You get what is called the sandbox effect:  It has not yet been ranked by keywords and is a new site. These sites wait longer to be at the top of a Google page and are basically punished; irrespective of how competitive they are, until such time as Google’s algorithm takes the site out of the sandbox.

There are many ways to try to avoid the sandbox. One of them is to check your site with the many sandbox checkers on the web. You input your URL and check. If you are sandboxed then the following may help.

A new site is given enough rope to hang itself. Google SERPS give you a fair ranking and essentially wait for you to screw that up.  Get natural links on your page (other sites linking to yours).

Possibly purchase an older site and ride on its coat tails for a higher ranking. This helps with the age bonus factor, where the site has been up for a long time and the SERPS therefore reward you.

Add no more than 10 new links to your site. Also, add quality content to the site.  Don’t just link to your homepage but also deeper pages.
And finally, try to get a higher ranking with Yahoo or MSN. That can only help you with staying out of the sandbox.