Is your website struggling somewhere in the never never land of the search results? IS it so far back that you it can't even see the light? This is a very common problem especially with new sites and ones that don't have the right amount of votes.
To get votes you need back links from other sites.
The higher the PR of the site the more valuable the vote is.
This article goes into 3 awesome ways to get the valuable votes to get a first page listing.
Bear in mind that if you're trying to go after a keyword phrase that is very highly competitive you will need to put in a lot of effort to get the results you're after.

1. One of the easiest ways to get links coming to your site from a high PR site is through your signature line when posting to relevant forums.
   The thing to remember when you first open up your account at the forums is to not spam them with a hundred useless posts.
   Give value for at least a week before adding your signature and never place more than 2 links in it.
   
2. Social book marking is another great way to get back links for your site that doesn't take a whole lot of effort, but can give your site a big push in the right direction.
   Keep it natural and only bookmark about twenty to thirty percent of your website content.
   Another thing to remember is that these sites are social and being social by commenting and voting for other people's content will get them to do the same for yours.
   The more votes you get the more back links you get.
   
3. Blogging is a great way to get incoming links to your site.
   Sites link blogger and WordPress are high PR sites that will give your links some real link juice.
   The great thing about these sites is that you can easily set up an account on either of them and have your own blog up and running in a few minutes.