Best Dating Website Builder Software That Simplifies Building Modern Dating Sites

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught
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In this review, I’ll explain how to select the appropriate dating website builder software to launch your own dating website. You’ll discover the best website builders for dating sites and find out which dating site software is preferred for starting a modern dating site nowadays.

According to a 2022 study by Statista, over 323 million people worldwide use dating apps and websites to find love, highlighting a significant shift towards digital matchmaking.

This surge in users reflects how deeply these platforms have woven themselves into the fabric of modern dating culture.

While our parents might have met in cafes, on dance floors, and in colleges, those days are long gone. This doesn’t mean that people don’t meet that way anymore. However, new technologies make the dating process more convenient, faster, and importantly, more predictable.

Why are Dating Websites still Relevant?

Modern dating websites (especially the best among them) offer a vast array of options for precise partner matching. Considering the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of profiles available on popular dating platforms, it’s easy to see how effective these dating services can be.

Despite the existence of well-known dating websites like Tinder, Match, and Bumble, people continue to create new online dating sites and apps.

Each new dating website caters to different preferences, lifestyles, relationship goals, and of course, regions. Thus, the demand for dating website builders and dating apps remains high.

Best Website Builders for Dating Sites

I must admit right off the bat – creating a dating website, even a small one, is no small feat. It’s not akin to developing a small business website or a easy WordPress blog.

In order to make your dating website a success, you need functionalities like advanced search options, payment gateway integration, profile creation, multimedia playback, instant messenger, match suggestions, memberships, and much more.

But let me assure you – there are specialized dating website builders that come equipped with all these dating options. Additionally, there are dating scripts, dating software and plugins that transform regular WordPress websites into simple dating websites.

Let’s take a look at which dating website builder software is the best.

SkaDate Dating Software

dating website builders and software

Positioned as a simple yet sophisticated dating website builder for portals, SkaDate is a top class solution for all your dating oriented ideas such as an out and out dating service website, chat based service, and what not. The dating website builder is without any tricky coding exercises for you, so you can enjoy your blog and web page creation experiences. Once your website is populated with profiles, finding the right one among them will be easy for users, because of the profile search settings.

The Speed Dating feature is a contemporary online dating method for adventurous users, and you can leverage text chat, video chat applications to provide the same to your website users. Completeness bar acts as a visual motivator for site members to add more information about themselves, and multiplayer games on the website provide ample incentives for them to stick with the website.

Watermarks can be easily added on to images, email implicit contact forms for effective communication, inventive smilies that make chatting fun, and flexibility of choice between free registration or invitation based registration for users – the world of options with this script is huge. You can monetize your website in multiple ways, including offering advertisements, affiliate programs, and others.

You can also offer secure usage to your visitors by using the several security relevant features such as criteria based IP blocking. SkaDate allows you to offer your content in multiple languages, making it a truly scalable and globally relevant online dating website creation script for you.

DateMill

free dating website builders

Whether you wish to have a social networking website for singles to patch up, a full-fledged dating website with potentially thousands of profiles, or a bold adult content website, dating software DateMill will have your needs covered and provided for. This is an open source and unencrypted script that offers you advanced online dating website management features, along with the leverage of being able to tweak the code to achieve more from the your website.

The pool of general features is pretty impressive, encompassing image watermarking facility, support for adding captcha codes to forms, designing top class templates without meddling with the platform code, simple backing up of precious member profiles, cache based website access and CSS based design. User experience is top notch, and the functionalities here include unlimited photos addition, commenting on photos, saving of searches, preference based alerts from the website, advanced searching of profiles, easily manageable mailbox with labels, advanced site usage settings including privacy options, individual personal blogs with profiles, networking among limited number of members, and blocking of troublesome members.

Administrators can use the script in several ways to achieve their website goals; moreover, the range of features spreads far and wide, encompassing functionalities like multiple profile types, moderator profile creation and management, automatic approvals and rejections of profiles, bulk actions, payment gateway integration and a lot more.

Chameleon

dating software

Strong admin features that can be conveniently used are hallmarks of a great online dating portal creation script, and Chameleon has it all to impress you. Admins can use the control panel to make site wide changes, configure settings, approve and ban users, keep a tab on the kind of content being uploaded, manage payments from the members of the website, and a world of other admin features.

The Smart Profile feature deserves a special mention here, as it allows users to create profiles they love themselves, which in turn is a huge retention factor for your website. Moreover, Chameleon empowers the user experience with some gripping games, which also helps retain members. The Chameleon script is unencrypted and open source, thus allowing you ample opportunity of tweaking your way to great functionalities.

Using your Chameleon empowered website will be easy as well as safe for your users, and the geo networking feature helps members find out the geography of other members. If you’re looking to migrate on to Chameleon from another script, think no more as transporting to this script is easy. Integrated payment gateways help you flexibly monetize your website, and video chat facility adds another feather to the cap of amazing features.

Online Website Builders for Dating Sites

Dating website builders offer you the inimitable advantage of being single stop solutions for everything you want under one roof, sorting out all your concerns beginning from hosting to after implementation support. If you’re in favor of opting for a fully convenient end to end solution, look no further than these terrific dating website builders.

WordPress Dating Website Themes

WordPress hardly needs any introduction. The CMS empowers every 1 out of 4 websites on the World Wide Web today, and the craze is spreading like wild fire with every passing upgrade to the swanky platform. Creating your website is a piece of cake with WordPress, as you will be able to use the WYSIWYG styled editor to create a website quickly.

Adding multimedia is as easy as a clap of a hand, and then you have plugins to add to the functionality of the website. However, you’d need to realize here that WordPress as a platform is not sufficient to help you create a top class dating website. You’ll need to leverage some of the most amazing dating website themes to work in conjugation with WordPress for you to create a stunning online dating website.

We help you begin your search by telling you more about three of the most popular dating website themes for WordPress. These are premium themes, and you can have them licensed to you at pretty reasonable prices, which also makes this method dearer to those on a tight budget.

LoveStory Dating WordPress Theme – download

best dating website builders

LoveStory could hardly have been named any better! The interface evokes the feeling of appreciation for beauty and desire for soft love, and you can leverage the same for success with your online dating service based on this theme. User experience design is terrific, and creation of extended profiles is visually motivated.

Integrate WooCommerce plugin with this theme and begin inviting payment based memberships without any hassle at all. Providing different levels of access is easily achieved, and searching through user profiles based on criteria is also a breezy affair.

Dating WordPress Theme – download

dating site software

Another top notch dating website theme for WordPress, Dating Theme is the perfect amalgam of style and substance. Sending gifts and private messages, using in-built chat rooms, using status indicator for being online, and distance calculator to help users know each others’ geographical location better – all these tools help enhance the user experience of your dating website’s members.

You can monetize your website by using this theme as it allows you to implement a paid membership and ad revenue based business model. Moreover, this theme keeps users engaged with actionable inputs on how the site’s doing. Child themes are included in the package and help you change the appearance of different pages.

Sweet Date Dating WordPress Theme – download

online dating site builders

Your search for a fully responsive WordPress theme for your dating website ends with Sweet Date. Integrated payment gateways, level based membership controls, and the flexibility to the users of logging in using Facebook, all these features set the stage for what’s to follow from this theme.

A unique matching system will keep your dating website’s members engaged, and will also help them filter in on the most ideal match. Customized fields can be added to profile templates to make them more worthwhile. The profile page is swanky to say the least and brings together several essential elements of a great user experience.

If you need more themes we recommend to check Dating Website Templates and Themes.

The Best Membership Website Builders: Free and Paid Tolls

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

If you have ever visited an e-learning site like Udemy or an online community like Facebook, you know what a membership website is. In its simplest form, it is a portal with restricted access to its content, available to members only, although access can be paid, free, or a mix of both. Popular models include:

E-learning sites

E-commerce portals

Blogs/vlogs

Podcasts

News websites

Associations

Of, course you can use one of the best all-around website builder, bu specialized membership site platforms are the best way for thought-leaders to build their brand, develop an online community, and get paid for the knowledge transfer. This allows businesses with specialized information to set up a consistent revenue stream.

82% of the businesses adopting the “subscription economy” model claim it helped them become industry disruptors. But for every success story, there are dozens of others who have failed. One of the probable causes: choosing the wrong platform to build their portal.

The Top 8 Membership Website Builder

Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot is a fast-growing cloud-based software with a website builder platform to create membership sites. The standout feature? You get your own mobile app designed separately for customers and admins. You can also embed the Wild Apricot widget in other websites to promote an event you are managing on the Wild Apricot site.

Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot

For example, you can embed a calendar widget to a WordPress site for cross-platform publicity. Wild Apricot also offers a free version that can be used by organizations with 50 members or less. All plans include a 30-day trial period with full access to all features within the trial period.

Pros of Using Wild Apricot

Excellent database and event management tool.

Event coordination feature that lets you send promotions, discounts, and reminders to attendees.

Unlimited email campaigns.

Native mobile app for both Android and iOS that accepts payments and registrations.

Cons of Using Wild Apricot

The blogging platform is outdated and lacks basic features such as content moderation.

You can’t allot a membership ID within the software.

 

Wix

Although not the most intuitive membership free website builder in the market, Wix is a strong contender because of the scalability it offers, along with an affordable pricing plan. The platform allows you to create a members-only area, add pages with restricted content, and process subscription payments.

Wix

Wix Member’s Area

You can integrate multiple Wix plugins to enhance the experience, including the Pricing-plan app, Wix bookings, Wix Events, Wix Forum, Wix chat, etc.

Pros of Using Wix

Membership areas can be created for free, although you can’t process payments with them.

Contacts are automatically synced in the back-end with the Wix email marketing tool.

Supports multi-platform registrations like Google, Facebook, or email.

Allows recurring payments.

The Pricing-plan app allows setting up a Paywall to grant restricted access to paid members.

Member roles restrict access to specific users on your site.

Cons of Using Wix

Has a steep learning curve, not suitable for novices.

New registrations have to be manually approved to send confirmation emails to users.

Doesn’t have a Learning Management System, so you can’t create online courses.

Doesn’t support content dripping and content locking.

 

Memberpress

An easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create multi-tiered memberships, online courses, content-dripping, and integrating 3rd-party plugins to build communities.

Memberpress

Memberpress

One of the standout features of Memberpress is Paywall – a tool that allows non-members to access certain bits of content for free, a great bonus to attract initial users. With three different pricing options, you can choose to install it on a single website or across 5 different websites.

Pros of Using Memberpress

Integrates with existing WordPress sites.

Creates unlimited multi-level membership across all plans.

Users can have more than one membership at a time.

Good technical support.

Multiple access rules, including posts, pages, categories, tags, files, etc.

You can set content start and expiration dates.

Wide range of pricing options for subscriptions – recurring payments, monthly/yearly payments, free/paid trials, etc.

Customizable coupons and email marketing tools.

Analytics reporting dashboard.

Cons of Using Memberpress

Doesn’t support other CMS platforms.

Doesn’t offer a lifetime purchase plan.

Doesn’t have a built-in forum tool; you need to install an additional WordPress forum plugin.

You cannot customize registrations and login forms.

 

Squarespace

Squarespace’s new Member Areas feature has remedied the one big issue that marred its utility as world class membership website builder – the software’s lack of integrated membership features necessary for creating members-only content. You can now create a membership website with Squarespace in two ways – use Member Areas, its very own membership software, or use MemberSpace, a third-party plug-in available with a business or higher plan.

Squarespace

Squarespace

The builder offers virtually every tool you can think of for creating, sharing and managing exclusive content.

