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Have you tried creating a redirect rule for each of the folders? From you example above the "post-name" has remained consistent. Therefore if you create a redirect from each folder then you should see a proper resolution with just appending the "post-name"

You need a 301 redirect from a www to a non www. Or vice-versa.

You need to read this article: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection

Here is some help if you have a windows server:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/301-redirect-on-windows-iis-help-part-2

A Canonical tag can be used when the split pages are the same pages but with two different URLs. So site.com/sneakers.php and site.com/sneakers, here you could create a canonical tag to let the bots know which page you'd prefer them to index.

Read more here: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization

I wouldn't advise a canonical. That's not really the purpose of canonical tags. If the page isn't ranking or has no real value then a no-index isn't going to hurt you. What you really need to decide is if the old page is still relevant and useful. If it isn't relevant or useful any longer than you should 301 redirect it. If the content is similar and still relevant, but you don't want it to compete with the new content then you no index it. If the content is relevant and significantly different then you may want to leave it live and link to the new page.

Without seeing the content this is hard to determine, but guessing where you are trying to go with this I'd say a 301 sounds most appropriate.

As long as your redirect is working then it doesn't create a problem for the bots. They can read the 301 redirect.

.....Now if you want to confuse the bots a bit then use a 302. And then turn the site on and off at leisure. Kidding...

My advice is find the higher converting less competitive terms. Individuals that are search for "Denver Highlands Neighborhood Homes for Sale" are further along in their buying decision than "Denver Homes for Sale". The shorter phrases are more often window shopping. The more detailed the phrase, the more likely they will enter the store and make a purchase. Plus, if you do it right, it is much harder to get knocked knock out by a competitor when you are the first to capitalize on a unique search. If you find some gold in "Denver Lofts for Sale" then try dominating that term.

Large rivers are made up from very small streams.

You pay a "ghost writer" to be invisible. Therefore you claim the content as your own. If the content is original quality content than it could and most like would boost your authority. But author rank is more than just having a lot of content published by you, it is about influence. So simply writing a lot of good content does not make you an influencer. Your influence and in turn author rank are based on the citations you receive and the traffic you command.

Back to your 'ghost writer" question. Ghost writers have been used on and offline for sometime now. It seems to be a generally acceptable practice. But this does not mean that Google does or will always accept this. So if you were to ask me if this were acceptable, then I would judge this by how much you are contributing to the content.

An alternative method would be to set up a "persona" as the writer. This is justified by saying authors use pen names. Indeed, Franklin once wrote newspaper columns under a pen name in his early years for fear his age would discredit his work. But this "persona" approach may also run a risk with google.

So pick one or the other, and stick with your story.

You should certainly fix this. You don't want google having to guess what you are trying to tell them. For the most part they will probably get it right, especially in your case with the 404s. But if this is occurring too frequently then they may begin to ignore your canonicals all together. Or worse, you may loose some google trust.

I'd put this on my fix it list.

Here is my 2012 short list:

1. Videos - Creation of videos. And optimization for youtube.
2. Videos - Dynamic insertion of videos on site and conversion tracking with/per video
3. Completion of a niche network and adding 1000 members.

Looking forward to another great year.

Really?...

Start with the basics.

• Comfortable leather seats.

• Large Duel Screens

• Frig and Microwave

Upgrades

• Stocked Frig

• Multiple Stall Bathroom

Posh

• Creative Room - Would include music, Art couch... maybe even paintbrush, video camera, digital camera, piano, books, magizines

-  Strategy Room - Wall of reference books, Board Games with game table, more of a quite feel.

• Social Butterfly room - Bar, bar stools, Soda fountain, chips, dips... if it were AZ I would include a Shaved Ice machine.

But really... I am all about the duel monitors with right webmaster suite programs and I am happy... Phone would be optional.

If phrase match = "red cars"

Google will show your ad for phrases that contain the exact phrase "red cars".

So the search "Songs about red cars" would show your ads.

Your two examples: "cars that are red" and "cars with red" don't actually contain your exact phrase "red cars" so they should not be showing up. Your negative keywords should still apply to the phrase match.

Interesting thought on the follow, nofollow and the editorial approval or disapproval. Would love to hear your follow up.

