I am not a specialist in SEO but, it boils down to quality content and quality external links from good, very well established sites. It works similar to scientific quotations (in scientific publications). The more other authors quote your work - the more people know about you, and your positioning should improve.

Moving a site to top 10 in Google is a full time job for many years.

In my opinion it is impossible for a one-man shop (does not make sense either). But wonders do happen sometimes. Maybe it'll happen to your site if you are good in collecting external links from city councils and other organizations.

People write books about SEO, clients pay thousands of dollars monthly to improve their positioning but the most critical part is just simple marketing - collecting and maintaining quality external links, in my opinion.

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