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I would start with keyword research and come up with a large bank of alternatives for the "dog training" keyword. Look for synonyms, alternate word endings (train, trained, trainer), and co-occurrence terms. Then rewrite the content with these to be far more natural. It may require some heavy rewriting, depending on how bad it is. Definitely get rid of the over-optimized footer links. If you do all of this, you shouldn't have to worry about the banner in the header. Header content is often the same across an entire site. The hard part may be explaining to your client that on-page optimization isn't so much about exact-match keywords as it is about topical authority.

I've done this at times at pretty large volume (100s of outreach emails), and typically I've gotten about a 10% response rate. Keep in mind that didn't necessarily mean we got a link, but some type of relationship was formed, potential for the business to earn more work (better than links, btw), or something else productive. Even if it was just a citation we consider that a "win." But some advice, do not employ this tactic at large scale unless you are in a web-saavy, tech-based industry. Online marketing, design, and photography businesses, for example, are far more likely to earn links via broken link building than a manufacturing plant. In my experience, there are just some industries this tactic is a complete and utter waste of time. If you find success in this tactic early-on though, there are some great social tools that help you automate some of this email work. I've heard very good things about BuzzStream. Oh, and make sure it's not your only link earning/building tactic.

Hi  ImprezzioMarketing, I suggest adding localization to the URL structure of the blog and removing the keyword stuffing from the titles and such. For example: www.domain.com/chicago-plumbers/title-of-the-blog-post With the above structure, every post listed in the local are would include localization in the URL and not require him to stuff the keywords into the other areas. You'd still want to try and localize the content as much as possible. E.g. talk about specific jobs successfully executed in the Chicago area. Also, try and consider the human readability of the keywords. Would you search for "plumbers chicago?" I bet more people search for "chicago plumbers" instead. Google adjusted to understand 'tags' in blogs and discount those links. I do not put much weight into tags, they are more used for UI/UX and allow for visitors to quickly find content related to the current content they are viewing / search the site easily. As with most SEO strategies, make sure to diversify as appropriate.

The more you keep separate the better although unless you're doing things REALLY poor quality, it should be ok to at least fight for the top spots. Good luck with it!