Google Serps Lacking - Yahoo doing good? Why

[richromo]

I am building back links to my site and my Yahoo backlinks and rankings are respectable. Problem is as all of you know is "so what"! The traffic off of yahoo is virtually non existant.
My rankings in Google are not good. Does it take longer for Google to rank my site higher? Does it take more and higher quality back links for google to rank my site higher? Do I need to optimize my site differently for Google than for Yahoo?
I am continuing to add back links at a consistent, reasonable rate but I am wondering if I am adding them too slowly for Google? I have seen here at DP that many believe that getting ranked in Google is more difficult than Yahoo. But what is it I need to do other than put my nose back to the grindstone, quit bitching and looking for a quick fix and add backllinks from a variety of sources and get quality links as opposed to quantity of links?
Any help would be appreciated.

[mauik]

Could be any number of things, so tell me a little more... How long have you been ranked well in Yahoo! and how far apart are your rankings between the two search engines?

I had a very similar problem I fixed for a client, so I may be able to help if it's the same problem.

[richromo]

My rankings in Yahoo have risen within the last 30 days or so.
There is no difference on my two top keywords, both page one
The is moderate to significant difference on some of my keywords.
In some cases yahoo page 1 no. 8, same keyword on google page 32.
I am checking on some other keywords and the differences vary.

[mauik]

Page 32? That's brutal. I hope you meant number 32. Either way, that's a significant difference, very comparable to my situation a couple months ago.

It sounds to me like Google has penalized your site for a link (or several links) it doesn't like. I would pull up your backlink network using one or more of your favorite backlink checkers and start sifting through them to see if anything might be considered a bit sketchy by Google. Remember, the Google algo is much better at picking out bad links than Yahoo. PM me if you want me to explain that better, but for the forum's sake, I'll stop there.