I'm having problems ranking high in Yahoo & MSN. I've always ranked very well in Google, but not the other two. I understand most people's experience is the other way around. It seems in G that their SERPs follow classic SEO guides in that high ranking sites have more and/or better links pointing to their sites whereas in Yahoo and MSN's SERPs are much more random. Using Link analysis programs, I've analyzed the backlinks of several different websites for various search terms and many times the 15th ranking page will have more and/or better links than the 1st ranking site for the same keyword in Yahoo and MSN. In Google the higher ranking sites almost always have more and/or better links than the sites ranked below them. Any thoughts for ranking higher specifically for MSN & Yahoo?

It seems in G that their SERPs follow classic SEO guides in that high ranking sites have more and/or better links pointing to their sites whereas in Yahoo and MSN's SERPs are much more random. Actually classic first-generation SEO was oriented to on-page optimization factors (including meta tags in the early days). It was the second generation that evolved that saw link-based algorithms take prominence - like PageRank and HITS. Now there's more of a combination of link and lexical analysis; it's getting more sophisticated.

Using Link analysis programs, I've analyzed the backlinks of several different websites for various search terms and many times the 15th ranking page will have more and/or better links than the 1st ranking site for the same... For Google it's still heavily link-dependent, whereas with the others, while links do carry weight, it's dependent to a far greater degree on on-page optimization factors to rank well than with Google.