Wix SEO Review 2022 | Can You Rank Well With Wix?

Creating a professional website for your organization or business is important as many traditional businesses transition online. Statistics indicate that by 2040, online sales will be up to 95 percent of shopping internationally.

So, the only way to make sure you stand out and beat your competition in the marketplace is to build a powerful website. In this case, using the best website builder, such as Wix, might be your only way to success. 

Wix helps you create a responsive business website that looks beautiful on both smartphones and desktops.

But How Can You Tell if Wix is Suitable for Your Business?

This post will cover every aspect of the prominent website builder, pros and cons, features checklist, tips for getting the most out of this builder and the Wix SEO battle.

But first, where does Wix’s bad reputation come from?

A few years ago, recommending Wix for search engine optimization wasn’t easy. The builder had several issues that made competing in search engines like Google hard. Some of these previous issues include:

• An appalling URL format would incorporate strange characters to your URL (for example, yoursite.com/#!about/xis9). This isn’t SEO friendly. However, the issue was amended during the 2016 upgrade.
• Adding alt elements was not possible. However, this is not a problem anymore.
• The blog used to be a problem since you couldn’t optimize the posts’ URL, title tag, or meta description. But they fixed this as well.
• Additionally, previously, Wix used Flash Technology, which did not favor SEO.

While Wix fixed these SEO problems, it soiled its reputation. However, we must attest that they have been doing a great job, and in 2016, they managed to outsmart other leading website builder options for SEO.

They incorporated a few cutting-edge SEO alternatives such as Rich Results, Canonical URLs, making them innovators for site builder SEO.

It’s necessary to point out that Google (via their Senior Manager, J. Mueller), says that Wix sites work perfectly in search engines.

Furthermore, Rand Fishkin (a famous Wix SEO supporter and MOZ co-owner) has become the Wix SEO hero in a marketing campaign to mend its SEO reputation. They even conducted an SEO competition known as Wix lovers vs. Wix haters.

At a Glance: Pros and Cons of Wix SEO

Wix SEO’s top benefits include being user-friendly and its SEO functionality. The builder features both advanced and basic SEO features.

Pros

• No coding: with Wix, you do not need coding knowledge to build your website, which is impressive. SEO is daunting to newbies, and that’s why Wix keeps it as intuitive and straightforward as possible.
•  In-built SEO: You won’t need to go through the troubles of using widgets and plugins. Wix has incorporated SEO functionality into the dashboard. This lets you concentrate on the web content.
• Google Integration: Linking your Wix SEO site to Google Search Console and Google Analytics is extremely easy.

Cons

• Tricky for Advanced SEO: Wix is ideal for basic SEO but not excellent for fancy needs. Its margins can be food for search engine results, but Wix does not shine past its basics.

Wix’s SEO is best suitable for bloggers and small companies. It covers the core basics with its simplicity of use. SEO is no longer for the technology savvy. With Wix, any person can create an excellent website.

Wix SEO Features Checklist

Wix SEO offers a comprehensive collection of features to ensure a seamless and easy website creation experience. They include:

Meta Title: This will tell Google and users what the page is about. It is included on your Wix website. The post and page have an SEO section. You put in the important information and see the way your page will look in the search engine.

Meta Description: An opportunity to improve your web content’s heading and summarize what viewers should anticipate and why they need to click on the page. Yes! It is included in Wix.

Custom URLs: This lets you create URLs that reflect your content instead of the random jumble of letters and numbers. For instance, website.com/hds73tgha is not informative and detailed like example.com/article/wix-seo-guide.

Headings: Subheadings or subtitles will show readers and Google how you have formatted the content.

Image alt text: While Google is intelligent, it is not that clever to distinguish what a picture is displaying or why it’s relevant. So, the alt text will describe the pictures on your website. Once you click a picture, head to the settings to find the alt text.

Good speed and uptime: Websites are fast to load and are dependably live over 99 percent of the time. 

Mobile Friendly: This means websites can easily run on smartphones and are easily understood by Google. Wix SEO comes with the drag and drops editor that allows you to edit your website on desktop and mobile. It has a page layout optimizing feature that makes pages mobile-friendly with a single click.

