Differences Between the Major Search Engines

Although the basic principle of operation of all search engines is the
same, the minor differences between them lead to major changes in
results relevancy. For different search engines different factors are
important. There were times, when SEO experts joked that the algorithms
of Yahoo! are intentionally made just the opposite of those of Google.
While this might have a grain of truth, it is a matter a fact that the
major search engines like different stuff and if you plan to conquer
more than one of them, you need to optimize carefully.

There are many examples of the differences between search engines. For
instance, for Yahoo! and MSN, on-page keyword factors are of primary
importance, while for Google links are very, very important. Also, for
Google sites are like wine – the older, the better, while Yahoo!
generally has no expressed preference towards sites and domains with
tradition (i.e. older ones). Thus you might need more time till your
site gets mature to be admitted to the top in Google, than in Yahoo!.