SEO (search engine optimization) is crucial for the success of your website and your business. Without it, your website won’t be visible on search engine results pages (SERPs), and customers will have difficulty finding you online. If you’re a business owner looking for a website builder or content management system (CMS), you’ll naturally want one with robust SEO functionality.
Wix is a website-building platform with hundreds of free, pre-built templates and a simple drag-and-drop editor. There’s no coding necessary, making it perfect for small businesses and web design beginners. They also offer an extensive marketplace of apps and plugins, as well as the option to add an online store or e-commerce functionality to your site. But is Wix good for SEO?
Wix once had a poor reputation in regard to SEO because of some limitations of their platform. However, they’ve vastly improved their SEO capabilities and tools since then, and the SEO issues that formerly existed are no longer a problem.
Wix websites can—and do—rank in top spots in Google searches. Let’s dive into an overview of SEO features on Wix.
A Beginner-Friendly Approach to SEO
Wix’s overall philosophy with everything from the Wix Editor to SEO is to make their platform both accessible for beginners and customizable for experts. In the introduction to the Wix SEO Guide, Mark Oberstien cites Wix’s SEO philosophy:
Our goal is to offer you the best SEO defaults possible while opening up the platform to as much customization as possible. In addition, we aim to foster the users that are not extensively familiar with SEO and provide them with a strong technical foundation so they can focus on running their business and creating useful content. At the same time, we seek to offer SEO professionals and experienced site managers as much control over their optimizations as possible.
In other words, if you’re an SEO beginner, you won’t need to worry about too many technical details. Wix automatically sets basic SEO defaults that provide a strong basis for your site to rank in search engines. If you’re knowledgeable about advanced SEO, the Wix platform allows you to dig deeper and add your own customized settings. However, you don’t need to be an expert to do SEO on Wix.
Wix’s On-Page SEO Features
Logical URL Structure
Wix automatically creates page URLs that are optimized for SEO. URLs are important for SEO because they provide an “address” for each page on your site. A URL that accurately describes the content on the page and where it fits in the hierarchy of your site overall is much easier to understand than a meaningless jumble of letters, symbols, and numbers. Wix gives your pages a default URL structure, but you can customize your URLs if you choose.
If you have multiple versions of the same page, you can use canonical tags to tell search engines which version to display and 301 redirects to send internet users to the right URL. These capabilities are built into the Wix Dashboard.
Automatic Sitemaps & Indexing
Wix automatically creates an XML sitemap and submits it to Google. It also updates your sitemap whenever you make changes to your site. A sitemap is a file that lists the URLs of each page on your website and how they relate to each other as well as when they were last updated. Sitemaps help search engines crawl and index your site faster and more accurately.
Customizable Meta Tags
Wix automatically generates SEO-friendly meta tags for website pages and allows you to add additional tags beyond the default ones. Meta tags are pieces of HTML code that give search engines information about your pages. These customizable tags include meta titles and meta descriptions.
Your page title and meta description will be the first things people see in search results, but they don’t show up on your actual page. Creating a good title tag is one of the most important pieces of on-page SEO to help your website attract traffic and rank in SERPs.
Optimized Images and Alt Text
Wix automatically optimizes images on your site to be the right size and load quickly. You will also be able to add alt text to describe your images. Search engine AI can read text but can’t comprehend images, so alt text allows even more content on your page to count for your website’s SEO.
Mobile Optimization
All Wix websites are made to be mobile-friendly and automatically adjust for users who are viewing your site on a mobile device. From the Wix Editor, you can see and customize how your site will look on a smartphone or tablet. Search engine algorithms love mobile-friendly sites, which can improve your website rankings.
Social Media Shareability
Finally, Wix web pages are optimized to be shareable on social media, and you can customize how your pages look when shared. This functionality allows you to incorporate social media into your SEO strategy to boost awareness and traffic on your site.
SEO Resources and Integrations
In addition to on-site SEO basics and customizable settings, the Wix Dashboard and Wix.com include a large number of tools, informational resources, and integrations to help website owners take control of SEO.
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Wix SEO Wiz: Wix’s SEO Setup Checklist gives you helpful SEO suggestions and a step-by-step guide for improving your rankings. You’ll just need to answer a few questions and connect your Wix site to Google.
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GSC Integration: Wix’s SEO Dashboard is linked with Google Search Console (GSC) so you can easily understand how your site is performing on Google. Once connected with GSC, you can use Wix’s Site Inspection Tool to see key metrics and issues related to SEO on Google.
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Semrush Keyword Research: Semrush is a leading provider of keyword insights for SEO. This integration helps you find strong keywords and identify the best ones to target.
Want more information and pro tips for SEO? Wix’s SEO Learning Hub contains a wealth of expert knowledge and how-tos.
Wix Website Builder Offers SEO-Friendly Functionality for Your Business Website
Wix websites are made to be attractive to search engines and built with SEO best practices in mind. If you’re the owner of a business website who wants to climb to the top of search engine results pages, Wix’s SEO capabilities can help you get there.
You can take full advantage of the many SEO tools on the Wix Dashboard as well as the Wix SEO Wix and Learning Hub. Combine that with good keyword research and competitor analysis, and you’ll have the start of a strong SEO strategy.
To make best use out of Wix SEO tools, connect with a top-rated web designer or SEO specialist and get a great looking, well-optimized website in return.