Ensuring the mobile version of your website looks good is essential for its success. This is because mobile is gaining popularity as 40 percent of people conduct their Google search online via smartphones. Fortunately, Wix SEO comes with an editor that makes mobile optimization easy. Move your mouse cursor over the desktop screen to the top of the Wix editor. Click on the mobile icon to find out how your website will appear when viewed from a smartphone screen.

Wix SEO has handled the mobile view, and your website already looks stunning in this structure. However, you can make adjustments as you please, and any edits you will make to the mobile interface won’t affect the desktop interface of your website.

301 redirects: If you decide to modify your page URL, 301 redirects will redirect users to your recent page even when they visit using the original address. It is incorporated in the WIX dashboard. This process is simple as you only need to add a newly created URL into a box.

SSL encryption (HTTPS): SSL creates a safe and encoded link between the browser and a website server. Search engines such as Google are starting to penalize websites with no SSL. For this reason, this is important. All Wix websites come with HTTPS and SSL certs.

Sitemap: A whole listing of pages on your website that notifies the search engine how it is formatted. You can add ‘/sitemap.xml’ at the end of your website URL. While your Wix website will come with a sitemap, you will need to manage it from the Google search console.

Google Analytics: This Google tool lets you view your website data, from user demographics to page-specific traffic. To get this feature on your website, visit your Wix site manager, click ‘+ New Tool,’ and enter your code.

Google Search Console: This is a Google tool that displays how the website will appear in search engine results. Linking to the Google Search Console is critical in the Wix SEO tool. You are not required to pay.

Social Media Integration: This is an in-built functionality whereby viewers can share their posts on various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Search Engine Instructions: Your website might need to communicate with search engines, instructing them to avoid indexing some pages. On a Wix website, every page comes with SEO settings. So, if you do not want the page to appear in Google results, you can click on the hide option.

Canonical Tags: If you have several varieties of similar pages, canonical tags let you select the ones that should appear on the search engine. This prevents them from competing for positions.

Structured data: This is the best way of giving the search engine more data concerning your page. Structured data is the star ratings available on the search engine results. Search engines rely on structured data since it assists in matching viewers with relevant data. 

This data is not built into the Wix website like most people will expect. While you might add it on your own, it can be complicated. So, you need the right plugins to easily add structured data.

7 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Wix

Like any other website builder, Wix SEO has its weaknesses and strengths. With over 55 million users globally, it is one of the most powerful website builders in the market. One trait that makes Wix SEO stand out as the best tool for improving your online presence is its simplicity. 

The moment you complete the basics and the website goes live, you need to optimize the performance of your website with additional functionalities and features. Below are seven helpful tips to assist you in improving your online presence.

1. Make Good Use of Wix SEO Wiz

It will help you settle on a custom SEO plan depending on your answers to several questions. Also, it guides you on boosting your online presence by highlighting the weak points and offering valuable tips to improve your website ranking on search engines. 

The tool assists you in increasing your website’s performance through easy-to-follow tutorials, tracking your success with achievement updates, and learning more about search engine optimization with helpful videos and articles.

2. Learn How to Use the Full-Width Stripes

Stripes are among the essential foundational design components in the Wix website building platform, and you have probably utilized them. These stripes can be utilized to make your website look great on mobile devices.

Wix comes with a mobile editor for mobile-specific viewers. But having great mobile websites doesn’t mean your website will look good on intermediary-sized gadgets such as mini-laptops and tablets. Therefore, to ensure your pages look good on every device, you might need to use full-width stripes. 

These stripes adapt well to any screen size, and their content adjusts appropriately. They are great to use since they are easily customizable.

3.  Pay Attention to Mobile

Wix is ideal for creating mobile-friendly websites, and Google has been rewarding such websites. According to recent statistics, mobile traffic accounted for only 50 percent of web traffic globally in 2020. 

So, take your time to create a website that will be good on mobile. Search engines will love your website, and your users will have an excellent viewing experience.

4. Set Up the Google Analytics Properly

While Google Analytics is a free tool, you will need a premium Wix plan to fully use it on your website. This is worth it, as Google analytics provides unmatched insights into the number and geographic locations of users who visit your website and how they behave when they are on your website. 

You will know which pages they visit most, how long they stay on various content, and what sites refer them to your website. Wix offers all the information you need on how to use Google analytics.

