SMALL BUSINESSES CAN'T AFFORD TO BE CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY A CYBERATTACK.

Cyberattacks are increasingly common--and they're picking up speed. That's scary news for small businesses. The average cost of recovering from a data breach is more than $4 million, according to IBM, and many small businesses don't survive the financial and reputational hit that follows a cyberattack.

There's been an uptick in interactive intrusions, in which an unauthorized user imitates a user or administrator, accesses a computer system, and begins moving around the network, according to CrowdStrike's 2024 Global Threat Report, released on Wednesday. The average time it took to carry out such an attack dropped to 62 minutes in 2023 from 84 minutes in 2022, according to the Austin-based cybersecurity firm. In one case documented last year, it took just two minutes seven seconds for a hacker to enter and begin moving around a company's systems.

A criminal might, for example, trick an employee into giving up their password or purchase stolen credentials to access an account. Once inside, the attacker might look for VPN login information, use that information to remotely access a company's network, and then look through documents stored on a cloud service such as SharePoint for proprietary information or customer data.

"For years, many SMBs maintained a false sense of security due to the relative obscurity of their business," says Daniel Bernard, CrowdStrike's chief business officer. Business owners may assume hackers would prefer to target a large hospital chain, for example, rather than a small doctor's office.

"[Small businesses] do have exactly what hackers are after: data." Attackers can also use stolen credentials or data from small businesses to access bank accounts or bigger businesses within that company's supply chain. Although tech, telecommunications, and finance companies were the most common sectors targeted, attacks occurred across all industries including retail, manufacturing, and health care.

So far, it's been hard to assess how much generative artificial intelligence--systems that can write code or create realistic images, text, and video--is being used to carry out cyberattacks, but CrowdStrike predicts that the technology will make cybercriminals' work easier. It may, for instance, help bad actors develop tools for hacking and making materials such as emails to trick people into giving up credentials more realistic.

Although ransomware attacks, in which a criminal blocks access to a company's data or systems and demands money to restore it, are the most common form of attack, CrowdStrike also sees an increase in data extortion schemes, in which criminals threaten to leak private or proprietary data.

Despite the growing threats, CrowdStrike competitor Palo Alto Networks said in a Tuesday earnings call that it expected sales to soften, as buyers appeared to be questioning the value of cybersecurity services. The news sent cybersecurity company stocks, including Nasdaq-traded CrowdStrike, sliding on Wednesday.

Whether or not you invest in a dedicated cybersecurity service that can detect intrusions or irregular activity on your network, here are some ways to stay protected.

Protect Your Credentials

Many attacks start with a social engineering attack, in which an employee is tricked into giving up their password or other login information. That can happen if someone impersonates a company IT employee or if a hacker directs an employee to a realistic-looking log-in page and that employee enters their account information.

Campbell, California-based cybersecurity firm Barracuda estimates that employees at small businesses experience 350 percent more social engineering attempts than employees at larger businesses.

Make sure your employees know what to look out for. Several online sources, including the University of California, Berkeley, offer free videos on how to spot phishing or social engineering scams. LinkedIn offers a course that covers this topic and many others.

Use Multifactor Authentication

Cybercriminals are increasingly purchasing stolen credentials as the first step in an attack. Adding a second layer of verification can help. Apps that generate a unique security code or USB security keys are considered safer than having a code sent to a cell phone, which can be compromised in a SIM-swapping scheme.

Stay Up-to-Date

Hackers often exploit software vulnerabilities, or small flaws in the code that weaken its security. When a new vulnerability is discovered, companies rush out updates to patch that vulnerability. It's a fairly straightforward process to keep apps on a phone or software on a computer up-to-date, particularly if you have automatic updates turned on.

But at some point, companies stop creating updates for older versions of software, leaving them unprotected if new vulnerabilities are found. San Francisco-based cyber insurance provider Coalition recently found that more than 100,000 businesses were running databases using outdated versions of Microsoft SQL Server.

