Wix and WordPress are two of the most popular website solutions available. According to Builtwith, Wix powers over 4.5 million websites, while WordPress supports over 28 million websites.
The key difference between them is that Wix is a website builder and hosted solution, whereas WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) and not hosted.
One important decision you need to consider when choosing between Wix and WordPress is which one is better for SEO.
In this column, you’ll learn the pros and cons of each platform when it comes to SEO, along with some interesting facts and tips to help you make the right decision for your website.
### The Argument for Wix
WordPress’ complete market dominance started to diminish with the arrival of new website builders. These new competitors began to offer user-friendly interfaces with powerful website features.
Wix was the leader among this new generation of website builders.
Wix started out as one of the easiest platforms to build a modern-looking website. However, users with more technical knowledge often avoided it, wanting to maintain complete control over their sites.
Over the last few years, this has significantly changed.
Wix has been rapidly adding functionalities, and some of the most recent additions focus on SEO tools. These tools can get quite technical, but here are a few new Wix SEO capabilities:
– The ability to modify default URL structure, customize subdirectory names, edit, remove or add a prefix to URLs, and create a completely flat URL structure.
– Automatic sitemap updates via 301 redirects and updating canonical and other relevant meta tags.
– Visualization of log files in the form of Bot Traffic Over Time, Bot Traffic by Page, and Response Status Over Time reports.
In the past, you would rely on many third-party tools to achieve this, leading to disorganization and usually less-than-optimal results.
The ability to have accurate reporting built into Wix is a major upgrade.
### Wix for SEO – The Cons
Wix has several cons, and some of these impact important SEO factors.
– Wix uses an uncommon link structure that many SEO professionals dislike. In every URL, you will notice a #, served through JavaScript, which has a long history of being less than ideal for search engine crawlability and indexation.
– Another downside to Wix is the inability of more advanced users to add custom code. While they offer an HTML code element, it is quite restricted.
– There is a great deal of code bloat. This can be problematic as it can result in less-than-ideal page speed scores.
### The Argument for WordPress
WordPress was one of the first widely used website solutions that made it relatively easy to get a site up and running. It’s also an open-source program that relies on contributions from the internet community.
Its basic functionality is free, but most modern site functions require you to pay for plugins.
These plugins provide the functionality needed for various tasks, including SEO tools. Examining these tools is essential when considering SEO.
WordPress also has more users, which means more forums and more professionals out there to help if needed.
### WordPress for SEO – The Cons
Plugins are built by different companies or groups, so they don’t all communicate or work in similar ways.
While Yoast is the most popular SEO tool on WordPress, many others exist.
These tools can work great at times but also can conflict with one another and potentially cause problems. Plugins can introduce vulnerabilities, and updates can cause other site elements to break.
Some argue that WordPress has grown out of touch with publisher needs due to built-in code bloat that hinders sites’ abilities to optimize for Core Web Vitals.
Despite this, the sheer volume of WordPress plugins available has always been a strong selling point. New plugins are being added every day, making it possible to create an SEO-optimized site with WordPress.
### Wix vs WordPress for SEO: Compared
If you look at the basic fundamentals of SEO, both solutions offer the following:
| Features | WordPress | Wix |
| — | — | — |
| Title Tags | Yes | Yes |
| Meta Descriptions | Yes | Yes |
| H1-H6 Tags | Yes | Yes |
| XML Sitemaps | Yes | Yes |
| Alt Tags | Yes | Yes |
| 301 Redirects | Yes | Yes |
| No Index Tags | Yes | Yes |
| Schema Markup | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Friendly | Yes | Yes |
| Connect GSC | Yes | Yes |
| Connect GA | Yes | Yes |
| Connect Bing Webmaster Tools | Yes | Yes |
Where things start to change is when you get into more advanced needs of SEO features.
At that point, the flexibility of WordPress tends to win out. But for many small businesses that just need basic SEO functionality, either solution will suffice.
### WordPress vs Wix: Organic Traffic
A study found that 46% of WordPress sites received at least some organic traffic, while only 1.4% of Wix sites experienced the same.
It should be noted that this data is skewed simply based on the volume of WordPress to Wix sites tested against.
### Wix vs WordPress: The Verdict
If you ask most SEO professionals what their favorite platform is, they’ll probably tell you whatever one they’ve used the most.
People prefer programs they have experience with and will find reasons to discredit other options. This is why you see so many varying opinions on what platform best sets you up for success.
As we look at these platforms today, Wix has made significant improvements. All the old complaints about a lack of control when using Wix don’t apply as much, and the ease of performing basic SEO optimizations is on par with WordPress.
For small businesses and sites, that might be the ticket. As John Mueller recently said, the content on the site is increasingly important regardless of the platform. Unless you’re dealing with major technical issues, content is where you need to focus.
It all comes down to what you value. If your SEO requirements are minimal and you care about an easy-to-use website builder, Wix may be your best choice.
For more advanced users seeking the best of both worlds with scalability and customization, as well as those planning to use SEO as a long-term strategy, WordPress wins hands-down.
### More Resources:
– Why Website Builders Can Be Terrible for Your SEO
– Wix vs. WordPress? The Data Doesn’t Lie
– WordPress SEO Guide: Everything You Need to Know
#### Image Credits:
– Image 1: Ahrefs
