Website builders such as WIX, Weebly, SquareSpace, and others make it terribly easy to build a good-looking website but it\u2019s equally as easy to build a poorly performing website so I\u2019ve been encouraged to write up ten reasons to avoid WIX. We\u2019ve had a few clients come to us recently (after they used WIX) asking for some help to improve their website by making it look smarter, more modern or just to get better search results \u2013 and there\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s worse is once you\u2019ve chosen a template with WIX and published your website you\u2019re stuck with that design unless you want to lose your content, so we\u2019re stuck with the job of telling you your website is not fit for purpose. We\u2019ll talk more about that in a minute as we\u2019ve compiled a list of TEN reasons to avoid WIX or any other website builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ve probably seen an advert on TV and now you\u2019re thinking about using one of these DIY website packages, but please stop and think again. I\u2019m a web developer, not a designer so if I need something designed professionally I outsource the work to a professional designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re not a web developer or have no experience in digital marketing please don\u2019t think you can build a website that will get the results your business deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Prize Pig Media we don\u2019t work with any of the services mentioned above and we have our reasons but that\u2019s not to say we can\u2019t help you if you\u2019ve gone down this route, so if you\u2019re struggling with a WIX website please contact us. Here are our top 10 reasons why we think these services are not a great option for your business website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is this a negative? Surely if WIX makes it so easy then this must be a good thing, right? Wrong! If you start this process with the attitude that it\u2019s going to be easy then you\u2019ve got the wrong idea and a bad attitude. We like a bit of attitude, you\u2019ve just got to apply that energy to the right ideas and focus on what you enjoy and what you\u2019re good at, which is running your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s like I started to explain above; While I understand what good design looks like I\u2019m by no means a graphic designer and I would never try to sell myself as one so the point is, please don\u2019t try and pretend to be a website developer, SEO or digital marketing expert. Your business deserves better and your income depends on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Squarespace, Weebly, WIX and other alternative platforms all make it extremely difficult and in some cases quite literally impossible to remove, edit or even find certain objects like images or text boxes. This can become an ever increasing problem the more your website grows and you\u2019ll find it hard to remove old and outdated content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years ago website builders (including WIX) were a complete joke with messy URLs, no way to add ALT tags or meta data to posts and it used to run on Flash! But we have to give some credit to WIX as they\u2019ve come so far over the years. That said they\u2019ve still got a long way to go before the professional SEO community jump onboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whilst there are some basic SEO (search engine optimization) elements build into these website builders they just don\u2019t have the powerful tools you need even when compared to the likes of more open platforms such as WordPress or Joomla and the problems around bloated code and website speed still remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quite simply you won\u2019t be ranking as high as you could be in search engine results. There are so many factors that google takes into consideration when deciding where to rank results and one of them is website speed. WIX websites are bulky and usually have longer load times. Check our article (coming soon) on the ten ranking factors you need to know to help improve SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most marketing agencies prefer to work with websites that use an open platform like WordPress, since there is much more room to build a professional, SEO-optimized, extensible and scalable website. If you use Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace, you\u2019ll find it harder to partner with a marketing agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WIX does offer a free plan and usually I\u2019d say something like \u201cyou get what you pay for\u201d but in this case it\u2019s not even worth paying for and the free plan is definitely no good for any kind of professional website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you decide to stick with the free plan you\u2019ll have to use a WIX domain name and you\u2019re also required to show ads on your website, all of which you have to pay a premium to avoid thus making the whole service overpriced for what you\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the premium plans won\u2019t break your bank, starting at only \u00a33 a month and going up to \u00a318 a month, when you compare this to the cost of a domain name and a hosting package (which can be as little as \u00a32 a month all-in) and combine that with the fact WordPress is FREE and WooCommerce is FREE \u2013 there\u2019s no argument!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over time WIX will prove to be quite a significant investment and guess what? You can\u2019t take it away from WIX! It\u2019s theirs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n