Web Design
If you are reading this article, you are probably hesitating between Wix and WordPress for your website creation. In this article, web development experts from My Little Big Web agency put themselves in your shoes and compare the two famous content management systems: Wix and WordPress.
Flexibility and versatility
For a long time, Wix has remained in the shadow of WordPress, which is a much older website builder and recognized for its many advantages. However, there are many reasons why entrepreneurs might hesitate between these two CMS platforms. When it comes to customization, these two solutions each have their advantages and disadvantages. Let’s find out which of these platforms offers the most design flexibility.
Wix offers a variety of functionalities and a catalogue of more than 500 website templates for its users. Creators simply drag and drop their content to create their web platform quickly and without any programming. In addition, the CMS offers graphics that can be adapted to different screen sizes, which is essential today given the increase in mobile searches. In order to guide you through the creation of your website, a number of questions are asked from the moment you start on the platform.
As for WordPress, the user can explore more details thanks to a catalogue with thousands of themes. In addition, if the features offered are insufficient, you can always install new ones by adding plugins. The advantage of WordPress is that you can add features with some technical knowledge. If you are new to programming, don’t worry, some tutorials are available to help you create your website. This platform also allows you to adapt your designs to the screen resolutions of mobile devices.
These two CMS platforms offer a number of themes that are accessible for beginners. But if you want to go even further and have absolute control over your themes, you should consider WordPress. With CSS and HTML code, you can rest assured that WordPress will meet your expectations.
What type of website do you want to create?
The software you choose also depends on the type of website you want to create.
Creating an online shop
When it comes to creating online stores, you might have already heard of Shopify. It is the most user-friendly online store CMS. If you want to create this type of website without having to modify the programming, Shopify can do the job.
However, WooCommerce is still the benchmark in terms of online store creation and this is not trivial. This suite of WordPress plugins allows you to showcase your product catalog to Internet users with a variety of customizable features. Again, the big advantage of WordPress is the degree of customization. Where Wix restricts you to a framework (which can be an advantage for beginners), WordPress offers you a much wider scope. At the same time, it is important to have some web development skills.
As for Wix, the platform has a section dedicated to the creation of online shops, WixStores, which allows you to present your products or services in a simple way, while offering many payment methods at the time of purchase. This section allows you to keep an eye on your inventory and track your orders, make special offers and choose the delivery options for your products. The section contains some limitations regarding shipping and tax options. You will also need to ensure that your e-commerce platform is adapted to the legal requirements of your country.
Creating a showcase site
Unlike the online store, a showcase site allows your visitors to view your products or services without the ability to purchase them.
Wix allows you to create a showcase site that is not regularly updated. If you create a showcase site to present a service, such as plumbing, Wix will have plenty to offer since your services won’t change frequently. Your site can therefore be static.
If you know in advance that your website will evolve, you should use WordPress. The addition of plugins will reduce your limitations when developing and customizing your showcase site.
Creating a blog
Creating a blog helps you optimize your SEO by regularly updating it with fresh content. But once again, you may wonder what platform you should use.
As we mentioned above, Wix is an intuitive software. You can create a blog with a few clicks and a simple drag and drop function.
However, the number of options offered by Wix is low compared to WordPress. The many plugins and the original WordPress catalogue allow you to customize your blog as much as you like while making it interactive. You can integrate surveys or discussion forums, for example, that will enhance the user experience.
Which CMS should you choose for SEO?
As far as SEO is concerned, Wix has always had a poor reputation, unlike WordPress. In effect, for a very long time it has been difficult to rank on search engines with Wix because of certain shortcomings.
Ahrefs conducted a comparative study of the two platforms regarding their effectiveness when it comes to SEO. To accomplish this, the site analyzed 6.4 million domains.
The study was divided into two parts:
- Websites with little organic traffic;
- Websites with more than 100 organic visits per month.
It was revealed that 46.1% of websites created with WordPress received some organic traffic compared to 1.4% of Wix websites.
Concerning the second sample studied, 8.26% of WordPress sites receive more than 100 monthly visits while the figure decreases to 0.06% for sites created with Wix.
You will notice that websites created with WordPress attract much more organic traffic than Wix websites.
Naturally, this observation alone would not be enough to affirm that WordPress is better than Wix in terms of SEO. But other comparisons support these statements:
- Ahrefs created the Domain Rating formula to calculate the strength of the number of external links received on a site. The Domain Rating of WordPress sites is on average almost 3 times higher than that of Wix sites.;
- Finally, the average number of “dofollow” links on WordPress is 22 times higher than for Wix sites. A “dofollow” link is an attribute that ensures that Google will take an external link into account.
Ahrefs studied much more data to recommend you the best CMS. If you want a platform that is easy to use and you think your SEO needs are limited, Wix will be able to satisfy you. However, SEO is essential if you want to position yourself better on search engines and therefore increase your online visibility. If you want to optimize your visibility, we recommend using WordPress. The CMS is the standard in terms of SEO optimization.
Design your website with My Little Big Web
As you can certainly imagine, your choice of content management system depends on your needs, your expectations and your budget. In this article, we have attempted to present you with the advantages and disadvantages of these two website builders as simply as possible.
However, building a website can be difficult. If you need help designing/redesigning your website or optimizing your SEO, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our web developers and SEO agency will be happy to assist you in the endeavor.
Take a look at our portfolio to get a glimpse of My Little Big Web’s expertise!
Send a message
More reading
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
