Wix any good?

NAMECATCHER · Aug 23, 2018

Hi all.

Is wix website builder any good for building websites for a novice?

Thanks

wonder_lander · Aug 23, 2018

Surely you can do the same/better with a decent template and wordpress?

Adam H · Aug 23, 2018

Is it April 1st ?

dee · Aug 23, 2018

Think its pretty straight forward for a beginner, although I think it's more "choose and adjust a template" rather than a pagebuilder if that makes sense.

Guess it depends on what you need to do? Content updates ? changing content a lot ?

NAMECATCHER · Aug 23, 2018

Adam H said:
Is it April 1st ?

No it's called being on a budget and needing a simple website doing.

Skinner · Aug 23, 2018

I have a client on GoDaddy page builder and its a joke, no real alt tags, no schema support, don't even have access to H2-H3-H4-H5, just H1 and H6, its £50 a year for an SSL, they want £72 to have an email database of 500 addresses, its a joke.

I'd imagine Wix is much the same.

dee · Aug 23, 2018

The other option is go to

https://themeforest.net/category/site-templates

Buy a static HTML template and fill in the content. If its a simple site and doesnt need much updating its pretty easy.Get cheap hosting and your done

Adam H · Aug 23, 2018

Recykool said:
No it's called being on a budget and needing a simple website doing.

Being on a budget doesnt mean you have to condemn yourself/business before its started, If a website can't be found because of its nasty architecture and lack of sensible structure, then what's the point in having it at all.

Seeing someone using a Wix, Yell or any other free platform ( or their paid versions are just as bad ) instantly puts me off using their services as It makes me question if they value their own product or service, why should anyone else.

I mean how much does a better solution really cost, you could get it all done for you for less than £500 in most cases for a small site, but if you've got a bit of technical knowledge much much less !?

If you've got a reasonable host that provides one click installs of wordpress £5 - £10 per month hosting.
Pick a free template from https://en-gb.wordpress.org/themes/ which has good reviews and is lightweight.
If you really....really need an easy modular way of building a page, although I don't like recommending page builders.......https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/ It's free, gives you drag and drop functionality and would probably only take a couple of hours for you to really grasp it.

There you have a website that is 50x better than anything you will find at Wix, Yell, BTsites or any other junk thats out their for only a hosting cost. On top of that, Wordpress has a community of developers, designers and general helpful people, which can help you grow the site if/when your funds allow, unlike Wix where you will eventually have to move away if you want the site to be any kind of success.

NAMECATCHER · Aug 24, 2018

Adam H said:
Being on a budget doesnt mean you have to condemn yourself/business before its started, If a website can't be found because of its nasty architecture and lack of sensible structure, then what's the point in having it at all.

Seeing someone using a Wix, Yell or any other free platform ( or their paid versions are just as bad ) instantly puts me off using their services as It makes me question if they value their own product or service, why should anyone else.

I mean how much does a better solution really cost, you could get it all done for you for less than £500 in most cases for a small site, but if you've got a bit of technical knowledge much much less !?

If you've got a reasonable host that provides one click installs of wordpress £5 - £10 per month hosting.

Pick a free template from https://en-gb.wordpress.org/themes/ which has good reviews and is lightweight.

If you really....really need an easy modular way of building a page, although I don't like recommending page builders.......https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/ It's free, gives you drag and drop functionality and would probably only take a couple of hours for you to really grasp it.

There you have a website that is 50x better than anything you will find at Wix, Yell, BTsites or any other junk thats out their for only a hosting cost. On top of that, Wordpress has a community of developers, designers and general helpful people, which can help you grow the site if/when your funds allow, unlike Wix where you will eventually have to move away if you want the site to be any kind of success.

Thank you for the great advice and information. I will try WordPress and see how it goes. Haha I'm sure we can both agree this was better than your last reply.

Thanks again.

