By Building high quality back links you can get high SERP. So, start building back links through articles, directory submissions, blog posting, blog commenting, forum posting etc.
Quality back link and informative keyword rich contents is necessary to get our site in top position. You can apply various link building technique to get rank like article submission, PR submission, blog submission, social bookmarking, video submission, classified add posting, forum posting, comment posting, social networking etc.
It depends with your niche and the keywords you are targeting, in for some niche keywords, you can get on top with only on page SEO and few backlinks while in others, you have to work really hard on all the above tasks mentioned by members
Consistent marketing with seo..and comments on forums, content, article marketing and good old networking..
Apart form onpage optimization getting relevant high pr back link will help to get your website in top position ranking.
On-Page optimization is easy to start, and then work on off-page optimization like building backlinks.
you can buy back link from high PR sites - this is the fastest way, yes its costly but if you know for sure you can turn a profit by being in the top positions then its well worth it.
Preess Releases, videos, article marketing, create and submit software to software directories, turn word docs into PDF files and submit to directories. Doing this and you will rule your competition.
what everyone else said, mix things up, dont just stick to one strategy and be sure to stay consistent even after/if you DO hit #1
Backlinks using proper anchor text is the number one thing. But if your on site is sloppy it will hurt your rankings. Make sure your on site is done properly and then start backlinking to the website and you should be good. Use the keywords you want to target in the anchor text. Short version. Of course there is a bit more too it.