Pros of Using Squarespace

It allows access to a wide range of high-quality, royalty free stock images, including the entirety of image gallery from Unsplash.

It includes a vast line-up of web fonts, including more than 600 fonts from Google and approximately 1000 fonts from Adobe.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) enabled web pages that allow for accelerated content delivery on mobile devices.

Cons of Using Squarespace

Squarespace blogs lack the Autosave feature, so you can lose your content in the event of a server crash or accidental post deletion. This makes the platform unsuitable for professional bloggers.

Limitations on organizing the static pages and blog posts make Squarespace ill suited for creating large, more complex websites

 

Yourmembership

Here’s a premium paid membership website builder that strikes the perfect balance of design and functionality. Yourmembership is a comprehensive platform with excellent content, event and membership management tools. It offers efficient blogging and email marketing solutions, along with the ability to manage both members and events through a single, advanced dashboard.

Yourmembership

Yourmembership dashboard

Yourmembership excels at creating engaging, mobile responsive websites with futuristic features such as Microsites and expert website design assistance.

Pros of Using Yourmembership

Highly intuitive backend that makes updating and editing content a breeze.

It allows for seamless integration of the members’ registration pages and the events section.

It offers excellent accounting tools to help with invoice generation and delivery, tracking financial information such as the members’ donations and dues.

Cons of Using Yourmembership

The content editing and customization options are limited in comparison to other top membership website builders.

Yourmembership is one of the pricier software for building membership websites which makes it unaffordable for businesses with a limited budget

 

Weebly

Weebly is one of the easiest to use website builders with membership features such as single click members’ login, different membership tiers, email newsletters and online store.

Weebly

Weebly membership area

With Weebly, you don’t need to traverse a learning curve to create your membership website. Simple, drag-and-drop mechanism allows you to select the desired elements and click on them to edit or include additional features. It’s an excellent choice for businesses who aim to quickly build a community and offer online courses.

Pros of Using Weebly

Websites built with Weebly are practically ad-free. Weebly’s personal and free membership website builder plans include a Weebly logo at the screen’s bottom. Even the logo is absent in Weebly’s paid plans.

Unlimited navigation levels which support the creation of large, complex website structures.

Cons of Using Weebly

Doesn’t support multilingual sites. Character sets for languages such as Arabic, Chinese and Russian aren’t fully supported.

Certain features are too pricey compared to other top membership site builders. Attaching an email address to your website’s domain, for instance, entails a monthly cost of $6.

 

Thinkific

Thinkific is one of the most popular and powerful platforms for creating, promoting and selling online educational courses.

Thinkific

Thinkific

You can include high resolution videos, images and rich text in your courseware. In addition, you can offer downloadable content such as quizzes, tables and certificates. The free plan includes excellent customization options and is great for new instructors who’re just starting out selling online courses. The premium plans allow you to create unlimited courses.

Pros of Using Thinkific

Thinkific allows you to extend a monthly payment option for the pricier courses.

The excellent voice-over tool for creating PowerPoint presentations allows even beginners to create quality video content.

Cons of Using Thinkific

Thinkific lacks integrated features for email marketing, so you’ll have to rely on third-party email providers.

Doesn’t offer chat support.

 

Kajabi

Kajabi enables you to create and market membership websites, online coaching programs and courses using single-click templates.

Kajabi

Kajabi dashboard

Kajabi Pipelines offers custom automations for optimizing and scaling your website and online courses which reduces your team’s workload. The platform specializes in building large scale, close-knit online communities based on your business’ terms and conditions.

Pros of Using Kajabi

It has an excellent mobile app that facilitates better connectivity and uninterrupted learning. The app is included in all of Kajabi’s plans.

The visual email builder features allows for creation of beautifully personalized messages integrated with countdown timers, videos and animations.

Cons of Using Kajabi

It has a limited library of landing page templates.

Doesn’t support key quiz elements such as randomization and question banks.

What Is a Membership Website Builder?

Membership website builders allow you to create gated or members-only websites having features such as paid membership, discussion forums, knowledge-based webinars, courses or classes, ebooks, and newsletters, along with exclusive perks such as free or expedited shipping, early access, discount offers and more. These membership websites can be paid, free, or include a tier-based monetary system for their members.

If your goal is to create a membership website, even the most popular or highest rated regular website builders can turn out to be inadequate. While many top-rated generic website builders do include premium membership features, you can only access them via additional plugins. The act of adding membership features by scouring through dozens of plugins can be both time-consuming and ill-suited to individuals that lack prior coding experience and technical skills.

What Is a Membership Website Builder?

A good membership website builder offers powerful, built-in membership tools such as recurring membership payment, discussion boards, Q&As, and drip campaign management – definitely the best choice for building your online membership platform.

What can you do with a Membership Website Builder?

In addition to the necessary website building tools such as customizable templates, the ability to add and modify pages, graphics, and media, the best membership website builder will also help you accomplish these tasks:

Create an Intranet portal for your members

With a good membership website builder, you can set up a password-protected intranet portal and create secure pages where members can sign up for exclusive programs and courses, share their personal details and engage other members in the discussion.

Create and manage dedicated member directories

A members’ directory is a handy means of listing and categorizing members who’ve signed up for exclusive products or services. It’s also a much-sought feature among the members for searching and connecting with other members. A good membership website builder allows you to create and manage the members’ directories in an easy, efficient manner.

Create and manage dedicated member directories

Plan and run effective marketing campaigns

A good membership website builder can help you market your products and services by using efficient marketing tools that aid in creating and customizing microsites and promotional campaigns that target email addresses and the members’ individual profile pages.

In addition to these benefits, the right membership website builder can also help you manage the events calendar, allow for a mobile check-in facility and e-ticketing. The best builders offer extensive learning material and expert, round-the-clock customer support, so you can get quick responses and resolutions to your queries and complaints.

Criteria To Select a Membership Website Builder

How to build a website with user accounts? You have two options – either to opt for a hosted solution or to install a plugin to your existing CMS platform. Both options can work equally well so don’t get into the analysis-paralysis mode.

Choose a platform that offers multiple pricing options and fits into your budget constraints. Look for hidden costs that come in the guise of set-up, support, or additional features.

Your chosen platform should be easy to learn, with minimal steps for adding new users. Check if you can test the platform from the user’s perspective to better understand its intuitiveness and simplicity.

Most providers offer a basic security level to all businesses. If you are considering additional security levels in your website, for example adding a captcha or two-factor authentication, check your options with the service provider.

Know what are the learning and engagement tools provided by the platform. If you are an educator, you would probably want learning management software integrated into your website.

What are the options to create a forum or community? Does the platform have built-in forum features or do you need to add third-party tools?

Opt for platforms that have tiered membership levels so you can segregate members according to services offered.

You would probably have events that users can sign up for. Look for platforms that include tools like event calendars and online registrations.

The Best Membership Website Builder for You Is…

Different businesses have different needs, but a common thread across all membership sites is the membership base. Your membership base is dictated by the niche you have created for yourself in the industry. Hence, it would be wise to choose a website builder according to your business goals and the structure of your membership plans.

The Best Membership Website Builder for You Is...

For example, an e-learning site will need a website builder that has LMS software support. On the other hand, an e-commerce site will have to go for a platform that allows an online store. Some of your subscription models may need drip content to ensure recurring revenue. If your chosen website builder fails to provide any of the necessary integrations, your business model falls apart even before you begin.

It is also a good idea to keep the pricing constraints in mind while choosing a website builder with membership feature. What may fit an enterprise-level company may not be feasible for small businesses. Ideally, you should look for a platform that offers your users a rich set of features with a comprehensive and integrated experience, all under one roof.

What do you need to create a Membership Website?

Membership website builders such as MemberSpace have made the act of creating gated pages and websites easier than ever. The real challenge lies in converting your existing customer base into paying members and creating content that will invite new members to sign up. Creating the best membership platform for your business requires you to focus on these key factors:

Identify and target your audience

If you’re creating members-only pages for an established ecommerce business, you already have a customer base and need to focus on designing/presenting your products or services for a paid model. When creating a new members-only business from scratch, put some time into researching the current and recent trends, the competition, as well as the customers’ needs and unmet demands. Your members-only content needs to be tailored to the age, spending ability, and requirements of the target customer segment.

High-value content and services

Your membership website’s products or services need to be of high value in order to warrant paid member subscriptions. If, for instance, your product is online courses, you should look to ensure the course material is up-to-date, the curriculum description is accurate, and that the course has good accreditations. It’s best to incorporate popular content delivery methods such as video, email, and downloadable PDFs so you can target customers that favor different learning styles.

Decide on the type of membership and charges

One of the biggest decisions to make when creating a membership website is the cost and duration of the membership. If you’re offering a wide range of services, you may categorize them into different membership plans. If you stand to make money through sources such as displaying ads, affiliate marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, you can also consider offering a free membership plan.

What features should a Membership Website Builder include?

When you’re looking for the right membership website builder for creating your membership platform, make sure to look for these features:

What features should a Membership Website Builder include?

Efficient forum software

Make sure the forum software of your membership website builder enables the members to customize their profiles. The ability to customize aspects such as profile pictures and watch or reading lists empowers the members, enhancing their engagement and overall service experience.

The forum software should have a good text editor and allow private messaging between the members. Customizable comment signatures and achievement-based rewards are some of the most vaunted forum features of the day. Make sure your chosen membership website builder includes these.

Easy, secure membership payments

The website builder you choose should allow for seamless, secure recurring payment for the membership fee. It should allow the members to set up membership renewal via both manual and automatic means. If you’re interested in offering a time-based trial membership, the website builder should allow the member to cancel or pay for his/her membership at the end of the trial period.

Your membership website builder should be able to work with multiple payment gateways, including all the popular payment channels such as credit card, debit card, net banking, PayPal, and digital wallets.

High-end membership features

Your pick of membership website builders should ideally allow for adding unlimited members as well as creating a large number of membership levels. A membership level determines the range of content or services included within a certain membership plan. If you offer a wide range of paid services or have plans for future expansion, look for a website builder that offers a large number of, or unlimited membership levels.

A dedicated members’ welcome page, the ability to hide selected content, and automatic integration with your email list are some other essential features you should look for in a membership website builder.

Do Membership Sites make money?

Recent research has revealed that 70 percent of the world’s business leaders consider membership or subscription business models to be the path to future business expansion and commercial success. In addition, a staggering 82 percent of the world’s businesses are looking to adopt the membership model and utilize private websites to achieve greater financial output.

A membership website is a reliable means of creating a steady stream of revenue, typically with little start-up expenditure. It also involves a high margin of profit – if you launch your membership website with a monthly membership fee of $20, you can generate a monthly income of $1000 with just 50 members.

It’s obvious that now is the most opportune time ever to start or switch to the membership-based business model. If you’re an existing business, it’s best to transition slowly, with the goal of converting no more than 50 percent of your existing customers into paid members over a reasonable time frame. You can begin by offering newer products and services to the paying members while maintaining the traditional setup for the existing customer base, let the growth of your paid membership numbers and the quality of service attract the rest to sign up in near future.

Best Website Builders and Platforms for SEO

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

For a long time, I’ve been eager to highlight the importance of SEO capabilities in website builders through my site. I know from firsthand experience how important it is to choose an appropriate platform for your website from an SEO perspective.

I’ve not just promoted the website for my own web design agency, but also carried out search engine optimization on a lot of my client’s websites too.

And while doing all of that here is what I figured out – Not all website builders and platforms are good for SEO. Websites built on certain platforms are more likely to achieve better SEO results, whereas it is harder to rank higher in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) with the websites built on some other platforms.

