What is Wix, and why is it a popular CMS?
Wix is one of the most popular website-building platforms. The main reason for Wix's popularity is that Wix is easy to use and ideal for creating portfolios or small business websites. However, Wix shouldn't be used to build large websites because adding additional pages makes the site slower. After all, Wix is a self-hosted platform. Wix packages include hosting and functionality, meaning you don't have to pay anything other than a subscription to Wix.
Wix is established as a dynamic website creator. As a CMS, Wix now comes with various dynamic pages and development tools such as Wix Editor X and Wix Velo with great features. You can build a website on Wix very quickly and without complications. In the last seven years, the number of Wix users has grown from 50 million to 200 million.
Features:
Wix offers a range of features that make it easy for anyone to create a professional-looking website. Some of the key features include:
1. User-Friendly Drag-and-Drop Builder:
Wix uses a drag-and-drop interface, which means you can select elements like text boxes, images, and videos and place them anywhere you want on your webpage. This makes it incredibly easy for anyone, even those without any coding or design experience, to build a professional-looking website.
2. Diverse Customizable Templates:
Wix offers over 800 professionally designed templates that users can choose from. These templates are categorised into different industries like business, photography, music, design, restaurants and food, accommodation, events, portfolios and CVs, blogs, health and wellness, fashion and beauty, community and education, creative arts, and landing pages, among others. Each template is fully customizable, allowing users to change the colour scheme, fonts, page layouts, and more.
3. Wix ADI for Dynamic Website Creation:
In 2016, the Wix ADI function was newly introduced. Simply put, it's a tool that creates an entire website based on your preferences. By using Wix ADI, you can create a dynamic website very easily. It also has many section templates that you can use to create a website in a short time.
4. Robust App Market:
Wix has an extensive app marketplace that offers a wide range of third-party apps and integrations with over 250 apps, both free and paid, that can make your site more usable and accessible. With the help of these apps, you can enhance your website's functionality with features like email marketing and social media integration. In addition to these, the Wix Marketplace offers an extensive selection of useful apps, such as Wix Multilingual, Wix Store, Wix Blogs, Forums, Events, and Videos, which let you effortlessly include any function with a website and personalise it to meet the specific needs of any customer.
5. Free SSL Certification:
We all know that SSL is a very important thing on a website because it confirms the security of the website. If the SSL certificate is not installed on a website, Google does not allow the website to be visited easily. With a Wix subscription, you get a free SSL certificate and can install it on your website.
6. Built-in SEO Tools for Website Optimisation:
Many freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners don't care about SEO (search engine optimisation). But the SEO of your site is very important. Now, people first search on Google to learn about any product or service. And to make your product or service visible in this Google search, you need to do SEO on your website. Creating a website is not the end of the job. A lot of work needs to be done to keep this website up and running.
After building your website, SEO plays an important role in increasing its visibility. On-page SEO optimisation is very easy with the Wix platform. Wix has built-in SEO tools that can help you optimise your website for search engines. These tools include the ability to edit meta titles and descriptions, customize URLs, add alt text to images and more. You can use these tools to improve your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
For on-page optimisation within the Wix platform, each page's SEO title and meta description have to be given separately. We also have to push keywords. In this case, Wix's default platform will tell you which pages have some problems, and by solving the SEO problems of those pages, you can easily submit your website to Google Search Console through Wix through on-page optimisation and thus easily rank your website on Google. Do with different keywords.
7. Mobile responsiveness:
In today’s digital age where more people are using mobile devices to browse the web than ever before having a mobile-responsive website is essential. Wix websites are designed to be mobile-responsive. This means they automatically adjust their layout based on the device they’re being viewed on whether it’s a desktop computer or a mobile device.
8. Free Hosting on a Global CDN:
As I mentioned earlier, Wix is a self-hosted platform. Wix provides its users with fast, secure and reliable hosting at no extra charge. This means that Wix takes care of all the backend maintenance, including security updates, and ensures that the servers are running smoothly, so you can focus on building your site.
