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I used these guys before.  I have no connection with them now, fyi. http://www.locallighthouse.com

Happy to help!

There's actually about 20 categories that would ideally have a new slug and the number of posts in each category varies between about 10 in each to around 50. Is there a limit on the number of posts in a category before we start running into issues?

Have you considered Expression Engine? Might be worth considering.

Hi Miriam Thanks for your thoughts,  its much appreciated. Unfortunately Places does limit me in this instance, so you're right that other avenues of traffic generation would be a good route to head down. All the best

Thanks Richard. I figured, but wanted to double check. thanks again

With the "shop" element in the domain option #2, you no longer have an exact match domain (EMD). The hyphenated version would be preferred. However, with 3 hyphens you're probably beyond the acceptable limits. From my perspective, neither is a good solution. I'd go the brand route instead.. I also agree with Shane Thomas that the EMD bonus will likely diminish over time.

Hi Wissam Yes, I read through it and a few others, but wanted to get clarification on some specifics not covered all that in depth in the guide.

Hi Dejan Thanks, all good points so much appreciated.

Good stuff! It seems that this issue is tripping a few people up. If this turns out to be the definitive solution be sure to update this thread - I wont be able to sleep until I know I've truly earned my first Moz Points! ;o)

Thanks Wissam. Always good to hear it from someone else rather than Google.

Hi Adam and Alan. Thanks for the info. I figured as much but for some reason the fact it was a blog threw me as I rarely see blogs on a subdomain. Many thanks guys.

Yes! It is possible for different pages in the same non-country specific TLD to rank in different countries without running into duplicate content issues, even when the text is largely the same. You'll need to indicate to Google, bing, and other search engines that the page is meant for a specific geo-targeted audience. Here's how. From Ian McAnerin, brilliant international marketer, comes this elegant solution: Create the folder: www.mywebsite.com/uk Inside, create pages labeled: www.mywebsite.com/uk/name-of-your-page-uk. Do this for all the pages you want to have rank in the UK. Remember - you need only one or a few landing pages for the UK and then send the UK readers into your site as needed. The UK landing pages all need to have the following - uk in the url local UK address and phone number written in British English (use the appropriate spellings, grammar, and choice of words. Ie: the UK has 'lifts'' the US has elevators Build at least ONE localized link to the page. Ie: for a UK landing page, get at least one link from a UK based website into that page. You can buy a UK site for this purpose (www.mywebsiteuk.co.uk is probably available) Learn more about Ian's brilliant international ranking solution here: http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/301-redirect-geolocation.asp