) and in sitemap?
3. How long has it been since links were disavowed?
4. Have you tried uploading the site under a new (dedicated) IP address after all the fixes were put in place?
5. Have you checked using site search to make sure pages are indexed, just not ranking?
6. Are there any robots rules in place blocking pages, and are the pages set to index, follow?
7. Was there a manual action made against the site by Google? If so, was a reconsideration request completed?

Can you provide the url, so that I can have a closer look?

Lots of questions, but I think this will point you in the right direction of where to start.

http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_upload+with_options

This link will check all possible issues. Is there a reason you think you may have potential problems with your sitemap? It's always a good idea to open your sitemap in notepad, to manually check for any issues, or URLs you dont want indexed. Tools will only check for errors in the code, and not for any URLs you may not want to include. Many sitemap generators can include strange or unatural (non-SEF) URLs, especially if you are using a cms such as Joomla or WordPress.

I would do a manual check first, then proceed to use the tool above. Hope this helps!

Completely agree. the easiest way to tell what a page truly renders is to use http://seo-browser.com/.

The method you mentioned does NOT hide content, unless it is set up that way in code on purpose, or in the template.

"My customer hired an "SEO Expert" who is telling them that this content is invisible to search engines."

Everyone is a self-proclaimed expert. I've been doing this 12 years, and still don't know everything, lol. I'm really happy you decided to post, and didn't go along with the herd.

Where are you getting the data from for the search volume difference?

Secondly, what are you using to look at your rankings for both terms? Manual searches do not always give you the whole picture of what is ranking or not ranking.

Before you restructure the whole site, set up a few test pages that focus on the non-plural version of your keyword. Monitor the ranking closely. If you see a large influx in traffic, then slowly implement change across your site, although I would not place all your eggs in one basket. Use some of the keyword idea tools available to look at broad match keywords related to photobook(s), and build out your content to cover additional areas. (if you have not already)