More and more business managers are turning to SWOT analysis to assess their business model and identify strengths and weaknesses. Did you know that you can also apply SWOT analysis to a website?
A SWOT analysis presents a perfect way to determine the critical factors of your website – from the ability to attract customers to the site’s usability. Therefore, you can use this tool to analyze the effectiveness of and indicate improvements for your website.
What is a SWOT analysis?
First, for those who don’t know, a SWOT analysis is a tool used to assess a specific part of a company’s value chain, or the company as a whole, to identify positive and negative characteristics in the processes. The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Threats.
The SWOT matrix divides these four factors into two areas: internal and external. The strengths and weaknesses correspond to the internal factors of an organization, and the opportunities and threats correspond to the external factors of an organization.
How is it used within the context of my website?
Within the context of a website, a SWOT analysis can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses within your website – administrative, design, compatibility, and security; and the opportunities and threats presented to your website by the online community and the nature of the Internet in general.
By creating a SWOT analysis, you will see more clearly to what extent your website meets the objectives and what factors drive this compliance. Also, you will understand the factors that are important for the success of your site and which could harm it. Your conclusions will help you determine your website’s strategy and business direction.
Where to start
Before starting the analysis, think about the objectives and goals of your website: what is its primary purpose? What do you want users to do when they arrive at your site? What do you want them to achieve? Then, turn your gaze to the websites of your competitors. Review their sites to compare goals, tactics, and user activity.
Now we start the SWOT analysis. We start with the positive: a list of the internal strengths of your website.
Internal strengths
This list should include the strengths that your website has but are not present in your competitors’ websites. These strengths give your website a competitive advantage and help you meet your business goals faster.
Your site’s strengths should be related to the main objectives and goals of creating the site. Among others, could include such features as:
– A web design and contact system focused on the client
– Effective calls to action
– Useful and relevant content
– Intuitive search and navigation functions
– A purchase process that is fast and simple
-with full deployment on mobile devices
Internal weaknesses
Weaknesses are features that are inferior to or prevent the site from meeting business objectives. Here you can also identify your weaknesses by comparing yourself to your competitors and see which features of their site are better executed than yours. But weakness can be based on something other than a comparison. It could also be an outdated feature on your site or needs to do its intended job.
Among the typical weaknesses you can find:
– An outdated or ineffective web design
– A confusing site architecture and navigation system
– An unwieldy buying process
– Lack of presence on social media
– A very slow loading speed
External opportunities
In this list, you should include how your organization can improve its market performance and competitive advantage. Some external opportunities can also be predicted, such as expanding the business to new cities or countries.
Some common examples:
– New technologies that can improve the user experience
– Emerging markets
– New niches and market segments
– New web design trends to better spread your message
– Positive changes in social factors
External threats
Here, consider all the factors that could prevent you from achieving your business goals and which are out of your control. For example, an application that your competitors have but you don’t. Threats may also have to do with the regulatory or technical side of the Internet.
Some other examples include:
– The possibility that your competitors copy or steal your ideas
– The appearance of new competitors
– A change in customer needs
– New laws or regulations
– The arrival of SPAM or unsolicited advertising
– A browser software update
– Cyber attacks or fraudulent activity
Use the results to improve your website
Once you have composed your SWOT analysis, compare it with the list of objectives and goals of your website that you created at the beginning. The comparison will give you a clear picture of which aspects of your website are helping you to achieve these goals and which are holding you back.
Now you can get to work on improving your website. Fix the elements that hurt your website, and enrich the positive elements. And enjoy the new success of your site.