Regardless of the do follow or no follow and the link value, I have found that traffic value is still a huge bonus. One quality comment on a high traffic article can produce a lot of visitors.

If Bing is running the Yahoo search results then it seems to me the ranks for both Bing and Yahoo should be the same. So why are my SEOmoz ranking reports showing different positions for each?

We have seen a lot of shifting and movement in the search engines as of late. So I am curious as to what people are setting their sights on for 2012. And perhaps a top 3 would be appreciated. This is Internet Marketing goals, therefore SEO, Social Media, PPC, all count.

Link Building? Schema.org? Facebook optimization?

And try to be a little more specific like URL rewrites instead of just On-Site SEO.

Are you beating the reseller sites for those products? If you are the established authority and are beating the resellers then you have little reason to change. If you are not beating the resellers then yes you should create unique product descriptions and images for your main site. You would also do well to get some customer reviews on your site and to use the schema.org mark up for the reviews.

So if you had to pick just one or the other you'd prefer the non-map result...

If that's the case then change the URL in your local listing to different page. You may lose your map. It may come back. But at least you get your preferred listing.

Well Alan, that is fairly specific numbers on your sites, and if you are hitting 95% occupancy then it sounds like a success, albeit I don't know your time/value on the online marketing.

You will find at some point, diminishing returns on your marketing efforts. How much time and how successful you can be with internet marketing depends entirely on your business model and the industry you are promoting.

As for me, a pest control guy, I've found that I only have so much money with which I can invest, i.e. market. Yellowpages still have a return, if that return fits your model then it could still be a good form of advertising. While the phonebook may have good returns, online marketing has better returns. If I have limited money and can buy a customer for $1 then why would I pay $10 for the same customer? If I had unlimited money, then I would buy all of the $1 and $10 customers that I could. (theoretical figures)

Sorry that's a long answer... in short, I believe that most marketing attempts have some return, its a matter of figuring out what the return is and how much it's worth to you. I personally love SEO.

I would have to agree with Steve. It's good for a rough estimate. I would look at more in a ratio scenario. So they might say 100 for the 1st result and 10 for the 2nd. If they are using similar math to hide their numbers then you are looking at a 10 to 1 ratio.

I've found that the SEO community here is very giving. Rand in particular has answered several of my emails and requests personally. It appears that he will be helping you out, so I don't think I can much here.  It's amazing what simply reaching out and asking for help will do for you.

It also appears that this page, which is now public, does not link to your site. So hopefully with permission of  Rand and the community, here is a little contribution to your cause: Down syndrome families

Hope that helps. Looking forward to seeing your cause move forward.

The canonical isn't really for feeding google URLs in the a preferred format, it's more for cleaning up duplicate content issues.

Let's say I could track traffic and conversions on my website by adding a source code to a link. So I create a link on SEOmoz. You can reach my page www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/pest-control.php with the url string http://www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/pest-control.php?src=seomoz and that link is now indexed by Google. Well now I have duplicate content and google must decide which page get's placed into their index. Adding a canonical to the main page

<link rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="http://www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/pest-control.php" />

, tells google which page they should place in their index and it helps me avoid splitting my links.

This also applies heavily to shopping carts where the parameters in a URL determine the content, and products that overlap in categories can cause duplicate content issues. Creating canonicals will help avoid indexing issues.

So the point to canonicals is to determine what URL gets indexed and gets the juice for links when there are duplicate content issues created by varying URL stings that lead to the same content.

If you are simply trying to fill in a canonical for a URL to get a "A grade" on a SEO checklist then you will just create the canonical for each page using the exact URL for that page.

An account with SEOmoz does give you historical ranking information... but only from the time you created your account. There is no system that will give you historical rankings from a date prior to beginning the ranking log. There are other factors you could use to determine if your site was hit and possibly determine a loss in ranking. General traffic loss would be the prime indicator. If your traffic took a huge dive when penguin went live then you can likely attribute that loss to the update.

As far as keywords go, you can compare keyword traffic to your site before and after the date. Sadly "Not Provided" can skew this data. You would need to look for changes greater than the "Not Provided" average. Most changes, however, are based on so few numbers that the margin for error is pretty high.

Honestly your best bet is to look at pre and post penguin traffic. I have a site that dropped by half. Conclusively a penguin attack.