Can anyone tell me, I am #2 for a keyword on yahoo but I am #7 on Google for same keyword. I have 3 x the backlinks than the businesses higher than me on Google (it is 1 business with 3 websites, optimised for the same keyword) my links are from same sources, plus others I've found. Please do not tell me it's only Google who will know, or it's the algorithums...if you have knowlegde why, please share.
Check to see how old your domain is compared to the domains that outrank you. Google puts a lot of emphasis on time in service and you could have 5x the backlinks, but a newish domain will hold you back.
Blame it on Google's search ranking algorith, Google uses over 250 factors to rank a website and back links is just one of them. It would helpful if you did a comparative analysis to see how these higher ranked website are different from yours. Only when you know where your website is lacking can you actually go ahead and correct it. I do understand that it would take time and comparing for 250 factors is a mammoth task ( I don't have a list of all these factors myself ). You could start with analysis their external links, the page from where the links are sourced, the location of the link on the page, anchor text etc. Check their title and meta tags, and the use of keywords in these tags and content. Look at their code structure. Instead of rambling about it, I would give you a link that details the search rankings factors. It a a bit old but still relevant. Here is the link.
This is how I started getting backlinks, I looked were the comp was getting their links and I went and did the same, then posted loads of articles, massively increasing backlinks, then blog commented, did 2 x PR, did loads of directory submissions. To the extent now i have 757 backlinks and nearest comp has 212 backlinks. I got a report forom someone using IBP, the 1 area I was lacking is that in 1 section I had to many keywords, so my keyword density was too high, so I will address this and see what happens.