The Wix online site builder is fine for making a basic website quickly, especially if it’s for personal use. If you don’t have long-term goals for growth, you don’t care about total control over your site design, and website ownership is not important to you, Wix might suit your needs.
So, what are the real issues with using a site builder like Wix for business?
- Lack of Control: Designs are limited so your website will look like thousands of others and there are limits as to what you can integrate into the site. You can only grow so far with a Wix site.
- You Don’t Own Your Website: You’re paying rent for a site that Wix owns. Read your terms and conditions – they can change “your” site or take it offline. You should be really uncomfortable with that!
- Slow Website Speeds: Wix websites are so bloated with code that your website is slow to load. A quick loading website is an important factor when it comes to Google. They want fast-loading sites for their searchers. If yours is not one of them, your website will never rank well on Google.
Are Wix Sites Bad for SEO?
For the most part, yes. Wix has been working at improving technical aspects of their website builder. Unfortunately, SEO with a Wix website will never be as good as WordPress (what we use).
Your Website Name
If you choose the FREE Wix option, your website name will look like the following:
- username.wixsite.com/siteaddress
That’s pretty awful! No one can remember that, plus it does not look professional. You can pay a monthly fee to use an actual domain name for your brand, meaning Wix really isn’t the free website builder that enticed you in the first place.
Google Analytics
If you choose the free Wix website option, your tracking code for Google analytics cannot be added because your website technically does not have unique URLs. Remember the Wix address above? That’s not unique and can’t be tracked.
Search Engine Crawl Issues
Wix sites are hard for search engine crawlers to index, especially since your site is AJAX based. It takes Google longer to index these types of pages so it could be a long time before your website ever shows in a Google search.
What’s the point of having a website if no one can find it in Google?
Website Speed
Google looks at site speed as a factor for rankings and Wix websites tend to load very slowly because they have hundreds of Javascript file requests before rendering a web page for someone to view. This creates a bad user experience for people visiting your website.
More technical aspects of SEO are not available to you because they don’t expect people who use a free website to know about them.
Your business will most likely outgrow a Wix site once you’ve reached a certain level of success and you need more functionality. If your business is serious about your online presence, attracting new customers, and being competitive, then make sure your website is built with WordPress.
[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h2″ question-0=”Do I own my Wix website?” answer-0=”No, you do not. You are renting the Wix website you built yourself. There are no guarantees your website will always be online (read your Terms). If you view your website as an asset you should own, you need WordPress. It offers more functions and features your business needs anyway, especially when it comes to SEO. ” image-0=”” headline-1=”h2″ question-1=”I feel like we’ve outgrown our Wix website – what should we do? ” answer-1=”Start over with a more robust content management system like WordPress. We do recommend working with a professional for a one time fee. Functionality, ownership, and SEO should be a priority, and a professional will get the job done right for you the first time!” image-1=”” count=”2″ html=”true” css_class=””]
