SWOT analysis template: evidence in, decisions out
A free SWOT analysis template to copy, with prompts for each quadrant, an evidence column, a filled example and the TOWS step that turns it into decisions.
A SWOT analysis template is a four box grid: strengths and weaknesses (inside your business), opportunities and threats (outside it). The version below adds the column most SWOTs are missing, evidence, so every point is something you can show a colleague rather than something you feel.
Copy the template, fill it from the sources listed for each quadrant, then use the TOWS step at the end to turn four lists into three or four decisions. That last step is the part most teams skip, and it is the only part that changes anything.
The SWOT analysis template
There are two versions. Use the first for the slide. Use the second to do the work.
The classic SWOT chart
| Helpful | Harmful | |
|---|---|---|
| Internal (you control it) | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| External (you do not) | Opportunities | Threats |
This is the SWOT analysis format everyone recognises. It is fine for presenting a finished SWOT. It is a poor place to build one, because there is no room for the proof.
The working version, with evidence
Fill in the header first:
- Business and scope: one product, one market, one customer type
- Compared against: two to four named rivals
- Date and author: so a stale SWOT is visibly stale
| # | Point (one sentence) | Evidence (source and date) | Versus which rival | Fact or hunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | ||||
| S2 | ||||
| S3 | ||||
| W1 | ||||
| W2 | ||||
| W3 | ||||
| O1 | ||||
| O2 | ||||
| O3 | ||||
| T1 | ||||
| T2 | ||||
| T3 |
The "Fact or hunch" column is deliberate. Hunches are allowed, but they must be labelled, and a SWOT with more hunches than facts is not ready to present.
Four rules before you write a word
Pick a scope. A SWOT for "the business" is too vague to act on. A SWOT for "our weekday lunch trade" or "our entry plan for teams under ten" produces specific points.
Strengths and weaknesses are relative. "Friendly staff" is not a strength if every rival's reviews say the same thing. A strength is something you do better than the named rivals, and you should be able to say which one.
Use the control test. If you could change it with your own money and people by the end of the quarter, it is internal. "Growing market" is an opportunity, not a strength. "A competitor raised prices" is an opportunity or a threat, never a strength.
Three to five per box. Cut ruthlessly. The fourth weakness rarely matters as much as the first.
What to put in each quadrant
The prompts tell you what to ask. The evidence column tells you where the answer lives. Most of it is public and free.
| Quadrant | Ask | Where the evidence is |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | What do customers praise in your reviews that they rarely praise in rivals' reviews? Where do you charge more and still win? | Your reviews against theirs, win and loss notes, repeat purchase rate, search positions |
| Weaknesses | What do your three star reviews repeat? Why do people leave or choose someone else? What do rivals include that you do not? | Your 1 to 3 star reviews, lost deal and cancellation reasons, rivals' pricing pages |
| Opportunities | What do rivals' customers complain about that you could fix? What are people searching for with no good answer? What changed in the market? | Competitor reviews, Reddit threads, search results, ad libraries showing nobody advertising on a term |
| Threats | Who is new? Who cut price or added a tier? Who started advertising where you advertise? What substitute is getting cheaper? | Ad libraries, rivals' pricing history in the Wayback Machine, new pages in rivals' sitemaps, new listings on Google Maps |
Two sources do most of the work. Competitor reviews fill your opportunities box, because a rival's repeated complaint is a gap you can fill. Finding positioning in competitors' reviews shows how to read them quickly. The free ad libraries fill your threats box: the Google Ads Transparency Center and the Meta Ad Library show the ads a rival is running, and Meta's shows the date each one started.
If the SWOT is about a competitor rather than yourself, the method changes, because you cannot see their internal numbers. The competitor SWOT guide covers that version.
A filled SWOT example
Say you run a hypothetical independent physiotherapy clinic, call it Fernside, in a mid-sized English town. Two rivals matter: the local branch of a national chain and a sports injury clinic. Every figure below is invented to show the standard, but each one is the kind of fact you can collect in an afternoon.
