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Wow, that is funky.  Are they on the same server?  Any infrastructure issues?  I don't understand how that would happen unless the content was somehow switched on the pages?  I would assume that if you look at the result in the SERP, you can compare that content with what is on page....are you sure that doesn't occur anywhere on the site?

We've recently implemented a successful strategy whereby we've increased non-branded organic search traffic by over 50%.  We started with our niche products and secured those rankings and then expanded the program to include local results.  Rev is up, trans# is up, but conversion rate dropped.

Here is the question...is there an acceptable ratio between the percentage growth in visits and the percentage decrease in conversions?

Look for the SEOMOZ tutorial by Benu Aggarawal (spelling might be wrong).  The focus is on local optimization and they really go into detail about citations, links, NAPs (yes nap), etc.  I haven't seen Yahoo local mentioned in a long time - is it that significant that it deserves that much focus over Google & Bing?  Here's a pure speculation on my part, but if you do edit Yahoo Local as you've suggested, the PA might not be as strong, but wouldn't the DA retain it's integrity?

Definitely spend the hour or so in reviewing the tutorial - I think it's called Google Places Best Practices or something like that.  Very good stuff when it comes to optimizing for local.

I would say your idea to target the keywords in blogs that are subsequently developed is a reasonable approach.  The example of the footer links seems a bit spammy, yet at the same time it does seem to provide useful navigation and may represent the overall architecture of the site.  Are you going to target a local approach as well?  (i.e. ms access consultants in California, etc.).  Maybe someone on here can explain cannobilization of keywords better than I can, but we've had good results "silo-ing" each page and are ranking high on those keywords.  I think you could do the same.  Good luck!

Wow, that's a really good question.  If there were only one image on a page (e.g. selling a product), I'm sure that labeling it as you suggest wouldn't get flagged as keyword stuffing.  Certainly you want to enrich the human experience, but to be honest, I haven't noticed as much impact with the alt tag as I have with other methods.  I'm interested to see how this discussion evolves.

We went through almost exactly the same thing a little over a year ago (although the pages were not created in FrontPage).  When we switched to a more dynamic solution, we did not use 301 redirects and we suffered as a result.  With a little bit of elbow grease in the form of optimizing page titles, URLS, on page text, etc. we are ranking even better than we ever have in the past.  We did notice a huge increase in branded keyword search and a huge drop in direct traffic (I am attributing this to not having done 301's).  Do 301's no matter what!

I've heard of the age of a domain being used a signal by Google, but not the age of a page (I don't have information on this if it is true).  I can't imagine that Google would reward an old page as opposed to a page that is optimized and current with valuable content.

It is true that the pendulum could swing either way, so make sure you create a baseline of where you are at in terms of SERPS now and be straight-forward with the stake-holders.  Don't panic if you drop.  Just work your way methodically back to the top using ethical practices.  In short, the ramifications could be good or they could be bad.  Good luck! That's quite an endeavor!

I just got a brochure with a very impressive lineup for the upcoming eTail conference.  Has anyone here been to the eTail Conference?  What's been your experience?

We've had very good results by silo'ing our content.  We do use drop down menus.  We are ranking very high (top three) for some targeted key phrases that are over two categories deep.  I'm a big fan of the silo approach.

Thanks The Back Burner.  The site does not rank higher than us for the targeted keyword, but their DA blows us out of the water.  I think (very roughly) is a fair assessment, but how can you use the SEOMoz report (if it's so off) to come up with a strategic plan?  I would expect this sort of variance from a free service, but not one that is $100/mo.  I look forward to Matt Peter's response.

Thanks gmkrish for that resource.  I would love to hear from the engineers.  I love the summary screens but they don't seem insightful at all.  Would the better way be to go through OSE, export to spreadsheet, and sort by different metrics for each competitor?  Seems like a lot of work for this kind of insight.

We are competing with other national brands and have a competitor who is NOT a national brand and who does NOT have any metrics ranking higher.  With the latest SEOMoz metric update this week, they (hawaiianjewelryshop) now have the highest DA in Link Analysis. Has anyone else experienced this?  Can SEOMoz explain this for us, please?  It would be great if Matt Peters would respond to this question.

The sites in question are:

www.nahoku.com
www.mauidivers.com
www.hawaiianjewelryshop.com
www.jared.com

I've heard the term used in some of the webinars hosted on SEOMOZ and tried googling the term with no results. What the heck is this?  And how is it good for SEO?

Thanks Dan.  Actually, it is exactly what our site is about, and we are getting ranked for all kinds of non-branded keywords.  Happy days!  I didn't think of the indexing possibility and tipping the scale.  I'd be interested to hear what else people say.  Thanks again!

I am seeing some very interesting changes in our non-branded keywords, and am curious to know how keyword significance in Google Webmaster Tools plays into ranking of a site.  Say for example we are a photography website selling photography supplies.  At one point our most significant word was Canon, but now it is photography.  Would that mean that we would start seeing a lot of non-branded keywords generating from Google like "camera strap", "camera lens hood", etc.  This is really good for us, but curious to know if the only reason we are seeing this is the shift in our keyword significance.  Any insight?  Thanks!

Do you have Google Webmaster Tools installed?  I am curious to know what your keyword significance is.  Also, take a look in the Magento admin panel, you should be able to find where you can automatically generate SEO friendly links...very handy.  I don't see any category descriptions...just product.  Do you think you might benefit by including some text?  Do you think you might have any issues with making the logo image your H1 tag?