Old hardware, so-called end-of-life devices that no longer receive security updates from the manufacturer, can be particularly hard to spot. While it's simple to turn on software updates for a phone or computer, it's less obvious when something like a wifi router or a tablet has become obsolete. "If your device doesn't support automatic updates or is out of support and won't get any future updates, it's time to upgrade," says Bernard.

FORECAST: AI's RISE WILL CUT SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC, AFFECTING ADVERTISING

A new report from the research firm Gartner, has some unsettling news for search engine giants like Google and Microsoft's Bing. It predicts that as everyday net users become more comfortable with AI tech and incorporate it into their general net habits, chatbots and other agents will lead to a drop of 25 percent in "traditional search engine volume." The search giants will then simply be "losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents."

One reason to care about this news is to remember that the search engine giants are really marketing giants. Search engines are useful, but Google makes money by selling ads that leverage data from its search engine. These ads are designed to convert to profits for the companies whose wares are being promoted. Plus placing Google ads on a website is a revenue source that many other companies rely on--perhaps best known for being used by media firms. If AI upends search, then by definition this means it will similarly upend current marketing practices. And disrupted marketing norms mean that how you think about using online systems to market your company's products will have to change too.

AI already plays a role in marketing. Chatbots are touted as having copy generating skills that can boost small companies' public relations efforts, but the tech is also having an effect inside the marketing process itself. An example of this is Shopify's recent AI-powered Semantic Search system, which uses AI to sniff through the text and image data of a manufacturer's products and then dream up better search-matching terms so that they don't miss out on matching to customers searching for a particular phrase. But this is simply using AI to improve current search-based marketing systems.

AI--smart enough to steal traffic

More important is the notion that AI chatbots can "steal" search engine traffic. Think of how many of the queries that you usually direct at Google-from basic stuff like "what's 200 Farenheit in Celcius?" to more complex matters like "what's the most recent games console made by Sony?"--could be answered by a chatbot instead. Typing those queries into ChatGPT or a system like Microsoft's Copilot could mean they aren't directed through Google's labyrinthine search engine systems.

There's also a hint that future web surfing won't be as search-centric as it is now, thanks to the novel Arc app. Arc leverages search engine results as part of its answers to user queries, but the app promises to do the boring bits of web searching for you, neatly curating the answers above more traditional search engine results. AI "agents" are another emergent form of the tech that could impact search-AI systems that're able to go off and perform a complex sequence of tasks for you, like searching for some data and analyzing it automatically. 

Google, of course, is savvy regarding these trends, and last year launched its own AI search push, with its Search Generative Experience. This is an effort to add in some of the clever summarizing abilities of generative AI systems to Google's traditional search system, saving users time they'd otherwise have spent trawling through a handful of the top search results in order to learn the actual answer to the queries they typed in. 

But as AI use expands, and firms like Microsoft double- and triple-down on their efforts to incorporate AI into everyone's digital lives, the question of the role of traditional search compared to AI chatbots and similar tech remains an open one. AI will soon impact how you think about marketing your company's products and Search Engine Optimization to bolster traffic to your website may even stop being such an important factor.

So if you're building a long-term marketing strategy right now it might be worth examining how you can leverage AI products to market your wares alongside more traditional search systems. It's always smart to skate to where the puck is going to be versus where it currently is.

BY KIT EATON@KITEATON

LOOKING TO THRIVE IN THE WORLD OF AI? DOUBLE DOWN ON THESE 3 SKILLS

As our workplaces evolve to adopt AI and other technologies, the workforce is also required to adopt new skills. Notably, university students with STEM majors are in high demand and command the highest starting salaries.

Ironically, this might be the time when doubling down on your interpersonal communication skills is most important.