In this review, I’ll tell you which website builders and platforms are ideal for SEO and why.

Best SEO Website Builders for Beginners

All web platforms can be divided into two categories – for beginner users and for experienced users.

Beginner users are those who don’t have any web design, HTML layout, or programming skills. But they can do basic tasks, for example, sign up for Facebook and create their own email.

Here, I have mentioned four website builders aimed at beginner users with different primary focuses but with great opportunities for SEO.

NOTE: The website builders in this list are not arranged in the order of their ratings and show no evidence that one platform is better or worse than another. Each of the website builders listed here has its own particular scope of application.

Wix – Free, simple, and universal

Wix is a leader among online website builders and all that is not for nothing. In view of most independent lists, Wix is a top choice when it comes to drag and drop website builders. And as for SEO, Wix is really good at it too, since it comes with dozens of useful options, tools, and widgets for SEO.

Wix – Free, simple, and universal

WIX SEO tools

Also, Wix was one of the first website builders to abandon Flash technology and switch to HTML5. Thanks to that, web pages on Wix get easily indexed on all search engines.

NOTE: In the past, Wix has had some problems with search engine optimization on its websites. But then the management reconsidered the importance of SEO for their clients and did a great job in this direction. Now, Wix is one of the most SEO-friendly online website builders. However, you might still see old-school SEOs hating Wix, recalling its past shortcomings.

Wix is suitable for SEO due to its following features:

More than 500 perfectly responsive templates

Wix does not just have the largest template library but all Wix templates are created by professional web designers and have a responsive web design too. This means that the templates display correctly on any device screen, whether it’s a mobile phone, a laptop, or a tablet.

Search engine optimized website infrastructure

Websites created on Wix have a simple search engine optimized infrastructure and thus search engine bots easily index webpages and pass on the links within a Wix website without difficulty.

Wix also has server-side rendering (SSR), which allows rendering website pages on the server and not in the customer’s browser. As a result, website page load speed increases, even if the customers have a slow internet connection.

Free SSL certificates with all plans

All Wix websites have HTTPS as Wix offers a free SSL certificate with all their plans, including the free one.

Automatic structured data creation

Wix automatically adds structured data to its website pages. You don’t have to make an effort to add schema markups. Though you do get the option to manually create schema markups and add them to certain pages and use specific schema types like products, ratings, FAQ, and also statistics.

Automatic robots.txt and sitemap.xml file creation

Wix automatically creates robots.txt and sitemap.xml files. Moreover, it also gives you the option to edit the contents of these files, if necessary.

Automatic canonical tags creation and management

Wix automatically creates canonical tags for all new pages (like WordPress does with installed SEO plugins). In the Advanced SEO tab, you can also delete the canonical tag for a certain page or add one, if it isn’t already there.

Integration with Google Marketing Tools

Integration with Google Marketing Tools

WIX Marketing Integration

One of the greatest advantages of Wix for SEO is the possibility to integrate every possible marketing tool from Google with your website. Primarily, the integration option with Google Search Console directly from the Wix dashboard makes it simple, quick, and convenient.

You can also integrate Google Analytics for getting expanded statistics, and add Google Tag Manager for launching your advertising campaign.

NOTE: In the near future Wix is looking forward to taking a decision on launching Wix managed solution to offer integration with Google Optimize. This will allow analyzing the efficiency of a Wix website SEO’s status with the help of A/B testing. Also, it is possible to integrate Google Optimize using Google Tag Manager. Here’s Google’s guidance for such integrations.

Integration with Google My Business

Your WIX website’s integration with Google My Business will be useful for local SEO. Thanks to it, you’ll be able to create and further edit your company’s profile directly through the Wix dashboard. Again, this integration can be performed in a few clicks, which saves time while delivering excellent local SEO results.

Personalized SEO Setup Plan

This is a unique Wix option that makes it much easier for beginners to perform search engine optimization on their websites. Wix takes into account the particularities of your website and business and then gives you a step-by-step SEO Setup Plan. Just implement the given recommendations as per this plan in order to carry out all the basic SEO activities for your website.

NOTE: In order to use Wix SEO Wiz you’ll need to connect the website to Google Search Console. After this, SEO Wiz will create a step-by-step plan for you to perform your website’s search engine optimization. You don’t necessarily need to carry out all the steps right in the order they are stated in the plan, but the steps you miss will be highlighted as incomplete. You just have to finish implementing all the Wix SEO Wiz recommendations in order to make your website SEO-friendly.

SEO apps in the Wix App Market

One of the greatest Wix advantages that makes it one of the best website builders is that it has a large app collection available in the Wix Apps Market.

These additional solutions can be added to a ready-made Wix website, which increases its SEO and other capabilities. This may be comparable to WordPress plugins.

Here are some of the best SEO and marketing apps offered by Wix App Market:

rankingCoach SEO – It analyses your website and the websites of your competitors, and then creates a step-by-step SEO strategy specifically for your website. All SEO guides are in the form of simple how-to videos.

Rabbit SEO – A comprehensive tool for searching the most appropriate keywords, analyzing competitors’ keywords, website page optimization, and many other things.

Site Booster – It will automatically register your website in business directories, review websites, and popular mobile apps and business listings like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps, Business Data Index, FourSquare, SMB Home Online, Yelp, and some others.

Visitor Analytics – This is a multilingual SEO app that shows expanded statistics related to website attendance with a convenient interface. It allows performing user behavior analytics by using heatmaps and conversion funnels.

How much will Wix website builder with expanded SEO options cost?

Despite the fact that Wix is a free website builder, as you’d already know, with the free plan you won’t get any of those useful SEO options which were referred to above.

Advanced SEO options are available in the Unlimited plan (it costs $18 monthly) and the plans above it. As a free bonus for your first year, you’ll also get Visitor Analytics App, Site Booster App, and 3 free ads vouchers:

For Google Ads – $100

For Bing Ads – $100

For Local Listings – $100

As a result, by spending $216 yearly on Wix (Unlimited plan), you get free SEO tools and advertising vouchers amounting to $425, which is twice as much as your expenses.

These free bonuses and all those SEO tools and options described above make Wix the best online website platform for SEO for beginner users.

 

Squarespace – more automatic SEOs options

Like Wix, Squarespace is another top website builder, with some wonderful SEO capacities. Squarespace is especially good for developing portfolio websites, websites for photographers, and online stores.

Squarespace – more automatic SEOs options

Squarespace

Squarespace is a well-designed website builder focused on beautiful website designs, elegant minimalistic templates, and lots of SEO features. Moreover, most Squarespace SEO options are fully automatic, which will especially please beginners by making the tasks simpler for them.

Let’s figure out what Squarespace offers in detail.

Automated Heading Tags

Despite the fact that Squarespace allows editing HTML code (I’m sure web developers have a smile on their face right now!), its webpage structure is designed in such a way that users don’t need to add tags <H1>, <H2> for subtitles in HTML manually. You just choose the headline style you want, and Squarespace will automatically create the correct Heading Tag. It is really user-friendly. Here is how Squarespace describes this.

Automatic creation of <alt> and <title> tags for images

Thousands of articles and instructional SEO guides are written about the importance of correctly stating the <alt> and <title> tags for images from an SEO perspective. And Squarespace automatically adds the <alt> and <title> tags to your images with its image description feature.

Automatic sitemap creation and update

Automatic sitemap creation and update

SEO Checklist

It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of having up-to-date sitemaps for SEO. As most SEO-friendly website builders, Squarespace independently creates a sitemap for your website in XML format. But that’s not all. It also keeps automatically editing and updating the sitemap as per the changes in your site’s structure.

For example, if you’ve added a new page to your website, then Squarespace will add it to the sitemap. And vice versa, if you delete a certain page, then it will be deleted from the sitemap. This saves manual efforts.

NOTE: Even though Squarespace automates the process of sitemap creation and updating, the updates to the site map don’t happen instantly. After you have changed something on the site, the update in the sitemap usually happens in about an hour. In some cases, this may require up to 24 hours or even more, especially for larger multi-page websites.

Automated mobile optimization

Automated mobile optimization

Automated mobile optimization

Like in Wix, all the websites developed on Squarespace have an inherently mobile-optimized design. For this, Squarespace saves text and visual content in a format that can be easily displayed on any type of device. You don’t have to take any action for mobile optimization, Squarespace does that for you.

Automated AMP creation

Squarespace supports Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). For all the pages on your website, it creates simplified mobile versions called AMP. These pages download faster and thus, positively affect site speed. This will be an undoubted plus point for SEO, especially if the majority of traffic on your website comes from mobile phones.

NOTE: AMP can be a really effective solution, but you should know that using AMP can sometimes lead to the reduction of website conversion. Similar results have been observed for some online stores, where webmasters noticed declining sales after AMP introduction. However, the organic traffic remained the same.

Management of Meta Titles for pages and posts

Squarespace allows assigning and editing the Meta Title both for the website as a whole and individual pages and blog posts. You can also edit Meta Titles manually and get the best SEO results for every single page.

NOTE: A good SEO practice is when the H1 title differs from Meta Title. It’s not necessary to have completely different titles, but it would be better not to have 100% copies. Moreover, it’s important to test Meta Titles. Perfect Meta Titles as per SEO standards may actually have fewer clicks in SERP positions (lower CTR). And prettier, user-friendly titles, are likely to be actively clicked by users but may appear not so effective in search rankings. It’s important to strike the perfect balance for every page – this is one secret of success in SEO.

Squarespace SEO consultations

Squarespace has a special Squarespace Select Plan with additional possibilities, including some SEO advantages too. If you choose this plan, you’ll get a dedicated manager for developing your website and online business.

And you can also get personal consultation about search engine optimization for your website from Squarespace’s SEO specialists. This is a unique offer that isn’t available with any other website builder.

How much will Squarespace with maximum SEO options cost?

All Squarespace plans include SEO features for website visibility. This means that you’ll be offered simple step-by-step instructions using which you can improve the SEO for your Squarespace website.

The most basic Personal plan will cost you only $12 per month if you pay for the entire year at once.

But if you buy the Business plan for $18 per month, you’ll get access to advanced site analytics and the possibility to edit CSS and JavaScript. This may help you with more accurate SEO optimization of the HTML code of your website.

In addition to this, you’ll get a bonus of $100 Google Ads Credits. This is a good start for launching your own PPC campaign with Google Ads.

Squarespace also offers the Basic Commerce plan for $23 per month specifically for online stores. In addition to all the things that you get with the Personal and Business plans, with this plan, you’ll also get access to Powerful E-commerce Analytics.

This is a more profound analytics system specifically built for E-commerce businesses. You’ll be able to monitor lots of additional parameters, for example, sales conversion as a whole or for selected products. Moreover, you can get insights about which products sell better than others, why, and much more.

I must admit that Squarespace has always been good at creating websites for online sales. And the Basic Commerce plan is a perfect solution in terms of the price-quality ratio. Besides that, unlike Shopify, the Basic Commerce plan doesn’t charge a commission for each transaction. Though the Squarespace Business plan charges a 3% commission on every sale. Once again, the Squarespace Basic Commerce plan proves to be a profitable proposition.

As for getting maximum SEO capacities, you’ll have to go with the Squarespace Select plan, which I referred to earlier. Its main feature is that it comes with personal SEO consultation. It’s up to you to decide how important it is for you, but generally speaking, Squarespace Select is the same Advanced Commerce plan but wrapped in an “individual package”.

