For example we have 27 articles, and 440 tags.... that should give you some insight as to the website I'm trying to clean up....

With this information.  I can say that I would delete all 440 tags if this was my website.  I would not need to think about it.  These pages are going to be duplicate content and dangerous to the health of the site.  They will also be a power sink.

I would do a 301.

If you use the URL removal tool that only works for google.

If you do a 301 that is on your server and every attempt to access that page goes where you want it.

I don't trust having Google do stuff for me that I could do myself, because plenty of times Google says how they are gonna do things and then change their mind without tellin' anybody.

Go into your analytics and see if they are pulling any traffic from search.  See if they are pulling in any traffic from referrals or social media.

I am willing to bet that those pages are dead weight.

This types of pages do not exist on any of my sites.

So, if you find in the analytics that these pages are dead weight then delete them and use 301 redirects, and turn them off in your content manager.

If you have content that you want to promote or that lots of people are lookin' at, then give those pages links in obvious locations on every page of your website.   People will look at that... they will rarely click a tag.

There are several questions about Yelp removing reviews in Moz Q&A.  Here is a recent one with lots of background information.

http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/community/q/having-yelp-reviews-removed

If anybody has any recommended places to look that would be very helpful as at the moment I am at a loss.

Go look at the SERPs.  Did rankings change?   Did adwords change?  Did google products change?  These are just examples.  You can probably think of more.

Go look at competitors.   Did they change prices?   Did they change shipping?   Are they sold out?  These are just examples.   You can probably think of more.

Go ask the client.   Is manufacturer running ads?   Did manufacturer change MSRP and client didn't?   Was celebrity seen on TV using product?   Did client change HIS price?   Did client change HIS shipping?

There are dozens of other reasons.  And then this could just be one of those "mysteries of life".

Most likely, I think that the answer to this question is going to be found by knowing the business rather than lookin' at tools.

I would not do it.  Why?

1. there is a good chance that it will outrank your website

2. I think that a nice article about your company, posted on your site as an "about us" or "our history" page would be more beneficial.  If people like you they will share that page.

Go type "search box optimization".   Nuthin'

So, if these guys don't even have their own queries nailed down then they either are not very good at this or the cost isn't worth it even for them.

Honestly, this isn't going to work for most queries.  The average searcher isn't typing the words in the right order to get YourBusiness added to the end of a query.   And, if you watched in that video they had to type out these big, long, improbable, almost worthless queries (that you would probably own anyhow) just to see the brand name.   To me that was mighty convincing that this is a baloney service.  We were laughing about that here.

Sorry to hear about that.  I know it feels to see a good answer go up in smoke.  Thanks for giving it a shot.

Interesting discussion.  I have been watching it.

I have a couple of questions?

Are you, Robert, able to write a review on Yelp about Yelp?   It would seem only fair that such reviews should be allowed there.  However, I can say that on Amazon, you can review the performance of every marketplace seller and every product -- but you can not review amazon's performance as a seller.   I called the company to complain and the person who receives complaint calls didn't know that you can't review amazon.

I'd think for a company like Yelp that they should have two (or more) categories of reviews.  Those from consumers (which will probably be mostly glowing) and from biz owners (which will probably be mostly snarling).

Second, have you seen this WSJ article about a carpet cleaning biz owner, how a Yelp review case is in the Virginia Supreme Court and about SLAPP and Anti-SLAPP suits?

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303847804579477633444768964

Thanks for the details.

Hang in there.  Tell staff we are cheering for them.