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Since it may not be practical to have every event linked through navigation, maybe a widget that shows the last maybe ten events would be good enough.

You should use a XML site map to keep Google up to date with new pages. I could not find one for your site. Otherwise, if the event pages can only be found by using the search feature on your site, those pages will not probably not be crawled and indexed.  you could also submit the feed to RSS sites Fetch as Googlebot may work, but it probably will not be as fast as using a sitemap.xml file.

Would it be possible to have the event pages available through some kind of navigation in addition to being found by your site's search?

You might also consider setting up an RSS feed of the events and submitting it to feed burner and other RSS sites. That may be a little complicated, but would also help speed up indexing.

How long?

As long as it needs to be to be good: informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, or in some way useful.
That said, the "SEO by numbers" crowd would tell you more than about 450, but less than 1000 words.

How good?

Shouldn't it always be your best? Sure, occasional fluff and filler is ok on your own blog once in a while, but when guest blogging, you should always make a good impression.
Think about guest blogging (and just about all links, really) as being a possible first point of contact with new customers/readers/whatever, and not just what it means for your rankings.  I think "content marketing" is the buzzword that people who use buzzwords are using about guest blogging these days.

Write the kind of articles that people will read and think "I want to see more of that" and actually follow your links.

Who should you go for?

Aim for the top authorities in your niche. But before contacting the site, really look at the quality of your writing and make sure it is up to their standards. Sure you could aim lower and be more likely to get your articles posted, but you would put forth almost the same effort without gaining as much from it.  Again it is an opportunity for publicity, in addition to an opportunity to get good links.

I have been seeing a lot of that kind of thing too, but not just with SEOMoz tools. I think something is up with Google in some way. My theories so far are - some kind of algorithm adjustment that has only partially rolled out, a change in how Google releases info to 3rd party tools, or the conspiracy theory: a change in how personalization is handled so that no search isn't at least a little personalized.

Considering Google's recent announcement about limiting search query and referrer data to Adwords tracking only, I am thinking it is an overall shuffling around of things at Google.

Here's a link to a question I asked about a similar problem where my non-personalized local searches were not looking as good as the various keyword position tools I use.  Kind of the reverse of your issue, but I think it may have a similar cause, whatever that may be: http://www.seomoz.org/q/local-searches-done-from-outside-of-local-area-better-than-searches-from-within-local-area

That should be OK.

Try to use your keywords in the photo descriptions and it may even be better.

Your URL should be fine as it is. It is shorter which is slightly better.

If the pages are not used and not linked to in your site, remove them and 301 redirect the URLs to the new addresses.

You are right about the pagination and noindex, follow, but another solution which may be better is to use rel="next" and rel="prev".  See this for more info: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html

It is also there so users can block a site they just don't want to see anymore. It isn't related to your site specifically but is simply a "feature". There is nothing you can do about it aside from making sure your site isn't something anyone would want to block. If a user choses to block your site, they won't see it anymore. It won't effect what other users see unless several people block your site, then it may cause lower rankings. As far as I know, nobody has determined exactly how man people must block your site for it to effect search results for other users, but Google does claim to use that info.

Where to begin for eComerce...

Here a re a couple of issues I often see in eCommerce sites:

Well written original content - this is an area where eCommerce sites often fall short, especially those that have been thrown together quickly or have multiple versions with keyword rich domains. I often get requests for SEO help from stores that have no real titles and descriptions for their products - just item numbers. Or they just use the descriptions from the manufacturer without editing them. Keep in mind that unless you are the only site selling those items, someone else already has those descriptions on their site so you might have duplicate content issues.  And make the descriptions as complete as possible. If you are selling men's pants, say more than just "Men's pants".

Technically correct code - seems like most eCommerce platforms are a total mess when it comes to code. Totally xhtml valid code can be difficult to achieve but at least try to get close. Make sure everything works!
Ecommerce site owners and web masters often don't consider file size of product photos - make them big enough to look good, but be sure not to use them fresh off the camera as they will often be too large and slow down the site's loading time. Scale them down in PhotoShop or another photo editor, and use some compression

Google Merchant - Assuming that you've got the basics of a quality site and on page SEO taken care of, be sure to set up a Google Merchant/Base feed and provide all the information Google merchant asks for.

