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Here are some simple first step that will at the very least fix any of the underlying issues that were addressed by Google.

1. Contact the past SEO Company directly, explain to them the warnings from Google and see if they will give you that info.  You never know as it never hurts to try.  Many SEO companies would like to keep there reputation even after being dismissed by a client.

2.What If that doesn't work? Contact the site owners per each site and explain to them that you have been hired to address SEO warning by Google caused by a  prior seo company and you would like to resolve it by requesting them to delete the articles. This is actually a win/win because I don't know any website owner that really wants garbage on there site.

3. I don't see why there would not be an opportunity to increase there rankings again.  I would be upfront with them and explain to them that its pretty much like starting from scratch and that past rankings are irreverent.  Send them the release about the JCPENNY incident so they can familiarize themselves with the situation that they have encountered. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380306,00.asp

4. Once you've solved these issues, do what you do best and optimize there off-page SEO, since you said there on-page is pretty good.

You said they want results yesterday.  Don't give in to there pressure by making any false promises.  Just be straight forward.  It's better to lose a client with a piece of mind then make them false promises that will end up haunting you later.

These are 2 completely different pages so you should be fine now.  As for the question "will it hurt if Google indexes both?", not at all.  Actually it's every SEOs dream to get 2 pages from one site indexed on 1st page.  Although, it's best practice to make sure that each page's content and meta tags are unique to each other.  The reason is that sometimes these can also battle for serp position if they are closely alike in terms of content and meta tags.  Just make sure there unique and focused on what that specific page has to offer.  But then once again if your already have a keyword ranking on 1st page for both urls then its probably best to leave them as is and see what the result 301 redirect will accomplish for you.  Allow for it to be re-indexed by Google again.

I think it’s only natural to be good minded about something when you already know what the outcome could be at any time.  They obviously broke the Google webmaster guidelines similar to JC Penny except they are the ones who are selling  the links to others.  My personal opinion is that many of these companies that are breaking Google’s rules are in it for the short term.  They already planned ahead by taking advantage of the time until caught.  At the same time, it seems to be a psychological thing; many people think its normal paying for links because it’s become a common thing.

From what I know, Godaddy Website Tonight does not offer you the opportunity to create a custom robots.txt.  I believe you have to sign up for there Search Engine Visibility services. Here is some more information: http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5321

Here are the answers to both your questions:

1.The following are free video sitemap generators I found

http://www.video-sitemap.org/

http://www.check-domains.com/sitemap/index.php

2. I think you already know the answer to this one.

Since Google owns YouTube, You would think that the most benefit for SEO would come from there.

I think you were looking for info on a transcription? Here is the info for creating a transcription:

Add a time-coded transcript to each video file that you uploaded saved as a .txt file

The time of each segment should be listed in the following format: HH:MM:SS.mmm according to Google

HH: Hours starting at 00

MM: Minutes starting at 00

SS: Seconds starting at 00

mmm: Milliseconds starting at 000

Here's an example of how the time-coded transcript should appear:

7:36:40.000

Words said between 07:36:40.000 and 07:36:43.000

7:36:43.000

Words said between 07:36.43.000 and the next segment.

7:36:44.000

Words said at 07:36:44.000

Each timestamp is in relation to the start of the associated video file

Here is the link from Google specifically about transcription: http://www.google.com/video/upload/video_transcripts.html

The whole point of a freemium model is  to get lots of free users  to eventually convert into buying members.  Although, I totally like the new names for your plans, it may decrease the conversions due to the fact some people are big babies and may get offended if you call them boring.  Personally, I would go for it because I like to be bold and take the risk.

Google uses your unique IP address to give you the most relevant results based on your past search activity through Google’s personalized search.  Your location can also play a role in this.

Not only is this the answer but I am providing the solution to help you get your accurate rankings:

http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54048

Pashmina is absolutely true in the fact that not anyone can give you an accurate limit.  Also, pointing out the 30 anchor links that she is specifying leads me to believe it's based on a great article that Randfish wrote.

This is the link to the article here: Testing the Value of Anchor Text Optimized Internal Links

You will notice that he replies to a commenter with the following questions:

"Very interesting Rand.  I've always wanted to test the effects of internal anchor texts.

You stated that excessive internal anchor text linking can trip an automated penalty, what do you consider an excessive amount?  Thanks for opening our eyes to this."

Rand's answer was based on his observation as the following:

"I honestly can't say where the limit lies, but in both cases I observed, there were in excess of 30 links sitewide that were clearly anchor text optimized to push rankings."

