I like this question.
My hard guess:
1. Unique good quality content.
2. A lot of unique content.
3. Backlinks from high PR sites with keyword rich anchor tag.
4. Keyword research to find the best words/phrase based on KEI vs relevance
5. KW in title.
6. KW in H1
7. KW in domain/URL
8. Getting listed in DMOZ ...
9. KW spread on body text.
10. Internal navigation set straight
I am sure I forgot some but those are elementary.