Is Wix Good For SEO? Search Engine Optimization Review 2022
When building a website the goal is to rank highly on different search engines. This is performed through a process called search engine optimization (SEO). Through tactically describing a website’s content to search engines, keyword utilization, and various other tactics, SEO can place you on the 1st page of Google and other engines.
Wix is designed to be a one stop shop for all beginner and intermediate level website builders. The features that they offer make designing a website easy for those who have little to no experience. Unfortunately for them, people often assume an easy to use platform leads to less potential. Digging into the history of Wix, this was certainly the case. However, as years pass Wix has rapidly changed for the better in many aspects, SEO being a major contributor.
The History Of Wix SEO
Wix is surprisingly good for search engine optimization. Despite the poorly executed startup of the Wix SEO career, the platform is now one of the top ranking SEO web builders. Over the years many new features have been added, tweaked, and expanded upon to make the company what they are today. The rest of this article will cover the pros and cons of Wix easy to use SEO features.
Pros: Here Are Some Of The Best Wix SEO Tools
Wix SEO Wiz
The SEO Wiz feature is free to use for both premium and free website plans. The easy to use feature gives step by step instructions on preparing your website to rank higher on different search engines. The steps taken in the SEO wiz procedure include creating and optimizing meta descriptions, crafting page titles, image optimization, and much more. Wix SEO Wiz automatically finds each of the surface level problems of your website and will tell you where they need to be fixed, and how you can do this.
Here are a couple of extra tips for running your Wix page in relevance to the SEO Wiz feature. First, it’s always a good thing to check this feature after making updates to your website. SEO Wiz is always updating when new content is added to your site. The Wiz is a great tool to double check your work after making website edits. Second, if the problem is not solvable from the SEO Wiz page, you will be linked directly into the site editing page. There are not too many tasks that will make this happen, but to avoid the confusion for newbies, this may happen to you.
Meta Titles
The meta title for a site, also known as a title tag, is the text that will show up on search engines. Wix allows title text to be changed in order for your website to rank higher on organic keywords, also for web traffic to better understand your site. Through Wix you are limited to a title tag up to 70 characters long. However, it is recommended to keep your site and page titles around 55-60 characters. This recommendation is due to different browsers setting meta title tags to various length limits.
When setting a title tag, aim to use your targeted keyword once, and include a noun and adjective to best reach your targeted audience. If you find yourself struggling to create titles or locate keywords, try using a keyword tool. A couple free keyword tools are linked below this paragraph.
Word Stream: A free keyword tool.
Word Tracker: A free keyword and link checking tool.
Meta Descriptions & Alt Text
Wix allows for meta descriptions and alt text to be added onto each page, image or video, slideshow, and other similar features. The meta description for a website’s page will show up under the meta title on search engines. This is used to inform web traffic and Google’s algorithm about your site.
When creating a meta description for your web pages, try using keywords or phrases related to the content on the page you are writing. These descriptions will allow for your images, videos, and links to be recommended under Google search and other search engines. Afterall, the more places your website can be found, the better!
Custom URLS
The option to create a custom URL is located under the section “SEO Basics” on the main Wix Editor. Custom URLS allow for you to change the length, content, and SEO optimization for your site. Each website page comes with a default link that matches your original meta title. For natural SEO, keeping the URL and meta title keywords similar is always a good choice. However, if your meta titles are too long, try changing the URL to something a bit shorter. When creating a unique URL, try to keep keywords from the title in the link.
Heading Tag Selection
Another way to optimize your search ranking is through the use of heading tags. Wix offers heading tag options one through six. Properly utilizing these headings will allow for faster and more accurate website crawls. Making sure that you have the headings in proper order and including keywords will make for a better optimized page.
The general use for HTML headings should be as follows. Heading one is used for page titles. Heading two are going to be subtitles. Heading tag three will be used as a niche label within the sub-title sections; as the information gets more specific, the title tag should be a higher number.
Automatic Sitemap / Google Site Submission
Sitemaps are important features for crawling a website. Browsers such as Google require a sitemap to be submitted through Google Search Console (GSC), in order to better index pages. The sitemap gives a layout of your site, allowing for a browser to know how to navigate their crawls. Fortunately for beginner website builders, Wix automatically creates this sitemap for you. In addition, Wix will automatically submit the sitemap and index your page on Google for you after publishing. This means you will never need to submit your sitemap to GSC again, however it will help to submit this after every change if you want faster indexing.
Built In Google Analytics
Through the Wix site you are able to view the Google analytics for each of your pages. Having Google Analytics allows for you to track website statistics. This is a very useful SEO tool as you can view the amount of views you page gets, compare web traffic to specific pages, and figure out which days/weeks your site is performing strongest. Google Analytics also collects other information such as where the majority of web traffic is originating from.
Mobile Device Optimization
The basic editor offers a feature to edit specifically on mobile devices. This feature is aimed to make websites visually responsive. However, through the “hidden” feature, along with mobile mode settings, SEO can be altered for the better.
Mobile devices are naturally slower than desktop computers. This being said, a slow load time will result in lower search ranking for a website. By removing video backgrounds, high file size images and features, along with other small tweaks, SEO can certainly be improved upon for mobile devices. It’s important to note that this does not mean you have to remove all of your main content, your organic ranking will be much higher with a slower load time and good content. However, removing the small unnecessary features on mobile might be a good idea.
SSL Certification
Premium plans offered by Wix come with SSL certification. Having a secure and encrypted connection will help protect user information from potential hackers. Google rewards websites with SSL Certification (https rather than http) by boosting their ranking higher than non-secure sites.
Cons: Be Careful To Not Do The Following
Slow Page / Servers
Wix offers a lifetime supply of applications you can use on your website. Some features are free, some will cost you a pretty penny. The apps can be cool and all, but having too many will lead to a slow website. Having a Wix app installed, creating custom html code, using too many fonts, and many other things can slow down a website. The features that Wix offers their users are all amazing, just be careful not to overwhelm your site.
There Is Always More To Learn (Misled Completion)
Wix is designed to be an easy to use website builder. They help with SEO, design, content recommendations, and so much more. Unfortunately, they can kind of make it seem as your site is 100% perfect after you complete all of their recommendations. Simply put, there is a lot more to optimizing your site for search ranking than Wix will teach you. It will certainly help to join a SEO group and perform consistent research to stay on top of the always changing SEO system.
Good Luck With Your SEO Adventure!
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