This will begin to give your business credibility on the web for your specific location and also create some backlinks to your site to help with SEO. 

I also believe that often longer articles that are consistently packed with quality information from start to end can create you some backlinks which will last for years to come.

Google says, "Yo, create backlinks yo".

Google's method for ranking is much more complex than 'does the page contain the keywords'... it is looking at click through rate, time on site, bounce rate, back links, readability, domain trust, and a host of other stuff.So... when you get your domain I would suggest creating city/neighborhood specific pages on your site that have UNIQUE value add content and an action that a user can complete (like filling out a contact form).

I have back links as well. 

If you are one of them, friggin GO have fun.Those 3 hours to me is much better used working on my site, doing citations creating backlinks, developing novel SEO strategies, hence to me.. useless. 

The website needs caching to be done.Images need to be optimizedHTTP requests need to be limitedOverall, the website is ranking well due to a massive number of backlinks (about 1500).

I was one of the people pushing for a backlinks over keywords, but I do not think you should buy multiple domains and point to one unless you plan to market each of those domains as individual brands.  

Google uses over 200 pieces of data in their algorithm, but backlinks always have been, and always will be, one of the most important ranking factors.

I see all over the web companies charging to promote your site using I guess what is called "black hat" techniques, one of them being placing backlinks on high PR websites.