Wix SEO Review 2024 | Can You Rank Well With Wix?

Wix’s SEO is an excellent fit for any website, offering a suite of advanced tools including optimized site infrastructure, a personalized SEO checklist, and integrations with Google Search Console and Semrush. Wix scored top marks for SEO in our research, and overall, came out as our best website builder with a score of 4.8 out of 5. Wix covers all of the basics, with an ease of use that allows you to focus on content. SEO isn’t just for techies anymore. With Wix, anyone can do it.

One of Wix’s main selling points as a website builder is its ease of use, and the same applies to its SEO functionality. Wix has all the basic SEO features built in, and most of the advanced ones too.

More Information

• Wix Review: Our in-depth review of Wix
• Wix eCommerce Review: We look at Wix’s online store building capabilities
• Best Website Builders for SEO: Wix is our top-rated website builder for SEO but see how it compares to other leading builders
• Website Builder SEO vs. WordPress SEO: Which is better? Dive into our discussion!
• Benefits of SEO for Ecommerce: Our helpful breakdown takes a closer look at why SEO is so important for your store

So what does Wix actually offer in terms of SEO features? We’ve mentioned a few of the highlights already, but we’ll share a detailed breakdown of Wix’s key SEO features below:

1. Custom SEO Setup Checklist

If you’re new to the world of SEO, don’t worry, because Wix has you covered! Its SEO Setup Checklist is perfect for beginners, offering optimization guidance, tips, and best practices so you can improve your site’s visibility online.

2. Meta Title & Description

The meta title and description tells search engines and users what the page is about by summarizing the content. Each page and post has its own SEO settings where you can fill in the essential information and preview how the page will appear in search results. This simple SEO task is not only beginner-friendly but quick to implement.

3. Custom URLs

With Wix’s customizable URLs, you can reflect your page’s content accurately on search engines, meaning visitors can find your pages with ease. It’s better to have a more informative URL, such as “example.com/article/wix-seo-guide”, instead of a random jumble of numbers and letters, such as “example.com/hds73gtha”.

4. Headings

Using headings and subheadings to break up your pages is a great way to show search engines how you’ve structured your content. They also make your content more digestible and scannable for readers – no one wants to read a giant wall of text.

5. Image Alt Text

Not only is image alt text incredibly important for making your website accessible, but Google relies on alt text to know if an image is being displayed and why it’s relevant. When testing out Wix ourselves, we found this step really simple – find image settings and scroll down the pop-up until it says “What’s in the image”. This is where Wix asks you to describe the image for search engines and accessibility tools.

6. Speed & Uptime

It’s important your website is reliable and speedy since one in four visitors will abandon a website if it takes longer than four seconds to load. In our site speed testing, Wix performed well overall, but failed to impress us with its server response time. In fact, its performance was slower than some of its main competitors, like Squarespace and GoDaddy, so this is something to keep in mind when assessing Wix.

7. Mobile Friendly

Over 55% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices, so it’s essential that your site is mobile-friendly. You can optimize your website for mobile devices using Wix’s editor – simply switch to the mobile view to preview and tweak your pages manually or use Wix’s Page Layout Optimizer to handle the job automatically. This will resize and adjust your pages to better fit a mobile screen.

8. 301 Redirects

If you change a page’s URL from X to Y, 301 redirects mean people will be directed to the new page even if they use the old address. This means you can avoid anyone accidentally seeing old content or unpolished pages, and it’s easy to apply within your Wix dashboard. All of you have to do is enter the old URL in one box and put the new URL in another – Wix handles the rest. For example, if the old URL is still ranking on Google, traffic will be smoothly directed to the new URL instead.

9. SSL Encryption (HTTPS)

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is an important factor in website security. It establishes a secure, encrypted link between the web server and browser, helping to protect both your data and the consumer’s. As a leading website builder, Wix follows best practice and provides all of its sites with HTTPS and SSL certificates since search engines will punish sites without them.

10. Page SEO Settings

Wix lets you break down your SEO settings by page, meaning you can edit or tweak things such as URL slugs or meta tags individually or by bulk. You can also “hide” a page if you don’t want it to show up in search results.

11. Canonical Tags

If you have multiple versions of the same page, canonical tags allow you to choose which page search engines should focus on. This is a great SEO feature from Wix since it helps stop pages from competing against one another.

12. Sitemap

Your sitemap is a complete list of pages on your site which informs search engines like Google how your website is structured. You can access your sitemap from your Wix dashboard by going to “SEO” and then clicking the option for “Sitemaps”.

13. Structured Data

Following on from the previous point, your site’s structured data is a way to give search engines more information about your pages. For example, if you see star ratings next to a search result, that’s structured data. While this is an important SEO feature since search engines love using structured data to match users with relevant information, Wix only includes this on select pages, such as product pages and blog posts. Otherwise, you’ll need to add structured data manually or use a plugin which is a bit long-winded.

