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I agree with what you have above, but with the recommendation to funnel everything you can to the website and emphasize the drop off locations. I'd even feature a cool interactive map on the front page of the site. Whatever you do, get rid of the P.O. box!!!

I would say let your keyword research do the talking. The tried and true method is to use your "seed" keywords, gather all the suggestions you can, measure which keywords hold the most value for you, and look for the opportunities. If one of your best opportunities has prepositions in it, there is your answer. I'm willing to bet you'll find valuable keywords that use them.

My observation is they don't carry much weight, but with voice searching on mobile, searches can be much more "conversational" when spoken into Siri or Google voice search. We tend to keep things short when we have to type it in, right? There is also Google's Hummingbird update, semantic search and natural language processing. WordStream did a great blog on this right after Google's Hummingbird update. I highly recommend you read the whole article. Here's an especially relevant quote:

"You only have to look at how accurate Google Now has become since its introduction to see that natural language processing is going to remain a major part of Google’s plans for search."

Overall, I'd use the prepositions. Natural language is important, sounds better, and the data is probably there suggesting you should keep it.

This falls under "Wow...I've never thought of that" for me. After hundreds of campaigns, I've never considered the day of the week when starting to monitor for rankings, etc. It's certainly a  good question, if only to rule it out as an influence on your reports.

I'd say it's far more important to start tracking and to benchmark the data historically and against your competitors. This brings up the question, why not set up a campaign for one site, and then add the others as competitors? You may well have a compelling reason to not do this, but my impression is it would simplify things for you and allows you to look at data side.

As far as blogs, tutorials, etc. go, I have not found any on when to monitor. Seems you've stumbled on a question that hasn't been asked before!

I'd be more concerned about duplicate content, actually. I've seen may instances like this where the event website simply grabs content off your website and links back to you with no regard for duplicates. That's the only thing I see the algorithm picking up. I wouldn't be concerned it would be tagged as a paid link from your description, especially since the link isn't what you are paying for, it's the sponsorship. You can see numerous examples of this when you look at sponsor profiles on all kinds of websites - even SEO conferences The link is a benefit for sure, but not the primary thing you are paying for.

This article from Search Engine Watch gets pretty detailed on what Matt Cutts considers a paid link: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2332787/matt-cutts-shares-4-ways-google-evaluates-paid-links#

I would be against separate websites. It would take so much more work to get the same results for two websites. Why dilute your domain authority? I'd put some real thought into the organization of the site and focus on needs based navigation that gets people quickly to the relevant content. Spend your time on crystal clear funnels for each audience, and constantly create and measure your content to hone in on the best results. Once you have a system in place, you'll be able to repeat the process over and over and create one powerhouse website.

Also, what about the local citation? Would you be using the same phone number and address, and if so, what site would you be linking to?

I'd start with the good old Google Keyword Planner, start with seed keyword phrases, and go from there. For hyper topical keywords you can build content around, use Google Trends to see what's hot for some timely content ideas.

If you submitted a new sitemap then you should be fine, but "in case of emergency", you can try listing the individual URL's in Google Webmaster Tools > Google Index > Remove URL's. It's a tedious process, but something else you can try.

Sucks, doesn't it? Wordfence or another WP security plugin is well worth the time to install and monitor. Good luck.

Depending on how messy, or how lacking they are in good organization or keyword value, I sure would if I felt the benefit out weighed the cost. I don't see a risk here if done properly.

Good luck.

I don't know of any rule that says the content has to be close to or resemble the original content. I've used both url to url and many to one url methods of redirecting pages, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. If you CAN go url to url, I would, simply from a usability standpoint. If I am clicking on a link in the SERPS for "old link", I am expecting the content on "new link" to at resemble the content I'm expecting. If not, you will get higher bounce rates etc. I'd go for url to url for this reason alone.

In the circumstances where you can't do this, such as limitations WIX has on url to url 301 redirects, then you would go to the main page or section page. Remember, the intent of the redirect is to tell Google the content moved and that it has a new home. Again, no rule that I can cite on this, but we all know Google likes what people like.

Hi James.

The short answer is build a following and interact with them. I have many more questions than answers for you, though, starting with why Twitter? Twitter is a thriving, brand aware community of affluent users, but it's a smaller user base (23% of adult Internet users) than say Facebook (71% of adult Internet users), and only about half of those are active. That's still a LOT of people, but is that where your customers are? If so, great! If not, you may want to re-evaluate.

I have a feeling with that number of sales you aren't doing anything else to market the website, so I feel like Twitter isn't the place to start. I would look hard at who your customers are, where they spend their time, and then figure out the best way to reach them. There are many more effective ways to do that than Twitter.

Based on the fact the new domain would have ZERO value to start, I'd go with the .com. With all that juice it has, I think it's the best use of your resources. The only reason I'd keep the others around is to keep them out of the hands of competitors. This coming from a serial domain name hoarder

What was the quality of the traffic you used to have? Were you getting good conversion?

