Ok What's the highest google rank you've ever got for a certain keyword? And what method did you use to attain that rank?
As far as the highest ranking per amount of time that I've gone up the ranks, is #21 (out of 476,000) within 1 week
#3 on high competitive keyword. But didn't managed to be longer their (now on 8th). I didn't do any hardwork to build links, just submitting to few directories putting in my own sigs at forums. Updating daily and on page SEO is on what I have focused more
Number 1 for a lot of uncompetitive words Top 10 for more competitive words. Onpage SEO & link building via article marketing, blogging, forum posting and directories
Uh... N1? Yes All you have to do is provide value. When visitors love your sites you will rank high. Easy as that . Also do not expect top rankings over a night. It's takes some time for Google to trust your site.
Obviously having a domain name that matches the search term perfectly helps and I have a couple sites that drive significant traffic that way. Otherwise I usually use sig links and natural link building to get up to the top 3 for other terms.
1st...I tend to be quite lucky for competative keywords. Although it rarely lasts more than a week in the top spot.
#5 for highly competitive keyword. #1 for various other products that we sell. We used online SEO, and custom link building to obtain our rankings.