Here is a latest query and explanation put forth by a user of the forum
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/ in their SEO section.

"Alexa rank is a great intelligence tool for positioning your web site in your niche.
While page rank shows importance, alexa rank shows popularity.Together, makes more
accurate measures for your web site."

Here is one comment by "Gringo" posted on Feb 20th which is counter to the
above statement.There are other comments in the post supporting the comment

Some general queries regarding Google PR and Alexa PR:

1.Which is the most important PR-Google or Alexa?
2.Are the PR's based on traffic or backlinks?
3.How often do these PR's get updated?

The forum http://forums.seochat.com/google-page-rank-47/google-pr-vs-alexa-rank-23... discusses the above questions.Also ,note the comment posted on this forum by Coolrider on January 25th, 2009.

1. Submit your site to Web Directories: This is one of the best methods in order to get sufficient backlinks quickly.

2. Submit Press Releases to PR sites : Submit your site’s launch to various PR websites who will distribute the same to other online new sites.This is another method to get a free link.

3. Get Reciprocal Links with Similar Websites: Obtaining reciprocal links with similar sites helps in getting links as well as traffic.Obtain link partners by emailing them or by searching through forums.

Yahoo follows a different algorithm when compared to the ranking of Google.
Here are some useful tips to improve ranking in Yahoo.

1.Including a listing in yahoo directory is useful.Visit this location https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit and submit your site.
2.Submit your website sitemap to Yahoo.If your site has got an XML sitemap,visit the location
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit and enter the URL of sitemap.

Most people trying to optimize their site to get rankings and traffic find that they succeed fast in the case of Google but have a hard time when it comes to MSN/Live Search.

One basic reason is the difference in ranking algorithms of MSN and Google.From some of the threads posted in the best seo forums related to this topic,here are the major points for better ranking in MSN.

1.Ensure that the domain/website has several backlinks i,e focus on the quantity of backlinks.
2.Change the site contents by making sure that their content is fresh and unique always.