<<3-5 top tacitcs to improve your rankings/positioning in Google>>

Here's a strategy and tactics, for what it's worth. IMO, the most important thing is providing Google with what's it's looking for-- high quality information.

1. Site development, info architecture
- Develop a content-rich site that provides unique, quality information that others will want to provide to their customers.
- Organize pages into connected pods of related information if there's enough of it, in order to group related words, terms and concepts and to encourage inbound links to multiple pages on the site.
- Use bold text to highlight important terms - this is also good usability design; see "How Users Read on the Web", [useit.com...]
- include outbound links to the best of related sites/info resources that you know your customers would appreciate.

2. Promote it.
- Submit to ODP and Yahoo directories at least (I suspect media related sites might eventually benefit from NBCi listings). If pods are substantial and generally good enough, submit them separately (but not all at once). I think the topical categories (as opposed to regional) might provide a rank boost because of the greater density of related words. Shooting for the general topics will reach more customers in itself, but also lets content developers in the same business as yourself know about it.
- Announce new offerings to others who might be content developers and to other webmasters to link as a potential resource for their customers.
- Issue news releases, distribute URL in info sheets & other publications, cool stickers if going for a younger customer base, etc
- Check user logs for referrals from external sites & submit them to Google
- Periodically compare Google & Alta outside links & cross-submit (I'm not sure this actually helps but it might).

3. Maintain credibility
- don't do 2. before doing 1.