This one time, at band camp, Earle Martin wrote:
What can we do for Super Happy Google Powers?
Better titles certainly made a difference for London's ranking. Better URLs would, too - and I've just noticed this little trick they're using over at BITE:
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/15/155/Montagu_Pyke/Charing_Cross_Roa...
Strip off the last bit of the URL and you'll see the link still works, so it's obviously just extra search-engine-enticement, akin to what they do at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X/
Indeed, I've been using this technique for years. Type "apartment vallandry" into Google and you'll find out all about a bad experience I had renting an apartment in the French Alps. Note the URL.
Links from blogs help a lot, especially blogs that are syndicated on planets. Encouraging people to say things like "Meet me at the <a href="http://london.openguides.org/index.cgi?Head_Of_Steam_Euston,_NW1_1DN">Head of Steam</a>" in blog posts makes the LOG entry for the term "Head of Steam" slightly more authoritative.
I note that LOG already has a PageRank of 6, which is pretty damn good! (http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php)
It's suspected that Google prefers URLs that don't have question marks in them. Some judicious URL rewriting can do away with it.