There's no question that the way we work has shifted because of the widespread adoption of AI technologies and their impact in terms of automating tasks, generating content, and providing unprecedented volumes of data. Certainly, we need to be technically literate to navigate and thrive in this new workplace. However, this shift also underscores the value of distinctly human skills, particularly in communication. Three of these most critical communication skills include clear and concise writing, critical reading, and comprehensive interpersonal skills--from small talk to formal presentations.

1.  Clear and Concise Writing

 With email and chatbots facilitating a significant portion of professional interactions, we might be tempted to back off on our writing efforts. However, when we employ AI for drafting emails, reports, and other documents, the ability to provide clear and concise instructions or inputs to these tools is crucial. Once the communication is drafted, it's the human touch--the ability to convey tone, nuance, and emotion--that ensures these messages resonate with their intended audience.

The skill of clear and concise writing is further amplified by our exposure to increasing volumes of messages. Mastering the art of distilling complex ideas into clear, easily digestible content is more important than ever.

2. Critical Reading

While AI technologies can sift through vast amounts of data to provide summaries and insights, they lack the human capacity to assess the subtleties of tone, implication, and context of the information presented. Professionals equipped with strong critical reading abilities can navigate the nuances of AI-generated content, identifying biases, inaccuracies, or missing elements that require a human perspective. This skill is invaluable for making informed decisions, strategizing, and ensuring that the information used to guide business practices is both accurate and relevant.

3.  Interpersonal Skills: From Small Talk to Formal Presentations

As AI takes over routine tasks, interpersonal interactions will increasingly focus on collaboration, innovation, and emotional intelligence. Small talk often overlooked as trivial, particularly in our professional lives, plays a crucial role in building relationships and fostering collaboration. It's these informal interactions that can lead to trust, empathy, and a deeper understanding among team members, qualities that AI cannot replicate.

Formal presentation skills, whether to colleagues, clients, or other stakeholders, require a blend of storytelling, persuasion, and emotional engagement. Professionals must craft narratives that not only convey information but also inspire action and foster a connection with the audience. In this context, interpersonal skills extend beyond mere verbal communication; they encompass the ability to read the room, adapt one's message on the fly, and engage with listeners on a personal level. 

While the widespread adoption of AI in the workplace underscores our need to be technically literate, the increasing importance of communication skills is unmistakable. As AI handles more of the quantitative and routine tasks, human-centric communication skills, including clear and concise writing, critical reading, and interpersonal skills, from informal conversations to formal presentations, become even more critical.

As we navigate this new AI-era workplace, the professionals who invest in these skills will be the ones who stand out, leading their teams and organizations to encourage innovation, build relationships, and drive success.

EXPERT OPINION BY ANDREA WOJNICKI, EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION COACH AT TALK ABOUT TALK

SORA, OPENAI's MIND-BLOWING GENERATIVE VIDEO AI MODEL, IS A REMINDER THAT EXPECTATIONS ARE EVERYTHING

On Thursday, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, announced that the company has a new product called Sora that can generate up to 60 seconds of photorealistic video from a text prompt. The company released a series of videos it says were created with Sora, and they are impressive.

Until now, most of the way people interact with generative AI has been through experiences like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, which allow users to enter text into a prompt and get back a text response. Or perhaps you've used a tool like Dall-E or Midjourney to create images. 

Video is--for obvious reasons--a much harder problem to solve. Still, what OpenAI has shown of Sora so far is pretty wild. The video above was created from the prompt "Beautiful, snowy Tokyo city is bustling. The camera moves through the bustling city street, following several people enjoying the beautiful snowy weather and shopping at nearby stalls. Gorgeous sakura petals are flying through the wind along with snowflakes."

In addition to the videos the company included in its announcement, Altman was taking prompts on X and sharing the results all afternoon. The idea that you can type words into a browser window and a computer will give you back a 60-second photorealistic video is mind-blowing. 

But--and this is an important point--these are highly controlled demos. No one outside of OpenAI is able to type prompts in to test its abilities. Journalists who were briefed on the demos were not able to try it for themselves, probably because Sora isn't yet at a point where it consistently produces good results. Even Altman's examples from user prompts were curated. 

