#1 in MSN/Live Search -- #35 in Google??

I don't get it.

We generally focus our SEO efforts on Google, and the other engines fall in line. This usually works well for us.

However, I'm working on a project for a 3-year old domain... we've done everything we know to do -- I would consider this a showpiece example for SEO... keyword rich, but not spammy. H1 tags. Keyword tagging throughout. The site has a PageRank of 5. Its competitors on page 1 have PageRanks between 1-3... maybe a couple of 4s.

Despite all of this effort -- the site is stuck in the 30s -- page 4 -- of Google SERPs. There's nothing black hat here. We write good old-fashioned content -- written from scratch. We build our links one at a time from reputable sites. Yet we're stuck on page 4 - even though half the sites on page 1 seem to be completely unaware of SEO practices.

Almost forgot. The site in question is ranking #1 in MSN/Live Search.

What am I missing folks? I usually have a lot of success at this, but I'm truly baffled.

Maybe time? I know when we've worked on projects that we've usually seen MUCH quicker positive (or negative) results in MSN/Live than Google. I view MSN as a quick gauge, but not a sure fire metric. I might double check Google WM tools and try to "See What Googlebot Sees" about your site. You might need a little more versions and quantities for a few key words. The industry might be pretty competitive in Google and cracking through might simply take more time and effort.

I bet you a dollar to a doughnut though that you're right on par and right on pace if you've done the right things - which it very much sounds like. I'm impatient too. I finish a page and I want Google to crawl it, evaluate, and rank it where I think it should fall no less than 60 seconds after uploading. It never helps to have enough links though. When we get stuck in a rut like what you're talking about, we try to link through the waiting (heck, it can't hurt).

The importance and effect of linking is pretty closely proportional to the competetiveness of a particular keyword.

It could just be that this keyword is particularly competetive and Google is placing more emphasis on the weight of the links which have yet to gain enough authority due to age.

An example SERP / Keywords and hint at a URL might shed a bit more light on the subject.