Scope: private self-paying patients, not insurer referrals. Compared against: the chain branch and the sports clinic. Date: 4 October 2026.
| # | Point | Evidence | Versus |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Patients rate us higher | 4.9 stars from 212 Google reviews; chain branch 4.3 from 540 | Chain |
| S2 | We see new patients this week | Chain's booking page showed next new patient slot 9 days out, checked three times in September | Chain |
| S3 | Only evening appointments in town | Rivals' booking pages close at 6pm; ours run to 8pm | Both |
| W1 | We are the most expensive first visit | £58 against £48 (chain) and £50 (sports clinic), from their price pages | Both |
| W2 | Phone booking only | 11 of our last 60 reviews mention not getting through | Both |
| W3 | Invisible in search | We rank 9th for "physio" plus the town name; chain 2nd, sports clinic 4th | Both |
| O1 | Chain patients feel rushed | "Rushed" or "in and out" in 18 of the chain's reviews this year | Chain |
| O2 | Nobody advertises on back pain searches | No ads shown for "back pain physio" plus the town, searched on five different days | Both |
| O3 | The 400-member running club has no clinic partner | Club website lists no physio partner | Sports clinic |
| T1 | Sports clinic is buying first visits | 6 Meta ads offering a £30 first assessment, all started 2 September | Sports clinic |
| T2 | Chain launched video appointments | New "online physio" page in the chain's sitemap in August | Chain |
| T3 | Rivals lead with price, so searchers compare on it | Both rivals show price on their homepage; we show it three clicks deep | Both |
Notice what is missing. No "experienced team", no "great location", no "economic uncertainty". Each of those might be true, but none has evidence attached and none would change what Fernside does next.
From SWOT to decisions: the TOWS step
A SWOT is a diagnosis. The TOWS step pairs the boxes to produce actions, and it is where the template earns its time.
| Pairing | Question | Fernside's answer |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths with opportunities (SO) | Which strength lets us take an opportunity? | Run Google Ads on the uncontested back pain terms with "seen this week, 45 minutes, never rushed" (S1, S2, O1, O2) |
| Weaknesses with opportunities (WO) | Which weakness stops us taking it? | Add online booking before the ads go live, or the clicks land on a phone line nobody answers (W2, O2) |
| Strengths against threats (ST) | Which strength blunts a threat? | Answer the £30 offer with a free 15 minute phone triage, not a price cut, and lean on the rating gap (S1, T1) |
| Weaknesses against threats (WT) | Where are we exposed, and what limits the damage? | Put the price on the homepage with what the extra £8 to £10 buys: a longer session and an evening slot (W1, T3) |
Each line then gets an owner and a date. If a pairing produces nothing, leave it blank rather than inventing an action. The full method, with more examples, is in the TOWS matrix template.
Keeping it current
Strengths and weaknesses move slowly. Opportunities and threats go stale in weeks, because they are about rivals, and rivals keep changing their prices, pages and ads.
Date the SWOT, re-check the O and T rows monthly, and redo the whole thing when something big moves: a rival changes price, a new competitor appears, or the same unfamiliar objection comes up twice. For more filled versions across different kinds of business, see these SWOT analysis examples.
If you want the external evidence collected for you, Figo checks each competitor's ads, new pages, published pricing and reviews every week and emails what changed on Monday, which is most of what the threats box needs. Ours, so judge accordingly. It does not write the SWOT; that part is yours.
Questions people ask
What are the four parts of a SWOT analysis?
Strengths and weaknesses, which are internal and within your control, and opportunities and threats, which are external and are not. The test is whether you could change it with your own budget and staff.
How many points should each SWOT box have?
Three to five. More than five usually means you have listed everything rather than chosen what matters, and nobody acts on a list of twelve.
Can I make a SWOT analysis in Word, Excel or Google Docs?
Yes. The tables on this page paste straight into Word, Google Docs or a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is better for the working version because the evidence and date columns stay sortable.
Is SWOT analysis still worth doing?
As a sorting step, yes. As the final output, no. A SWOT is worth the hour when every point has evidence behind it and the four lists are turned into actions with owners.
See it on your own competitors
Figo checks their ads, pages, rankings and reviews every week, then tells you what to do in plain words. Set up in two minutes.
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