 

Shopify – Ideal for E-commerce

When it comes to E-commerce, the importance of SEO gets multiplied manifold. This is primarily because E-commerce websites often have a more complex semantic core and have not one or two landing pages, but lots of them. In fact, every product’s page is a landing page. The same is true for category pages too as they all are optimized for certain search queries.

Considering such a large quantity of pages, working on off-page SEO optimization for every page is nearly impossible. And in this case, what comes to the forefront is technical SEO website optimization that, in turn, depends directly on the SEO possibilities of a chosen website builder or platform.

Among all E-commerce website builders, Shopify is the best adapted for SEO. Being the absolute leader among online E-commerce platforms, Shopify couldn’t help but give due consideration to SEO and marketing tools.

Let’s take a closer look at Shopify’s SEO advantages:

Lots of search engine optimized themes

Lots of search engine optimized themes

Shopify templates

Shopify has a large library of free (about 100) and the largest library of premium themes (thousands). By default, you have access to all the free themes, which is fine for most users. However, if you are interested in a website with a more unique design or you have a specific niche business, then I recommend checking out the premium themes to find suitable options.

The largest collection of premium Shopify themes is available on the ThemeForest platform. Here you can find every kind of Shopify theme for selling various goods, relating to various niches, and designed in different web design styles. The prices of these themes are also quite affordable and range from $20 to $90 per theme.

And of course, these themes have great opportunities for search engine optimization. The features of these themes include SEO-friendly HTML/CSS layouts, accelerated page loading speed, and various SEO tools and plugins.

For example, most premium Shopify themes already include Google’s Rich Product Snippets, and some of them are tentatively checked by the MOZ SEO tool or equivalent SEO tools.

Adding Meta Title and Meta Description for every page

Adding Meta Title and Meta Description for every page

Adding meta title and meta description for every page

Like all SEO-friendly website builders, Shopify allows adding Meta Title and Meta Description for every page, whether it’s a page from the main section, product subcategories, or product cards.

As a result, you get the possibility to attract organic traffic to all pages of your website. The main requirement from your side is to just optimize the content on your website based on popular and relevant search queries.

Advanced features for robots.txt editing

All websites designed using Shopify have automatically-created robots.txt files that already meet SEO requirements. But you can additionally edit it using the special robots.txt.liquid template.

With this, you can prohibit or allow indexing the pages you need, manually add some extra URLs to sitemaps, add crawl-delay rules, and much more.

NOTE: Despite the fact that having robots.txt.liquid template creates considerable SEO advantages, be very attentive while editing it. If you make a mistake, you can lose organic traffic for certain website pages or even the whole website. Meanwhile, the Shopify Support Team is unlikely to help you as editing robots.txt.liquid isn’t included in basic Shopify possibilities, and that’s why it isn’t maintained by the Support Team.

Automatic sitemap.xml creation

Shopify automatically generates a sitemap.xml file. It is a record containing the links to all the pages on your website that must be indexed on search engines. Shopify also automatically sends the XML sitemap file to Google Search Console in order to let the pages of your website get indexed as soon as possible.

NOTE: Basic Shopify plan allows the automatic creation of sitemap files only for primary domain names. But this will be unavailable to international and region or country-specific domain names. In this case, you’ll need more advanced plans like Advanced Shopify. You can learn more about this here.

Numerous other useful SEO functions

Shopify was initially planned in order to save the clients from the problems that arise while getting organic traffic.

Here are some important Shopify SEO features:

SEO-friendly structure of page URLs

Compliance of logical hierarchy of categories for online stores

The absence of iFrames in pages code, which accelerates their loading speed

Possibility to optimize navigation throughout the site

Possibility to optimize blog pages

Possibility to integrate Google Analytics

Indication of canonical webpage addresses

301 redirect configuration

Possibility to use descriptive image names to search engine optimize images

Additional SEO apps in the Shopify app store

Additional SEO apps in the Shopify app store

Shopify App store

Shopify has a large selection of apps for increasing the possibilities and performance of Shopify websites available in the Shopify App Store.

Wix and Squarespace also have such apps, right? Well, Shopify boasts of an extremely large collection of apps – about 2700 free and 2400 premium ones. And of course, Shopify has got apps for more successful online store SEO promotion too.

Here are the most powerful of them:

Booster SEO & Image Optimizer – A complex SEO solution for automatic online store optimization. It contains lots of built-in tools, and it can scan your website for SEO compliance and fix critical SEO issues. The app comes with a free plan.

Plug In SEO – One of the most popular universal SEO plugins for Shopify, Plug In SEO allows editing lots of Meta Descriptions and Titles at once, implementing Structured Data/JSON-LD Schema, finding and fixing broken, links and a lot more. The plugin allows performing SEO optimization of Non-English language pages as well.

About Bulk Image Edit & Image SEO – A shareware app, offering a full suite of image optimization features – from reducing the size while maintaining the same quality to adding Alt and file names.

SEO Manager – It scans the website to find SEO errors and provides opportunities for their removal. It contains step-by-step SEO instructions and reference materials for independent online store technical optimization.

How much will Shopify with maximum SEO options cost?

Shopify is definitely aware that it is the best E-commerce website builder in the market. That’s why it doesn’t offer a free plan, you have to pay to access their best-in-class services. However, they do offer a 14-days free trial version.

The cheapest Basic Shopify plan will cost you $29 per month. It includes all SEO options and tools except for those relating to International domain name support and International pricing.

As a result, Basic Shopify is likely to be a perfect solution for a small US or UK-based online store. But if your website has several language versions, then you’ll need the higher Shopify plan that comes at a price of $79 per month. It allows performing International SEO and is not limited to only English language webpages.

What features should an SEO-friendly website builder have?

SEO has always been an important criterion for determining the best website builder. You can check out my previous guides on choosing website builders and you’ll see that SEO has always been a factor in consideration. But today, I’m going to bet on SEO as the fundamental determining factor.

So, then what features should a website builder have to be liked by Google crawlers? Check them out.

Perfect webpage indexing

The HTML code on a page should be easily identifiable by search engines. And as for the website architecture, it must be simple and without complex elements and technologies that are hard to index.

NOTE: About 10 years ago most online website builders used Macromedia Flash technology. The websites built using Flash looked pretty and had spectacular animation. But it was very difficult for search engines to index them, and they were unlikely to rank higher in Google. Due to that, website builders started getting a bad reputation in SEO communities. But since then, a lot has changed. Today, website builders have completely abandoned Flash in favor of HTML5, and the problems with webpage indexing are now long gone. Moreover, website builders began coming equipped with built-in SEO tools, SEO widgets, and SEO tutorials, which radically changed the situation for the better.

Ability to add Meta Descriptions and Headings

Website builders must allow users to add some MetaData, such as Title, Meta Description, and headings (H1, H2, and H3) separately for each page. It should also be possible for users to specify Alt attributes for all the images on the site. All these options allow accurate search engine optimization for every single page.

SEO-friendly URL structure

SEO-friendly URLs are those which have a simple and clear structure that search engines can easily understand. Such URLs contain the basic keyword or webpage title (most often a fragment) and a minimum amount of enclosures.

Some examples of non-optimized URLs:

1) https://www.yoursite.com/news/?p=637
2) https://www.yoursite.com/articles/2022/09/25/sample-post/
3) https://www.yoursite.com/blog/archives/637

Some examples of SEO-friendly URLs:

1) https://www.yoursite.com/best-seo-friendly-platforms/
2) https://www.yoursite.com/seo/best-platforms/
3) https://www.yoursite.com/best-platforms/seo/

Availability of SSL certificate

The best website builders in the market offer SSL certificates with all their plans, even the free ones. They understand that having a website with HTTPS is not only a security issue but also an important factor for SEO. Moreover, the Chrome browser marks all the websites without HTTPS (that is the ones that don’t have SSL encryption) as ‘isn’t secure’ in the URL tab. This may have a negative impact on your website traffic as well as your reputation.

Responsive web design

After Google launched Mobile-First indexing across the web, having a mobile-friendly website design became a crucially important factor. If a website does not display correctly on mobile devices, then it is unlikely that it will rank higher in Google SERPs.

That is why the website builders targeting SEO must ensure that their templates are as responsive as possible so that they are displayed well across all device types and sizes.

Robots.txt and sitemap.xml creation and editing

The robot.txt file gives search engines the information about which pages have to be indexed and which don’t. As for the sitemap.xml file, it is used to specify the URLs of all pages on your website in the order of their priority to be indexed.

The best SEO website builders can automatically create robots.txt and sitemap.xml (like Tilda). You don’t need to take any efforts to get these files, but at the same time, you have the option to edit them if necessary.

Rapid webpage load

Page speed has been an important SEO factor, as officially announced by Google officials. So, the faster your website loads, the better it is for SEO. And a rapid webpage load speed can be achieved in several different ways. The most effective ways include reducing the page size and optimizing the images on the website.

Moreover, the most advanced SEO platforms also use CDN technology, image conversion into WebP format, and delayed image download (Lazy Loading). All these can significantly accelerate the speed of website operation.

Integration with marketing and analytics tools

Most website builders come with their own built-in analytics systems. But almost always their capacities aren’t sufficient. That’s why you need a possibility to add external marketing tools, A/B Tests, and marketing analytics systems.

In most cases, having the option to add Google Analytics and Google Optimize (for A/B Tests), and Google Search Console is enough.

Common SEO Mistakes That Prevent The Growth Of Your Website

Setting up a pretty-looking website is not enough. You need to ensure that the website ranks well on search. This is more easily said than done. The launch of a site is the beginning of the long battle to reach the top of search engine rankings. You need to resort to search engine optimization or SEO techniques.

However, SEO practices evolve constantly as Google and Bing fine-tune their algorithms. Here is a primer about what to avoid.

4 Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid In 2024

1. Not implementing HTTPS

HTTP or HyperText Transfer Protocol comprises a set of rules that govern how data is exchanged between your computer and others on the internet. Think of it as traffic rules for the web that governs the exchange of packets of data.

In recent years it has become obsolete since HTTP is not secure. The data transmitted using the system is not encrypted. This allows others who choose to eavesdrop on a computer to find passwords, user names, phone numbers, and credit card information.

HTTP has been replaced by HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTPS. Unless you use it, your site will rank lower on Google. In fact, since 2019, the Chrome browser warns users about proceeding to a site that is not HTTPS certified. Chrome has a 70% market share and you do not want to show up as unsafe to such a vast number of users.

2. Posting duplicate or plagiarized content

There are two ways to look at this SEO mistake. The first is information that is plagiarized. Google cannot decide which page to place higher since the same information appears on both sites.

The other is duplicate content published by mistake. This can happen on product pages and blogs. Two product pages that describe the same exact product are to be avoided. Not only scrutinize the description on the pages but pay attention to URLs as well. They need to be unique.

Most websites host a blog for disseminating information. Since a blog contains a series of posts, a topic might get published twice by mistake. Duplicate content on the blog can prove to be vexing for the search engine to rank.

3. Keywords strategy that is sub-par

A search engine cannot actually read and understand content from a page as humans can. That is why every page carries keywords in descriptions and content. Incorrect keywords are a top SEO mistake.

The keywords allow the search engine to understand if the page is meant for someone looking for information about dental braces or an online store for potted plants.

Keywords are available through Google Keyword Planner and other similar tools. Not only must you place keywords correctly, but choose those that accurately describe your site and the page.

Image source: staticflickr.com

4. Not fixing errors in H1

Header tags or H1 tags are the first and largest tag of a webpage.

Think of it as newspaper headlines. When you want to find the score of a soccer match, you locate it by glancing through the headlines on the sports page.

A search engine does something similar. Wrong header is among the most common SEO mistakes made by a rookie site owner.