Matt's comments are great. I'd also add that with the info you shared (mainly the timing), your traffic was possibly from rankings propped up by bad links? I'd do a thorough link audit if you haven't already, and simultaneously start brainstorming some great user-focused content that targets those short tail keywords with volume. If you feel the need to hire an expert, the Moz Recommended list is a great place to go. http://moz.com/community/recommended

Whoa! When did that list get so big??

Definitely try to get them to point to the www version. You never know...one of those links could be a heavy-weight. It's just good practice to pick one and stick to it.

The easy answer here is integrate the blog into the website because it's the best case scenario, but I get it - you are trying to work with what you have. I am wondering though how much you can move towards best case scenario. That raises some questions:

1. You say "clicking on any title will redirect the viewer to our WordPress blog, hosted separately from our website". How separately? Is it on the same domain, or does it have a totally different URL? This matters a lot.

2. What's your capacity or willingness to make changes here? If it's on a different URL, can you move under the same URL and at least integrate it into your menu etc?

Ultimately, a good goal would be integration. I'll jump of my soapbox now and answer your real question!

Ideas for driving views from blog to website:
1. Theme the blog to look like your website. Branding is very important. I'd also consider replicating the website menu on the blog to drive folks back to the main site.
2. Blog with the intent to open the door, and then get them to your website for the additional info, resources, downloads, etc. Think of it like a good email newsletter that pulls you in but ultimately drives you to the website.
3. Every post should end with a call to action that drives them to the site
4. I'd have a consistent sidebar that has a broader call to action, again, driving them to the site

It's not optimal, but that's where I would start until you can make the bigger fix.

Joey

On question 1, I'm surprised it's that specific that you can't include a space. I'm inclined to think Google knows the difference, but there isn't much out there. I did find this, but it's not definitive: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/registered-trademarks-and-other-symbols-in-the-title-tag/20463/. I may just try testing the impact of a mark (TM or R) next to the keyword. That would be useful to know.

On question 2, I did a little more research and found this question answered quite nicely a couple years ago by Moz member Edward R. Jenkins: http://moz.com/community/q/maximum-length-of-the-url-for-seo-75-115

I am keenly interested in your question as I've been working with WooCommerce a LOT lately. I'm an avid Wordpress SEO by Yoast user as well.

Have you considered using Yoast's SEO for WooCommerce plugin? They have a paid version specifically for WooCommerce. One route is to buy the plugin and get support from them on this.

Also, Joost de Valk from Yoast has an extensive guide on duplicate content on his site. I wasn't able to go through the whole thing, but will definitely be coming back to it. He may well have addressed this question in the guide. Either way, I'd go that route. Yoast really knows this space.

Looking forward to what others say about this.

I would use your current customers to expand your influence. Do you have a mailing list built up? Like one person can have hundreds of Facebook friends, one customer can have many more friends that you can tap into. I say use them as a springboard, and run a promotion to get them to share your message and build your follower base several times over. It's pretty simple, quick, and leverages the relationships you already have.

Then, I'd put together some great content you can give away, and start building your list to market to. You seem to have a few different segments here, so I'd strongly recommend marketing to them differently. The business planning-time management crowd likely won't respond the same way as the crafty-fun crowd, so tailor your offers, segment the types of users using different lists, and market appropriately.

Looks like a fun product to market. Enjoy!

Question 1: What would it hurt if you separate it yourself by putting a space between the word and the mark, like this? 'ITIL ' I have long done this to make sure keywords stand alone, particularly in titles. Is there a rule that the  has to be right next to the keyword?

Question 2: The longer URL looks very spammy to me. I'd go with quality of quantity on this one, with quality being a better user experience with a shorter URL.

By all means I would respond to it directly if you can from your company Facebook page. If not, I'd certainly contact her to thank her for the review, and ask if she'd mind if you share it. Even better, I'd ask if she'd be willing to post it directly to your Facebook page, or somewhere else useful like Google, Yelp, etc. You'd be surprised now willing people to do this when you've done a great job for them.

For me, it's too iffy to just use it without checking with her first. Others may disagree. It comes down to what you are comfortable with.

I think one thing you said already has you on the right track - "Just need to get the right good quality links." I agree with this wholeheartedly. The link building guide is a huge tool, but don't forget the basics. I recommend you go through the Local Search Ranking Factors at http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors. Here are my 3 pics for getting started:

1. Local Citations. Something like MOZ Local that will accomplish the same thing in the UK. Whitespark maybe? Not sure if they have data for the UK.

2. Good old fashioned on-site optimization

3. Brainstorm some kind of killer content that people will fall over themselves to share. Hands down I've this the best way to generate quality links.

Enjoy your new adventure.