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Optimization is only a small part of ranking well in with SEO. Think of it as a piece of a larger pie.  Use the open site explorer tool to understand your backlinks against your competitors and the keyword analysis tool as well. This will give you a better overall picture of why you are not ranking better. Lastly, i understand where you are coming from. it's really seductive to get crazy about page optimization, but all the page optimization in the world isn't going to compare to a bunch of high quality, really great links with anchor text.