Using the SWOT Analysis for Your Website
The SWOT Analysis tool is not just for business planning purposes. You can also do a SWOT Analysis to evaluate your website and to formulate a robust and effective digital strategy. This tool helps to provide decision makers with a deeper understanding of the internal and external standing of the website and how this, in turn, contributes to the company’s value chain.
“SWOT” stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Each of these is written in a quadrant. The Internal Environment row outlines things that you can improve or change since this is within your control. The External Environment row outlines the things that are happening in the marketplace, as well as business, economic or political factors that will affect your business.
Here’s a table of how the SWOT is used as an analysis tool:
| Good for the company | Potentially harmful for the company | |
| Internal
Environment |
Strengths
What are your website’s competitive advantages, something that your competitors do not have or that you do better than the others? This can be the website’s reach, the strength of your web design team and so on. |
Weaknesses
What are your website’s weaknesses that you can improve on? These are disadvantages that may hinder your fulfillment of your objectives. |
| External Environment | Opportunities
What is happening in your industry and to the general environment, where your website can be harnessed for your company’s good? This includes changing trends of the Internet and mobile phone usage, changes in government policy, etc. |
Threats
What is happening in the external environment that can hinder your website from achieving its goals? What are the obstacles that are beyond your control? |
Here are some examples:
| Good for the company | Potentially harmful for the company | |
| Internal
Environment |
Strengths
High search engine rankings Effective calls to action Visually attractive website with responsive and mobile friendly features Good team of programmers |
Weaknesses
Outdated content Budget issues The need for a website redesign Unresolved bugs in the shopping cart |
| External Environment | Opportunities
Increase in numbers of shop via mobile phone Competitors do not have mobile friendly websites Birth of new market segments |
Threats
New competitors entering the market New legal restrictions about Internet privacy Rise of hacking cases in the industry
|
Filling up the matrix. When filling up the quadrants, it is good to work as a team, preferably with other members that are from different departments in the company. This will help widen your collective perspective.
Using the SWOT grid to set goals. Once you have filled up the matrix, the next step is for your team to set goals based on the contents of the matrix. Check how your website’s strengths can address any named opportunities and threats. In the same way, analyze your website’s weaknesses and see how these can be eliminated and minimized, especially in the face of a threat. With this, you can start setting goals for the website. These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable and agreed upon, realistic and time-bound).
About Adaptivity Pro
Concerned about Utah website design strategy? Adaptivity Pro can have a team of experts at your disposal, for all your digital strategy and implementation needs! We specialize in SLC SEO, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing and other Internet-based related services. We have in our roster experienced website designers, graphic designers, copywriters and SEO analysts.
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