There are two things we consider to be true about Wix and their website building abilities:
- They make it pretty easy to build a “good” looking website
- They make it REALLY easy to build a poorly performing website
So, if Wix makes it so easy for beginners to build their own website, why aren’t Wix websites showing up in Google and why shouldn’t you use it? Read below for our take on Wix, and why you should avoid using this uncannily popular website platform.
We get it, designing a website is no easy feet, and paying someone to build one for you is typically expensive and out of most small-business owners budgets. That’s why a platform like Wix.com is so appealing to those looking to create a good looking, well performing website without breaking the bank, or their brains, in the process. Wix.com promises easy to use templates, and “Free” website building services. While this is a very effective marketing tactic used to get people on their site, and signed up, Wix is in fact not free. Yes, their base offering is technically $0, but with that free price tag comes Wix branding all over your website and absolutely no analytics tools available to you. Beyond the “Free” package, you can start with their basic package for a whopping $4 a month. So while it is not free, it is cheap enough that you can skip one coffee a month and pay your Wix bill in full. Beyond this their most expensive plan is still only $24 a month – so, more expensive than free or $4, but still pretty affordable.
Where the real kicker comes in is when you have no choice but to connect “apps” from their app store to help your websites overall functionality. The largest cost when using Wix is essentially hidden from users. Wix and their offerings appeal most to inexperienced people who want, or need a website and don’t know where or how to start. Wix knows this and, in our opinion, takes advantage of people who don’t know what they’re doing. The reality is, in order to have a well functioning and searchable website, you’ll either need to skip Wix all together, or spend some cash for a subpar website at best. Like we said before, you can build a good looking website using Wix – that’s not the issue. The issue is that websites built using Wix are nearly impossible to actually find on the internet. In most cases, you would need to type in the exact URL in order to even find a specific website built on Wix.
In the digital age, your websites online visibility is crucial to your business’s success. In order to rank in search results, you need to implement SEO strategies in your businesses marketing plan. For those that don’t know, SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and is the process of using different tools and tactics to boost your websites rank in search engine results. SEO and SEO strategies are not “hard” to implement, and are actually really easy to tackle when building websites through a content management system like WordPress (our preferred website builder.) With a site built through Wix, it is nearly impossible to implement any SEO strategies killing your websites SEO. They don’t offer the option to download an SEO boosting plug-in, and instead leave you to use the on-page SEO that they offer. Yes, their on-page SEO can cover the very basics, but it won’t do you any favors. Additionally, their link structure is served through javascript and is essentially unreadable by search engines.
To boost your websites SEO and rank in search engine results, you’ll need to build quality links and create/distribute SEO rich content. Essentially, link building is the process of getting other quality websites to link back to your website. This is important not only because it directs traffic to your website you might not get otherwise, but it helps establish and build your sites “authority” – a factor that Google pays attention to when ranking websites. No matter how much or often Googles top-secret algorithm changes, quality backlinks remain one of the biggest factors in determining what websites rank for what keywords. So, how does this tie into Wix? Websites built through Wix will always includes a # in their URL meaning that Wix’s link structure is served through javascript which, like we said, is essentially unreadable by search engines. Even worse? If someone has javascript disabled in their browser, they will never even have the chance to stumble across your website, let alone seek it out. What does this mean? Backlinking to your Wix created website is pointless, and most definitely isn’t serving you, or your SEO efforts.
Additionally, you will want to create SEO “friendly,” or “rich” content to help boost your websites rankings. SEO Friendly Content or SEO Based Content is content that you create and distribute with the purpose of attracting search engine traffic. It is called “SEO” content because the content should be based on/around keywords you are trying to rank for. Heads up – before diving into content creation, you will have wanted to identify your keywords already so you’re not wasting time creating/promoting content that isn’t going to help you rank in the long run. So, how does this also tie into Wix and why we hate it? If you dive really deep into Wixs page structure, you would find that all pages are “canonical,” or, simply put, they are just tabs of the homepage meaning they could never rank on their own. And, if you remember correctly, Wix only offers the most basic on-page SEO meaning any seo strategies you implement on your site won’t work, and your website wont be ranking high, if it ranks at all.
We could go deeper, but we’ll leave it at this – Wix essentially kills any chance of implementing any kind of SEO, therefore killing any chance you have at ranking in search results.
Instead of going on all day about why Wix is possibly the worst choice for building a website, we’ll discuss what site you SHOULD use, and why.
Our #1 recommendation for website newbies and veterans alike is WordPress. WordPress is by far the best and most accommodating content management system, or, website builder. We will point out that WordPress isn’t exactly… “beginner friendly” BUT your investment will be worth it because a high-ranking, well functioning website will only make you more money in the long run. If you want to learn more about how valuable a well-ranking website is to your business, check out this breakdown here.
Launched all the way back in 2003, WordPress is now used by more than 74 million websites across the globe. Aside from the sheer number of people that use it, WordPress is (in our opinion) the number one Content Management System available on the web for a multitude of reasons. Some of these reasons include…
- They are extremely flexible and customizable
No matter what you’re using WordPress for, whether it be a website, a blog, an e-commerce site, etc. their offerings are extensive enough that they can meet virtually any need through their extensions and other features.
- They are extremely search engine friendly
Search engines prefer sites that are built via WordPress because their structure is so easy to crawl compared to other site builders.
- Unprecedented support
You get the sense that WordPress really cares about its users. They take their site safety extremely seriously, and the extensive WordPress community can troubleshoot just about any problem you have. Check out their WordPress Forums to get an idea of how helpful this community is, or troubleshoot your own site problem.
- Extremely mobile-friendly
With more than 5 billion people now using mobile devices, website being mobile-friendly is more important than ever. It sounds like Wix has resolved their previous problem of not being mobile-friendly, but WordPress never had the problem to begin with.
- Powerful integrations and e-commerce solutions
WordPress integrates with some of the most powerful platforms on the internet. Their extensive list of plug-ins and extensions can solve virtually any problem you may have.
- It is the best platform for SEO
Editable permalinks, automated metadata plug-ins, super fast site speed, and so much more. Trust us on this one – WordPress is the best platform for SEO. Hands down.
- It just keeps getting better
Because WordPress is so widely used, you can guarantee they are employing only the best developers in the biz. Better yet? They are open source meaning any developer can enhance the user experience so WordPress can continue to be the best CMS available.
If you are interested in learning more about why WordPress is your best option for SEO purposes, or more about SEO in general, contact us here.
