[Finner]

Ranking in Google requires basically 2 things.

1) Backlinks:
A backlink essentially infers "quality" to your site, especially for keywords the anchor text used in the backlink. Crappy spammy backlinks still infer quality, just far less than a quality good link, not to mention a pile of crappy spammy backlinks can get you banned or penalized in Google search results.

2) Content:
Right now Google is changing the algorithm to make content more and more important. ie. Is it unique, do visitors on the page stay for awhile, how many pages do visitors visit etc.

As of right now i'd say content is 60%, backlinks 40%. If you're targeting a relatively week search result, content can get you there on your own with time. However if its competitive, you will have to add backlinks etc.

For backlinks, if you don't want to go out and pay for them, then try and do guest posting on related blogs, write articles for Ezine, Squidoo etc. that are well written as they allow you to leave links to your own site. Write well written blog comments on blogs that let you leave your website address in the comment. Submit your site to Digg, Stumbleupon, etc.

Contrary to what a lot of people thing, H1/H2/Meta/Onpage SEO, isn't a huge part of SEO anymore. It matters, but just a tiny bit. In fact, over optimizing onpage SEO can get you penalized.

Lastly, with SEO, patience is key. You'll probably need a lot of content, and weeks before you start getting any organic traffic. Just keep writing and backlinking and the traffic and rankings will come.