With millions of websites online, you may feel frustrated wondering how you'll ever get your website to appear in those top 10 coveted spots on Google, Yahoo, Ask or MSN. Though the odds seem insurmountable, there are several proven ways to achieve better search engine placement and take your place in those top spots.

Step #1: Optimizing Title Tags

The first step on the road to better search engine placement is to optimize your title tags. This step is so simple and may seem so inconsequential yet it is incredibly important in determining where your web pages will rank in the search engine results.

A title tag is the small bar of text that you see at the top of your web browser when visiting a web page. Every page has one and yet the majority of website owners are not optimizing them with their keywords. This is great news for you and will quickly help your site stand out from the majority of your competitors who are not taking action to gain better search engine placement.

Here is another tip, every title tag on every page of your website should be unique. Each title tag on each page should contain the primary keyword related to the specific page. However, your title tags should not be written strictly to please search engines. Though it may seem as if stuffing the title tag with keywords might bring you better search engine placement, it can actually hurt you. Like the title of a book, your title tag should encompass the main point of your page.

Step #2: Optimizing the Content on Your Web Pages

Search engines can't "see" images - they can only evaluate text to determine if the content relates to the visitor's search term. Therefore if you want to enjoy better search engine placement, your web pages must include plenty of keywords that your visitors may be searching for.

Each web page should target one primary keyword phrase. You'll want your primary keyword phrase to appear more times on the page than any other single phrase on the page. But don't overdo it! The text on your page should read naturally to readers and provide plenty of value; your objective: become relevant to both people and search engines.

The ultimate goal of a search engine is to provide search engine users with the most useful websites first. Providing high value to readers should always be your primary focus along your journey to achieving better search engine placement. However, using keywords effectively throughout your text is necessary so that search engines understand the topic of your web pages.

Step #3: Link Building

The number and quality of websites that link to your website is a critical factor in achieving better search engine placement. Search engines view links to your website as "votes" for it's usefulness. The more votes, the more important search engines consider your website to be. The more important search engines consider your website, the better search engine placement you'll enjoy.

There are as many creative ways to build backlinks as there are websites on the Internet. A great link building strategy requires creativity, diligence, and a commitment to constant promotion. Here are some of the ways our company creates relevant links to our client's sites:

- Web directories

- Blogs

- Articles for distribution (like this one)

- SEO press releases

- Guest blog posting

- Forum participation

- Social bookmarking

- Web profile building

- Trading links with other relevant sites

Link building can be fun and if done properly, can do much more than just give your website better search engine placement. Publishing content and being active on the web helps you establish yourself as and industry experts and gives potential customers more ways to find you online.