5. Make Use of a Meta Description

A Meta description should have 160 characters for desktop and 130 characters for mobile. The description helps convince your visitors why they should click on your posts. Tests indicate that long descriptions will improve viewer engagement.

6. Submit your Sitemap

A sitemap is vital for SEO. It notifies search engines like Google what is on the website, where it’s located, and how it is structured. 

Since Wix doesn’t offer sitemaps, you need to create an account with the Google search console and submit your sitemap.

7. Continue Learning More About SEO

Wix is a perfect builder for improving your performance on search engines. However, it is essential to continue learning more about SEO and hone your skills for long-term success. You can use numerous resources, whereby you can start with Moz’s The Beginner’s Guide to SEO.

One of the winning strengths of Wix SEO is that it allows you to create a website around your content. No matter the site-building platform you decide to use, one of the effective ways to rank high in search engines is to have useful and interesting content. Google is not interested in websites attempting to manipulate the system. Concentrate on your website, incorporate smart SEO, and your website will rank well.

Wix SEO Battle

In 2019, Wix introduced a new collection of innovative SEO tools and elements to appeal to a professional user base. To demonstrate their confidence in the tools and address their SEO community, they had to put everything on the line by initiating a Wix SEO battle.

This battle comprises two teams of digital marketing professionals. One team represented WIX lovers, while the other represented Wix haters. They battled for six months to find out who could rank higher than the other for the keyword Wix SEO. The team that would rank high on the search engine was to take home $25,000, while the losing team got $10,000. The Wix SEO battle started on 16th July and ended on 19th December.

Marie Haynes Consulting represented the Wix SEO lovers. This is a company that helps customers improve their SEO ranking. It is well known for its expertise in Panda Algorithms and Google’s Penguin. Furthermore, Marie is an influential figure in the SEO field and has many Twitter followers. Her company created this site using the builder’s advanced SEO tools in a quest to outrank the Wix haters.

The team that decided to represent Wix haters comprised Liquid, a marketing company based in Pennsylvania. They create fully customized sites for their customers. The team was free to choose any site builder they wanted to use for the battle, together with SEO tools of their choice.

The team was selected by Lukasz Zelazny, who served as the judge in the battle. With over 15 years of combined experience, Zeleny is an SEO keynote speaker, social media marketing professional, author, and top UK marketing influencer.

The Wix SEO lovers won the battle. Even though there is some serious controversy surrounding the experiment’s validity, the Wix Haters team admitted that Wix has significantly improved their website builder.

Final Verdict: Is Wix for You?

Wix is a perfect website builder if you don’t have any SEO knowledge. It comes with in-built support and guidance, making it an amazing way to learn the basics. Additionally, you can use the advanced methods once you are comfortable with the procedure.

If you believe you are an SEO prodigy, the builder’s constant guidance may annoy you quickly. For better control through a clunky platform, builders like WordPress and Squarespace might be the ideal option for you. However, you have a guarantee that you will rank well with Wix SEO.

The actual question is, would you be pleased with Wix’s SEO features? The truth is you must try them to find out. Wix SEO’s free trial comes with SEO tools that you can utilize.

FAQs

I’m new to SEO – should I use Wix?

Wix is ideal for newbies due to its SEO tools and features that are easy to understand and use. For instance, the WIX SEO Wiz assembles a custom-made SEO action plan for newbies to use.

Is Wix or WordPress better for SEO?

Research indicates that utilizing WordPress does not guarantee better rankings or better SEO features. While it offers you better control and many cutting-edge tools to pick from, it is hard to understand and use. You will have to find high-quality SEO plugins when using WordPress.

On the other hand, Wix SEO features core SEO tools that are in-built. 

Can my website really rank well with Wix?

Yes! Wix comes with a great range of SEO features that will help your site rank high in google. The builder is ideal for search engine optimization, as it has been confirmed by the WIX battle and the frequent Wix SEO users. 

While it might not offer advanced SEO tools, it’s the perfect choice for personal portfolios, blogs, and small businesses.

Why does Wix have a bad reputation?

Wix SEO is somehow limited. If you need a complex site that appeals to your target audience, brings you huge traffic, has additional SEO tools, then Wix isn’t for you. The builder is ideal for individuals who are starting out, want a simple landing page, and do not require a lot of features on their website. 

The benefit is that it is user-friendly, and you can incorporate the available templates.