What’s The Best Website Builder for SEO: Six Of The Best Compared

Lots of people ask me what the best website builder is for SEO, and I always tell them that fundamentally, you must choose a website builder that is best suited to your business.

If you're a blogger, I'd probably go with WordPress.

If you're a coach or a course creator, I might go with Kajabi.

And if you've got an e-comm business, I'd look at Shopify.

But of course, you know by now that you can create the best website in the world and have amazing products and services, but unless you've got your SEO working for you, it's going to be very hard to get your business seen.

So, while the builder you choose has to be a good fit for your business, it also needs to be good for SEO.  

This article compares the best website builders around and gives you the low down on how well they deliver on SEO.

WordPress

Let's start with WordPress. This is one of the most popular website builders. It's used by over 40% of all websites on the internet. But is it the right choice if you're looking to rank well on Google?

Strengths

Plenty Of Plugins 

WordPress is an open-source platform which means there are plenty of plugins to choose from for SEO.

One of the most popular is Yoast SEO, which provides everything you need to optimise many areas of your site, including image titles, meta descriptions, page content, and much more. 

Quick Load Times 

WordPress sites tend to load quickly and can be even faster with the right plugins, such as WP Super Cache, designed to optimise site speeds. 

Adding Content Is Easy

In the world of SEO, content is king. It's simple to upload fresh content to a site with this WordPress. You can create and add new pieces of content in minutes. 

Weaknesses 

Keyword optimisation

Even with tools like Yoast, it isn't easy to optimise a site through WordPress based on Keywords. The "Keyword focus" tool isn't always that accurate when checking for specific keywords, which can limit your options.

Too Many Options 

WordPress has no organic SEO features, so you need to rely on plugins. While this provides plenty of choices, it does mean you need to add more plugins to your site. That leads to more maintenance, updates,and potential downtime if a plugin fails. 

Difficult To Detect Broken Links 

There's no simple way to find broken links on WordPress. You will need to use yet another plugin or use a separate tool. This can significantly reduce efficiency when optimising your site. 

Wix 

Wix is a website building that is constantly changing and evolving. It now has a wide range of features that could really help your SEO.

Strengths 

No Coding Needed

Some website builders require coding to make sure your website is optimised for search engines. This isn't the case with Wix. It's simple and user-friendly to optimise different areas of your site. 

Built In SEO 

You don't need to worry about plugins or widgets with Wix. Everything you need for SEO is built into the Wix dashboard, which makes it quick and easy to update your site. 

Google Connections 

Wix is connected to Google resources, including analytics and Google Search Console, which is super helpful for SEO.

Weaknesses

Slow Speeds 

Wix can be pretty slow, and core servers can take a while to respond. This became a significant SEO issue when Core Web Vitals were introduced in 2021. 

Only Offers The Basics

Wix is great for SEO basics and gives you lots of options for completing SEO essentials like your titles, meta tags and optimising descriptions. However, the platform is quite rigid, which means that it's difficult to alter and enhance deeper levels of optimisation. 

Squarespace 

Squarespace is often used for building professional websites for creative purposes such as blogging and photography. 

Strengths

A Long List Of Built-In Features

Squarespace does have plenty of features for SEO built in. This includes mobile-friendly designs, automatic redirects and a site map. Other features include:

• Headings
• Meta tags
• Google Amp
• Integration with third parties 

User-Friendly Designs

Squarespace website designs are very user-friendly. This is great if you want to ensure that your site has a low bounce rate. 

Weaknesses 

Difficult To Add Rich Snippets

This is a useful way to optimise your site, and while it's not impossible with SquareSpace, it is quite tricky 

Coding Is Required

Unlike an option like Wix, coding is required to fully optimise a website. This is another reason why it can be more difficult for beginners to fully optimise their websites.

No SEO Plugins

There are no SEO plugins available for Squarespace. This can be an issue because users may find the built-in functions aren't quite enough for what they need to do to get their website to show up in the search engines.

Shopify

Shopify is ideally suited for eCommerce websites and stores. But how does it stack up in terms of SEO options? 

Strengths 

Free SSL certificate

A core component for SEO due to new security standards, Shopify does provide a free SEO certificate. On other e-commerce platforms, this comes with a charge. 

Easy Options 

It's easy to optimise various elements of on-page content to improve SEO. This includes URLs, meta descriptions and title tags. Meta descriptions are useful for increasing your click-through rate, which can directly impact ranking. 

Image optimisation 

Images are key on eCommerce websites. With Shopify, you can modify image file names and add the right alt text. 

Weaknesses

Sitemap and Robots.txt are locked 

Shopify does not create image or video sitemaps. This can make it difficult to index visual content. Also, you can't modify the robots.txt file. 

Extra URL folders 

Shopify URLs aren't always as user-friendly as you might want. You need to type them out and often include unrelated keywords in the URL structure. That's a problem, as shorter URLs are often preferred for SEO purposes. 

Weebly

Weebly is considered to be one of the simplest ways to build a website online. Let's look at what it's like in terms of optimisation. 

Strengths 

Fast load speed

Weebly sites load quickly for users due to a 500MB limit for free users and no limit if you decide to pay for a premium package. This means your site can grow continuously, and speeds will not be impacted. 

Strong Focus On Keywords 

It's easy to target specific keywords or phrases through Weebly. This ensures that you can quickly create a page that stands up to Google's search requirements. 

Weaknesses

No Directory Structure

Instead, every page is on the same level. This means that you will need to overload page names with certain keywords. It ruins the menus and sub-menus. 

Image Names Aren't Optimised 

You can't change the internal image names in Weebly, which have no keywords. This is always going to impact SEO. 

No 301 Redirects

You can't create 301 redirects to an external site through Weebly. If you do ever need to migrate, you could lose the reputation you build with your Weebly domain. 

Kajabi 

Kajabi is marketed as a complete business platform with everything needed to create an online company. It provides users with fantastic benefits in terms of SEO. 

Strengths

Built-In Features 

Kajabi offers various SEO features that are built in and designed to help website owners rank higher. This includes optimising aspects such as page titles, descriptions, and meta descriptions. 

Optimise How Your Site Appears In The SERPs

Through Kajabi, it is possible to optimise how your site appears on Google search engine results pages. This can dramatically increase your CTR. 

Multilingual Support

Kajabi provides support for multiple languages. This is useful if you want to optimise landing pages for your website and ensure that you rank internationally.

Fast Speeds 

Kajabi pages do load fast and are highly responsive. Unlike WordPress, this is achieved without third-party apps.

Weaknesses

Some Themes Have Code Bloating

Certain themes available through Kajabi do have code-bloating issues. This is when themes use extra unnecessary code, which can slow down the site. 

Longer learning curve

While all the SEO features are built-in, understanding how to get the most from this platform can take a little time. However, putting the time in will provide great SEO results. 

So, what's the right website builder for you?

As you can see, each website builder has its benefits and issues when it comes to SEO.

The trick is to find the right one for your needs with the SEO options you want.

Which platform do you think is right for you?

Are you thinking of swapping over?

Drop me a line if you need any more help.