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RE: Changed page name, etc - still get a "missing canonical tag" error. At this point, I could be wrong, but I am convinced there's hidden problem, or a bug in the system. No more posts here, I emailed help@moz.com

Jeremy - you appear to be "The Man" here.  A very good answer to a less than obvious solution. I assumed that the link was appended to whatever else I wrote - like an email signature. Now I know, problem solved - Thanks!!

@[Vadim Mialik I](http://moz.com/users/view/145337) think your "familiarization with the platform" is the answer. I know how to optimize - just not in Wordpress or other blog tech. RE:"what you mean by serious SEO" I presently rebuild pages to spec, in asp, rather than try to un-corrupt old code. I rename pictures, rename page filenames, edit the existing copy, etc. IOW, I build the pages around the SEO target. As I write the code, I make sure everything "fits" together. I have been getting excellent results this way. If I start retrofitting Wordpress sites, I won't have that kind of access to customize. I don't agree that Wordpress is inherently search friendly, but can imagine that demand has forced them to come up with workarounds. I think Vadim has the right approach -  learn the mechanics of what can be manipulated in Wordpress - then learn what I need to make up for what I can't do - my way. I will definitely take a closer look at the Yoast plug-in.....Thanks for all replies

Ryan - I think you have sincerely tried to relate the world as you know it and I appreciate your time. I will leave this final thought on the subject of popular assumptions - In html 4 the W3C denigrated target="_blank". If you used it on a page, your page wouldn't validate W3C. Reason given - their opinion that it took away visitor choice in how many windows were open. In the designer's view, NOT using it for external links simply took away visitors. As Google and just about everyone else continued opening new winows and the W3C could not give a solid, technical reason to not use it - they relented and re-included it in html 5 specs. "Web 2.0" - commonly believed to be an official standard is nothing more than a phrase coined in a 1999 article by a consultant on electronic information architecture envisioning the user involvement we see today in places like Facebook, etc. People building Wordpress sites, etc now claim they are operating in "Web 2.0". There is no real Web 2.0 construct. So far no one in a position of power has stated anything concrete that they are sure that (tastefully) hyphenating a domain name is going to have a negative effect on SEO. Again, I am referring only to conventional websites - not blogs. And, why should Google worry about me with URL's like this out there - http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/casino-legislation-would-create-three-new-gambling-venues-in-south-florida/1195490

Thanks to both you and Keri - Even though my hype barks loudly of SEO I am a web designer who has had great luck in organic SEO via good page construction and my copywriting skills. I don't really "tune" other's sites - I rebuild them, usually in hand coded classic asp. Ergo, I am not actually a classic SEO service like many here. I am finding that I am facing my next tech upgrade here with off-page issues like this one. I got rid of the htaccess and added the above code in the head. I have never used htaccess like this before and use a format tailored to the server this site resides on. adapting it may have caused the gaffe. Again, many thanks.