Although this info seems to be valuable information, it may be outdated and hold less value to the current time.

Hello Taylor,

Is this a trick question?  The reason I ask is because the shop.shwoodshop.com you are talking about already redirects to http://shwoodshop.com/collections/all.  Also I notice an important factor that might help your site rank better.  I recently suggested this to a client and within a few days his site moved to 1spot from 4th position.  I am not guaranteeing it will work but its actually an issue that needs to be resolved anyhow.  If your utilizing the SEOMOZ software then the first thing you will notice if running a campaign is a notification from the software stating the following:

We have detected that the domain www.shwoodshop.com and the domain shwoodshop.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective.

I suggest that you fix this by either 301 redirecting the non www to www or vice versa.  It all depends for which version you already have keywords ranking on.  In other words if your already ranking for keywords on the www version then you will want to redirect the non www to it.  If it's the non www that you are already ranking for then you will benefit from directing the www to the non www.

I hope that helps

For some reason Google was giving more weight to this page for the keyword "Charlotte electrician"

http://www.providenceelectricnc.com/localelectrician.html

Which you’re ranking on 15^th page for

Unfortunately I couldn’t tell you why because you have a 404 error on that page which is a bad thing

If possible quickly 301 redirect it to home page to pass some of its lasting juice

Secondly you seem to be having a canonical error which forces twin domains battling for SERP positions.

Also causing a possibility of a duplicate content issue

I suggest you 301 redirect the non www to the www since you are already ranking on it

This is a great start that should get you rolling in the right direction and a possible change for the better

By the way, nice looking site

There is a lot of mixed opinions on both of these and personally I would rather not use a domain that's long.  I rarely see websites ranking within the top 5 for long domains and I'm sure many people own these long-tail phrases and use them as domains.

According to the SEOMOZ's Google's Ranking Factors 2011
Long Titles + URLs are Still Likely Bad for SEO

You should definitely take a look at this as it breaks down some interesting facts.

This is the slide share of it: http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/ranking-factors-data-2011-smx-elite-sydney

Google's Ranking Factors

Yes it's an issue and I will help you fix this:

I noticed you are using sh404sef

From the back end of your site you will need to go to sh404sef

Then sh404sef configuration security tab,

At the bottom, you will find an option below "Anti-flood configuration",  you will need to set "Activate anti-flood" to "No".

I noticed you made the changes that I recommended except for one thing.  You fixed the 404 error on this page http://www.providenceelectricnc.com/localelectrician.html but did not 301 redirect it to the home page which is where your trying to rank for.  I would say unless you trying to rank for "Charlotte electrician" on http://www.providenceelectricnc.com/localelectrician.html it could possibly be fine but you then have a bigger issue. Both your home page http://www.providenceelectricnc.com and http://www.providenceelectricnc.com/localelectrician.html are duplicates.  Bad Idea!  If you redirect the http://www.providenceelectricnc.com/localelectrician.html to home page with a 301 redirect you should be able to garner most of the juice to home page.

This is an excellent resource that gives all details in accordance with domains and SEO: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain

Piggyback on a franchise that has many locations by offering them some type of package deal of your services as an exchange.

Here are a few 301 redirects that "might" work on an Apache server

I would always consider saving the original .htacess file

just in case these don’t work for you, as you can always resort back

301 a non-www to your www, as well as redirect your IP address as a 301 to your www.

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

For just IP Redirection Use:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^12.34.567.890

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Don’t forget to fill in the areas with your credentials

EGOL's point is valid

Pashmina's point is valid

At the end of the day, one or the other is only valid after knowing your full situation.  What do I mean by that?

Nobody can give you the right answer because we don't have all the information needed to make an accurate decision.

We don't know how much time you have to teach yourself, spend on setting up your campaigns and, monitoring your campaigns.

Don't forget that quote "Time Is Money"

It's like asking if you should hire a lawyer, handyman, painter, mechanic, movers and etc...

A lot of things that these professionals can do, you maybe able to do better for yourself but:

You need to determine how much time you have to put aside on it, how quickly you need it done and etc..

In other words based on everything that people have answered, only you can make the final decision.

The answer is right underneath your nose!  Learn from the pros, SEOMOZ is also offering a 30 day trial.  Take a look around and I'm sure you would be able to utilize some of the same strategies for your niche.

Yes, I'm the same way.  If I am passionate about something then I will usually do it myself.  Although, it may not always be the best way to go about it, because sometimes it ends up pushing the higher priority things I should be attentive to behind.

Unfortunately for us passion doesn't always = priority