Subsequent to listing, the InfoSeek robot
listed all my sub-pages, including 12 which
were link pages only. Interestingly enough,
these 12 ended up with signifigantly higher
placements than the primary on my main
keyword search.

There are no additional occurrences of the
keyword on any of the sub-pages or in their
URL names. The sub-pages are more likely to
be individually bookmarked and receive a
higher number of hits. They are also more
likely to be linked to from other sites.

Does the number of hits or "link to" have a
significant enough effect to make a placement
variation of 40 positions?

I have temporarily, replaced the content of
the top sub-page with a "near copy" of the
primary page to take advantage of the higher
placement.