Question

Hi there, me and my website developer have been in debate about which is better for SEO: Wix or WordPress. org. While I think Wix is a good website builder, my biggest concern is site speed and how it will fair as we add to our blog. His claim is that WordPress overcomplicates the process and is not worth it for a nominal boost in SEO rankings. What are your thoughts here in SEO Signals Lab?  
http://wordpress.org/?fbclid=IwAR2y...46Ti4

Answer 1

The best tool to use is your brain and hand code everything. that is the only way to guarantee bloat free code.  

Comments

@manouch this is very impractical for most small businesses

Answer 2

Wix=german for masturbating. enough said.  

Comments

@deedeeann12100 serious ?  

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@octahedron yeah at least it's kinda slang :)

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@deedeeann12100 enough said indeed wahaha

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@deedeeann12100 whoever who use Wix will have a wanky good time for seo !  

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@octahedron too true

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@deedeeann12100 “Is Wix good for seo? ” “Hang on let me Google that for you! ”

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@octahedron hahaha so true. keep that screenshot for the next time someone asks anything about wix

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@deedeeann12100 I’m so gona do that haha u too. together we will tell the whole world this piece of juicy news wahahaha

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@octahedron so true

Answer 3

WordPress. seriously its a question!  

Answer 4

Your "website developer" is no website developer.  

Answer 5

Frontend dev? WordPress wins on easy of integration, easily available tools, scaling and comparative flexibility with backend code

Answer 6

How would anyone argue that wix is good for seo I wonder haha

Answer 7

Website developers don't use Wix, plain and simple. Neither do SEO strategists/consultants. You know who does use Wix? Business owners who are too cheap to pay for a quality website and too lazy to learn the relatively simple requirements of managing one. Anyone who claims Wordpress over-complicates things is simply being lazy. It's not complicated at all, it's a flexible, developer friendly CMS for people with a vision and a recognition that if somethings worth doing, it's worth doing right.  

Answer 8

There is no debate there is no SEO for wix it's an online brochure.  

Answer 9

Webflow is best

Answer 10

You can have both. Install wordpress, and you can get a builder for wordpress aswell. Some of the most popular builders are; thrive arhitect, Divi (I just bough Divi, and feel I got most for my money. ) and Im sure there are several but these 2 are the once that I think are the most used in the wordpress industry as a builder.  

Comments

@elroy Divi is awful and creates such poor code.  

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@elroy you forgot one of the biggest. beaver builder.  

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@vanda lol yeah. We should all go back to learn and build our website with html and css  

Answer 11

As long as you have good hosting WordPress is the way to go. Can't recommend Wix because your website will not be transferable with them. Wix uses proprietary code. WordPress does not. Wix is a website "rental". WordPress lets you actually OWN your website.  

Answer 12

If he uses Wix, is he really developing anything?  

Answer 13

Wordpress is perfect. however if you want even fast and have budget go for custom solution using php, node js, react/angular, etc. the less js css files and mess of plugins the better. bt i have some wp based installations which have 92 desktop Google insight score. so it totally depends on HOW THE FUCK you code it. :)

Answer 14

Came for the comments.  

Answer 15

See below for the proper course of action when conversing with any "developer" who recommends Wix.  

Answer 16

Lol a debate should not exist.  

Answer 17

There is no alternative than WordPress for SEO.  

Comments

@thomism there is one more. pure HTML

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@thomism lol. That’s ridiculous.  

Answer 18

What kind of website developer recommends wix. Don't sound like you have a developer if you ask me.  

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@bullfinch766 agreed

Answer 19

@cobos So I have done SEO for both WordPress and Wix, so I have anecdotal experience. In my opinion, you can do SEO on both platforms as long as you know your fundamentals. HOWEVER, Wix's framework slows down the process and you would have to have your own SEO checklist in place; whereas WordPress has plugins like rankmath that handle the SEO checklist for you. Overall, I have found Wordpress to be more flexible, and that's what you need when you want to do very technical SEO like schema markups (BTW doing schema markup on Wix is ridiculously difficult from experience). So I'm kinda wondering why your developer thinks Wordpress complicates SEO, when Wix makes it wayyyy harder. Does he have prior experience with Wordpress and Wix? Finding out why he wants to avoid using Wordpress in detail is probably the first step to the solution. All the best!  

Comments

@haines I think the term developer is being thrown around very lightly. In my years on web design I have never hear a true developer say stuff like wix is better. I think that's kind of against their religion or something. The beauty of WordPress is that you can do anything  

Answer 20

You are presenting two free website alternatives. Is that really what you are saying? I am not sure wordpress. org is worth bothering with but wix is like a sacrilegious word to use around me. I would go with a self-hosted WordPress site but personally I like html websites because they load super fast and I have always been able to rank them using on page factors way faster than any WordPress website.  

Answer 21

If acquiring new customers via organic search is an important part of your marketing plan WordPress would be a better choice. If you acquire customers another way Wix might be ok.  

Answer 22

Lol. thats not a real debate.  

Answer 23

Your developer is lazy and knows that it is easier for him to create a Wix site than a Wordpress one. SEO aside, you can easily move a Wordpress site to a different host. This isn’t the case with Wix.  

Answer 24

Forget Wix, easy to build pretty sites. Often slow and hard to rank.  

