I usually do SEO work for clients that have an e-commerce site that people google nationally. I usually land on the first page, even competitive niches. This time I have a client who has a business in Ithica, New York. Small town and a very small niche (only 20,000!!!). The only problem is it seems like I can't crack into the top ten because of all these local sites like YellowPages, local yahoo, Yelp, switchboard. All these sites are ranking in the top ten, actually twenty, with no one's business site in the top ten. I registered my client's site with YELP, Google maps, etc. Just wondering if you guys know how I can get into the top ten and beat out these "switchboards and "YellowPages" type of sites.
When you referred to local searches, did you mean searches like "products Ithica, New York"? If so, make sure you have the location keywords Ithica, New York in the right places, like the title tags, meta tags and page content.
Do you have the clients Business address on every page of the site in html text? If so, then surround that with an <address> tag <address> client address</address>