How to install the old Wix Blog
As a Wix Designer, and SEO Hero, I get this question from other Wix designers: "How do I install the old Wix Blog?" If you are wondering how to install the better Old Wix Blog in Wix, see the screenshot below. Open your Apps from the Apps icon on the left, then search "blog". In the search results, look for "Blog by Wix" which is the old Blog. See screenshot below:
I find that Wix's Old Blog has better features than the new blog, specifically, being able to select and link to your website pages with your text, which is helpful to SEO. (In the new Wix blog, you have to copy and paste URLs in a different window in order to link to it, old-school Wordpress-style.... why would they not include this simple but essential feature in the new Wix blog? I hope they will add this feature soon. It is especially problematic if you are working on a website prior to launching it, as you cannot use the temporary domain name as links as when you launch they will remain even though the domain changed to the live domain – so all the work would need to be redone for optimal SEO. Also, the New Blog doesn't allow you to post-date or schedule blog posts, which is unacceptable, given that the previous blog did allow for this. I also find the SEO easier to use in the old Blog. So, when I install blogs on Wix websites, I install the old green "Blog" versus the new "Wix Blog" that shows up at the top of the app search results list.
Hopefully Wix will update the new blog with some of these essential missing features.
Importing to the New Wix Blog: In October 2018, I received the update below from Wix below about the ability to import the old blog into the new blog. I will likely stay with the old blog for now since there are missing features from the new blog (scheduling/dating posts, selecting to link to specific pages on site). However, this feature update makes me wonder if this means we will eventually be able to import from other blogs, such as Wordpress? I don't see that functionality yet, but if Wix adds that, it will make it worth it to use the new Wix blog when I move clients over with lengthy Wordpress blogs. However, see Wix's comments on the Wix Blog import below, it sounds like it doesn't carry over some essential features like the comments, colors, fonts. So, this means extra work, and, if you have a blog with a lot of engagement, you may not want to switch over as you'll lose the comments. Plus the ability to schedule posts is important as well, why do they not have this feature? Read what is not included in the import/transfer:
From Wix: The New Wix Blog team is constantly enhancing and adding features to the blog, however, at present, the new Wix Blog does not support all the features available in the old blog. These are main features that cannot be transferred:
Pagination
Automatically subscribing members
Ability to schedule future posts
Facebook Instant Articles
Blog Ticker element
Blog Archive element
Google AMP
If you're curious, here is the link to the article about switching to the new Wix blog: support.wix.com/en/article/request-switching-to-the-new-wix-blog
Below is what they have on the page currently about the switch to the New Blog:
Most all of my Website Design clients' websites and my own are using the old Wix Blog, I don't think I'll be transferring them yet due to the limitations of the new blog. But I hope that this update is paving the way for more updates down the road....
