Wix and SEO
Wix is great at SEO in 2024!
As a Denver Website Designer who often works on Wix websites as well as Wordpress websites, I've been working to dispel the myths around Wix being bad for SEO.
What is SEO? SEO stands for "search engine optimization" and it is what websites need to be able to be found on Google and other search engines. It's not a magic trick, it's all about creating good content that people are searching for and optimizing it so that your webpages can be found. Wix allows for easy editing so it's easy to add good new content to your site so that your website can be found in search engines. All of my own Wix websites and my clients' Wix websites do very well with SEO and getting found on Google and other search engines. The Wix platform has all the tools you need to build a beautiful website with great SEO. Even Google says Wix is good for SEO, as SEO is not so much about the platform that matters, it's all about how you use your site to build good content to get found! I say: if Wix makes it easier for you to keep your website updated and add content, then it IS the best platform for SEO for your business.
If you want help with SEO, please contact us or call 720.260.3541 for a free estimate. View website design portfolio »
Below I am going to address some common myths on why Wix is bad for SEO:
Wix Myth #1: Wix doesn't have all the features needed for SEO.
A few years back, Wix was missing some essential SEO features, like custom URLs, blog meta tags, SSL, and alt image text tags, but that has long since been added and Wix does indeed have all the tools you need to succeed with SEO. Wix also used to be Flash-based way back in the day, which was also bad for SEO – however, Wix has been HTML5-based for years now, so this is no longer an issue.
Wix Myth #2: With Wix, you don't "Host" the website files, you can't easily move your website elsewhere or change platforms and so therefore it can't be good for SEO. I have a lot of responses to this, as this is one of the most common reasons why developers and SEO companies say the don't like Wix. I'm not sure why they cite this when justifying why Wix isn't good for SEO, as it doesn't really have anything to do with SEO, but I will address it here regardless.
It's true, as Wix is a hosted solution, you don't "own" the files and cannot move it elsewhere. But why would you want to move off of Wix? Wix is such an easy to use editing platform, and can be easily redesigned at any point without the higher cost of coding/development. And, Wix has all the SEO tools you need. So, why would you want to move it off the platform to something that is harder to manage and edit? By the way, not being able to host your website files anywhere does not effect SEO.
Speaking of SEO, the Wix platform is MUCH more secure than any open-sourced platforms like Wordpress – just search: "hacked wordpress website" and you'll find thousands of pages with "fixes" for a hacked site. With open source, sure, you have access to and can edit your website files directly – but that also means that it's easy for hackers to get access to your site files, too! In fact, Securi says that 75% of hacked sites are Wordpress-based (partially due the widespread use of the platform). And believe me, it isn't super easy to fix a hacked Wordpress site! There is time and skill involved. If your open-source website gets hacked, it's BAD for SEO, as Google will penalize your site, even blocking it from viewers with a big red screen! (See screenshot example.) Because Wix is a closed system, it is not easy for robots and hackers to get into the code to hack it, so you don't have to worry about constantly updating and protecting your website as you do with Wordpress and other platforms. The Wix team handles that for you as part of their reasonable hosting cost. While Wix isn't a perfect fit for everyone – super custom database-driven websites or complex shopping carts may be better-suited with a more custom platform – Wix IS perfect for 90% of my clients' business website needs. Wix does have a ton of built-in features like simple shopping carts, forums, blogs, password protection, video, and scheduling and booking tools. Wix also has lots of other third-party integration with apps and HTML integration, and with WixCode on the way, it will allow you to do pretty much anything you need to do with your Wix hosted website. Wix is also adding new features and improving it's platform all the time, so it will improve and morph to respond to the needs of it's customers and their websites. Wix's hosting fees are very reasonable, about the same as regular hosting, and they have a million-dollar easy-to-use editor that no one else has yet to rival. (Webydo, Squarespace, and others do not yet compare, in my opinion).
You CAN move your website away from Wix if you needed to:
There are even plugins to import Wix into Wordpress – however, to do it right, it still takes time to polish and edit the imported content – but this isn't just with Wix, you run into the same thing when moving websites from any other platform! If you have a website on Wix, you're not stuck on Wix forever, if you were to need a website on a new platform down the road, you can STILL easily build a new website and point your domain to the new website. So don't worry about being "stuck" on Wix, because you're not.