Wix hosts all sites globally on a CDN (Content Delivery Network), meaning only the files that visitors visit are temporary stores. That is, if you visit any website with CDN, you can see a copy of that website that is cached from the main server.
You don't have to install anything; your free web hosting will be set up automatically when you publish your website.
9. Domain Connectivity and Collaborative Capabilities:
Since Wix is a self-build platform, you need to build the entire website inside of Wix. It will remain on Wix hosting later you can view the website on that particular domain by connecting any domain. You can purchase a custom domain or connect one you already own to your stunning website. With Wix domains, you can connect any domain to your Wix website with just a few clicks. You can also invite anyone to contribute to your site by adding them as site members or assigning them roles such as admin or editor.
Also, Wix can invite anyone to give any developer access. By inviting the person who will work on the website design or billing management to the Wix account and giving multiple access, various tasks can be done very easily. To get access, only an email invitation will come, and by accepting the invitation, the developer can easily access the Wix website. We can work on any client's website in this manner.
10. Diverse Pricing Plans for Different Needs:
Wix has several pricing plans for building different types of websites, the most popular of which is the personal plan (for entrepreneurs and freelancers). This plan costs you $12 per month and includes all the apps, hosting, and templates needed to build a website. In this case, your bandwidth is unlimited. There are also various business and enterprise plans for larger websites.
Additional pros and cons you should keep in mind:
Like any platform, Wix also has its pros and cons which should be considered before deciding if it’s the right platform for you. So, now we will talk about the pros and cons of Wix so that you can make it would be easy to make up your mind.
Pros:
Versatility in Design Customization: Wix's platform not only provides customizable templates but also allows deep-level customization within these templates, enabling users to create a truly unique and personalised website that stands out in their respective industries.
Effortless Design Control: The drag-and-drop functionality within Wix empowers users to have a complete say over the design, allowing the easy repositioning of elements, alteration of colour schemes, and more, ensuring complete creative control.
Adaptability and Responsiveness across Multiple Devices: Wix's mobile-responsive design doesn’t just fit the site layout to mobile screens but ensures the adaptation of content and functionalities to various devices, providing an optimal browsing experience.
Comprehensive SEO Guidance and Insights: Wix's SEO tools not only aid in on-page optimisation but also provide insights into website performance, keyword suggestions, and other actionable analytics, allowing users to refine their SEO strategies.
Simple Third-Party App Integration: Beyond the range of apps available, Wix ensures seamless integration with third-party applications, enhancing the functionality and capability of websites and offering endless possibilities for customization.
Collaborative Ecosystem: The ecosystem allows users to not only invite contributors but also ensures a seamless integration of tasks and contributions, fostering efficient teamwork within the platform.
Reliable and Globally Optimised Hosting and CDN: Wix's global hosting on a Content Delivery Network ensures not only speed but global reliability, catering to visitors worldwide with consistent and quick access to websites.
Easy Domain Connection and Management: Wix simplifies domain connection with a straightforward setup, facilitating easy mapping of custom domains and providing a hassle-free experience for domain management.
Effortless E-commerce Integration: Wix provides seamless integration of e-commerce functionalities. Users can easily set up online stores, manage inventory, and process payments without complex technical requirements.
Responsive and Dynamic Design Capabilities: Dynamic pages and tools such as Wix Editor X and Wix Velo offer flexibility, allowing users to create responsive, dynamic, and visually appealing designs for their websites.
Robust Analytics and Tracking Features: Wix empowers users with robust analytics and tracking tools, offering insights into website performance, visitor behaviour, and trends to make data-driven decisions.
Strong Community and Support: Wix boasts a supportive community and offers extensive support resources, including tutorials, forums, and customer service, aiding users in troubleshooting and problem-solving.
