Web Development

Top 4 Reasons to use the Webflow Website Builder instead of Wix Website Maker

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Top 4 Reasons to use the Webflow Website Builder instead of Wix Website Maker

There’s an old saying that goes: if it ‘ain't broke, don’t fix it. But what if we told you that old phrase does not always apply to websites?

We argue this point because there are so many elements to a website, like SEO and image optimization, that it’s difficult to tell if it’s broken on the surface. 

In another blog, we discuss why you should avoid free website builders. Here we’ll solely focus on why the Wix website builder should be avoided for some enterprises. 

Wix Website Maker SEO Limitations

One of Wix’s main shortcomings is its poor SEO foundation. You may or may not be aware of SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO is the level at which your website is found by search engines like Google. 

If the internet were a library, search engines would be the librarians. Google crawls, indexes and ranks your website on the search engine results page (or SERP).  

It gets more complicated than that, but Wix, unfortunately, doesn’t allow Google to read your site easily. Websites are built with code and the Wix website builder uses unneeded web code.

It’d be like a librarian checking a book with numerous small words on its back and cover. How would they know what the story is about, what it’s called or who it’s written by?

The same concept applies to websites. Google doesn’t always care about how good your design looks, but more about how the website is constructed. If your website’s code looks messy to Google, it won’t be sorted properly. This correlates to not ranking in search results and fewer people finding your website. 

Your Brand Seems Frugal & Unprofessional

Wix is affordable but using it can result in a low-grade website.  The Wix website builder is marketed to people who need a free or extremely cheap website. While creating your website on Wix, you limit yourself to a collection of website templates which lack customization. You’ll also be provided with a generic URL with yourbussiessname.wix.com. You can connect your website to remove the Wix name from your domain, but you’ll have to pay for it. 

Migrating Your Wix Site is Problematic

Business owners like the idea of starting for free and then moving over their content later. This is possible however, it isn’t easy with the Wix website builder. The method that Wix allows you to build your website makes it impossible to simply export the website and migrate it to a better platform. Unfortunately, if this is the case for you, you’ll likely have to start again from scratch with your website. 

Pro Tip: If you start with a website development agency, you can avoid this trap altogether. 

Hidden Costs With The Wix Website Maker 

Wix attracts customers by marketing a free website maker option. And it’s true; it’s a decent website option for beginners or a mockup site because of the free offering. But as expected, there are quite a few limitations to the free Wix website builder. The largest costs incurred tend to be hidden charges. 

Paid Packages Offer Only So Much

Some of the package offerings have hidden costs as your site traffic grows. The first paid package does display Wix ads and comes with only 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth. To put those numbers into perspective, if you get 500 visitors a day and they open 1-2 pages, you’ll need about 30GB of bandwidth.

So when your customer numbers scale, you’ll have to pay additional amounts for larger packages. Additional monthly website charges will increase for eCommerce, booking and shopping features. 

Sluggish Web Speed

Another caveat is the Wix website builder makes sites sluggish. Web pages that take only 1 second longer to load can see conversion rates plummet by 70%. Slow speeds hurt the performance of your website and your search engine rankings. Google penalizes slow-responding websites, giving them poor SEO results.

It’s known that Wix websites have some of the lowest FCP (First Contentful Paint) compared to other platforms such as Webflow. In summary, slow loading pages using a Wix website builder will simultaneously harm your user experience and your Google rankings. 

Missing out on potential sales is the number one hidden cost of the free Wix website builder. Ask yourself, how many more sales do you think you’d make if you appeared in the top 10 of a search result in Google?  

Invest in Your Website From the Beginning

Understanding the drawbacks of the Wix website maker will allow you to make an informed decision when creating your website. If your organization does intend to grow and thrive, then investing in your website will help you and your current and potential customers. 

Webflow is an exceptional platform used by us at Choquer Creative. We prefer this tool because it makes clients' websites unique with plenty of customization options, mobile device friendliness, and rapid loading times compared to other popular platforms. 

If your business is interested in creating or migrating to the Webflow website builder, be sure to visit our packages section for more information. 

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