I am using results from a variety of "location-neutral" keyword position trackers like Rank Tracker, SEObook, and of course SEOMoz among others, and comparing them to multiple non-logged in browsers on multiple devices that area actually in the Anytown area. The discrepancies between the various trackers are minor and I would attribute those to datacenter differences.

I considered the personalization possibility, but usually that works in the other direction, unless Google is now using a "you already looked at this enough and we are showing you something else to broaden your horizons" calculation.

I used "500 miles" kind of generically. I tried entering all sort of different locations into the Google settings and it seems the closer I got to Anytown, the lower the ranking went.

I am thinking it is something that recently changed in the way Google handles local search. My theory is that within a certain radius of the specified location, the algorithm is a little different.  Once outside of a certain radius, traditional non-localized algorithms kick in so a site optimized for Anytown Widgets might rank a little better than it would when google sees that the searcher is actually in Anytown.  I am going to take a closer look at some other local SEO projects and see if anything similar is happening, then see if I can find some common traits.

Not a huge issue as it is a relatively minor drop for some keywords that aren't high volume. But I am a little obsessive and curious.  I was hoping someone would chime in with some info about a documented change in Google's local search.  I know Places has been evolving a little more lately. Every time I look a my own listing it looks different.

Thanks again.

If you are still selling blue shoes, why would you remove "blue shoes"? If you are not selling blue shoes, then you shouldn't really expect to rank for it.

Honestly, I don't think your worries about a two or three position drop are realistic. People don't usually do a search, remember which position they clicked on before, count that many results down and then click on it without reading the link. If they are looking for blue shoes and your site comes up again in approximately the same area, and the title they see is mostly the same as what they clicked on before, chances are they will remember you and click on it again. This is a good reason to have your company or site name prominent in your title - branding.  Now if the change from blue shoes to red shoes resulted in you moving off of page one, that might be a different situation.

Now, let's say you do have customers who know they have usually found you at position 2 and you drop to 5. When they blindly click on result number two and it isn't your site, if they were looking for your site and not just any old blue shoes, they will likely go back and look for you.

Also keep in mind that your keyword positions will fluctuate naturally anyway. In some cases it may even be more than a few positions. You simply cannot rely on search results to act like a bookmark for users - it changes constantly. Instead, make sure your site is memorable enough that users will simply bookmark it, type in the URL, or remember it when they see it in the results.  Now if you have one of those spammy URLs that is all keyword and no branding, like "your-best-blue-shoe-stores.com", that may not be so easy.

Unless you are planning on "un-optimizing" your site for the keywords you are currently targeting and changing the entire focus of the site, targeting new keywords by making sure they are present on the site, or in your off site link building efforts should not have any negative effect on your current rankings.

Also, unless the user has disabled it in their browser, Google does attempt to remember the sites you visit and what you like. So in theory, returning users may even see your site in a higher position than they previously did.

In the old days of the WWW (like 10+ years ago) sites often begged users to bookmark the site. I don't think you want to go on that path, but relying on search traffic for customer retention is probably not the best way to handle it. Offer newsletter subscriptions,  and definitely use Facebook like, Google +1 and Twitter follow buttons. That way when users search the same phrases, they will definitely find you again if they have hit Like, +1 etc.  
Search is social - especially now that Google has crippled user query tracking.

You should use hyphens rather than plus signs if possible.

Plus signs are a "reserved" character normally used in dynamic URLs and could cause confusion for the web crawlers which could lead to pages not getting indexed.

However, if you have been using plus signs and don't have any issues with those pages not being indexed, you can probably safely leave them in place. There are sites that use plus signs without any problem.  If those pages already have lots of inbound links, you would need to do 301 redirects or use a rewrite to change the plusses to hyphens. Apparently plus signs can be recognized as separators like a hyphen, so there is probably no significant difference in regard to SEO.

So if it isn't going to be a huge hassle with redirects etc, I would recommend changing to hyphens.