There are really two very different things here, and both are worth considering. The first is that this is an entirely new front for AI. The fact that Sora can produce these results--even occasionally--is both compelling and concerning. OpenAI says it is allowing safety researchers to use Sora in order to create boundaries and limits--presumably because we're about to enter what is surely going to be the most contentious presidential election season ever, and Altman does not want to be sitting before Congress explaining why it isn't OpenAI's fault that its product was used to influence the outcome.

The other is that I have a lot of questions. How long do these videos take to generate? Hours? How consistent is Sora at producing the kind of results the company is showing off as demos? And, maybe more importantly, how will OpenAI prevent them from being used for the inevitable: misinformation and abuse?

I guess there's another obvious question: What is OpenAI using to train Sora? In a statement to Wired, Bill Peebles, who co-led the project, said, "The training data is from content we've licensed and also publicly available content." He did not say what "publicly available content" means, or whether that includes copyrighted material that happens to be on the internet. 

While most people will, rightfully, be focused on the questions of copyright infringement and misinformation, I actually think the second question is more interesting--at least from the perspective of the promise OpenAI is making. Generative AI is notoriously bad at getting the details right. That's true if you're typing things into ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, both of which will just make things up with no relationship to reality. It's also true for photos--and now videos.

One of the examples shown was of an older woman and a cake, presumably for her birthday. Around her are other people clapping. Except, one of the women in the video isn't actually clapping, and her hands move in ways that could only be possible if she has no bones in her fingers. You don't notice it at first, but once you do, you cannot unsee it. 

I'm not criticizing Sora for not being perfect. It isn't even available as a product yet, and when you think about what it's doing, the results so far really are incredible. I do think, however, that OpenAI is creating an expectation, and it'll be very interesting to see whether it can live up to the promise it is making. 

That's just a thing that happens with almost every new product. The company that makes it will roll out very controlled demos to show off its best capabilities. That just makes sense, but it risks a letdown if the finished product doesn't live up to those expectations every time.

Apple's Vision Pro headset is a great example. I was one of the people who had a chance to use it back in June at Apple's developers conference, WWDC, and I was blown away by how good it was. That impression came after a 30-minute demo, however. I only saw what Apple wanted me to see. 

Now that the product is available to anyone, people are poking at its limits and finding out where it doesn't live up to the expectations. Sure, it's still a pretty incredible piece of technology, but the story has gone from how mind-blowing it is to how people are returning them en masse because they can't see themselves using it.

Ultimately, the lesson here is simple: Be careful with the expectations you set. It's not surprising that OpenAI wants to show off how impressive Sora is, but once it's in the hands of 100 million users, their experience is going to be wildly different. If that experience doesn't live up to the promise, that's a lot of disappointed users. 

EXPERT OPINION BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST@JASONATEN

ADVANCEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY WILL HELP DEMOCRATIZE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR EVERYONE

Jensen Huang doesn't agree with OpenAI founder Sam Altman's math.

During an interview at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Monday, the founder of AI computing giant Nvidia expressed skepticism at the need to raise $7 trillion to overhaul the AI-chip-making process--the amount recently floated by Altman. Explaining his reasoning, Huang noted that the technology behind artificial intelligence is constantly evolving and improving, which would drive costs down. Asked how many graphics processing units (GPUs) he could buy for $7 trillion, Huang answered, "all the GPUs, apparently," poking fun at Altman's figure.

"If you just assume computers aren't going to get any faster," Huang said, "you might come to the conclusion that we need 14 planets, three galaxies, and four more suns to fuel all this, but computer architecture continues to advance."

Asked if the next era of artificial intelligence will be built on GPUs, a segment of which Nvidia holds roughly 80 percent market share, or some new type of technology, Huang pointed out that many of the other major tech companies are indeed working on their own proprietary chips that could serve as alternatives to GPUs. Microsoft is developing Maia, a customized silicon chip developed specifically to train large language models. Google, meanwhile, is working on tensor processing units, or TPUs, designed to accelerate machine learning workloads. And Meta is working on its own in-house chips, Reuters reported.