Answer 25

Go for Wordpress. Wix is kinda like build and forget. Pretty little thing but highly restrictive.  

Answer 26

If you are good in SEO. it doesn't matter. but if you need some helping hand then WordPress is better option because it offers lots of plugin which can help you a lot.  

Answer 27

WordPress all the way. SEO wise, it probably won't matter that much. However, the lock in with Wix sucks + WordPress allows for so much more functionality. If you want an easy pagebuilder, just go with Elementor or something similar.  

Answer 28

A developer who prefers WIX, Hmm? Anyhow., SEO wise WordPress is in general, a better Solution/CMS than most alternatives. But there is a lot more to SEO than just a platform. But I assume you and your dev know this? (Though I would not expect much from a dev on WIX. )

Answer 29

So speaking as someone who is not an SEO pro, I am currently doing the website for my new business on Wix and I am loving it. I was previously at the church of WP but, honestly, it’s too complex. My take is that Good Enough is what I need and Wix offers that by the bucketload. Plus it’s easy and it is helping me with SEO basics like title tags. This may be exactly why a developer shouldn’t use WIX because people like me can? Time will tell but I’m using WIX and hoping for the best  

Answer 30

I’ve never used Wix, but I do find the mood of the thread pretty biased and without a whole lot of evidence backing up either side. What I WILL say is that the top result for “SEO Speaker” is hosted on a Wix site. *DucksUnderTinfoilHat*

Comments

@petro the evidence is the experience of using both, and trying to rank both. I do take on Wix clients for SEO (even though my preference is WP) but I'm selective in who I work with - because only those who are willing to change the structure of the site and work on good quality content will be a good candidate. If client is stuck in the mindset of a "pretty" website or keeping what they/their designer made, I just wouldn't go there. Its much harder to get SEO results in Wix and I'm always honest with clients about the limitations.  

Answer 31

Hands down go with Wordpress. Here's how to prove your case. Go to google and search for your top keyword in your market. Then make a list of the top websites listed organically. Then use builtwith and see what platform those websites listed are built on. I can pretty much guarantee that you won't find one wix site listed but you will find plenty of wordpress sites. Present this data to your "developer" (lol)

Comments

I'm team wordpress too - but considering WordPress has 35% market share vs. Wix @ 1. 3% that argument could easily be rendered invalid due to the shear difference in volume and popularity. My argument is WordPress has far greater flexibility which gets confused for complexity by noobs.  

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@rees5 this has to be one of the most ridiculous comparisons I've ever witnessed.  

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@hooker ok so find me one top ranked Wix site in a competitive niche. I'll wait.  

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@rees5 I don't have to prove shit to you my dude. I'm saying that statistically it's a stupid comparison.  

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@hooker ok my dude. thanks for your insightful feedback.  

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@rees5 no dramas, was nice to talk with a one of a kind, unique individual.  

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@hooker likewise.  

Answer 32

We build on both and rank both. I’d say if you’re not ranking you suck at SEO.  

Answer 33

Idk if the correct term is fire him or set him on fire. ‍♀️ Just hide his keyboard and shut his internet down. He has no business here.  

Answer 34

It depends on the theme you will choose too. You can try a bunch of them and mesure the speed of your page for each to compare the themes.  

Answer 35

Hey @cobos We use wordpress where we have a multipage site and one pagers (like wix) for squeeze pages or simple offers. If you want crazy fast speed use good hosting (we run our own servers in cabinets ourselves) with ssd drives and decent memory allocation but the cherry on that will be to use cloudflare and cache everything. To do it, setup cloudflare, then add your domains, then go to 'pages rules' then add a rule, add your domain like this; domain. com/* and select cache level > cache everything. Then add a second page rule, and add domaind. com/wp-admin/ and the cache rule should be bypass. Then once you've added those two things head over to Cache>Browser Cache Expiration and set it to Respect Existing Headers. You should end up with a spiffy wordpress website that has page load times of less than . 5ms And CloudFlare is free :-) Hope that helps!  

Answer 36

Forgive me but. does web designers use Wix? Based on the question asked I believe Wix is what he knows. So.  

Answer 37

If your "web designer" suggest using Wix, you don't have a web designer, you have a Wix user.  

Answer 38

Thank you everyone for your replies! The verdict is in, we are going with: WordPress! LOL

Answer 39

It's got nothing to do with the platform, a wix site can outrank a wordpress site and a wordpress can outrank a wix site. A wix site can load faster than a wordpress site and a wordpress site can load faster than a wix site. It all boils down to how you use the platforms, also, you can do a whole lot more with a wordpress site!  

Answer 40

WordPress overcomplicates the process --I would ask for proof of this.  

Answer 41

This shouldn't even be a discussion lol

Answer 42

You need a new website developer. Wp. org offers an open source content management system that you download and have full control over it. Wix is a SaaS deal. It's a closed box and you have little control over it. With wp, you get to build a website that is owned by you and you can upgrade, modify, tweak and host it anywhere you want. With wix, you get a lookalike. You can't move it, can't customize it, little flexibility, and forget about proper speed optimization. For a serious project, wix would be a part of a joke, not a part of the proposal.  

Answer 43

It doesn't matter if you have a CDN in front of your site.  

Answer 44

Run away from wix as fast as you can

Answer 45

Wix!?  LOL