One of my clients wants to be in the top ten of his profession in a particular town (a couple states away from me). We listed him under Google and Yahoo maps, YELP, and then under local directories. I also adjusted the title tag to his town and state. That way searchers can find him. Now I'm going to start the backlinking process since he is ranked number 73 (I know, we have a way to go, but I just took over the project three days ago). Anyway, I went ahead and backlinked from some Social BM sites, wrote a couple articles and submitted them to EZineArticles.com and will be building backlinks through relevant (and non-relevant) forums/blogs. I will also submit him to some directories that have high PR. I ran into an article that basically says to skip the traditional SEO and concentrate on signing up on local directories and also sign up under likes of SuperPages, InfoUSA, WCities...and the list goes on. It also says, "The two main factors that influence website rankings in Google Maps and Yahoo Local, are back-links from other local directories and user generated reviews.". So do I focus more on local directories or keep on backlinking from major high ranking sites? Has anyone done any SEO and backlinking for a local company? This is my first. The others of mine have been National.