One of the things that makes Nvidia's approach to AI different from its potential competitors, according to Huang, is that its GPUs are available to "anybody on any platform," which Huang says is part and parcel with his ambitions to "democratize AI." Huang went on to claim that Nvidia is in "every cloud and data center, all the way out to autonomous systems and self-driving cars."

As new ways of constructing AI systems are invented, Huang suggested Nvidia will be able to be nimble and adapt. "All of these architectures can be created on Nvidia's flexible architecture, and because they're available literally everywhere," Huang says, "any researcher can get access to Nvidia's GPUs and invent the next generation." 

MANY YOUNG WORKERS WOULD RATHER GO TO ChatGPT FOR CAREER ADVICE THAN THEIR MANAGER. THAT'S A PROBLEM.

Many young workers today aren't getting what they need from their managers when it comes to their professional advancement. 

According to a new study released today by research agency Workplace Intelligence and Intoo, the career development arm of Gi Group Holding, an HR and talent solutions company, almost half of all Gen-Z employees say they can't turn to their manager for help with their career development.

Perhaps most grim, the report -- based on a November and December 2023 survey that questioned 1,600 full-time, U.S-based employees -- found that 47 percent of Gen-Z employees say they'd rather ask ChatGPT for advice than their manager. And it's not just ChatGPT they're relying on: These same workers would rather look to friends or family for support, or even social media, before their managers.

A sobering 44 percent of Gen-Z workers said they'll likely quit in the next six months if their companies and managers don't provide more career guidance. "The fact is, managers are often stretched too thin to focus on career development for their team members, and they don't know how to provide good career advice," Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, said in a press release. "Leaders need to prioritize addressing these issues if they want to retain their talent and bolster their efforts around internal mobility."

Luckily, the report found that even a little effort from managers can go a long way. Workers who feel at least "somewhat" supported by their manager, the survey found, were seven times more likely to say they had made "a lot" of progress toward their career goals.

Companies can also offer learning and development programs, such as courses, classes, tuition reimbursement, and mentorship or career coaching, which the report found would help 80 percent of employees feel more engaged at work. Those benefits may also increase the likelihood of young workers wanting to stay at their company.

As Mira Greenland, CRO of Intoo, said in the press release, "Seventy-four percent of employees say L&D opportunities and benefits are just as valuable or more valuable than a promotion or title change. This is good news for employers since these programs often cost far less than salary increases."

SAM ALTMAN IS ATTEMPTING TO RAISE TRILLIONS TO SUPERCHARGE AI CHIPMAKING

Sam Altman, the co-founder, CEO, and public face of OpenAI, is looking to raise trillions of dollars to reshape the global semiconductor industry in AI's image, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The former Y Combinator head is looking to raise between $5 trillion and $7 trillion, according to the report.

Altman, who is nothing if not ambitious, has said that OpenAI's ability to create artificial general intelligence that's as smart as or smarter than most humans is entirely dependent on the company's access to high-power semiconductor chips. Companies such as Nvidia, which previously were mainly in the business of producing chips to power high-level computer graphics cards, have seen their valuations skyrocket as AI companies hoard the chips in order to train their advanced models. 

The problem? There aren't currently enough chips in the world to bring Altman's plans to fruition. To solve this, Altman is proposing a solution that would see OpenAI partner with investors, chipmakers, and power providers to build dozens of massive chip foundries. The Journal reports that Altman would prefer to build these facilities in the United States. 

Fundraising that reaches into trillions of dollars is unheard of. Several U.S. startups have raised capital in the billions, including SpaceX ($9.4 billion) and Airbnb (nearly $5 billion). To imagine what a trillion dollars amounts to in construction projects, that's four International Space Stations (at $230 billion each), plus one California High-Speed Rail (an estimated $100 billion). Multiply that by five to seven, and you'll get some sense of the scale of Altman's apparent plan. 

