Wix Vs WordPress which one is best for SEO? If you are a business owner then at some point, usually after you have choosen your domain name , then you will have had to decide which platform to build your business website on. There are so many choices however not all are created equal.

It’s inevitable businesses often end up choosing between different options, that could WIX Vs WordPress, WordPress Vs Squarespace or Shopify etc

So let’s take a look at two of them from an SEO standpoint, starting with WIX Vs WordPress and which one is likely to bring you the better SEO results.

Over the last few years Wix has grown in popularity, it now has 3.8 million live sites.

In a large part thanks to drag and drop design functions and a whole host of celebrity ads featuring people like Karlie Kloss. Added to that is the fact that it is a relatively low cost each month.

Therefore, it’s understandable that there has been a growth in businesses using Wix, especially businesses that are just starting out.

As a result, I have had a lot of questions asking me Wix Vs WordPress Which one is the best for SEO?

In all honesty, Wix doesn’t have the best reputation amongst SEO professionals, for a number of different reasons.

However, there is no doubt that they have tried to improve their SEO game over the last few years.

So, when it comes to Wix Vs WordPress for SEO it’s always a good idea to really weigh up the pros and cons of both.

The Pros For Using Wix

Starting with the pros for Wix, there is no doubt that they have greatly improved their onsite SEO tools and that their site speed has improved slightly thanks to using better servers amongst other things.

Wix is a website builder, meaning it is easy to use and you don’t need to have any great technical skills in order to build your website as the technical stuff is all done for you.

Wix SEO Wiz is a boost again for those who are not the most tech-savvy as it will tell you if your page is mobile-friendly, if your homepage is indexable, if your SEO title and descriptions are OK and if you have keyword-rich content.

Wix also takes care of all SSL certificates on their sites so that is one less thing you have to worry about.

Wix price point is another thing that attracts new businesses who are looking for an affordable starter option.

With prices starting at only $13 a month it’s easy to see why it’s an appealing option for a startup or smaller business that doesn’t have a massive budget to spend.

The Cons For Using Wix

However despite these improvements, there are still a number of issues Wix has, especially when it comes to SEO and allowing its sites to rank highly in the SERPS.

Wix at its core is still a drag and drop website design platform; it isn’t really built for SEO. This means not only are it’s SEO capabilities basic in comparison to platforms like WordPress, it has a lot going on behind the scenes that can have a negative impact on SEO.

It’s also missing a lot of advanced SEO features other platforms have access to.

This limits what you can do other than the basics like meta tags and descriptions. It has a lot of Javascript running behind the scenes which can slow it down and have a negative impact on SEO.

Some of it’s menu’s and linking features make it hard for Google to crawl and index.

Does that mean you can’t improve the rankings and visitor numbers of Wix? No, there are businesses out there that have had success with WIX.

Simon Cox, a technical SEO consultant, has had some good success with Wix for his client and after implementing some changes to their website has seen their visibility grow.

When it comes to having SEO success with Wix Simon says “ Yes you can do it, it’s a pain but yes you can. It’s a good entry point for small to medium-size businesses and shouldn’t be sneered at by SEO’s”

The Pros For WordPress

Now we have had a good look at WIX let’s move onto taking a look at WordPress.

As an SEO strategist for me I’ve always favoured WordPress for my clients even those starting up because it’s so established, it’s open-source which means it’s so much easier to SEO thanks to a variety of SEO plugins for clients to use.

I’m not alone in my preference for WordPress SEO. In fact WordPress powers around 30% of the internet’s websites.

WordPress is a CMS system and its interface means that it’s easy to scale your website at speed. Making it ideal for startups as it can grow with your business.

It’s much easier to improve the speed of a WordPress website compared to a Wix site. You can add your own security plugins to your WordPress site which in turn gives you greater control over the security of your site. Speed and security can play an important part in how well your website rankings.

Creating and publishing new content on WordPress is also much easier than it is on WIX. It’s also so easy much easier to implement your keywords in a WordPress website.

WordPress has SEO friendly and customizable permalinks, clean code and it’s easy to optimise images on a WordPress website.

It’s also extremely mobile friendly and has plenty of beautifully designed, SEO friendly themes to use, that help you create an excellent overall user experience, which keeps people on your site longer, reduces bounce rate and increases conversions.

In fact according to Search Engine Journal:

“It’s not hard to find the best CMS for SEO. With WordPress, you have a platform that’s packed with SEO-friendly themes, plugins, and tools.”

The Cons of Using WordPress

While I’m a huge fan of using WordPress, it isn’t without its challenges from an SEO standpoint.

Sometimes to get WordPress to look and act the way you want it to, you have to use a lot of plugins and this can seriously slow your website down. Which can cause issues for SEO and for conversions. However, there are ways around this by using tools like Cloudflare.

You can also find yourself with plugin conflicts which can be problematic and of course, you are self-hosting it, so if you chose the wrong hosting provider this can cause problems as well.

My Conclusion

So when it comes to WIX V WordPress, Which Is Best for SEO? I still lean more towards WordPress as I think the results you can achieve from a WordPress website far outway those from Wix.

However, the caveat to that is Wix is no longer the poison chalice that it used to be in terms of SEO. They have made great Strides over the last few years to improve their SEO capabilities and while they still have a way to go before they can offer what WordPress can.

They are still a good choice for certain businesses or start ups and you can get a Wix site to rank. So if you have a Wix site, don’t panic you can get it to climb in the search engines.

However if you are viewing this and trying to make up your mind, then my suggestion would still be to pick WordPress. You can get an affordable SEO friendly theme and it’s easy to link up your domain, hosting and theme to create a really amazing website for very little money.

So my verdict in WIX V WordPress? It’s WordPress for the win.

For More SEO hints and Tips why not take a look at what SEO Trends are in store for 2021