Should you build a Wix website yourself?

The other day a potential client asked us why she shouldn’t build her own site in Wix. Her main motivation was financial, of course, but it set off a conversation in our office about which website building platform is best.

Ok, you’re not going to be surprised that we say no, you should not use Wix to build your new website. But just to show we’re not being overly territorial, here are a few reasons:

1. Wix sites are not fully responsive.

   1. They even say on their support page that they are “adding more and more mobile functionality all the time.” To us that means they are not quite there yet. This is important for three reasons:
   2. One is that more and more people are looking at websites on mobile devices. If the website is not responsive to the different formats then you are not giving your potential customers the best possible user experience
   3. Google is giving more weight to mobile-friendly websites. If your site isn’t displaying correctly on the new Google Pixel 3 then the search engine will be likely rank you lower.
   4. Responsive sites load faster. Site load time is also a determining factor in how Google ranks your site. Slow site = lower ranking

2. Wix sites have limited functionality. 

   1. You are locked into Wix templates. While you can customize these somewhat, when you want to start doing some heavy customization of your website, you’re going to be stuck in the Wix box.
   2. Want a great e-commerce store? There’s a reason more than half of all e-commerce sites on the web use WordPress.
   3. Want to add plugins to your site? Wix offers more than 200 “apps” for their sites, but this pales in comparison to the 55,000+ that WordPress offers. So if you want to add a robust security plugin like Securi or a good SEO plugin like Yoast, you’re out of luck.

3. Speaking of SEO, Wix doesn’t allow for robust SEO on its platform.

   1. We already mentioned SEO plugins like Yoast that can help coach you through posting SEO-friendly content on your site.
   2. Wix does allow for basic SEO features like meta-descriptions and tags, page titles, etc, however it is generally more basic than what you can create on WordPress or other content management systems.
   3. More advanced SEO functionality like customized site maps or canonical URLs aren’t possible.

4. Want to build a new site? You’ll have to start over.

   1. Once you have a Wix template, you’re locked in. If you want to change, you’re doing loads of cutting and pasting and reformatting.
   2. If you want to switch to WordPress, there is no site database that you can use to transfer content. Again, cutting and pasting.

5. Do you have time to build your own site?

   1. If you’re a small business owner you’re probably focused on inventory management, personnel issues, payroll, etc. You probably don’t have time to build a website, too.
   2. Focus on what you do best for success. Leave the website design to the Santa Fe website experts.

There are some good things to using Wix. It is easy to create a good-looking site using it drag and drop editor. And it is inexpensive if you do all the work yourself. But if you want a website that is attractive, is well-built and will get found online, you will want the help of a developer like Traction Works SEO, Santa Fe website builder and Local SEO expert.