All the reasons Wix is my preferred choice for small business websites
(J.Salmon Design website designed by Stephanie Audette Connor on the Wix Platform)
There are plenty of website platforms to choose from, but as a designer, I have a favorite.
Wix has been around since 2006, but it has come a long way from its beginnings. As a Wix Professional Certified Designer, I have been designing on the platform for nearly a decade.
Since every business’s needs and goals are different, I won’t go so far as to say that it is the right solution for every company. For instance, if your primary focus is e-commerce, other platforms like Shopify might be more functional. But there are some big reasons why I recommend Wix to many clients, particularly service-based businesses.
(Maven Hair Company's new website designed by Stephanie Audette Connor on the Wix Platform)
If you want to design your site on your own, Wix makes it easy.
Even though I believe in the power of professional design, many small businesses need to DIY their website when they are first getting started. In fact, I encourage many potential clients to begin with a simple templated site as they save to invest in custom site design.
I love that Wix makes it easy for non-designers to create a functional, attractive site.
Their drag-and-drop tools allow you to adjust text, images, and layout without touching code. Unlike some competitor site editors, Wix’s intuitive interface even lets you see what the live page will look like as you edit.
If you run into any issues, Wix has plenty of step-by-step tutorials, free e-courses, and a knowledge base to help you along. And once your site is live, there is a built-in blogging tool where you can create custom post layouts and schedule regular posts to engage your visitors.
A Wix site is also highly customizable with the help of a designer.
Ready for a custom site as your brand grows? Wix can do that too.
With the help of a designer (oh, hi!), you can add custom code to create a website that perfectly matches your brand’s personality and visual identity.
There are over 900 design templates, significantly more than platforms like Squarespace or Shopify, and your designer has unrestricted access to alter and change them to meet your needs. They can even incorporate advanced design features like parallax scrolling and animations to add visual interest.
Beyond the template you choose, you can sell digital and physical items or add free plugins, apps, and tools to help with everything from appointment booking to live chat.
So, when you are ready to rebrand and take things from bootstrapped to beautiful, add your designer to your site as an editor, and you're off and running.
(BEFORE & AFTER - Grace Riley's new website designed by Stephanie Audette Connor on the Wix Platform)
Wix’s built-in SEO tools help boost your organic search.
SEO is often an area of interest for small businesses. In 2022, Wix updated their built-in tools to include integrated Google index status, automatic on-site optimization, and site speed optimization. As a result of these tools, 82% of users reported improvements in their Google rankings.
The Wix editor shows you a preview of Google search results for your page while you edit your SEO, removing some of the mystery from what is often a challenging part of running your business.
One of my favorite Wix SEO features is that the platform automatically resizes and compresses your images. This feature is a huge time-saver for you and helps your site load faster—a major factor in how you rank. Images make up a significant fraction of your page weight, and when they aren't correctly sized and compressed, they can make pages lag. 40% of visitors will abandon your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, so keeping your images sized for speed is super important.
Wix makes it easy to give visitors an excellent mobile experience.
Have you ever had the experience of accessing a non-mobile-friendly website on your phone and having to pinch and Zoom to get a sense of the content on the page?
Painful, right?
As of fall 2022, 49.78% of web visits were mobile, compared to 50.22% from desktop.
It's vital that your small business website is designed for a positive experience, no matter the device. Thankfully, Wix sites are automatically mobile responsive. While the site will automatically resize across devices, you can also go into the mobile site design and tweak things as needed to give your mobile visitors the best possible experience.
(Homebirth For All's new mobile website designed by Stephanie Audette Connor on the Wix Platform)
Wix offers a range of affordable plans based on your business’s needs.
Wix has various plans at different price points to match your needs and budget. So, even though it is used by some enterprise brands like Kroger, Glassdoor, and LegalZoom, it remains an accessible platform even for new businesses.
Once your site is built, your plan includes hosting, maintenance, and security. You won't have to pay a professional to continually manage and support our site as you would if your site was built on WordPress, for example.
There are so many great things about Wix, but no platform is perfect.
While there are so many things to love about Wix, there are a few drawbacks to note.
As a designer, the biggest issue I come across is that you cannot swap out templates without starting your site design from scratch. That means it is essential that you choose your initial template carefully.
It’s also a bummer that the free and combo plans don’t have Google Analytics available.
And the last qualm is that most Wix plans have storage limits that necessitate an upgrade as your site grows. Usually, your site will grow at a similar pace to your business, so you'll have the revenue to make the plan jumps as needed.
All things considered, I still find Wix is a fantastic choice for most small businesses and entrepreneurs. If you'd like to talk more about whether Wix is the right choice for your business, I'd be happy to help. Book a call, and let's talk.