NAMECATCHER · Aug 24, 2018

Am I ok to post the website here when I've done it to get some feedback?

philiporchard · Aug 25, 2018

If you want to create something quick and easy, then I found Wix did the job:
https://www.birdcare dot co uk

Yes, it's not anything more than a holding page - but it was fine for what we needed.

Admin · Aug 25, 2018

Recykool said:
Am I ok to post the website here when I've done it to get some feedback?

Yes, there's a forum section for that https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/forums/website-reviews.114/

Skinner · Aug 26, 2018

I think there is a niche for someone who is able to work with these builders (wix/etc) to give seo advice and tips, I find myself just hitting myself in the head trying to make it do something basic. They don't even allow you to do tel: links, you cant put html in the foot/header, you cant use the itemscope element of schemas, there is definitely a niche for someone to make bank via content advice or actual service for those stuck with these platforms.

@philiporchard did you find any limitations like these in wix ? The client is adamant they don't want to move from the builder, maybe wix maybe a soft step if its not as bad.

philiporchard · Aug 26, 2018

Sorry - it's just a single page and I didn't try tweaking it at all.

Ben Thomas · Aug 26, 2018

Wix is shite, just like all these page builders. It's bait, once you're in everything is expensive. Try Krystal Hosting, they've just launched a new Wordpress optimised platform called Onyx that costs about £3 a month.

https://krystal.co.uk/cloud-hosting/wordpress-hosting

I used Krystal before going off to host my own things with Digital Ocean and they are incredible. One thing to note though, is that their unmanaged VPS plans are terrible, at least my experience with them was. Other than that though, their website hosting plans are amazing. Great infra and good support.

splashweb · Aug 27, 2018

Not sure why ppl give Wix such a slating; have you tried using the editor recently and measuring the results?

I have a number of small business clients on it and overall their site's perform well and suit their budgets. Wix have done a lot of development with their CMS in recent years and performance is very good, load times particularly. Features are generally available as needed for this type of site too. If it's a small brochure or lead gen type site you need then I reckon it stacks up very favourably against WP.

NAMECATCHER · Aug 27, 2018

Thanks for all the reply. I've read them all took note and check some alternatives that was mentioned. I've decided to stay with six for this particular site to see how I get on. There editor is very easy to use and everything seems straight forward which is good for some one like me who has no knowledge what so ever with building a website. Hopefully the end result will be good.

NAMECATCHER · Aug 27, 2018

Sorry in advance as this is proberly a silly question but im just about to start using the Wix table master add on but my question is this, is using a table on your website good or bad for SEO or doesn't it matter?

thanks

Adam H · Aug 27, 2018

Recykool said:
Sorry in advance as this is proberly a silly question but im just about to start using the Wix table master add on but my question is this, is using a table on your website good or bad for SEO or doesn't it matter?

thanks

Providing its correct semantic html then its fine. One thing to check and make sure of is if Wix's tables are responsive and therefore work on Mobile too. The biggest issue with tables now days isnt because they are bad for SEO, its because alot of themes/CMS's/platforms still do not cater for responsive tables which as a result flags those pages with tables as non-mobile friendly.

In theory they could be "good" if the information provided is considered worthy of a table based featured snippet in position zero : https://serpstat.com/blog/html-tables-as-google-rich-snippets/

NAMECATCHER · Aug 27, 2018

Adam H said:
Providing its correct semantic html then its fine. One thing to check and make sure of is if Wix's tables are responsive and therefore work on Mobile too. The biggest issue with tables now days isnt because they are bad for SEO, its because alot of themes/CMS's/platforms still do not cater for responsive tables which as a result flags those pages with tables as non-mobile friendly.

In theory they could be "good" if the information provided is considered worthy of a table based featured snippet in position zero : https://serpstat.com/blog/html-tables-as-google-rich-snippets/

Thank you. I will take a look at that blog and have a read. The table in question only has 2 coloums but around 50ish rows. I could of just put it on the website as a simple text list but having them in a table looks so much better.