The funny thing is, let's say you do have a Wordpress or other platform based website.
Your files are still hosted somewhere, whether it's GoDaddy or WPEngine or Network Solutions, etc. These other hosting companies COULD still potentially lose your files or even worse (and much more common,) the files often get hacked or corrupted and the host does not have backups far enough back to restore the site to it's pre-hacked state. This HAS happened to my clients who have Wordpress websites. If your site is hacked, and if you don't know how to do it yourself, you have to pay a developer to figure out where it was hacked and manually remove code and install fresh versions of your theme and Wordpress to fix it. This costs you time and/or money. And, I have to break it to you – even if you're website is on an open-source platform like Wordpress or Joomla, IF you want to move the site to another host, you still need to hire a developer to help move all the files and databases plus set everything back up. I rarely have clients move hosting servers, unless they're switching platforms entirely for reasons beyond a simple redesign. While imports are possible, I find that when I redesign ANY website, it still involves simply manually copying and pasting and re-designing all the pages, content and layouts to make it look good.
Bottom Line: There is no magic red button that will redesign your site without time and/or cost.
When you are ready to redesign your website , you will most likely end up having to redevelop the site from scratch anyway – because the web is an ever-changing world. What works today is gone tomorrow (think: Flash websites). Any website's lifespan is about 2-5 years before it's outdated and you will want to upgrade it. Wix, as it is a hosted platform, will grow and improve over time, as the Wix developers are always adding features and improving the platform, so Wix won't get as outdated as quickly as your own managed/hosted platforms such as Wordpress – whom nobody is upgrading for you except yourself or your web developer/designer.
So the bottom line is, are other website platforms better because you have control over the website files? Are other sites that much easier to redesign or move than Wix websites? Does not having control over your website files hurt SEO? The answer is no. Having a Wix hosted site is more secure and comes with less hassles and developer costs than hosting your Wordpress or other platform-based website. In Wix, you can do design updates yourself, or, if you're not design-inclined, you can hire a professional Wix designer to redesign your existing Wix site with a fresh new design. Over time, you can also continue to build and add pages & functionality so your Wix website will grow with your business. What's great about Wix is that it is so easy-to-edit and add content, that you'll actually enjoy the process. Unlike other platforms, which I say are a "battle" to edit or make design changes to, Wix is a TRUE what-you-see-is-what-you-get-to-edit editor... you simply click on text or images or backgrounds to make changes and save it to the live site. No fuss and no CSS coding needed. That equates to a more updated website because you won't be afraid to edit it.
Wix Myth #3: Wix doesn't have plugins.
Well, they're not called plugins but Wix does have hundreds of third-party apps that you can integrate, such as the Printful app for printing t-shirts on-demand. And, you can use the HTML embedding tool to add custom html anywhere on your Wix website (such as email subscription forms like from Mailchimp, or embed scheduling widgets or custom forms.)
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In Summary... Wix is a great platform for SEO.
I hope this helps you understand that having a Wix site is not going to hurt your SEO or put you in a box. It's simply the best tool for the job today. In 5 years, who knows what platforms will emerge and replace the platforms of today. The web is an ever-changing beast and we may not even be using browsers and websites as we know it down the road – so don't get hung up on having a website that will last forever. It won't. If anything, Wix is a good platform to be on because they will continue to improve their platform and you may be able to keep your website on Wix for years to come as it will grow with you. It's nice to know that the hard working Wix team is always improving and listening to our needs to improve the platform.
So, if Wix has what you need, then go for it! Not sure if it fits your needs? Contact us for a free estimate with our recommendations on the best platform for your needs and budget. Don't worry that if you put your website on Wix that it will limit your website's SEO – it actually will help you rise to the top of search engines if you optimize your Wix website content correctly and use your website often to build good content over time. We do a lot of work with client websites that soar to the top of Google search results for the search terms they want to be found for. Check out my SEO Hero tips for ways to excel with SEO »
Get a free SEO estimate for your website, contact us or call 720.260.3541. View some of the Best Wix Websites » View some of our work: Wix Website Design Portfolio »