For this reason, the H1 tag has to be descriptive and give a summary of what is on the page.

For this page, the H1 is <h1> Common SEO mistakes that prevent the growth of your website</h1>

If instead, the tag read <h1>How to optimize web pages</h1> it tells the search engine nothing about the actual content. It is an SEO issue you need to avoid at all costs.

5. Publishing content that is too concise

Search engines prefer lengthy blog posts.

Posts that are about 1000-2000 words are the norm. In some cases, such as buying guides, content can be 4000 words long.

Shorter posts that contain less than 500 words do not get much attention from search. A longer post contains more details and therefore provides greater value. Ensure that you avoid the most common typos that plague low-effort content.

At the same time, pepper the writing with as much data as possible. This is very attractive to other writers who love to find someone who has done the hard work for them and would gladly provide a backlink to your site.

6. Neglecting SEO-friendly meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are the short snippets that appear below the URL and H1 in the search result.

They have two purposes. The first is to describe the page for the search engine and the second is to inform the visitor about the page.

The meta description has to be no more than 160 characters. Many site owners do not bother with a meta and as a result, the search engine shows the first 160 characters of the webpage content.

To fix it, generate a meta description for every page in 1-2 sentences. Your search ranking would skyrocket.

Squarespace Review – why customers love it?

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

Squarespace has been a leading website builder platform for professionals and beginners for years. The premium design options and customization options make Squarespace the highest-rated site-builder in town. While the builder platform might take a while to get used to, you will receive a treat of spectacular templates, endless customization and premium features at the end of the wait.

Squarespace is the website builder for creative professionals. Currently, Squarespace is powering the business sites of Hollywood celebs, studio designers, fashion designers, and makeup artists. More than 2.7% of all active websites use Squarespace. Squarespace poses a fierce competition to Shopify and Joomla in terms of market position.

NOTE: You can use the Squarespace promo code to get a 10% off discount on any of the Squarespace Prime plans. Since you can only use the coupon code once, I recommend paying for the annual subscription right away. This way you will get the maximum benefit.

What Is Squarespace?

squarespace review

Squarespace review

Since 2004, the easy-to-use, highly visual and no-code website builder has been leading the website builder market. The user-friendly content management system (CMS) makes the site builder accessible for website designers of varying levels of expertise.

This website building platform eliminates the need for expensive packages that require extensive knowledge of CSS and HTML for creating the basics of a site. With Squarespace, a designer needs little more than the templates and the style editor to create completely functional websites.

Its highly visual, click-to-edit interface allows the website designer to tweak with element placement, layout and designs by clicking on the individual elements of the template. For example, you can click on the background to change its color and pattern, or click on a piece of content to change its font color, size, and type. Editing is a dream with Squarespace’s beginner-friendly user interface (UI).

Who Should Use Squarespace?

Target audience of Squarespace

Target audience of Squarespace

Interestingly, Squarespace isn’t for someone who wants to build his or her site from the grounds up. It has one of the largest collections of ready-to-use templates for fast creating, editing and deployment. Squarespace is for the fast-builder, who wants to get his/her site up and running in a couple of hours with a minimal number of edits.

The leader in website design comes with the full array of portfolio options, blogging tools, SEO tools, analytics, apps and tools, and mobile editing. It is a one-in-all website design platform that will be especially good for building websites for photographers, designers, artists and any site where the purpose is to display images and photos.

Squarespace Analytics

Squarespace Analytics

Squarespace comes with the complete collection of marketing tools, email marketing options, advanced site analytics, promotional banners, ads, and pop-ups, social media marketing integration, customizable shipping options, additional discounts, abandoned cart recovery options, smart and integrated accounting, eCommerce analytics, and more.

What are the differences between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1?

differences between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1

Differences between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1

There are a few unmissable distinctions between Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1.

Squarespace 7.1 comes with more design options as compared to 7.0. These design options include additions to the global color palettes and text spacing.

Editing on 7.1 is much easier since all templates offer identical design options. However, in 7.0, the controls differ by each template.

7.1 supports design alterations in real-time alongside content editing. Whereas, in 7.0, editing options and design changes are in separate sections.

7.0 supports the edit of specific elements of mobile site design exclusively.

7.1 does not allow users to add sidebars to the blogs.

How to Begin with Squarespace?

Start Squarespace free trial

Start Squarespace free trial

You can begin a free trial of Squarespace by choosing one of the templates. To find the right one you can filter the templates by category and purpose. For example, when you click on “start free trial” Squarespace takes you to their templates section which has ready-to-use templates for portfolios, photography, online stores, blogs and podcasts, professional services, community and non-profits, events, musicians and bands, restaurants, real estate and properties, personal and CV, and small businesses.

The navigation of this page is simple, and the aesthetics are stunningly minimal. It is refreshing to see a website builder with no fluff of unnecessary options. It boasts a responsive design that you can access from your PC and mobile with equal ease. You can choose one of the popular templates too for beginning your website building journey with Squarespace. However, Squarespace needs you to create an account for beginning the trial. You don’t need to provide your credit/debit card details.

What’s Our Take on the Squarespace Editor?

Choosing Squarespace website template

Choosing Squarespace website template

The Squarespace editor is neat and clean, yet robust. It has the features and options necessary for a website designer, complete with demo content for each page. Squarespace uses a WYSIWYG editor that enables you to preview your website as it would appear to the end-user.

The templates already come with a contemporary feel, so modern site designers require minimal editing for clients who need a contemporary look and feel. One of the caveats of choosing Squarespace is having to settle for only around 90 templates that work better with professional photography. That is indeed easy with unabated access to Unsplash’s image library.

Stock Images for Squarespace

Stock Images for Squarespace

Stock Images for Squarespace

Squarespace gives you access to Unsplash’s elaborate library of images. The majority of the collection are royalty-free and you can add these to your template to personalize them. “Search for image” and choose a fitting photo from Unsplash. It is as easy as that!

Squarespace also allows its users to purchase images directly from Getty. These images can cost around $10 each. Both Unsplash and Getty images are useful if your client does not have professional images handy for their websites. Having ready-to-use images at your disposal indeed makes up for any lack of branding effort from the client’s side.

The Selection of the Fonts

Fonts selection

Fonts selection

Squarespace users will find thousands of web-fonts, 1000 on Adobe and more than 600 of Google. The huge collection of readily usable fonts are perfect for any site you build using Squarespace.

Editing the Template on Squarespace

Editing Squarespace template

Editing Squarespace template

Currently, designers are using Squarespace 7.0 and 7.1. These are the two most popular versions, yet each has vastly different UI. Both versions make editing an easy task for all designers with a plethora of styling options. You can adjust almost every feature of a site including the font type, size, color and site width with minimum effort.

All Squarespace templates are inherently responsive, which makes editing the style, layout, and background easier than traditionally non-responsive sites. You have one site for all devices, and updating site elements on one version of the site reflect the changes for all devices and browsers simultaneously.

How Does the Squarespace Editor Look on Mobile?

Squarespace Editor on Mobile

Squarespace Editor on Mobile

Any user looking for your site on mobile or tablet will a viewing-ready version thanks to the template’s responsiveness. Mobile responsive sites provide SEO benefits by making the site accessible for a wide range of devices. Designers can also enable accelerated mobile pages (AMP) on their Squarespace sites. Since AMP speeds up content delivery to mobile devices, it contributes significantly to user experience (UX) and site SEO.

Using AMP you can create faster-loading webpages for mobile users. it reduces the bounce rate resulting from extended page loading time. Google prioritizes AMP content to some extent in the search result carousel and that adds SEO benefit to all sites. Currently, you can only enable AMP on Squarespace for the blog posts. Contemporary website builders including Shopify and Bigcommerce allow the enabling of AMP for products too.

You need to be careful while enabling the AMP on the blog. Only a few forms of content find space on the AMP version of a blog post and any custom code or embedded forms will come in the form of “click here for the original post”. Since it takes away from good UX, you might have to pay in terms of site optimization to Google. Go through your blog posts on a mobile device after you switch the AMP on in your Squarespace blog posts.

Does Squarespace Support Video Backgrounds?

Video background support

Video background support

Squarespace templates support video backgrounds even in the trial versions. The video background feature allows each designer to use a YouTube video URL for creating a magnificent looped background for your site.

Additionally, you can control the speed of the playback, and apply any filter from the Squarespace video background filter options. The use of the video background feature makes an already beautiful Squarespace template look stunning and sophisticated beyond measure.

How Does Logo Designing with Squarespace Work?

Creating a logo

Creating a logo

Squarespace comes with an inbuilt logo design app. You can browse through a huge collection of symbols and typefaces that can create professional logos from scratch. If you are anxious or confused about creating your very first brand logo with Squarespace, be sure to watch their video tutorial on the same. You should try their drag-and-drop builder. Download a high-res version of the same when the logo is ready and you can use it on your website as well as print marketing material.

Some limitations of the logo builder tool from Squarespace include:

The designer has access to only a few selected typefaces.

You cannot upload images to the tool even with the pro-Squarespace plans.

It is available to everyone, including those not registered with Squarespace.

How to Manage Content on Squarespace?

Content editing

Content editing

Squarespace brings a refreshing take on content management for all types of websites. Indeed there is a lot you will love about its content management strategies and options if you believe in building quality websites with a content-first and SEO-ready approach.

Here are a few features you will love about Squarespace’s content development and management tools:

Content blocks – The “layout engine” is super simple, as it supports a complete drag-and-drop content building method. You can drag and drop content (images, videos, forms, and code snippets) anywhere on your website. Squarespace has one of the most flexible and easy-to-use content management UIs among website builders.

You can add myriads of content blocks to a page, including (but not limited to) text, images, audio, video, calendars, content summaries, code snippets, markdown, and maps.

You can peruse a wide range of preset page layouts for your About Us, Contact, Product/Features, Services, Pricing, and Team pages. These can prove to be incredibly time-saving for all website designers, who are tired of creating every page from grounds up for each category and sub-category.

Images – Image management is incredibly easy for all Squarespace users. As a designer, you will be delighted with the uncountable image manipulation and management tools for your site. Resizing, cropping, rotating, color adjustment, and adjustment of focus point are only a few of the editing options designers can leverage to create a one-of-a-kind, image-rich website.

Once you have checked out all the image editing options, you should browse the various gallery options. Select from slideshows, grids, and carousels to collate the images and imagery that best describe the brand you are working on.

Easy-to-use charts – Squarespace does not skimp on the different types of charts and the editing options. You can readily create pie charts, bar graphs, and line charts by using the Squarespace chart tools. They give you the option to lessen the text content and create a visual representation of the data.

Irrespective of the wide variety of charts, Squarespace fails to integrate tables into their design options.

How is Squarespace as a Blogging Platform?

Squarespace blog options

Squarespace blog options

Squarespace has several pros, beginning with:

You can add as many blog posts as you wish.

You can create blog summaries and “drop” them to any page of your site.

You can enable AMP on all blog posts for catalyzing their loading speed.

Nonetheless, here are some drawbacks you should consider as well:

There is no option to autosave your drafts.

You cannot access archives for your older posts.

Working on older posts is a pain since it does not support draft versions or archives.

These pose CMS problems that become quite unavoidable once the blog and website start picking up pace. With hundreds of pages and blog posts, you might want an add-on feature on Squarespace that supports the archival of older posts and editing of published blogs.

Does Squarespace Integrate with Other Applications?

Squarespace app integration

Squarespace app integration

Squarespace comes with multiple built-in integrations of apps. You can utilize the features of at least the following marketing and communications applications while using Squarespace:

Zapier – is a popular IFTT tool that aids in data management on a site and CMS.

