If you want to build your own site in 2018 then chances are that you have heard a lot about the drag and drop site builder called Wix. I personally have seen many ads promoting their site and I decided that I need to test them to see if they are really good as they claim to be.
Wix.com has founded almost 12 years ago but they become more popular just recently after they have done a few marketing campaigns starring some famous actors and actresses.
Is Wix.com really good? Should you use it to build your own business website?
Well, it really depends what are your priorities. In this post I will give you just four reasons why you should not use them, but I think that these are deal breakers and it is enough to make you look for better alternatives.
Wix.com Is Very Easy To Use
I always want to create honest and unbiased posts as well as reviews for my site’s readers so I actually decided to test them.
One thing for which we need to give them credit for is that you can very easily create a website using their builder.
In fact, you do not need to download any software on your computer or upload anything to your server since they host everything for you. You only need a web browser which you will use to create your new website.
Even if you are a bit older and you do not have any technical knowledge whatsoever, you will be able to create a site using their builder.
But this is just a one advantage of Wix.com I can think of.
I am not surprised that thousands of inspiring bloggers and online entrepreneurs are tempted by their fancy looking marketing campaigns and advertisements on sites like YouTube.
If you are hesitating if you should use them or not, then please consider these four reasons before you use them, because once you build your website with them, there is no coming back.
1) You Do Not Own Your Site
Most of the people that use them do not even know that they are just leasing the building platform since your whole site including all the files, are hosted on their servers.
Here is what you can read on their Wix Site and Content Ownership page:
“We reserve the right to determine and/or grant ownership to an account or site based on our reasonable judgment, whether or not an independent investigation has been conducted by us.”
Now, what does that mean?
It basically, means that if you, let’s say, have an online shop where you sell your own t-shirts and you have built it through WIX, then they can close your website whenever they want to, even if it is a real business generating thousands of dollars a month.
Well, if you are running a business and you are a serious person, then you should not use them in first place, my friend, but I understand that it is very easy to get lured by fancy looking ads.
It is the same situation as if you were renting a home.
You are paying every month to live in that home, but you do not actually own it and if one day landlord decides to kick you off for no reason, you can not really do anything about it.
I can not emphasise enough, how important it is to use a platform that allows you to use a host that you can choose yourself.
If you use let’s say use WordPress.org to create your business site, your hosting options are literally endless.
You can choose any hosting provider you want and change it anytime you want but most importantly you own the home, meaning, you are the actual owner of the site if you use a self hosted platform like WordPress.org.
2) Not SEO Friendly
The second reason why you should avoid Wix.com is that their platform is not SEO friendly.
Google and other search engine sites just do not like sites that are using their platform to build websites for numerous legit reasons.
Not only their themes do not have clean codes and they do not load fast like most WordPress’ themes.
They do not even allow you to add some plugins like Yoast SEO that can help you with the website optimization.
You can have the best looking website in your niche but you need to know that Google does not really care how fancy your website is.
On the contrary, they want your site to load quickly, they also want the code of the site to be clean and efficient among other things.
Having high search rankings on the search engine sites like Google and Yahoo is one of the most important things for any online business.
Google can bring you lots of sales and traffic from their site is free and there are millions of people searching for different things on the Google so chances are that there are many people looking for something you might be selling, even if it is a small market.
If you have a site build on a platform like Wix then you are missing out a lot of quality traffic which could bring you lots of visitors to your site that could eventually buy something from you.
I have been running sites for a decade now. I have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads on many different sites including Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and a organic traffic always was and still is the best source of traffic in terms of quality.
I have just read in the comments on another website that was also discussing Wix’s platform that one guy just moved his sites from WordPress to Wix after seeing some ads on various websites.
And after the switch, his site lots 95% of all organic traffic from the Google but luckily for him, he had some back up saved on his computer so he could go back to WordPress.
3) Your Data Is Locked
Unlike WordPress, Wix does not let you to move to another platform so once you set up your website with them, you can not move it if you change your mind.
That is a very scary if you are running an online business that is generating money.
It is quite possible that once your site gets bigger, it will get more visitors, so you will need a better server for your site.
Well, guess what?
If you use Wix and your site become popular, there are chances that your visitor will have to wait too long to see the site and they will never come back to your site because of that.
The worst thing is that there is absolutely nothing that you can do about that issue.
When using the WordPress platform, you can change a host anytime and it is very easy to move your data to another provider.
If you want to start to use another platform, then the only option would be starting a new site from scratch.
4) You Can Not Change The Theme
Another big no no for using Wix is that they do not allow you to change the theme that you have chosen while creating a website.
So if you choose a theme that might look great, but after some time you realize that it lacks some features, I have bad news for you, you will be stuck with that damn theme as long as your website exist.
And no, it is not a joke, I am deadly serious.
They do not even allow you to edit the theme and if you are a new webmaster then you might not understand how important it is to be able to customize a theme that you use.
Why?
Eventually, you will need to make some changes to its code to make your site look more professional and unique.
So forget about hiring a web developer that could add some functions or just adjust the size of the logo because he can not access and change to the code behind your theme.
Conclusion
If you want to build a mediocre website that looks like everyone else’s in less than twenty minutes then go for them.
But if you would like to start a blog or an online shop that will get lots of organic traffic from Google for free, get clients and ultimately bring lots of sales then do not ever use them.
So think twice if you really want to create your website using them, because if you do use their platform, you are basically putting your online business at risk.
I can not imagine a serious business owner using Wix.
You might be drawn into using that platform, because you have seen ads saying how easy it is to build a site with them but you need to remember about other things that you will not see in their advertisements and I have mentioned them in this post.
In 2018, you can start a website with WordPress.org and get a reliable web hosting for less than $5 a month so that you have a full control over your site.
I am currently using 247-Host for my online shops, blogs and other online businesses and you can not go wrong with them.