Extensive Multimedia Support: Users can effortlessly incorporate multimedia elements into their sites, including video backgrounds, image galleries, and audio players, enhancing the overall visual experience for visitors.
Time-Saving Automation Features: Wix's automation features assist users in streamlining various processes, such as managing events, sending newsletters, or scheduling blog posts, saving time and effort.
Easily Implemented Blogging Capabilities: Wix provides robust blogging tools, enabling easy content creation and management, ideal for individuals or businesses looking to engage their audience through blogs.
Flexibility for Growing Businesses: Wix accommodates the growth of businesses by offering scalability options, allowing users to add advanced functionalities as their business expands.
Innovative Design and Creative Freedom: Wix continually introduces innovative design features, enabling users to exercise creative freedom and keep their websites up-to-date with the latest design trends.
Accessibility Compliance and Standards: Wix adheres to accessibility standards, ensuring that websites built on the platform are compliant, accessible, and inclusive for all users.
Cons:
Limited Bandwidth and Storage: Wix offers up to 500MB of storage and the same amount of MB for bandwidth. Limited bandwidth can negatively affect your site's speed and accessibility.
Wix Subdomains and Ads: Wix subdomains must purchase one of Wix's premium plans. Another annoying detail about the free plan is that every page shows Wix ads. In addition to this, the Wix Favicon is present in the URL. This is also the case with Addons domain plans.
Migration to Other Platforms: If you ever decide to move your site from Wix to another content management system (WordPress for example) due to its limitations, you will likely need to consult and/or hire an expert to do the work. Because Wix is a conservative platform you need to import Wix RSS feed and transfer content from your website.
Template Limitations: While Wix provides a vast array of templates, customization limitations might arise, especially for more advanced design modifications or unconventional layouts, which could hinder unique website development.
SEO Flexibility Constraints: Despite offering SEO tools, Wix might present some limitations in terms of deeper SEO customization or more intricate technical optimisations, restricting some advanced SEO strategies.
E-commerce Complexity for Extensive Stores: Although Wix offers e-commerce integration, for large-scale or complex online stores, its capabilities might not match those of dedicated e-commerce platforms, potentially limiting extensive business needs.
Dependency on Wix's Infrastructure: Users are reliant on Wix's infrastructure and service continuity. Any disruption or change in their services might directly impact the hosted websites' performance and functionalities.
Less Control Over Hosting Environment: As Wix hosts websites on its infrastructure, users might have limited control over server-side settings and back-end functionalities, which could affect certain specialised requirements.
Subscription Costs for Advanced Features: To access some advanced or high-demand features, users often need to upgrade to higher subscription plans, potentially resulting in increased operational costs.
Restrictions on Code Customization: Wix might restrict advanced users requiring extensive custom coding, hindering the ability to implement complex custom features or functionalities beyond Wix’s built-in tools.
Content Portability Challenges: Transferring content out of Wix might be complex, especially when migrating to other platforms due to proprietary structures, which may cause issues with content portability.
Limited Blogging Capabilities for High-Volume Blogs: For high-traffic or extensive blogging needs, Wix might not offer the same robust capabilities as dedicated blogging platforms, potentially limiting advanced blogging functionalities.
Long-Term Cost Efficiency Concerns: Over an extended period, depending on the growth and evolving needs of a website, the total cost of using Wix might outweigh that of self-hosted or open-source platforms.
Dependency on Wix for Ongoing Support: Users might find themselves reliant on Wix's support and services for ongoing maintenance and upgrades, potentially affecting the website's flexibility and independence.
Incompatibility with Specific Integrations: Some advanced or specialised third-party integrations may not be fully compatible with the Wix platform, limiting the range of available integrations for certain business needs.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Wix is an excellent platform for building professional-looking websites without needing any coding skills. However, it is important to consider the limitations of Wix, such as the difficulty of migrating to another content management system. If you anticipate the need for more advanced features or customization in the future, it may be worth exploring other platforms that offer greater flexibility and scalability.
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