Question MSN results

[MarcinSarasota]

I have a new website targeting Bradenton, Florida that is about 3-4 weeks old. It is already #5 for "Bradenton Real Estate". How can that be?

Obviously, backlinks are not that important to MSN.

[Nashvegas]

Nope, it seems like backlinks are not valued at all. MSN goes with your meta tags, keyword density, and on page content that uses your keywords towards the top of the page. I have been #1 or #2 on MSN for almost 2 months now and have only converted 1 customer...more worried about G!

[SanDiego]

I remember anyone who used the digit point mass link exchange program would pretty much instantly rank in MSN with tons of links and a decently optimized page. Links are very valued on MSN and Yahoo, Just less regulated then Google... But yes, Meta tags seem to hold more weight in M and Y!

Plus That's not a very tough KW.....Only 238,517 pages to compete against..
My Main KW has over 6,000,000.

[frobn]

I have a new website targeting Bradenton, Florida that is about 3-4 weeks old. It is already #5 for "Bradenton Real Estate". How can that be?

Obviously, backlinks are not that important to MSN.

You are right. MSN does not give much weight to links. MSN is improving their ability, with what they call 'neural net', to recognize and reward good content. You could say that they are content-centric while Google is link-centric. I wish them success because if they succeed then the other SEs will out-of-necessity be forced to value content over links. Wouldn't it be a better web, and less spammy, if SEOs and webmasters spent as much time improving content as they do searching for links?