The unprecedented funding goal is significantly larger than the global semiconductor industry itself. Global sales of chips hit $527 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, and are expected to rise to $1 trillion annually by 2030, according to McKinsey.

While the full list of potential investors and partners isn't known, the Journal reports that Altman has met with the United Arab Emirates' Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan about the initiative, as well as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, and representatives from chip-fabrication companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

GOOGLE IS REBRANDING ITS A.I PRODUCTS AND INTRODUCING NEW WAYS TO INTERACT WITH ITS MOST POWERFUL MODEL

Naming things is hard. 

I have four children, so I speak from experience. You give a kid a name, and they're stuck with it. It determines the way others think of them, and the way they think of themselves. You want to give them a name that represents their personality and potential, but mostly you don't want to make a mistake that results in their having a terrible nickname in middle school.

The same is true of product or company names. Well, not the middle school nickname part, but you want to give your product a name that creates the right vibe. If you make a mistake, it can influence the way people think about your product. Remember Qwikster--Netflix's ill-fated attempt to rebrand its DVD-mailing business? 

Today, Google announced that it is renaming Bard, its AI chat experience, to Gemini. You can still visit bard.google.com, but the experience is now called Gemini. But it's more than just a name change. Google is also rolling out a new AI experience, and a new app on Android. 

Look, I think we can all agree that Bard was not a great name for an AI chatbot. Sure, there's the whole Shakespeare reference, but no one was confusing Google's chatbot with poetry. It's not that the experience was necessarily bad, but it was just there. And the name didn't really communicate that it was a thing Google was taking seriously. 

It was also confusing. If you type a question into Google's search box, you might get a Search Generative Experience (SGE) result. Is that Bard? Does it matter? The name change is meant to simplify things.

In a blog post, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, explains the change this way:

Bard has been the best way for people to directly experience our most capable models. To reflect the advanced tech at its core, Bard will now simply be called Gemini. 

Or, put another way, Gemini is the language model and the experience. That's in contrast to Microsoft's model (no pun intended). Microsoft uses GPT-4, the language model behind ChatGPT, to power its Copilot assistant in Windows and in Bing search. Those are three different names to describe three different things. It can be hard to keep track.

Google says it's making things easier for users in that they only need to know one name--Gemini--for the entire stack. Of course, it's not quite that simple.

To be clear, there are three Gemini models: Nano, Pro, and Ultra. Those names just represent the different sizes of the models. The larger the model, the more capable it is at doing different types of tasks, but the more resources it requires. For example, Nano is a model designed to be able to run on a mobile device.

Google's announcement today is about its Pro and Ultra models. The Pro model is what already powers the Gemini chat experience (previously known as Bard). Basically, the only change here is that instead of calling it Bard, the model and the experience are both called Gemini. 

Then, Google announced a new Gemini Advanced experience that uses its Ultra 1.0 model. That's Google's largest and most powerful model, and this is the first time it is making it available to consumers. 

The other big part of the announcement is that the company released a new Gemini app for Android. If you opt into using Gemini, it will replace Google Assistant, though you'll still invoke it by saying, "Hey, Google." 

There isn't a separate app for iOS, though Gemini is now built into the Google app for iPhone. Gemini is also coming to Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides) and Gmail as well. 

Courtesy Google

To use Gemini Advanced, you have to subscribe to Google One AI Premium, which is $19.99 per month. That's $10 more than the current Google One Premium tier, which still exists. The AI Premium tier will also enable Gemini in Google Workspace apps as well. If all of that seems a little confusing, I point you back to my first sentence: Naming things is hard. 

It is a little confusing that anyone can use Gemini Pro whenever they chat with what was formerly known as Bard, but Gemini Advanced is a higher-level experience that doesn't use Gemini Pro, but instead uses Gemini Ultra 1.0. Such are the problems you have when you simplify.

