We recently had a few people contacting Just Marketing asking for website marketing services.

Coincidentally three of the enquirers were from websites created on Wix. So we decided to clarify this matter with 15 reasons why not to build your website with Wix.

And despite the fact that they thought they have their dream website because they built it (and it took time to get where it is), what any business owner wants is to have their website appearing on Google – as soon as possible.

So here are the reasons why you should run away from Wix.

1- Search Engine unfriendly

The service ignored the most basic fundamentals of search engine optimisation.

2- One Page Only

Wix limits the number of keywords and pages you can rank for because in the eyes of the search engines it is just one page that utilises flash to imitate several pages. The code for every page of a wix site is contained within one page.

Typically when optimising a website, I consider which pages to optimise for certain keywords. You have no such option with Wix. You get one page to optimise for all of your keywords – which is severely limits your search engine traffic/ranking potential.

3- Unique Title Tags / Meta Descriptions

For the reason above, having only one page to work with means that your virtual pages cannot be optimised for unique title tags and meta descriptions.

5- Deep Pages Indexed

The search engines only see one page, therefore they only index one page. It is almost ironic that wix automatically creates an xml sitemap, because it only contains the one page.

Also, in the nice to have category, but unavailable to Wix customers:

6- Google tools unfriendly

Google can’t verify your site in Webmaster Tools. That may be too advanced for some right away, but for a team like us, we use Webmaster Tools to monitor site downtime, crawl rates, broken links, and search traffic.

7- Poor Google Analytics

Inaccurate site analytics, caused by older scripting technologies, don’t allow Wix or GoDaddy or Register.com site builder users to get an accurate picture of a site’s traffic and performance. We use Google’s highly recommended Analytics service. All of our clients receive a report each month indicating how their site is doing.

8- Their templates cannot fit all scenarios

Wix a builder website, so as a result their templates all have very similar layouts and are quite limited in terms of functionality. And, since they are categorized based on industry, you may end up choosing the same template as your competitors – good luck standing out!

9- Their templates are not professionally designed with YOUR goals in mind

Wix markets itself as your go-to DIY website builder, meaning they do not cater to professional web designers and developers. Their priority is to make their templates as “easy” to customize as possible for the average non-tech layman. Long-term goals such as conversion and sustainability are not factored into their design process.

10- You don’t receive consultation on what is best for your company in terms of design, development, content, SEO, etc.

Hiring a professional web agency means getting a personalized consultation before, during, and after the web development process. We can’t even begin to count how many awful websites we’ve come across in terms of structure and content. A website isn’t just about uploading a bunch of pretty pictures and copy into a machine! Careful thought and consideration need to be put into messaging and presentation.

11- Less than stellar search engine optimization and mobile support.

Wix used to be built using Flash, the arch-nemesis of mobile and search engine optimization. While Wix is no longer 100% Flash, it’s still not a great solution. We will be the first to say that it has improved, but it still has a long way to go to be provide solid SEO support.

I won’t get into the technical details about “hash-bang” URLs and JavaScript/Ajax (don’t worry, my eyes just glazed over a bit too  ), but at the end of the day, what you need to know is that while Google has improved its ability to crawl Wix page addresses, it’s still not the best option.

As far as mobile support goes, Wix does provide mobile versions but in our experience, they are quite poor and most of the time the branding and user experience is inconsistent with your desktop version.

12- You can’t add custom HTML.

Custom HTML lets you add new sections and make minor design tweaks to your template. The only way you can do this on Wix is through their HTML widget, for which they provide the following disclaimers:

• They do not offer support for it. At all.
• You need to be a Premium member if you plan to use it to make a direct profit online.
• They can only be used on sites that are currently connected to Wix servers.

13- You can’t change your template once you’ve started.

Once you’ve chosen a template, you’re locked to it. You cannot move your work or content into another template, or combine multiple templates into one site. If you decide on a different template, you’ll have to create a “new” site and start from scratch.

14- You don’t own the website, pay forever!

Unless of course, you upgrade to a Premium account and the point of using a free website builder becomes completely lost. You now have to pay Wix forever for a website you built yourself, with your own time and effort, for your own business. You might as well hire someone once and get things done exactly the way you want it!

At the end of the day, Wix or any site builder is a poor option for a business website because you don’t own your website. “Don’t build your home on rented land.” Wix, or any other online site builder, is rented land.

15- We care! They don’t

No one cares more about your success than a good team. At Just Marketing, we have every incentive, to help your business grow because when you grow, we do too. We’re only as good as our last project. Wix, Register.com, 1&1, GoDaddy and others will continue to find people who don’t know better and don’t care and are only good so long as their shareholders are happy.

I can see the appeal of the service, it actually makes creating a website from scratch easy enough for most people to be able to produce something presentable, in little time, paying very little. But the trouble comes when they expect search engine traffic.

So, apart from helping people realise what they will and won’t get with this service, I hope my post and others like it get the attention of Wix, so that they might improve their service to make it not only easy to create a website, but also give that website a decent chance of being found online.

Leave a comment below – we’d love to hear your thoughts! Or, if you’re thinking that you might prefer to get a professionally built and customized website that YOU own, give us a shout.

Just Marketing is specialised in WordPress websites and Online Marketing.