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I can't get into specifics with the URLs, but one of my coworkers did 2 of the niche plus packages (ran around $300) and had good results.  He jumped from 13th to 7th and I think 12th to 5th for phrases that averaged around 3500 monthly searches at  $5-6/click.  That was the only change he made during the 6 weeks he ordered the package, and has sustained the rankings for 5+ months with minimal changes ever since. Another person had a site go from 25 to 15 for a phrase that gets 9000 searches at $5.40 a click. Granted these are only three cases and I can't show you the on page or strength of the other links they have had, or even the competitors.  But I think it shows that it could help in some cases.

Thought I'd just post a reply to see if anyone else is interested.  It looks like we have about 8 people going to discuss Joomla and SEO, and probably 10-15+ to discuss blogging, so it should be a good turnout for the first meetup. Vinnie

Shane, Thanks again for the response.  I agree those pages aren't the strongest, and don't have a ton of great content.  A few of my other sites have more than 2-3 articles, and the content is rich with media. I guess time and content will tell.  If after a few weeks of adding some new content and building a few links nothing has improved, I will start to worry.  It just seems shocking that one of my sites that has been holding the 6th position for it's exact match phrase (and has some links/social) dropped completely out of the top 50. The sites and pages are still indexed, but only come up when you search the exact URL. Vinnie

Thanks Shane - us Thomas's gotta stick together.  I agree with you that my situation is not ideal, but I'd rather take some course of action rather than just let the pages sit there.  I think it sends a message to Google that I am not intentionally trying to rank duplicate content, and that the pages serve a benefit to visitors regardless of it being duplicate. Vinnie

Does anyone else have anything to add?  I'd love to see a few examples of pages that make use of the tags and how they are doing in the search engines.  I certainly understand if you don't want to share your specific pages though.

I'd probably value branding if it's clear what the store provides. For example, I'd certainly click on Fred's Pet Store, but I wouldn't necessarily click on Fred's Home Goods, even if they happen to have tons of pet supplies. Title changes like that are typically something Google does on their own that you can't change. Take a look at the articles below for other recent info (Jan 2012) about Google changing titles and snippets. For what it's worth, "New Hampshire Cat Toys" isn't showing any local results for me SEO by the Sea: How Classification of Page Elements and Search Results May Influence Alternative Titles and Snippets Displayed in Google Google Webmaster Blog - 01/12/2012: Better Page Titles in Search Results

Thanks for the quick reply.  The pages aren't identical.  I've managed to get 100-150 words of unique content for each but it's very dry and not great.  I could certainly do better, but not on each page, only one or two. I think I like the 301 idea.  I 301 the pages, take the old ones down and bolster the content on the master page.