MailChimp – is an email marketing and communications integration that enables brands to commit to their digital marketing campaign directly from their website.

Dropbox – now share large files, folders, and bulk data during site-building and management with in-built Dropbox integrations.

Google Drive – Google Drive integration further helps in data archiving, sharing of posts and page content, and better management of content files for your site without the need for installing more plug-ins.

Other integrations include Pinterest and Github, but you will need access to the Business plan to make the most of these app integrations. These integrations contribute significantly to data capture and management on any Squarespace website. the platform also supports a varied pricing range of email marketing plans

squarespace website builder review

Squarespace pricing range

Does Squarespace Support Code Editing?

Squarespace pricing range

Custom CSS rules

You can edit CSS and HTML codes, but we don’t typically encourage it.

Both Squarespace versions do allow the addition of CSS to the website. Squarespace does not display the full CSS stylesheet to the designer, but you can include personal CSS rules for altering the appearance of specific items on the site. You should remember that if you add your own CSS, Squarespace might limit their customer support towards your site.

The only way to gain complete access to your template’s CSS and HTML is by using the developer’s version. Currently, the developer’s version isn’t available for Squarespace 7.1.

Does a Squarespace Template Contribute to SEO?

Squarespace SEO options

Squarespace SEO options

Squarespace templates are naturally SEO friendly. All websites powered by Squarespace get brownie points from Google for their optimization. These sites are visual feasts and they are easy-to-navigate for all users. additionally, they are mobile-friendly and have the option of AMP enabling on their blogs.

You can enable SSL for the site. Since Squarespace is a completely hosted solution, you don’t have to worry about page speed, especially since Squarespace assures that their page loading speeds are well within optimization limits.

Sadly, the alt tags and URL redirects options for Squarespace users are confounding. Especially changing URLs can be a pain for the SEO team or webmaster since the entire task is highly manual. There are no options for adding rich snippets either. Moreover, you will find no SEO tool. A Yoast-like SEO tool would indeed be welcome from Squarespace by now!

Does Squarespace Have Additional Options for Ecommerce Sites?

Squarespace Ecommerce options

Squarespace Ecommerce options

Squarespace eCommerce sites have VAT Mini One Stop Shop (VAT MOSS) integration. It makes trading for EU-based sellers much easier due to their VAT MOSS regulations. You can create and add new tax rules, but it does not reduce manual intervention and often makes the integration of tax, pricing and shipping rules messy.

In short, if you want a full army of eCommerce integrations and functions, you might be better off with Shopify, WordPress, and BigCommerce instead of Squarespace.

What Can be the Deal-breaker When Considering Squarespace for Powering Your Site?

Squarespace Help Center

Squarespace Help Center

With round-the-clock customer support, and it super-easy web builder interface, Squarespace is rapidly gaining popularity among the beginner-level website designers. However, you should know that adding novel features or functionalities to your Squarespace site won’t be easy if they don’t come out-of-the-box.

Yes, Squarespace is easy to use and you can switch templates in 7.0, enjoy higher customizability in 7.1. However, according to veteran users, Squarespace can be quite sluggish and prone to crashing, and its lack of autosave options does not do bloggers any favors during such situations.

Top 10 Free Logo Makers and Generators

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

A logo is one of the most important elements of your brand. It is essentially a visual representation of everything that your brand or company, at large, stands for. Throughout the day you come across numerous logos, whether you’re watching television,en route to work or simply when using your favourite products. With just a glance, your potential customer base can recognise you from your logo. A well-designed logo that conveys your mission and message aptly creates a certain amount of interest and curiosity in your audience.

Besides, it gives you a strong competitive advantage, especially if your product or service offering caters to a rather crowded market. One of the best ways to stand out is by having an enticing logo that is memorable and distinct.

How to make your own logo?

If you are just starting out with your business, you may not have the capital that is needed to design your brand with the finest designers in the industry. If you have an online presence or an e-commerce storefront, developing and maintaining a website is an added cost. Although essential, the costs do add up and therefore, your budget may not allow you to spend much on one of the most important aspects of your business – your brand identity.

In such a circumstance, you can certainly design a logo yourself even if you have the least impressive design skills. There are numerous free logo makers online that you can use to give your brand an identity. These logo makers provide free templates, which you can use to customise as per your business name and colours. They offer an incredible amount of flexibility. At the same time, it is essential to know that the logo you create using these software programs won’t offer exclusivity and therefore, won’t be unique to you.

However, as a starting point with minimal budget, these best online logo makers offer excellent opportunity to take your project off the ground.

Which are the best free logo makers for 2024:

Wix Logo Maker

free logo maker

Wix is one of the most reliable website builder for professionals. It offers a complete branding solution and what makes this the best design software for logos is the fact that it creates a custom logo experience for each of its users for absolutely free of cost. This design is then also completely customisable, offering you absolute control over how you would prefer the logo to look like.

The whole process begins first with a set of questions, which you are required to answer to the best of your ability. This gives the algorithms within Wix an opportunity to understand what your brand stands for and the style that you are looking to go after. On answering the questions, you will be sent a logo design draft that is suited perfectly for your brand.

You do not have to settle for the design that was sent to you by Wix. If you feel that it needs a change in color or font, you can do this easily. Besides, the final logo that you design can also be used for commercial purposes.

Graphic Springs

logo maker free

Graphic Springs free logo maker offers a straightforward and fuss free way to create your own logo in a matter of minutes. It essentially follows a three-step process to creating your own logo.

You first begin by typing in the name of your business. If your business has a tagline, you would also include this in the text box titled with the same name. The next step is selecting an image to accompany your logo. This section is further divided into several categories based on industries that your business may be in. Therefore, you can choose from food and drink, real estate, dating, computers, travel, technology and many more.

Once you’ve chosen the image, you can then finish this off with the final step of choosing a shape for your logo. There are options to fit your logo within badges or you could even use artistic swooshes and lines to accentuate your logo. Once you have skeleton of your logo ready, you can further customise this by double clicking on elements to activate their features. Here you can change colors, font and even the sizes of elements with ease. When you are happy with how your logo looks, you can preview and download it for use in your business.

Free Logo Design

best free logo maker

Free Logo Design is one of the online logo designer software that is not only free to use but also offers a quick and easy way to design clean, minimalist logos within minutes. The process is extremely simple and requires you to type in the name of your company.

Once you do so, you will be presented with over thousands of templates, which you can choose based on the look and feel that you are going for. These templates are completely customizable and you can choose any color or font that you feel would best suit the personality of your brand.

Finally, when your logo is ready to be downloaded, you have two options; you could either download the free version, or pay a small fee to download the same logo in a much higher resolution, which you could use on a number of marketing collateral. Using this logo software is very easy thanks to its user interface, which has been designed to ensure that people with minimum or no design skills are also able to use this software with utmost ease.

Logomakr

free logo maker app

Whilst there are many programs that enable you to download a free logo maker, few have the ability to do so with relative ease like Logomakr. It is extremely easy to create your logo using this free software. The database of Logomakr has over 1 million graphics, which you can choose from. This forms the visual element of your logo.

You can then select the text that goes with the graphic. This software program gives you several options to edit the font of your logo. It offers a wide variety of fonts categorised neatly into different kinds like 3D, Pixel, Handwriting so you can filter only the fonts that suit the personality of your brand.

Logoaster

logo maker free download

This free logo creator does all the hard work for you and simplifies the entire process of logo creation. All you need to do is enter the name of your company and tagline. You can also choose what industry your company functions in. Select a color scheme that you believe goes well with your overall branding and click the create button.

Within a few seconds, you are presented with numerous variations of your logo in different styles, colors and fonts. An exciting feature of Logoaster is the fact that it not only creates the logo for you, it also superimposes this logo on a myriad of marketing collateral like letterheads, business cards, stationery and the likes to give you a real time feel of how your logo would look in action. You also have the ability to edit these as you like before saving them to your computer for use in your business.

Ucraft Logo Maker

best free logo design maker

If you are looking for a fun and chic logo for your brand identity, Ucraft Logo Maker is an excellent tool. Their image database has a number of different high-resolution icons, which you can use to create a base for your logo. You can also add text and customise it for font size and style, choosing the one that best represents its personality. The resulting logo looks extremely professional and you don’t need to have any prior design experience.

UCraft is a logo maker software that enables you to save the logo not only in the PNG format but also as an SVG file for a minimal additional fee. An SVG file essentially gives you the ability to scale your logo without losing quality. This makes it possible for you to have a high-quality logo on your website as well as your marketing collateral.

Logo Type Maker

free logo maker tools

This freeware logo maker uses artificial intelligence to create a customised logo experience, which is ideal especially for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs with a limited budget. A distinguishing feature of this logos creator is the fact that you can upload your own artwork online and further customise it. This is especially useful if you are a photographer. If you’ve captured a beautiful image, which you believe would be the ideal background for your unique logo, you can upload it to the Logo Type Maker server and add your text, colors and effects as needed to create your very own distinct logo.

Online Logo Maker

free logo maker

There’s a possibility that you may create your logo but feel unsure of using it for your brand. You may need to revise it before deciding to download it. However, if you quit, you may lose the changes and may have to start all over again. With Online Logo Maker, you can fearlessly come back the next day with a fresh mind and re-work on your logo design.

This free software for design logo has the same features with unique templates and font choices as also the complete ability to customise it to your liking. However, what distinguishes it from the rest is the fact that you can save your design and come back at any stage to continue working on it without losing any changes.

DesignMantic

logo maker free

This free logo makers software gives you the opportunity to create a logo specific to your industry by enabling you to choose from a wide range of categories. Professional graphic designers have worked tirelessly to create a database of sophisticated templates, which you can choose as a base for your logo design. With the ability to customise the colors, fonts and size of all elements in your logo, you can be assured of brand recall when creating a logo using DesignMantic.

These logos go seamlessly on your website, corporate identity and even your email signature. Additionally, DesignMantic also offers a paid service where they can customise the logo for you based on your brand’s personality and company mission and vision. However, if you are a small business owner, the free tool is the ideal fit to get your logo designed within minutes with no prior design experience required.

A logo is one of the most indispensable aspects of your business. If you wish to leave a mark on your customers’ minds, you must ensure that your logo is professional and relatable. However, you need not break the bank investing in a designer that charges hundreds of dollars. All you need is one of these top 10 free tools to design your logo and you’re good to go.

10 Best Open Source Ecommerce CMS

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

Massive data is common to all successful ecommerce businesses, as apart from a good product at a good price, the factor that makes e-shops successful is its ability to fine tune the selling proposition for individual customers. Not only does an ideal CMS ecommerce solution get you the perfect empowered platform that you can use to publish dedicated and personalize content to users, but also the blessing that your product catalogue needs to churn out the revenues that it promises.

Beginning with an easy to use and intuitive content creation and publishing platform, and encompassing dedicated selling tools such as automated and rule based calculators and pricing elements, marketing tools such as email newsletters and customer surveys, user experience enhancement widgets such as poll and surveys, and product ratings, eCommerce CMS solutions are the vehicle for web selling success.

To create your onine store you can choose one of the best website builders, or you can choose one of the best open source ecommerce CMS. Choosing the most easy to use eCommerce CMS with a manageable learning curve, a solution hat’s as manageable as it’s scalable, and a web store management platform that empowers you towards more results in minimal time is a cricitcal success factor for eCommerce. Avoid getting lost in the ocean of several eCommerce CMS options, and go for the best in the business. Here, we offer quick reviews of 10 of the top content management systems for eCommerce.

