Is Wix still terrible for SEO?
-
In Australia, I hear it over and over again that Wix is literally the worst site builder you can use due to it's poor site build for SEO. Has anyone here got some tangible reasons for why this is? As I am constantly getting asked this by clients who are using Wix and want me to help with their SEO.
-
There are many famous and top-quality platforms available for e-commerce like Shopify, Big Commerce, Magento, etc. Learn more about it.
-
Even though our agency is representing the Wix SEO Haters, we must admit that they have made a ton of improvements.
Yes, historically, they were awful and often wouldn't even appear in SERPs.
Now, the issues they still face are the following:
- Poor page speed
- Non-customizable sitemap or robots.txt file
- Lack of structured data capabilities
- Not a ton of advanced SEO capabilities in the Wix SEO Wiz tool.
But, despite all of that, John Mueller from Google has said websites are websites for Google.
So, while it's not the ideal platform, it's a viable option for small businesses or freelancers with limited budget. However, I'd always recommend using a more advanced platform, such as WordPress.
-
It is possible to customize product urls, meta titles and meta descriptions. Seo settings for product page
-
The same content will get the exact same ranking regardless of the CMS that produced it.
John Mueller said websites are websites for Google on the post that @Casey mentioned.
For most sites out there, the available SEO settings on Wix are enough and switching a CMS will not boost their rankings. There are, for sure, sites that require a different CMS than Wix but SEO is rarely the reason for it.
-
I've got a Wix site that I'm pretty happy with. There have definitely been some frustrations, and it does seem like I've been missing out on some customization options that would help with SEO, but for certain key words my site is now showing up on Google in the top 3 of local results and page 1 of organic results. I'm admittedly pretty clueless regarding SEO, programming, and most of the stuff talked about on Moz, but I feel like Wix has been an easy and inexpensive way to get a good looking site that gets results.
-
Yes. Go for WordPress which is good for SEO. Wix is not good for SEO though they are trying to make it Search Engine Friendly to make their platform indexable.
-
The short answer is: Yes...but not "as" bad as previously. Should you choose it over Wordpress as an example? No, you should not.
Here's the long answer and an update of sorts:
The fixes...
- Wix uses "hashbangs" in their URL structure, which previously kept Google from indexing all the content but they fixed this in 2016.
- Wix previously suffered from an inability to customize page titles and add alt tags but it is my understanding that they've fixed these issues as well. And, Google's John Mueller says that Wix Websites do-in-fact "work fine" in search.
Regardless, in spite of the fixes, Wix still has what I feel are issues that render it inferior to WordPress. For instance;
- you can't customize canonical tags (or even add self-facing ones)
- you can't customize product URLs (relatively weak on all ecommerce stuff)
- you can't add customized Meta Description to product pages
- you also can't customize Page Titles for product pages
- Wix has a mobile editor, but that's just for smartphones, not tablets.
I find Wix especially unsuitable for use in ecommerce. Wix pulls SEO information for page titles, descriptions, etc. from the Product Information you initially enter and which cannot be edited at a later time. For me, that's probably the biggest reason that I prefer WordPress over Wix. You make a mistake, you are SCREWED down the road.
Bottom Line: If you can get the client to move to Wordpress, do it. It's just "better."
Hope that's helpful.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is page speed important to improve SEO ranking?
I saw on a SEO Agency's site (https://burstdgtl.com/search-engine-optimization/) that page speed apparently affects Google ranking. Is this true? And if it is, how do I improve it, do I need an agency?
On-Page Optimization | | jasparcj0 -
My website have h1 tags , but still crawlers can't find them?
crawlers can't crawl my meta description and h1 tags even when they are present.
On-Page Optimization | | Green_Beauty0 -
How to hide element without affecting SEO listing
I have a problem I would like to remove header from normal page flow as I already have same information copied in CTA box but I need this header for SEO, is there a way to remove this header from a document flow without being blacklisted by google?
On-Page Optimization | | tesdublin0 -
Ajax tabs and seo and sitemap
I am in the process of simplifying my website so that there are tabs in each section which load dynamically by ajax all of the subpages.Each subpage has funny url with a hashtag.
On-Page Optimization | | paddyaran
Does this mean each page does not have its title , or metatags?, Is this bad for seo?. Many of these pages have only a paragraph of text. I also am making a sitemap which links to the pages as a normal page. Would this mean I have a duplicate content issue with seo?.0 -
Address on Every page of the website for Local SEO? Good or Bad?
Is this good idea to add business address on every page of the website?, How Google see this? and This is Good or bad for ranking?
On-Page Optimization | | Dan_Brown10 -
Are flip books - pdf readers on websites SEO friendly?
I have a client with bar, most of their content is menus that are displayed in a flip book format. Is this content indexed by search engines, and if so, are they of any value for ranking?
On-Page Optimization | | SteveK640 -
Problem with Plugin: Wordpress SEO by Yoast
Hi Hi, I'm using the Plugin "Wordpress SEO by Yoast". Unfortunatelly, this plugin generates a sourcecode looking like this: name='description' content='XXXXXX.'/> Seomoz can't read this and tells me, that my pages have no description. Google doesn't matter and reads it correct. Is there anything I can do about this? Many greetings André
On-Page Optimization | | waynestock0 -
SEO for Image only posts
Let's say I have a post where I show 25 different wood textures. I start the post with a small paragraph and then I show several images of wood textures linked to an internal or external page. Since I don't use a text link, then I have to rely on alt tags. It would be very difficult to assign a different alt tag to so many similar images, and I guess there would be a risk of keyword stuffing (walnut wood, oak wood, etc). On the other side, if I assign the same tag to all images, then that clearly is keyword stuffing (alt=wood textures). This is just an example, but it applies to most of my posts. What do you think I should do with the alt tags? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | enriquef0