14. Optimized Infrastructure

Wix supports your site’s performance and SEO with optimized site infrastructure, covering a handful of areas we’ve already discussed, such as sitemaps and page settings. But Wix keeps your site speedy and reliable with additional efforts, such as server-side rendering and compressing or resizing images to prevent your pages from lagging.

15. Google Analytics & Google Search Console

Google Analytics and Google Search Console can be easily integrated with your Wix website from your dashboard. Google Analytics allows you to view data from your site, whether that’s page-specific traffic or user demographics, helping you stay on top of how people interact with your site. Google Search Console, on the other hand, shows you how your site is performing in search results.

16. Semrush

Wix has partnered with the popular keyword research tool, Semrush, to help users boost their site’s ranking across search results. Simply input your desired keyword to analyze its popularity or review a generated report to identify target keywords in your market.

On a similar note, Wix has also recently introduced an SE Ranking app to website owners conduct competitor research.

17. Local Search

If you want local customers to find your business, SEO is key. Wix lets you manage your Google Business Profile from your Wix dashboard, meaning you can add useful contact information, connect with people in your area, and improve your visibility, all from your website.

18. Social Media

Nowadays, it’s important to connect with your audience across a variety of channels, including social media. Meet and engage with customers on platforms they already use! Wix helps you optimize and customize your pages for when they’re shared on channels like Facebook, Instagram, and X. You can find these settings under “Pages” in Wix’s editor.

19. Wix Analytics

Want to know how your site’s performing? Wix Analytics provides detailed reports and insights, including clicks and changes in traffic, so you can see how visitors are engaging with your site and pages. You can access Wix Analytics from your site’s dashboard which means it’s super easy to keep an eye on the data.

Every website builder has strengths and weaknesses… and quirks. With that in mind, here are our tips for getting the most out of Wix SEO:

1. Take advantage of Wix’s personalized SEO setup checklist. It will set up a custom SEO plan for you based on just a couple of questions. It’s not the most thorough plan, but it’s an excellent introduction if you’re new to SEO. It even keeps track of your progress, highlighting what’s been completed, recommendations, and errors it spots.
2. Get the basics right. You’d be amazed by how many sites don’t even do core SEO properly. Wix gives you everything you need to talk to search engines. Don’t cut corners. Sometimes all it takes to top the rankings is consistency.
3. Focus on mobile. Wix is excellent for making mobile friendly sites, and Google rewards mobile-friendly sites. This is hardly surprising, seeing as mobile traffic accounted for just over half of web traffic worldwide in 2023. Lesson? Take the extra time to make your site as good as it can be on mobile. Search engines will love it and, just as importantly, so will your users.
   
4. Make full use of your meta descriptions. The recommended character limit for meta descriptions is 160 (130 for mobile) – use it. It’s your one opportunity to explain why searchers should click on you. Tests suggest longer descriptions improve user engagement.
5. Submit a sitemap. Sitemaps are essential for SEO. They tell search engines what’s on your site, how it’s structured, and where to find it. Wix will create a sitemap for you, but in order to do this, you’ll need to make sure you’ve turned indexing on in Wix’s general SEO settings. 
6. Connect to Google Analytics. No website builder can provide the traffic insights Google can. Google Analytics is the gold standard of web analytics, and it’s free! Connect your Wix account to Google Analytics and you’ll open up a whole new world of useful data so you can improve your website.
7. Keep learning about SEO. Wix is great for “jump-starting” your search engine performance, but for long-term success, it pays to learn about SEO in more depth. There are plenty of great resources out there, but we recommend checking out Wix’s SEO Learning Hub. You can check out relevant blog posts, video tutorials, SEO webinars, and more.

A major strength of Wix is it lets you build your site around your content. Regardless of the website builder you’re using, the best way to perform well in search results is to be interesting and/or useful. Google isn’t interested in sites trying to game the system. Focus on your site, conduct smart SEO, and the results will come.

More Information

• Anchor Text Guide: A really helpful guide to help you boost your SEO through anchor text
• Backlink Guide: How to work wonders with backlinks
• Website Architecture Guide: Another great way of optimizing your site

With its 5 out of 5 score for SEO, Wix is an awesome choice if you’re looking for a website builder that can help you perform well in the search engine rankings. It’s especially excellent if you’re not completely comfortable with SEO thanks to its beginner-friendly SEO setup checklist.

Wix’s built-in support and advice make it a fantastic way of learning the basics, and its advanced techniques can still be used once you feel more comfortable with the process.

If you consider yourself a bit of an SEO whizz, Wix’s constant hand-holding might start to grate after a while. For more control through a slightly clunkier interface, providers like Squarespace or WordPress may be a better fit for you.

Rest assured you can rank with Wix, and rank well.

The real question is whether you feel comfortable with its SEO tools, and the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself.

Wix’s free plan includes all of its SEO features, so you can get a feel for its features without handing over a cent. Give it a spin!