In the age of social media, you might ask yourself if your business really needs a website. Well, yes. Because a website will not only help you build trust and brand image but also generate more leads for conversion. This is why big players like Nike still have an elegant and functional website. Alright, you get the idea but how do you get one for your business?
If you don’t want to hire a team to build your website, there are quite a few options available with simple drag-and-drop features. And a popular one is Wix, which we are reviewing today!
Shall we begin?
What is Wix?
Wix is an easy-to-use tool for designing and building professional websites – without any coding skills. It is a hosted service that runs on the company’s cloud servers. It means you can easily access this tool from within a web browser and you don’t need to pay for any sort of web hosting.
Wix boasts attractive website designs with over 900 customizable templates to choose from. It has built-in SEO functionality. All the websites created with Wix are automatically optimized for mobile devices. Plus, there are tons of tools for creating a functional online store with shopping carts, payment options, product listings, and more.
Website Building
Creating a well-designed website with Wix is a breeze, thanks to Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence). All it requires from you is answers to a few questions and your website is ready to go. If it does not match your style, you can pick a design theme and a color palette. Besides Wix ADI, there are two more options – Wix Editor and Wix Marketplace.
Wix Editor is perfect for those who want to have their own creative freedom. It has drag-and-drop functionality with plenty of customization tools. All design elements can be aligned, resized, recolored, and rotated to the user’s liking. Wix Marketplace, on the other hand, is for those who want to hire a web design professional instead.
Design Templates
One of Wix’s key strengths is its vast collection of design templates. There are over 900 to choose from. These website templates cater to all sorts of businesses– from restaurants to educational institutions. And they are the perfect place to start on Wix, especially when you don’t know where to start.
You can play around with the layout and the design. And the best part is – all the Wix templates are free to use and automatically optimized for mobile devices.
Customization Options
Just because there are templates does not mean you are limited to pre-designed websites on Wix. Luckily, there are extensive customization options – such as personalization with fonts, colors, layouts, and multimedia elements. However, if you know how to code, you can get access to advanced customization capabilities – thanks to Wix Velo. It has all the tools to build an enterprise-level website – from eCommerce to a social media network.
Velo provides a web development environment that is always ready to go. Also, it has a visual Editor for building the UI you want.
App Market
The App Market is where you find a wide range of third-party applications and integrations within the Wix platform. These apps can enhance your website's functionality. You can add contact forms, social media feeds, e-commerce capabilities, booking systems, and more.
Some examples of third-party integration within Wix are SendGrid, Twilio, and Stripe.
E-commerce Websites
Wix eCommerce lets you create your own online space for selling products and services from scratch. The platform claims to be scalable - meaning it grows with your business and is able to handle large amounts of traffic and sales.
Besides, there are other appealing features like automated sales tax, seamless inventory management, sales management across multiple channels, built-in marketing tools, shipping and fulfillment options, payment solutions, and more. And wait, you can manage all of it from a unified dashboard.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There is little point in building a website if it does not show up in search results and remains hidden from your potential customers. This is why Wix also provides some SEO tools that allow you to optimize your website's content for search engines.
Now be warned, these tools are quite basic in nature and should not be considered an alternative to advanced SEO tools available in the market.
Web Hosting and Security
Wix understands that their clients should not have to worry about hosting and security when building their website. So, they provide free web hosting, which is pretty cool. It does not require any installation. Just publish your website and it is taken care of.
The company hosts all websites on a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which is a secure nexus of global servers. And when someone visits a Wix website, they are auto-directed to their nearest server – improving website loading speeds.
Domain Services
If you don’t have a domain name yet. Don’t worry. You can buy and register domains directly through Wix. It immensely simplifies the process of setting up a custom domain for your website. Simply start by searching for the domain you want for its availability.
If you buy a Wix Premium plan, you get a domain name for free for a year, which is quite an appealing bonus of the upgrade.
Business Tools
Apart from providing capabilities to build your perfect business website, Wix also offers a number of business tools – for free. In broad terms, these tools fit into major categories like business, marketing, design, and finance.
Some of Wix’s business tools are Business Name Generator, Logo Maker, QR Code Generator, Title Generator, Business Card Maker, and Form Builder.
Analytics and Reporting
Once you publish your Wix website, you get access to Wix Analytics in the Dashboard. This feature gives you actionable insights into the performance of the website. This crucial data can help you gauge what content is getting the best traction and how your audience is interacting with your site.
Wix Analytics tracks your traffic and understands how and where your visitors spend time on the website. It also allows you to compare the revenue generated across different time periods. And based on this data, it gives you personalized suggestions.
Pricing
Wix offers five premium plans – Light ($16/mo), Core ($27/mo), Business ($32/mo), Business Elite ($159/mo), and Enterprise (quote available on request). It is worth mentioning that this pricing is not quite cheap when compared to alternatives like SquareSpace.
Final Thoughts
Now coming to a verdict, Wix is undoubtedly an excellent tool for building and managing websites. It is extremely easy to use and offers tons of valuable features. However, it does come with a few caveats. For example, some of its best functionalities are locked behind a paywall. Also, once you have published your website, you can not change the template unless you start from scratch, which is kind of bothersome. Some Wix users have even complained online about the loading speeds of their websites. And the cloud storage is limited even when you upgrade your plan.
Wix is reasonably priced on the starting premium plans but if you are a medium and large-scale business, you may want to go with a cheaper option like SquareSpace.