Still, I think we can all agree that Gemini is a far better name than Bard, and that simple is almost always better. If Google wants people to take its AI products seriously and choose them over, say, Microsoft's, it has to convince them first that Google itself is taking them seriously. Gemini isn't just a better name; as of today, it's also a better experience. 

EXPERT OPINION BY JASON ATEN, TECH COLUMNIST@JASONATEN

HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS AN OVERHAUL

Your website has the potential to massively impact your business growth. Unfortunately, many businesses are sitting on unrealized opportunities because their websites aren't up to snuff.

There isn't a silver bullet to transform your website into a lead generator and sales machine. Often, it needs tune-ups in various areas to beat the competition and bring in more revenue. However, you need to know what areas have the biggest impact on your bottom line.

After working on hundreds of websites through my digital marketing agency, I've identified the four most critical key performance indicators for your website. With these KPIs, you can understand whether you just need to improve areas of your site -- or do a major overhaul.

Is Your Website Generating Enough Sales and Leads?

Your website has the ability to create new customers without you lifting a finger. Is it doing its job? To figure this out, look at your website conversion rate for sales and leads using a tool such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console. Conversion rates of less than 5 percent are a clear indicator that your website (or certain pages) needs work.

How can you improve your conversion rate optimization? Some main factors to consider are:

• UI Design (This includes branding, colors, fonts, etc.)
• Copywriting (Your messaging and calls to action must be persuasive and compelling.)
• UX Design (Is it clear to visitors what they should read first and where they should go next?)

You can A/B test variants in the above areas -- such as different calls to action, navigation formats, and more -- to get a clear view of what improves your CRO the most. If you're not able to optimize your entire site, begin with pages specifically intended to convert, such as pay-per-click landing pages.

Is Your Website Performing Well in All Technical Areas?

Also known as "technical SEO," your website's technical performance, site structure, and content structure affect your Google ranking and user perception. To get an overview, run a technical SEO audit on your website using software such as Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, Lighthouse, or PageSpeed Insights.

Are your page load times slow? Is your website easily crawlable by Google? Do you have redirect chains, broken links, broken images, or broken meta tags?

If your website performance and user experience are poor, Google won't rank your site well and your traffic will suffer. Users will also be frustrated and may leave your site, so you'll miss out on gaining business.

Is Your Website Secure?

Website security issues pose a threat to your business, team, and website visitors. A lack of security features can also affect your SEO. By uncovering your website's vulnerabilities, you can take steps to prevent malware, hackers, or spammers from accessing sensitive information or disrupting your website's functioning.

At minimum, your site should have an SSL certificate, which enables you to run hypertext transfer protocol security and encrypt data and communication. Additionally, avoid putting emails and contact information in plain text, as spammers can easily take information in plain text.

If your website deals with personally identifiable information or sensitive personal information, or if you're in an industry requiring advanced security, like health care or finance, certain regulations might be required. You may also need to take advanced actions, like switching to a more secure hosting provider.

Is Your Website Accessible?

Website accessibility refers to the degree to which your site can be used by everyone -- including those with disabilities and varying socio-economic statuses -- and accessed from different search locations, like mobile and desktop.

Website accessibility is both an SEO necessity and a moral one. Equal access to your site ensures that everyone can understand your website's content. It relies on features such as contrasting colors and alternative text in images. Your technical performance audit will capture many factors influencing website accessibility, but a separate audit may need to be run to check for ADA compliance.

After going through these four main areas, small adjustments may be all you need to get on track. However, if you're missing the mark in more than one area or notice that your website is majorly incomplete, you'll need to decide whether to complete the overhaul yourself or enlist outside help. Given that your site can increase your leads and bottom line, you shouldn't make the decision lightly.

By Kahl Orr, founder of Rise Marketing, a marketing agency that builds high-performing websites and SEO campaigns for fast-growing brands.