Are you using a SWOT analysis for your online SEO campaigns?

16 Dec Are you using a SWOT analysis for your online SEO campaigns?

A useful and innovative matrix appeared between the 60s and 70s after a successful research project was conducted at Stanford University by Albert Humprhey. This matrix led to identify the strengths, weaknesses whilst also identifying the opportunities and threats of specified projects or business ventures as a tool of evaluation.

Since the introduction of the SWOT analysis, marketing campaign managers and project managers have acquired the matrix as a tool to evaluate strategic planning, competitor analysis, business developer, efficiency development and research reports.

So, how you apply the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis to your SEO campaigns?

In most uses of the SWOT matrix, strengths and weaknesses derive from internal areas of a business, while opportunities and threats are external sources which involve a limited hands on element.

Determining the right SEO strategy for an organisations website is difficult. A various amount of factors come into play whilst wanting to achieve an overall increase in core keyword rankings and organic traffic. These factors can be answered using the SWOT matrix to identify gaps of improvement in your internal and external factors:

Internal Factors of a SWOT Analysis > SEO

Strengths

These are elements inside your organization that can assists in helping achieve your business goals:

• Does your organisation have a sound presence on Google amongst; Google+, Google My Business, Google Knowledge Graph?
• How clean is your websites backlink profile and does it compliment the authority and visibility of your site?
• Often creating and published, relevant trending topics on your blog/news section
• Ranking on page 1 for your industries top 10 targeted keywords

Weaknesses

Sourcing weaknesses of an SEO campaign can be tougher, where an external point of view may be required to ensure all advisories are validated:

• Lack of on-page SEO optimisation with little keyword relevance
• Low conversion rates with goals set such as form submissions and product purchases
• Content lacking link worthy assets due to lack of call to actions and legitimacy
• Limited PR and outreach to include your brand in online niche market publication sectors
• Alt tags on images
• The site is not mobile friendly thus, seeing a lower conversion rates upon mobile devices

External Factors of a SWOT Analysis > SEO

Opportunities

Illustrating opportunities requires including a combination of strengths and weaknesses in the analysis to find areas to improve on:

• Target more long-tail question keywords whilst building links through curated resource centers
• Improve anchor texts through analysing existing backlinks
• Improve UX (user experience) of the site to minimize bounce rate and increase conversion rates
• Improving rich snippet displays
• Structured data and Schema.org
• Diversifying content marketing campaigns with the use of easily digestible visual content
• Launching new incentives to increase online customer conversions

Threats

Seen as the most daunting task is threats. Combining the knowledge of best SEO practices and current SEO standings with an honest assessment could shape the future of your SEO potential:

• Google Algorithm updates
• Google Penalties
• Competitors launch of a new product
• Economic fluctuations and boundaries
• Competitors social outreach
• What competitors have had the most success in certain areas?

SEO isn’t a one-time project but rather a long-term continuous process to ensure your shop front stands out from the rest of the shops in the mall. It is important to note that the SWOT Analysis can be an extremely important strategic planning tool but the matrix also has it’s downsides. A SWOT analysis can only work well if the derived action points have defined objectives with clear time frames. That’s why it’s a good idea to use another useful tool in conjunction with a SWOT Analysis, which goes by the name of SMART objectives; Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-bound.