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I agree, Alan.  No matter how hard you try it is going to carry some level of dup - you would be better off trying to target all 10 locations on the main services page than trying to re-spin the same 750 words.  Your first suggestion is the approach I would take as well.

The below instructions can be found here: http://www.isitebuild.com/301-redirect.htm

This is how I do it:

1. To create a .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save
the file as .htaccess (there is no extension).

2. If you already have a .htaccess file on your server,
download it to your desktop for editing.

3. Place this code in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm

4. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it,
skip a line, then add the above code.

5. Save the .htaccess file

6. Upload this file to the root folder of your server.

7. Test it by typing in the old address to the page you've
changed. You should be immediately taken to the new
location.

Notes: Don't add "http://www" to the first part of the
statement - place the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space
between these elements:

redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)

/old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name)

http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name)

When the search engines spider your site again they will
follow the rule you have created in your .htaccess file.
The search engine spider doesn't actually read the 
.htaccess file, but recognizes the response from the 
server as valid.

Without an in-depth look into your analytics the information you have provided leads me to believe the following is occurring since you specifically mention that you are not running any ppc ads.  When Google Analytics is reporting on source/medium the value that is shown direct / none of course refers to any visit that has been tracking that they could not identify a referring domain that started the visit.  There are numerous reasons as to why a referring domain can be lost for a visitor

1.Somebody really did type in the address or used a bookmark to get to your page

2.They clicked on a link in an email from a non web based email clients (typically Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc.)

3.The link was in a document

4.The link originates at a secure (https:) page and your page is not secure (http)

5.Spiders and bots were working from a list of URLs from a previous crawl (this one mostly applies to server logs, rarely to JavaScript based tracking)

6.Spiders and bots may be programmed to suppress the referrer information (this one mostly applies to server logs, rarely to JavaScript based tracking)

7.The visitor is using IE and the link to your site was in Javascript.  Javascript links to your site include those that open your site in a new browser window, or any kind of javascript redirect.  Many banners’ links are programmed this way.

8.The visitor is using IE and the link to your site is from within a Flash application (there are a lot of ways to do this in Flash so there may be exceptions I would always recommend adding a Ad Campaign tracking variable to any CTA)

9.Your landing page redirects to another page via a 301 permanent server-side redirect

10.The link was on an intranet or some other web site behind a proxy or corporate gateway that was set up to strip referrers from requests

11.The visitor has made changes to their browser that suppresses the referrer information

12.Another site has put your page content into an iFrame and coded the frame to suppress the referrer, in order to make it difficult for you to find out who is framing your content

Hello Russell,

Have you created and optimized a Google Places listing?  Do you have the Address micro-formatted on every page of the site? Is the company info the same all across the web (directories, local listings, websites etc...)?   Are you utilizing location identifiers in your focus terms (in the Titles, Headers etc…)?

We just need some more info before we can offer much advice - I am sure you have probably done most or all of this, but it is best to start at the beginning, you know?

Thanks,

Vizergy

I completely agree.  I have had very similar projects.  Good luck!

Hi Michael,

From my experience a sub-domain isn’t going to benefit much from the main site’s authority therefore needing a major link building campaign of its own.  I would say, if this is going to be a one page per franchise project rather than multiple pages of content, you might be better off with the sub-folder. That would allow the page to benefit more from the authority the main site has already gained.

I am not saying you won’t need to build links but I believe the necessary work would be less.

My two cents  Cheers

Agreed

I agree about trusting Cutts, however I believe this one to be true

View the source (Ctrl U or right click and select "view source") then hold Ctrl and hit the "F" key to bring up a search box that will search the active document - in this case the source of the web page you were viewing.  Type in<a href="" and="" click="" next="" over="" until="" you="" have="" looked="" at="" every="" link="" that="" makes="" up="" the="" navigation="" or="" possibly="" not="" them="" if="" they="" are="" html.=""  the="" html="" for="" a="" is="" <a="" etc....<="" p=""></a>

<a href="" and="" click="" next="" over="" until="" you="" have="" looked="" at="" every="" link="" that="" makes="" up="" the="" navigation="" or="" possibly="" not="" them="" if="" they="" are="" html.=""  the="" html="" for="" a="" is="" <a="" etc....<="" p="">Does this help you?  I assume you are afraid that the links are JavaScript?  If you are wondering if it is Flash you can just right click on one of the Navigation links on the website and the box that comes up will say "Zoom In, Zoom Out..." etc...</a>

Change the DOT to a . and it should work - I am looking at it now.  This should walk you through everything you need

Cheers

This is old but should walk you through proper set up.

http://www.wpbeginnerDOTcom/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-wordpress-seo-plugin-by-yoast/

Its the canonical support that should help you with your duplicate content errors

There are no limits on how many 301s you have pointing to any page.  The only thing that would happen (and you stated that you are not worried about the old posts so it shouldn't matter) is that all of the terms that the old pages ranked for that the new Blog home page is not relevant for will be lost.

As far as the large amount of 301's having a negative effect on ranking for terms that the new blog is relevant for; nothing to worry about.

Go to your Dashboard and click add new plugins and type in Word Press SEO Plug in and download the one from Yoast.com

That is what you need

Hello Shelly, I have never seen anything that lead me to believe that secure pages receive more inherent trust just because they are secure. A couple of years ago Matt Cutts was asked a similar question (SEL or SEJ... my memory is failing me on where I read it) and his answer alluded to the fact that they are treated the same, just pick one and stick with it. Besides that, I can’t remember the last time I noticed a secure page ranking high in the SERPs at all, if ever… admittedly, I am sure there are far less secure pages… Anyway, I do not believe a secure page receives more initial trust just because it is secure.

My two cents,

Vizergy

Interesting - Perhaps the website's age and off-page efforts (link building, social etc...) have allowed them to achieve #1 since the on-page seo is obviously under-par.  I am surprised to hear that a Framed website is ranking #1... heck, I am surprised that someone still has a Framed website...

To answer "...content to looks nice or really have good content?" I would say that is a balancing act - one gets visitors to your website and the other one keeps them there.  One is not more important than the other, in my opinion, but they work together.

I am fairly new to the SEOmoz tools, myself (but I like them a lot) did you trying running it with and without www.?  Sorry - just trouble shooting.  I have noticed with some domains that if you run through Open Site Explorer without the www it returns 0 links but when you add the www it finds the links.

That's a good point, Andrei but original content isn't always "good content".  You are correct that original content can help a lot - without a doubt - but originality does not make content good.

Interesting, does Google pick them up? (using a links: search or checking webmaster tools).  I hate to ask but they are 301s, correct?

Good content is informative, relevant, non-keyword stuffed and grammatically correct content that is written for human readers not bots/spiders.  If you are writing a good article, you should never have to worry about how many times your targeted terms appear, they should just happen naturally and the surrounding text will support the term(s).  Blurbs that relate more to another article or page or citations to a website where more information can be found should be used as anchor text for links to that article, page or website etc...

There is no "trick" I am aware of, as a matter of fact I would say to stay away from trying to trick the search engines at all, ever.  As far as text amount mattering, I suppose it can but you should only concern yourself with the quality of the information you are providing, when that is your goal the amount should be perfect.

I have never been asked to describe "Good Content" before; this should prove to be an interesting discussion.

You say you have put index.php at the end of all the URLs?  So each page is in it's own directory?

Harald is 100% correct but I am wondering; did you always have each page in it's own directory or was that part of the recent change?  If the file names used to be more SEO friendly (i.e. keywords in the file name) and now they are just named index.php then that could have a lot to do with your rankings dropping.

Just wanted to add that, cheers.