Magento – Magnetise your e-store!

Unlike ecommerce website builders Magento is an open source ecommerce CMS that one can use to fuel the growth of online stores and content shops offering downloadable content, for free! Developers have the flexibility to alter the core codes as well as add features and even improve functionality by installing extensions through the “Magento Connect” platform. Magento is ideal for those looking to optimise back-end workflows of their businesses.

ecommerce cms

Magento

There are over 100,000 ecommerce websites built on Magento – more than any other ecommerce platform except for online website builders. You can see Magento online store examples (and not only Magento) in another review: 20 Best Ecommerce Website Examples in 2024.

Businesses that use the Community Edition of Magento, the open source ecommerce solution,in order run their online stores will obviously need to have access to their very own Magento experts, especially since Magento does not provide any sort of technical support for this software. However, the answers to the most common technical questions regarding the platform are easily available on the site’s User Forum.

Magento’s open source community is rapidly expanding and constantly engaged in helping you run your online store! Magento gives its customers access to hundreds of extensions as well as an open architecture which provides for even more functionality. Magento also allows users to integrate it with other top quality enterprise systems . For those clients running medium to large scale businesses that need constant support, additional features, and our best performance can opt for Magento’s Enterprise Edition.

Magento’s Enterprise Edition offers the following flexible features:

Flexible Marketing Promotions and Tools

Online Analytics and Reporting

Search Engine Optimization with meta-information

Site Control and Management

Google base integration and Catalogue Management

Layered Catalogue Browsing and comparison

Mobile based commerce with iPhone optimization

International, multi-lingual and multi-currency support

3 step Checkout, automated calculation of costs like Shipping, integrated and secure Payment

Feature rich customer support

Tailored customer accounts

Fully customizable order management system

PrestaShop – ecommerce simplified

PrestaShop is a totally free, open sourced e-commerce platform solution. The software supports a variety of payment gateways likePayPal, PayPal Payments Pro DirecPay, Google Checkout, Skrill, Authorize, Netand even EBANX Checkout via their related APIs. There is an even bigger array of payment modules that are offered to customers, commercially. The Prestashop platform offers e-commerce solutions and training to various levels of merchants, developers, and integrators.

online store cms

PrestaShop

Prestashop comes loaded with over 310 exquisite features that are carefully designed and developed to help businessmen increase sales with almost no effort. All the program’s features are integrated in to the software and are 100% free. It allows user to manage diversified product lists through its back-office. So, whether a business deals with one kind of product or a thousand, the easy to use interface allows users to manage complex inventories with its simple single-click updates.

Prestashop’s incredibly effective user interface is ideal for complex business needs. The platform includes features such as:

Inventory Management

Product Export to online portals like eBay

Choose the Number of Products per Page

Cross-selling

Sale of Downloadable Products

Unlimited ranges of Products, Categories, Attributes

Product Comparison

Empowering Layered Navigation

Advanced-level Stock Management

ZenCart – Make the world your store!

ZenCart is an open source shopping cart software. The software is free and extremely user friendly. The ecommerce web site design program is developed by a group of industry experts which include people like programmers, consultants, designers and even business owners themselves. ZenCart software can be installed and set-up by anybody who possess even the most basic website building and technical skills. The software is a personal home page tool which uses a MySQL database and various HTML components.

best cms for ecommerce

ZenCart

Of the dozens of shopping cart programs available in the market, none come close to offering the kinds of options, features and support that are available with 100% free Zen Cart software. So much, that it gives commercial platforms a run for their money. Since ZenCart is a free Open Source software and is licensed under GPL2. This licensing allows users to freely modify the source code in whichever ways their application requires it. Because ZenCart comes with many common payment gateways built-in, users can accept payment almost immediately. And if a custom module needs to be integrated, hundreds if not thousands of community-contributed payment modules are available.

Some of the features of the ZenCart ecommerce software are:

It gives customers 24×7 shopping convenience 365 days a year.

Allows for easy updating of product catalogues without having the need for complex HTML coding that would normally be required to alter products.

It runs on the effective combination of PHP and MySQL technologies.

Provides a fool proof and secure platform that provides access only to the authorized administrative personnel.

Comes in a step by step, easy to install package.

It comes with an advanced template system which usesboth stylesheets and images.

OsCommerce – the pioneers of ecommerce solutions

With a legacy of more than a decade of open source ecommerce solutioning, osCommerce is one of the best CMS for ecommerce of choice for more than 12,800 webmasters and sellers across the world, and is continuing to grow. With a mindboggling and whopping library of more than 7,000 add-ons, and a community of developers and users that really cares for the platform, osCommerce is right up the alley of anyone looking for a free to use ecommerce platform that has the open source blessing of an ever improving widget store.

best cms for online store

OsCommerce

Theree is no upper limit to the number of products that can be uploaded via the platform. Thousands of free community add-ons are available which make almost any in-store function possible. The OsCommerce platform has been in the market for more than 13 years, making it the oldest ecommerce solution in the world . This ensures wide availability of active community users as well as numerous 3rd party services which integrate with it seamlessly. Also, being highly customizable makes osCommerce one of the most versatile platforms available.

OsCommerce provides support to its users in many languages, furthering its versatility. The platform comes loaded with features and is extremely easy to install and use.

OsCommerce comes with the following features:

PHP 4 compatibility with backward compatibility

Out-of-the box, fully feature enabled

Multi-lingual with English, German and Spanish as default

Unlimited product and category support

Dynamic product attribute relationship

HTML based, product descriptions

Loaded with breadcrumb trail for easier navigation

Automated website display on home page

VirtueMart – Handle your ecommerce business with ease

VurtueMart is a free, open-source ecommerce plug-in. It works in tandem with the renowned Joomla content management system. VirtueMart is a complex ecommerce plugin which is not for the average business as it works on an entirely different platform. But, left in the hands of an experienced web developer or programmer, installing, implementing and maintaining the platform successfully can provide some very long term benefits.

cms for ecommerce

VirtueMart

VirtueMart does not come with any kind hosting support and requires a separate hosting package from another vendor in order to function. Mobile compatibility is fairly effective but is only available via iVM Store application that can be purchased from the iTunes App Store or even Google Play. However, the real time application of the VirtueMart plugin is best limited to computer use.

The VirtureMart plugin has the ability to handle “one off” products because it stores every single purchased product’s details as well as the user information in a completely separate component. This user information is entirely in the control of the administrator. In terms of payment options PayPal is the easiest to install and can be done at no cost whatsoever. Conclusively, the VirtueMart plugin is ideal for small to medium scale online retailers who have advance-level technical knowhow.

The VirtueMart plug-in comes loaded with more than 500 features, some of which include:

Enabled with the widely used Joomla extensions

Equipped with a fully customizable shopper input form

Inventory warnings

Virtual stock processing

Multiple payment, vendor , and shipping options

SEO integrated reviews provided by default

100% anonymous checkout portal

AlegroCart – making ecommerce as simple as 1-2-3

AlegroCart is a shopping cart solution for all your ecommerce website needs. It is open-source, and is based on the MVC framework. The features of AlegroCart include maintenance mode, worldwide currency support system, and even comes with multilingual capabilities for ease of use.

best ecommerce cms

AlegroCart

AlegroCart even has SSL support, one-click currency updater features and also multiple tax and weight classes, providing all-round shopping cart usability. You can use this to display products that can be categorised on the basis of search or manufacturer, and you can add instant price updates on multiple products as well. There is also a selectable picture size option, where you can display your products in the size you want. The solution even comes with automatic search engine URL alias generator, and with full SEO optimization. Apart from these, other great features include:

You can display products based on current, featured, latest, related products and so on.

Modifications in one file in one template ensure that the changes are done with the same file in other templates as well.

Templates include display templates, side column templates and a centre multiple column template as well.

All of the module display pages have an Ajax add to cart function, which you can switch on and off as and when required.

Searching by the cart is done on the basis of product name or number.

You can display quantity discount options by the percentage of the price of the product available.

OsCmax- the one-stop solution for all your shopping cart needs

OsCmax is one of the most proficient CMS for ecommerce websites and is used extensively nowadays by start-up and growing businesses. This ecommerce CMS includes a plethora of stunning features, starting from unlimited categories for products and coupons and gift vouchers, to a web based admin panel that makes it easier to manage your website and its contents. Other features also include virtual and downloadable product support and integration and support of various popular payment methods such as PayPal, real time credit card processing and AuthorizeNet.

ecommerce cms open source

OsCmax

With osCmax, users can also track the full inventory at all times and the application even supports Fedex shipping capabilities and USPS and UPS. Data entry is Excel based, so anyone can get started with this right away. Customer credit reports and customer wishlists can also be saved effortlessly with this application. And apart from these, a gallery of other features include:

Specials display on the main page by default.

Per product shipping options.

Descriptions of all categories neatly displayed.

Separate pricing options for varieties of customers such as wholesale, retail or customised groups.

Products listed by columns.

A dynamic meta tag generator.

It also comes with admin controls and toggle.

Compatible with almost all the modules on the osCmax platform.

Payment methods include Geo Quick Trust Payments, standard osC Credit Card, EFS Net, or simple money orders and cheques.

There is also an admin log for easy categorization and options for affiliate news and affiliate newsletter manager.

WordPress Ecommerce – the grand daddy of ecommerce CMS platforms

WordPress is one of the pioneers in the field of building websites from scratch, and with exciting features. It packs a punch in terms of useful features for CMS systems. Of the many WordPress Ecommerce features is the fact that not only can store owners use the readymade ecommerce templates, but can also explore design differentiation with CSS and HTML. These packs come with video tutorials for easy setups, and there are integrations with popular payment gateways such as Stripe, Gold Cart, and the best part is, you can integrate automatic pricing modules and offer sophisticated discounts and rebates to frequent shoppers.

open source ecommerce cms

WordPress Ecommerce

Here’s a look at some more special features. And a variety of other features include:

Strength and flexibility both on the back end and front end.

Hundreds of unique themes to choose from, and each one is customisable to the last point.

Premium extensions can be added as and when you need, such as table rate shipping, product CSV Import Suite, bookings and others.

You get a host of free extensions such as delivery notes, Google Analytics, PDF Invoices and Packing Slips, Custom Product Tabs Lite, etc.

Implementing the most fine tuned ecommerce strategies with Drupal Ecommerce

Drupal Commerce is the best way to go about managing or configuring your ecommerce website according to your needs since it’s one of the best ecommerce CMS. It has very stringent development standards, and comes with features designed for maximum flexibility. Out of its many features, Drupal Commerce comes with the advantage of creating different custom attributes, VAT support, tax calculation and even discount pricing rules. You even get dynamic product displays and order management means and methods for smooth running of your website.

ecommerce cms platforms

Users can also follow different and multiple payment gateways and Drupal Commerce also comes with integration with Drupal 7’s Fields, Rules, Views and Entity API as well. You can enhance all the modules such as payment modules and PCI compliance, and get the top notch features of analytics as well. Why not check out these top notch web commerce enabling features available with Drupal Commerce?

The platform even comes with full documentation in terms of commerce kick-start guides, merchant guides and developer guides as well, and a host of other strong features like adaptability to any kind of changes that your website goes through.

Users get establish social network integration with top networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

There are many theme layers, with fully customisable features and is fully responsive, so it works on all display devices.

Smart check out processes and integrated payment gateways enable fulfilling shopping experiences for users.

Wix Review: why millions of people choose Wix?

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught
1 Comment

1. What Is Wix?

How Many Wix Websites are There?

