Most Riverside organizations do not compete against the business next door. They compete against companies in Ontario, Corona, San Bernardino, and Orange County that show up for the same queries. That makes structure the deciding factor. Pages have to be specific enough to earn a location result and substantial enough to earn a general one.
The other pressure is intent mix. A meaningful share of local searches are informational and end in a decision weeks later. If your site only answers transactional queries, you are paying for the last click and giving away the research phase to whoever wrote the better explanation.
We work the technical base first, then the content that has to carry the argument, then the local signals that decide close calls. Nothing about the sequence is Riverside specific. The competitive set, query language, and reference points are.