Wix Review - 2018

I am amazed that advertising agencies, marketing people, SEO companies, and other large businesses still doubt that Wix is a professional website solution. With all the more widely-known platforms such as Wordpress, Squarespace, MoPro and others, often times people in these businesses – especially ad agencies – turn their nose up at Wix.

I've been asked recently by several clients: "Why don't people like Wix?"

My answer is that Wix in the past had a bad reputation for SEO and Mobile viewing. You see, when Wix first started, it used to be a Flash-based platform, which was NOT good for SEO or Mobile. Flash-based websites also became obsolete due to Mobile Smart Phones taking over a huge part of the web-surfing market. Flash is not compatible with mobile, so old Wix websites quickly became obsolete in a growing world of mobile users. However, Wix switched over to a HTML5 platform many years ago, and has make HUGE improvements to it's website editor platform over the past several years. In my opinion, it's now the BEST platform out there. I think a lot of old-school website designers and developers have not yet discovered or used Wix yet, and therefore most don't realize how far it's come over the past several years.

Wix is an Amazing Platform!

As a Website Designer having worked in the Website Design business for over 15 years, Wix is the first platform that I've seen that stands out high above the rest of the platforms. The editor is a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) – which means it's super easy for website designers like myself to design, launch and edit websites. Wix has changed my website design world! I used to develop a lot of websites in Wordpress, Joomla, Squarespace, Shopify, Volusion, Magento, you name it. But over the years, with all the hacked Wordpress sites, and also dealing with mobile layouts, I had almost quit the business because I was tired of custom developing sites for all the hundreds of devices and browsers. My clients often didn't have large budgets to accomodate for all the extra programming every design change required in Wordpress or other platforms. So when I first tried out Wix, I thought it was too good to be true! But it wasn't – I found that Wix websites do extremely well with SEO and the design can be fully customized easily without the time-consuming CSS and HTML5 coding that other platforms require. Over the past 5 years, I've designed hundreds of Wix websites for businesses large and small.

I've fallen in love with Wix and rarely recommend any of these other platforms to my clients. Why? Because my clients LOVE Wix. I can't tell you how many times a client has come to me with a Wordpress website that they are super frustrated with, whether it's because they can't make simple design tweaks, or because it's been hacked (very common!) and is broken or sending users to spam sites. Wix is a secure, closed-platform that doesn't allow for easy hacking, unlike the widely-used open-source Wordpress platform.

To be honest, I've had it with hacked or outdated/broken Wordpress sites. Once in awhile, I may recommend Wordpress or Shopify or other platforms to certain clients as it may be a better fit if a super custom database, or a customized shopping cart, or a sophisticated member-login area is required, but most business websites don't need (or don't have the budget for) a custom developed site – they just need a custom design. Most clients just need a website that looks amazing, is easy to use for viewers, easy to edit and update, and works great on phones. Wix is the perfect website platform for this!

Wix also has tons of easy-to-use features, like SEO features, blogs, forums, animation, password-protected pages, photo galleries, third-party apps, and so much more. And, with the recent release of Wix Code, we can now add in custom code to do some of the things that the platform doesn't offer out-of-the-box, such as collapsing menus, database-driven page content and more – the sky is the limit with Wix Code!

Is Wix good for SEO?

Yes, it's actually really good for SEO (search engine optimization)! I've found that my own and my client's Wix websites perform extremely well in search engines like Google, even when it's a newly launched website. Wix has all the SEO features built right in so that we can easily add Meta tags like Page Titles and Descriptions, as well as alt-image text for text. And, because it's so easy to update the website content and add blog posts, this really helps boost SEO for websites because adding new content regularly is the best way to stand out and rise in the rankings in Google search results.

Proof that Wix is a SEO Hero: I participated in Wix's SEO Hero contest for the $50,000 prize, and, while my SEO Hero Wix website didn't win first place, it did extremely well in the contest and Google rankings, and even got an honorable mention from Wix. It is actually HIGHER now than the contest winner, seo-hero.tech, which is currently #3 (as of July 3, 2018) as it is currently #2 in Google's search results for "SEO Hero," which means it beat out hundreds of other SEO company websites built just for the contest – and whom used a variety of different platforms including Wordpress and other custom platforms. My one-person created Wix SEO Hero site beat nearly every one of them. This is proof that Wix, if optimized correctly, can EXCEL at SEO!

Is Wix a Professional Platform for large Businesses?

Of course it is! I've designed many high-end websites in Wix, from Colorado School of Mines' Fundraising Campaign website to a website for New York Times best-selling Author Sandra Dallas.

That said, Wix DOES tout itself as a "build it yourself" website platform. Which is true – IF you like designing and have experience with website design. Just like anything, Wix has a learning curve, and you need web design skills and the desire to design to create beautiful websites in Wix. Many of my clients don't have problems updating their websites, but they do have problems trying to design a website from start to finish. Even though Wix is easy to use, Wix Designers like myself know the ins-and-outs of the platform to make it perform at it's best, and know what tools and features work best for specific needs. As a Wix Designer, I also use design programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to design custom images, logos, infographics and other graphics to use in website designs. Wix Website Designers also know how to perform SEO (search engine optimization) correctly on websites, how to add alt text to images, how to name pages, etc so that the websites can get found in search engines like Google. With 15+ years of website design experience, I bring a lot of expertise and knowledge to the table. I always tell people that Wix is a great tool, but there is no magic button that makes the design look and work great for any business – Designers lend our design eyes and skills to every page to make it a great site.

Check out my Website Design Portfolio, packed with professional Wix designed websites. See a few below:

So next time someone tells you that "Wix isn't a professional platform" – don't believe the hype! Wix is quickly becoming one of the most loved platforms available – thousands of Website Designers are discovering how wonderful Wix is, and there is even a whole community of Wix Design Experts that is growing everyday. This week was the 1st ever WixCON in Miami, so hundreds of designers are attending to learn more about and discuss Wix. Wix also listens to us and we have a Wix Design Experts Facebook group that lets us talk directly with Wix staff as well as other Wix designers to work together to continue to improve the Wix platform and figure out solutions for all types of website needs.

Happy Wixing!

– Idelle Fisher, owner of Picklewix Website Designer for 15+ years