If you’re a small business owner and you’re thinking about setting up your website there are a number of options available to you. One of the most popular website building platforms at the moment is WIX. 

The platform builder is claiming over 200 million worldwide users, with some swearing by its ease of use and functionality, while others might as well be swearing at it.

To understand why, we’ll need to dig a little deeper into WIX and show you that, if you’re a small business owner who is in need of a website that will be driving their business forward, choosing this platform might just end up being a decision you’ll end up regretting. 

Here at Discovery Content, we endeavoured to give an objective and honest overview of this web builder and our team has taken an in-depth look at the various aspects that make this platform so popular (the aforementioned ease of use) and how, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it is in fact a platform with many essential elements lacking, especially when it comes to SEO optimisation.

What are some of the SEO optimisation problems with WIX?

Something that may not be immediately obvious, with the emphasis being on the visual presentation of a website, is just how inconvenient WIX is when it comes to SEO optimisation. Even with recent updates that have shown improvements in the area, as SEO experts, we can tell you that our experience with the platform has not been a positive one. If you’re a small business owner with limited experience in the field, you will find the process even more difficult. 

When you think about most people’s experience using search engines, especially Google, you’ll know that if your website isn’t coming up in the search results (the first page especially), then you might as well not have a website at all. Your visibility in the online world is driven by various online activities, and SEO optimisation is a crucial part of this, it helps you get noticed.

What good is a pretty website, if absolutely no one is visiting it? By putting your services online, you’re expecting to bring in new business and reach new customers (as well as old ones), but if there is no visibility there simply can be no leads.

When looking at the WIX framework, we’ve found the following shortcomings with SEO implementation:

• Poor on-page optimisation
• No accessibility to sitemap (even though its automatically created)
• The mobile version of the website is not customisable
• Slow page loading speed
• Page builder creates unnecessary code bloat (which in turn adds to the “weight” of the page. that extra weight means a slower website.)

As a small business owner, a lot of the above might seem like gibberish, but these factors are fundamental to SEO optimisation and helping websites be visible in search engines. Even if you aren’t personally handling the optimisation, developers in charge of implementing these key elements can encounter issues. In short, the website platform doesn’t predetermine your visibility, but rather an accumulated SEO authority. 

Website speeds on WIX

As we’ve mentioned earlier, one of the major pitfalls of using WIX’s platform is the loading speed. With the advancements in technology and faster internet connections, one of the crucial ranking factors is page speed loading. With WIX-built sites, they take several seconds to load, which, in today’s fast-paced world, can seem like a lifetime. 

Most people simply won’t have the patience to wait for the site to load properly and will more than likely decide to move on and find something that will load in an instant. Those seconds truly do count and can lead to a demonstrable drop in conversions. Studies have been carried out on the topic that revealed when the average loading time was over 4.2 seconds, the conversion rate dropped below 1%. For small businesses, that drop is anything but insignificant. In other words, for your website and business to succeed, speed is of the utmost importance.

The difficulty of use on WIX

Those who might be singing the praise of WIX, have more than likely spent hours perfecting the navigation and appearance of their website. However, for first-time users, working out all the kinks relating to the navigation as well as editing all the necessary parameters can be painstaking. It might not be brain surgery, but our experience has been such that platforms like WordPress or Squarespace are far easier to navigate and get to grips with than WIX.

In general, WIX’s interface isn’t immediately intuitive and can be potentially overwhelming for those who don’t have the experience of working in website creation (curious, considering that is precisely WIX’s target market). As a small business owner, you don’t want to spend unnecessary hours trying to get to grips with how to create an effective website. You want to be focusing on developing your business, your specific industry and your products and services.

Just to be clear, neither WordPress nor Squarespace is a walk in the park, but WIX is arguably more difficult to get to terms with. Simply taking into consideration that our most valuable commodity is time, your choice would logically be to pick that which will take less of it. 

Until WIX decides to simplify their editor and introduce more user-friendly options, creating, modifying and maintaining your website will be easier to accomplish on the aforementioned alternatives. Of course, there will be a learning curve involved with these platforms as well, but their flexibility allows the user to have greater control over the published content.

Ownership rights of WIX websites

Perhaps what might be the greatest detriment in choosing and running a website on the WIX platform concerns ownership. Unlike some other platforms, if you create a WIX website, they are the owners. Much like those terms and conditions we all never have the time to go over (and frequently agree with) you’ll also find this bit of crucial information hiding in the small print. 

As a user, you’re essentially there to sign up and pay a subscription (which might be more expensive than you think) for the use of their platform. Even if you have acquired your own domain name, the building blocks of that infrastructure belong to WIX. This puts any user at the mercy of the fortunes of the provider.

Should they ever encounter financial difficulties, or, in the worst-case scenario go bankrupt and shut down their entire platform, you would be left scratching your head as to why you no longer have access to your website which you’ve invested months (or even years) into. You’re left at the mercy of WIX, and whatever they decide to do next (new platform, raised prices, changed themes, removed options etc). In this case,  you’ll either need to accept these new conditions or completely abandon your website and start from scratch. 

So, why is WIX so popular?

Taking into consideration the many factors that negatively affect the useability of WIX, you might stop and ask, why do people still create their websites through WIX? How is it possible that over 200 million people decided that such an inconvenient website builder is the right choice for them? The simple answer is good marketing.

We would be remiss if we didn’t outline a few of the useful features (which undoubtedly play into this question of choice) found on the WIX platform:

• Drag and drop options
• Secure payment integration (a must for eCommerce customers)
• Mobile-responsive templates
• Integrated analytics and reporting tools
• Over 800 themes to choose from
• WIX app market
• WIX ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence)

These are some of the main selling points that make users choose the WIX platform, but the ease of use and ultimate control of the website (or a lack thereof) is the platform’s biggest downfall and something to be acutely aware of when thinking about the future of your website (and your business).

It is important to note, that WIX is by no means a product to steer clear of, but as far as small businesses are concerned, there are others out there that would make a far better fit. This is especially true for those that don’t have the time to delve into the ins and outs of website building and SEO optimisation.

There are a number of factors that any small business owner needs to consider, including the individual business requirements, budget, available help (online and offline), choice of website designs and ownership. This is where platforms like WordPress and Squarespace have the upper hand, allowing you to own your website, are user-friendly with a range of modifiable technical parameters, catering to SEO adjustments that are crucial for your online presence. If your budget allows for it, you can also consider Drupal as an alternative to WIX.

At the end of the day, the best course of action is to examine the available platforms, investigate the particular terms and conditions on offer and take them for a test run before making your final decision.