PR work is important for a business of any size, but it does not come cheap if you are outsourcing to an agency. For most small business people, doing some in-house pr work can be beneficial in acquiring increased exposure.

The following article highlights a number of initiatives an owner can do for themselves or have an in-house representative address.

- Write articles for other businesses other than your own. Just as I am writing this for the Houston Business Journal, an owner can find pertinent, outside sources offering writing opportunities. Writing articles increases incredibility within the author’s particular field of work.

- Start a blog. Many owners are pressed for time, yet do not realize their thoughts are appreciated by the outside world. An owner can create a personal blog, or one that addresses popular issues within their industry.

- Send out newsletters. Whether this is done through physical letters or e-letters, a business can keep in touch with existing and potential clients through regular issues. It is important to stay consistent with the newsletters in order to gain the desired traction.

- Write and publish regular press releases. Press releases allow a company to share in-house news, information about awards, and catchall, industry-related data. Be wary of particular platforms; results and exposure vary, in regards to varying platforms - you get what you pay for.

- Do some networking on social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. In some cases, it is not only about what you know but who you know. Look for opportunities to make connections to others within your field and related ones as well.

- Attend trade shows to gain more exposure for your company. A lot of networking occurs at trade shows as well as opportunities to recruit new clients (and even new employees).

- Look for opportunities to speak at conferences or become a guest on radio shows. Both platforms offer excellent opportunities for those who are passionate about their business and industry.

Search engine optimization often causes anxiety for many Web sites. Like all other services, it is best understood by those who perform it regularly, but can be performed by anyone.

It is an ever-changing industry, and a lot of work and understanding is warranted, but if a Web site keeps a number of core considerations in mind, it can be on its way to great search engine rankings.

- Optimize your site for people and not entirely for search engines. This may seem antithetical to SEO, but it is not. The purpose of search engines is for people to find the best, germane information according to their search. Becoming preoccupied with optimizing for engine bots rather than people will eventually work against a site. Remember to make a user-friendly.

- Research keywords associated with products and services provided by the site. An online entity wants their target audience to find them; so, keyword and phrase premeditation is warranted. There are many free tools online that can help with this initiative. The number of targeted keywords/phrases a site has in its cannon depends on the breadth of products/services offered. For instance, a small law firm specializing in personal injuries may have less than ten keywords; yet, a large site (such as Zappos) may have hundreds of keywords/phrases due to the plethora of specific products offered.

- Write original copy for the site on a regular basis using keywords. As stated, engines are created in order to acquire knowledge; the engines love sites that create a lot of content for browsers. In addition, using keywords in the copy greatly facilitates rankings. This does not mean keywords need to show up in abundance per content page (this is called “keyword stuffing). Doing so not only can get a page penalized by the engines, but it is not conducive to constructing a user-friendly page.

- Construct a site’s meta tags in a concise manner using keywords. “Meta tags” are what users see on search result pages. Let’s create an example using “XYZ company” that sells hot tubs - a decent looking tag structure could be the following:

Meta title:
Hot Tubs - Spas| XYZ Company, the best in Spas

Meta description:
XYZ Company offers wholesale prices on hot tubs and spas everyday! Millions of satisfied customers agree that XYZ company is the best in Spas.

The “meta title” uses two, main keywords associated with the site’s products (hot tubs, spas), and the “meta description” also uses main keywords, and is usually two or three sentences resulting in something of a sales pitch. Due to the succinct description using keywords, both browsers and search engines can understand what keywords represent “XYZ Company” and what it offers.

- Attract inbound links to the site. This can be done through public relations’ initiatives; guest writing on other sites/blogs; having informative content, which other sites/bloggers link to; issuing press releases through reputable platforms; etc. The exercise of attracting links is referred to as “link building” within the SEO community. As with orchestrating keywords, many free resources exist online providing tips on how to successfully build inbound links.