There is absolutely no way of knowing exactly what it needed to reach specific ranking levels. If looking to be a certain position or to move up one position for a certain keyword you will definitely find it difficult! Instead of doing this you should focus completely on improving your overall non-branded organic search traffic. By doing this even if the keyword in which you are looking to heighten does not increase in rankings you will still see an average of around 30% overall.
Increasing non-branded organic search traffic due to new, high-quality content that people will enjoy reading will build your brand amazingly and result in your rankings being higher than those of your competitors. This however does not mean that you have to forget about the keyword that you would absolutely love to rank highly, if you continue to put good SEO in place in time that keyword will also make its way up the search engines.
On the web it is not necessarily the people whom have the best products and services that rank in the highest positions, actively communicating with the web is also incredibly important. Social media sites and blogs allow companies to communicate with people in a non-commercial manner, helping them to engage with communities, potential customers/clients and even competitors. Even if taking these actions does not directly get you any revenue there is no doubting that they will build up your brand recognition, getting you noticed by more and more people each day. Ensure to be consistent with these if you are looking for great traffic results and a great reputation.