The most important advice is do not associate your web site with web directories, link exchange farms and similar "pagerank boosters". Google has many well paid web developers working on algorithm updates all the time and as it continually evolves many "get rick quick" webmasters end up being penalized. You must think long term which means do not underestimate google and do not get involved in "bad neighbourhoods"

Content is crucial. Regular, frequent and high quality content will improve your ratings. Include relevant keywords within your pages, Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.

Be careful with search engine optimisation companies, you may end up paying for something that could get you banned from google .. remember if it sounds too good it probably is ! if you need advice refer to official google webmaster guidelines or well established web sites such as seochat.com or searchenginewatch.com

Get A Site map for your web site and let google know you have it by using Google Webmaster tools

Make sure you have some web sites linking to you, having said that - if you sell bananas and have petrol station web sites linking to you - it wont go down well with google - try to obtain relevant links, it is also worth mentioning that reciprocal links are not as good as natural links.

The bottom line is all web sites with interesting and up to date content eventually become popular.