Running a small business is no small feat. A lot of tasks that are allocated to a number of different resources in other types of companies tend to be undertaken by a handful of individuals in the case of small businesses.

So as a small business CEO or manager, it is extremely important to always keep in mind the big picture of each and every thing that your company must be paying attention to – especially in terms of your website which plays a crucial role in reaching out to your preferred client base. And we know that you do not have a lot of time on your hands, so today, we present three essential concepts that you need to remember in the form of acronyms.

SEO and AMP – making sure you keep that traffic coming

These days, any CEO should be familiar with the term SEO – that stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO revolves around the idea of identifying ways to increase visibility in organic (that is, non-paid) search engine results. In order to put this concept to good use, you need to understand both how search engines operate and how people interact with them. Then, you need to develop a coherent strategy – you can start by educating yourself using a myriad of free resources available on the web, like a free introduction course on the basics and tools like Chrome’s PageRank plugin, or you can opt to hire an expert to do it for you.

The optimal SEO approach utilizes a variety of methods, from link building (establishing backlinks to your website to satisfy search engines’ web crawlers and boost your rankings) to editing your content in order to increase matches with desired search keywords. Finally, you might need to consider establishing a version of your website that is more mobile-friendly – everybody knows that Google has already confirmed a while back that more of Google searches in major markets like the US and Japan take place on mobile devices rather than PCs.

The primacy of mobile search and its value for SEO has been reaffirmed this past year with the rise in the use of Google’s AMP project: another acronym you need to know! It stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages and introduces a new standard for web content intended for mobile devices as its employs a lighter version of HTML and CSS. Among the many technical benefits of AMP is much higher load speed (which is a crucial factor in reducing bounce rate) and thus potential for better performance in rankings. So a great way to keep ahead of the competition is to focus on making your website as mobile-friendly as possible, as mobile search looks set to dominate the future of online search.

WAF – staying protected and securing your visitors

Imagine a potential client trying to access your company’s webpage, only to find out that it’s compromised. This will not only disrupt their visitor experience; more crucially, it will undermine your credibility as a trustworthy service provider as a whole. In fact, a survey in the UK revealed that around 30% of customers would change suppliers if the supplier fell victim to a cyber attack or would never consider a company in the first place if they know that it had been hacked, while 25% said that “nothing could restore my trust” after a data breach.

This is why you should always take every available measure to ensure that your website’s security is up to date – investing a few of your resources, time and money today might save you tons of them in the future. You need to start with the basics: make sure your website is protected with WAF – that stands for Web Application Firewall, which guards against attacks that might result in costly data breaches and downtime.

A properly structured WAF stands as a barrier between your website and web applications and some of the most dangerous security risks out there including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, illegal resource access and remote file inclusion. Moreover, there are versions that allow you to set up individualized security rules tailored to your business’ particular needs, such as configuring your own blocking policy across a spectrum of options ranging from block request, block IP, or block session to alert-only.

All three of these are concepts into which major multinational companies invest a heap of resources, because they have realized it can boost their website’s function, appeal, and ultimately conversions – and small businesses are no strangers to these goals. So get started today!