Long Term Strategic Planning

SWOT Analysis: Identify opportunities and threats to your online business

What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is one of the most used forms of business analysis. Through SWOT you analyze and evaluate the impact of strengths, internal weaknesses, opportunities and threats coming from the external environment. Although SWOT analysis is often used to review a business, it can also be used for individual projects. There is no reason why it cannot be applied to a web strategy or to certain parts of it.

How can we apply a SWOT analysis on a web strategy?

By all means, every online business is unique. However, there are some things we take into consideration when performing a SWOT analysis.

Strengths

This list contains the benefits that your website offers compared to competitors’ websites. The strengths of the site are closely related to the purpose for which it was created. Here are some examples:

- Effective calls to action

- Intuitive navigation

- Online customer support

- Quick and easy checkout process

- Responsive design

Weaknesses

The weaknesses of a website are simply represented by the disadvantages that could impede business objectives. These points can be identified by comparing the features of your site with those of the competitors. But weaknesses are not necessarily identified by comparison. If a feature is considered outdated or wrong, it can be considered a weakness. Here are some examples of weaknesses of a site:

- Inefficient or outdated design

- Ineffective or inaccessible call to action

- The structure of the site that is hard to navigate

- Content that does not consider customer needs

- Heavy registration or ordering process

- Lack of mobile version

Opportunities

In this list we should include the ways we can improve your online business performance. Here are some common examples:

- New technologies to improve user experience

- Identifying new and unexplored markets

- Niches and new market segments

- A design adapted to better convey messages and facilitate navigation

- More effective marketing techniques

Threats

In this list we include things that might threaten your online business and that could prevent you from reaching your goals. These threats can be certain characteristics that your competitors have and your business doesn’t. Threats are also technical or regulations. Here are some examples:

-  A change in customer needs

- Laws or new regulations

- Black SEO or spam

- Fraudulent activity

- Algorithm updates of search engines

Given this SWOT analysis, we will have a clearer picture of the characteristics and factors that are affecting your site, but also of the advantages we have to highlight. Additionally, we will work to reduce the impact of adverse effects and increase the strengths and opportunities.