I hear this question a lot from clients but more generally across the internet. Plenty of people, usually designers that use other platforms for their site, design and development try to say that Wix is no good for SEO. They often have a vested interest in putting Wix down for SEO to encourage you to use other platforms i.e. the ones they use.
Now I should point out I can’t claim to be neutral here either, after all I am a Wix partner and only build and support my clients in Wix so I will just stick to the facts and let you choose.
Wix offers a plethora of tools to help you get your site optimised for search engines.
SEO Panel Page Settings
In your pages panel in the editor of your page, Wix has 2 key sections, the page header and page description this is where you can easily add seo headings and descriptions for your page, see below.
In this case I have used the example of a web design company located in Cardiff (mine). Lets say this is my home page then a good example of a page header to display in google and other search engines might be
Bamboo Web design in Cardiff | Newport | UK
Note this should generally be no more than 60 characters in length, any more than that and you are wasting your time as google will not display this.
In the description you would include a naturally written copy that includes at least one of the key words you want for that page so again an example might be.
Bamboo is a web designer in Cardiff, Newport, and servicing clients across the UK. Buy an online store, booking system, and more. Get in touch for a free no-obligation quote.
Again you have limited text here the range is between 50 - 300 characters so use them wisely.
Page Content Optimisation
In the Wix editor when you have finished the design of a given page and you are happy with the copy and have included all the relevant key words you want to rank for on each page then you can jump on in and optimise your text and images to allow google and other search engines to identify and catalogue your pages into its records. Wix has again made this easy for you.
If you click on each image on your page you can add in the 'alt tags' this is your chance to type in and tell google what the image is about. Avoid stuffing in key words but if they are naturally part of your key word strategy all the better.
Similarly all the text on your page can be categorised for google and tagged so google understands the importance of your content.
We have header tags H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and paragraph text. You should only have one H1, H2 etc on your page you simply go though your page and rank the headings and paragraphs in order of importance. All other text would then be ‘p’ paragraph text, simples!
Wix SEO Wiz
This is another great tool and if you are unfamiliar with the processes above it will help guide you through the processes above.
It runs through several steps to identify if you are a local business, bricks and mortar or purely online and trying to establish yourself in your specific Country like UK and or worldwide.
It asks you to choose some key words as part of this process. Usually your top 3. Give some thought to this and try to put yourself into your prospective customers shoes. What would they be searching for? It can be difficult to work out what this might be and also what sort of volume of searches there are for your chosen keywords. This is where it might be worth working with a professional to help get you started and to provide ongoing SEO services to help you rank higher in the search engines but don’t be put off there is plenty you can do with your Wix site to get you off to a good start. Wix also has lots of good support articles here
Once you have your keywords Wix SEO wiz runs through a programme to identify steps you might have missed like adding keywords to your copy, page headings and descriptions, optimising your pages and even things like including your name and address in your footer. It takes you through this process step by step which is awesome particularly if you are a novice and trying to set up your own website.
Once you are ready and everything in your Wix SEO wiz is green it will advise you to submit your site to google. This is a brilliant feature and takes just a minute or so to complete. Once completed your first home page is indexed already by google and if you key in your website domain you will see it there. Obviously it is going to take time, effort and some knowhow to appear in google and other search engines for your chosen keywords but it does get you off to a great start.
URL 301 redirect Manager
These are a must if you have redesigned your website. They allow you to point the old pages of your website to the new ones. Why would you want to do this?
Say on my old site my about page was www.bamboowebdesign.co.uk/about-me and on my new redesigned website website the new page is www.bamboowebdesign.co.uk/about If anyone searches and finds the old site about page when they click on it they will get a 404 error. This is not good for seo. Wix 301 redirect manager allows you to point the old page to the new so if in the example I gave above someone clicks on the old page, the new page will be displayed, happy days 😁
Mobile Site Editor
SEO covers so much its about everything above and covers design, user experience content, on page seo, off page seo like directories and back links. But one key feature you need to get you off to the best possible site is to ensure you go into Wix mobile site editor and optimise you website for mobile so that it appears and looks amazing on mobile phones.
So as you can see Wix is set up really well to get you started and in the best position for your SEO. SEO is a huge topic and ongoing activity that you should set aside time for regularly. Remember good authentic content is king. The first link below is a good place to start to learn more about SEO and what you need to do to improve your rankings.
Here are some other usual resources that backup just how good Wix is for SEO
Wix Seo separating the facts from myths -https://youtu.be/hafeccxSTU4
Case study - https://www.markprestonseo.com/post/wix-seo
Need help with anything I have talking about here then feel free to book a free consultation to see how I can help.