Other tips on how to rank well with Google:

• Content must be compelling, accessible and unique – this is a key ingredient in getting links. Make sure people can link to specific content.
• Keywords in the URL is one SMALL signal Google looks at. Better to use keywords separated by dashes rather than two words squashed together (just make sure the URL does not have 10-15 keywords separated by dashes).
• Some websites will link to your site via your logo – that is still a vote but has little less value compared to link with anchor text
• It is a popularity contest to some degree, but, it’s about quality over quantity. When getting inbound links to your site, remember that 1,000 links from crappy sites are not as good as 1 link from trusted authority sites such as NY Times or Stanford University
• For your outbound links, consider relevance and “smell test”.
• On linking to sites with lower pagerank, Adam advised not to be hindered in linking to sites with lower pagerank. It is a myth that a site will be penalized if it links to sites with lower PR. A site showing 0 pagerank today maybe showing 0 because the toolbar is not updated; and that 0 pagerank can move to higher pagerank, too.
• Avoid linking to link farms
• More on the “sandbox” myth – the speaker clarified as much that Google views it unnatural if a site has 8,000 links in 3 days or 8,000 links using the same anchor link. The site must pass the “smell test” — e.g. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, some new sites focusing on the tragedy shot up in the search engine; while these sites are new, the recency and gravity of the news makes the rise of these sites look natural
• Don’t spam, and don’t cloak where you show something to Googlebot and different to users.
• The use of rank checking software is BAD IDEA – sending automated queries to Google is the way to get your IP address banned (except in cases where the vendor is using API). Remember, Web Position Gold has bee banned, so take this seriously.
• Google has comprehensive understanding of misspellings
• Write for humans, not search engines

Read the webmaster tips compiled by Adam Lasnik, Google search evangelist