Google doesn't take meta tags too seriously for obvious reasons: spam.
Semantics matter a LOT. Use header tags wisely (i.e. <h1>...<h6>)
When people link to you, make sure they use the EXACT same URL
The following URL's will all have different page ranks:
http://www.example.org/
http://example.org/
http://www.example.org/index.php
http://example.org/index.php
Also, make the title attribute of all the URLs that link to you as descriptive as possible because google will consider that when indexing your site.
Example:
Code:
<a href="http://www.example.org/" title="The site for all the examples">Example</a>
There are many other things...but they can be found on google itself by searching for something like:
Code:
pageranking+strategies