Why don't you ask him what people who would benefit from his guidance would search for, and go from there? I am always a little surprised when clients ask me what would be good keywords for their service or product. Shouldn't they have some idea what their potential customers want?  
I usually answer with a question like "what does it do?" or "what would you ask for if you went to a store looking for it?"

Aside from that, you might try:

enlightenment

spiritual guidance

and of course "awareness"

Is there a quote or saying for which he is famous? People often remember a phrase but not where it came from and Google it.

Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to mention that this particular site ranked higher in the local local searches previously. The out of town searches are about where they all used to be, while the same searches done locally have dropped.  Other keywords - some with "Anytown" and some not specific to locality - have mostly improved when searched locally or from elsewhere.

As for local links, the local link profile is equal to or better than the sites that now rank higher. Regional focus is pretty good too.

The puzzling thing is that searching for "Anytown widgets" from 500 miles away shows great results, while searching the same thing while actually in "Anytown" shows the site much lower.  The only thing I could think of is maybe content-wise it looks like it is from Anytown, so searching from elsewhere it comes up very nicely. When searching from the Anytown area, maybe some sort of local search filtering kicks in and brings other sites into the mix a little more and they may be slightly more locally linked or use "Anytown" in their content more.

I know it is hard to diagnose without knowing the site so thanks. I was hoping for one of those "Google just rolled out a new local search product" answers. A little frustrating because I have an otherwise near 100% success rate for local SEO.  I can't tell a client "Yes I know it looks like you are number 12 for Anytown Widgets, but people on the other side of the country see  you as the #1 seller of widgets in Anytown".

One static URL that can be found by your users from within any of the categories that the product is in would probably be best. That way there is no chance of duplicate content issues if the search engines were to find both and not resolve the canonical tag.

Really, I think it could go either way. Whichever one is easiest to implement in your particular situation, unless there are a lot of inbound links to your products. If that is the case, changing the URLs would require 301 redirects from the old URLs.

Here's a strange one:

I am working on a site for a local business and targeting local searches. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Various keyword position tools show the site ranking very well for searches like "Anytown Widget Store".

Doing the same Google search from a browser in Anytown, the site shows up much lower.  So I tried changing the location in Google to other cities, using a variety of browsers and it comes up much higher out of town than in town.

I have seen plenty of geographic discrepancies before, but usually they went the other way - searches from the actual local area did slightly better than the same searches done elsewhere, which would make sense.

Any thoughts on why this would happen?

Your earlier shady links, if they are from really junky sites, might not ever be indexed. Sites that are full of junk like that do get dropped from the index, or they may be indexed but don't pass on any link value.  You could check to see if those are indexed by doing a Google search for the url with "site:" in front of it like "site:http://www.shadylinksite.com/shadylinkpage.html"  You could also try checking their PageRank. If it is 0, don't bother trying. Even if it isn't 0, it could be that Google has decided not to pass any "link juice through them.

If the page where you link is doesn't show up,  do the same with just the site's home page to see if the whole site is banned.

It probably isn't worth the trouble, really.

I wouldn't waste time getting more bad links to point to your fist batch of bad links. Google will find them eventually if they are not already dropped from the index. Actually, you probably shouldn't call attention to them if they are particularly shady.

If you are absolutely intent on getting those old junk links indexed, you could try pinging with something like linklicious. I have't used it as I have no need for that sort of thing, but I have seen it recommended here and elsewhere so I assume it is probably useful in some way.

To sum up, I think your time would be better spent working on your site's content and getting some good quality links.

If you have any sort of caching installed, you could try refreshing it and resubmitting the sitemap.

I checked your robots.txt file at http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml and it flagged the allow line. I don't think that would cause a problem, but you could try removing the "Allow: /" line and see if that helps.

I would use canonical in this situation. That way you won't have to rework all your navigation to have a single url for each product and can keep your category structures intact.

This is a situation that many eCommerce platforms really don't handle well.  For example, I know of one that claims to offer canonical for product pages, but it gives each version (boxes/product.html and circles/product.html) its own unique canonical tag rather than both referring to the same product.html page. Kind of misses the point.