Wix is one of the biggest and most well-known website builders in the market and caters to amateurs and professional coders alike. The platform was launched sometime in 2006, founded in Israel. Even today its headquarters are in Tel Aviv, while there are offices at other locations across the world. Today, Wix is a globally acknowledged brand and hosts over 110 million websites all across the world. According to some experts, Wix is one of the five leading website builders and is the absolute leader among online free website builder software.

Is Wix good to use?

Wix review

Wix review

Wix is a multi-purpose cloud-based platform that comes with a drag and drop editor, a WYSIWYG interface and an advanced ADI framework. Here, users can create blogs, web pages, stores, contact forms, online forums, portfolios and loads of other things without any complicated codes. Wix is among the easiest website builders for all kinds of users.

We would recommend Wix for growing startups and small-scale business models that are looking for ways to expand into the international market. It is armed with some of the best e-commerce features out there, including third-party plugins like Mailchimp integration and a wide range of professional templates.

Is Wix Mobile Friendly?

Mobile optimized Wix websites

Mobile optimized Wix websites

Wix is optimized for mobile devices. In fact, the platform automatically creates a mobile-friendly version of the website once you create your website on your desktop. Any changes that you make on the website are automatically reflected upon on the mobile app version.

More importantly, Wix is one of the few builders that offer a dedicated mobile app using which you can re-design and edit your website’s mobile version separately from the desktop website version. For websites that get most of their traffic from smartphones, this is a great feature.

Also, the web builder offers a vast range of mobile responsive templates. The extensive collection of templates, divided into separate categories, are compatible with mobile screens. Tap the smartphone icon at the top corner of the site editor to switch to the mobile editing view.

Is Wix Website Secure?

Payments security

Payments security

Wix, in spite of being this huge web development platform, is extremely secure and easy to navigate through. Also, as an e-commerce platform, Wix offers users multiple payment gateway options, for encrypted and safe online money transactions. The website builder also has the latest SSL Certifications, even in the free plans, necessary to establish a solid, reliable network.

2. Wix.com Free Plan

Is Wix Really Free?

Wix free website builder

Wix free website builder

Yes, Wix does have a free version, although you will have to deal with distracting ads and would get access to the standard web development features. The free version of Wix comes with an assigned domain name, storage of 500MB and 500MB bandwidth, customer support and a selection of templates. The paid plan, on the other hand, is ad-free and includes advanced functionalities such as Site Booster, email campaigns, free web hosting, and form builder.

Is Wix Free Forever?

Good news! Wix is free as long as you want. It is a smart option for users who are okay with the advertisements and don’t really want any premium features. There is no pressure on the user to opt for the paid plans if they don’t really want it.

What Features Does Wix Free Hosting Offer?

Wix hosting options

Wix hosting options

Wix offers its clients the option of free website hosting, though with additional charges if you want to avail the advanced services. Hosting is available for both the free and payable packages. In the free plan you get 500MB storage and bandwidth, the paid plan offers a wider scope and size. Wix claims to offer 99.8% server uptime which is pretty decent for a website builder.

3. Wix Pricing And Plans

Wix Pricing And Plans

Check actual prices on Wix website

The premium version of Wix is suitable for businessmen and bloggers who want to expand their website’s reach and performance. The paid accounts come with a host of advanced add-ons such as free web hosting, Google Analytics support, domain connection, and a wider bandwidth and storage than the free version.

How Much Does Wix Cost Per Month?

Wix comes with a free version that has all the standard features necessary for building a website. however, if you want to access the advanced features then upgrading to one of the premium packages if the best option. There are numerous lucrative plans under Wix that users can pick from. Wix charges its clients on a monthly basis, you can also opt for a yearly subscription to save a substantial amount. There is also the option of availing for a two-year subscription, which offers the highest possible savings.

Connect Domain Plan

Connect Domain Plan

Wix Connect Domain plan

The Connect Domain plan comes with domain registration services where you can connect your own domain to your Wix website. This is also the most affordable premium plan and costs only $5 per month (although this plan is not available in all countries). You get 500 MB storage along with 1 GB bandwidth with this plan. You can’t add a custom favicon, and have to deal with Wix ads on your website, with this plan.

Combo Plan

Combo Plan

Wix Combo plan

The Combo plan at $11 per month is better than the former. We recommend the Combo plan for small-scale websites or for CV/resume websites as here you don’t have to deal with any unnecessary ads. Other perks include 2BG bandwidth, 3GB storage, and free domain service.

Unlimited Plan

Unlimited Plan

Wix Unlimited plan

The Unlimited plan priced at $14 is the best option for freelancers and businessmen offering unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, and customized favicons. It is one of the most popular plans by Wix that offers customers access to Site Booster features and Form builder apps.

Wix VIP Premium Plan

Wix VIP Premium Plan

Wix VIP Premium plan

The Wix VIP plan is the most feature-rich of all at $29 per month, where users can get 10 extra newsletter campaigns and a professional website review. Here customers get 20GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, Site Booster, and Form Builder apps, and phone support for quick guidance in case of a glitch.

Which Wix Plan is The Best?

The maximum value you can get from Wix is in its Wix VIP plan. We would recommend this plan for entrepreneurs who want a solid web presence and reliable support. At $29/month (when you opt for year-long plan), Wix VIP gives you unlimited bandwidth, 20 GB storage, a professional site review (where Wix consultants analyze your website and help you optimize its design), 10 free email marketing campaigns, and priority support.

Email marketing can help you market your website to all your contacts with the help of its email marketing campaigns. This includes terrific looking email templates, easy customizations, and basic analytics and tracking for your email campaigns. Integrate your contact list into the email marketing dashboard, and you can manage the campaign right from Wix. The priority support is the USP of this plan, which ensures your questions are answered by the Wix support teams on priority, which in turn ensures that you don’t have to wait to resolve important issues that might be affecting your business website.

Does Wix Have a Free Trial?

The free version of Wix doesn’t come with a time limit. Furthermore, what’s great about this website builder is that here you can actually test your website on all plans- free and premium- before making a choice. Users can opt for the 14-day trial period where they get access to all the premium features for free, before subscribing to it.

4. Wix Drag and Drop Editor

Wix’s drag and drop facility is just like MS PowerPoint – users get the flexibility to drag all kinds of design elements with their mouse, and position them at the desired place on the screen. This makes customizations very easy to do for beginners.

There are rulers and personal position markers (called guides) that make it easy for you to sue the drag/drop editor. You can move design elements forward and background (right click and click on Arrange to access options), copy an element’s design and reuse, use the Editor Toolbar to arrange elements, stretch elements to full width, and add animations to elements.

And the best part? Wix live editor is intuitive, interactive and very robust, giving you complete control over your content even after you have published the website. The WYSIWYG format gives you the option of previewing the content as it would appear online.

5. Wix Templates

Wix Templates

Wix website templates

Wix offers a selection of 500+ premium quality templates that are optimized for mobile devices, retina ready and quick to customize. These templates come with readymade layouts and pre-written content that you can edit to your liking. Vibrant, well-organized and minimalistic, these templates are suitable for all web-based platforms.

There are templates and themes for personal web pages, blogs, portfolios, web stores, contact forms, online forums, and other web ventures. Some premium templates are accessible only if you have subscribed to the paid plan.

6. Wix Categories

Wix Categories

Wix website templates categories

The templates available on Wix are all divided into categories and subcategories for quick navigation and access. There are templates for all kinds of websites- Photography, Online Stores, Music, Design, Fashion, Restaurant, Landing Pages, CVs and portfolios and more.

At Wix, you will find the largest, most extensive collection of template categories. All the categories can be accessed from the left-hand corner of the Wix page, the drop-down list even offers a preview of the template.

In terms of number of categories, Wix is among the leading website builders, offering something for pretty much everyone. So, you will most probably find a template or layout that best suits your business model here.

7. Wix Domain Names

Wix Domain Names

Connecting a domain name

Both the free and paid plans of Wix offer customers the option of domain registration and web hosting.

Does Wix Give You a Free Domain Name?

At Wix, you can register a third-level domain name, for free. If you want a more unique and personal domain name, then you can either use the “Connect Domain” option (at $5/month cost), or can subscribe to any premium packages and get free domain for the first year (and are charged $14.95/year thereafter). On upgrading to one of the paid plans, you can even get discount vouchers and coupons. Wix is in accordance with the GDPR regulations that protect the personal information you submitted when opting for private domain registration. Other than that you also avail the benefits of free website hosting and tech support.

How Do I Get a Free Domain Name from Wix?

Yes, using the free Wix plan, you also get a free domain. This, however, is hosted on Wix, which basically makes it a 3rd level domain. When you publish your free Wix website, you get a free domain URL, of the type username.wixsite.com/siteaddress. You can specify the site address on your own. It’s also important to choose a sensible username as it’s going to be part of your free domain name.

Can You Use Wix With Your Own Domain?

Yes, you can use your own domain name on Wix provided you pay for it. The “Connect Domain” plan offered by Wix, for a very affordable $5/month fee, lets you connect your owned domain to your Wix website. You don’t have to buy any of the more expensive Wix plans if you simply want to add your domain and keep on using Wix’s basic features. This is a unique option that makes Wix highly affordable for people who want their personalized domain, but without a huge monthly cost.

If you have upgraded to the premium plan, then you can even connect your Wix site to a domain purchased from another platform as well. If you have a domain name already registered, then you can either transfer it to the Wix Site or connect the domain to the new address. First, you have to unlock the domain name and get the EPP key (which is basically the authorization code) from the previous provider. The previous host will then send you a couple of emails to verify your account. Note that you will be able to transfer the domain name only 60 days after you have registered or modified the old domain name.

Can You Change Your Wix Domain Name?

No, it is not possible for you to change the domain name once you’ve paid for it. If you want to modify or tweak the domain name then you’ll have to start afresh. When you purchase a domain, you reserve a set of letters and characters in a particular order which is unique to every domain name. Wix doesn’t allow a refund if you want to customize the domain name once it’s been registered.

Can You Move Wix To Another Hosting?

No, you cannot move your Wix site to another hosting provider. This is because the contents of your Wix site is created exclusively for Wix servers and are not compatible elsewhere. Hence it becomes impossible to export files, pages, and posts that were designed on Wix editor or the ADI framework, to another destination or host.

8. Wix For Ecommerce

Wix For Ecommerce

Check actual prices on Wix website

Wix is a powerful platform for developing e-commerce websites and stores. Take your pick from a collection of templates add the content and you have a business website ready. There are templates suited for almost every type of ecommerce business. You can find the categories in the left side of the editor. Out of the 500+ templates Wix offers, more than 80 are in the Online Store category, which is a fairly large number.

Wix Templates

Wix eCommerce templates range

The ecommerce store templates come with pre-set functions for adding product catalogs, descriptions and other features. Here, you can also add multiple payment gateways, connect the store to social media networks, send out newsletters, manage abandoned shopping carts, track shipping orders, organize inventory, calculate taxes among other things.

The store manager keeps track of the inventory and monitor orders. You can even customise the shipping and tax regulations for every order and offer seasonal coupons to customers. Plus, there are multiple payment methods like PayPal, credit/debit cards and net banking for safe and easy transactions. The best part, Wix doesn’t charge you any transaction fees for your sales, so keep all of your profits to yourself.

9. Wix for Blogging

Wix for Blogging

Wix Blog & Forum templates

Wix also supports blogging and is a great blogging platform for amateur and professional bloggers to create a functional and eye-catching blog from scratch. There are templates specially developed for blogging. Create new posts, manage multiple hashtags, link your social media, add images, video, and text content, encourage readers to comment and engage in a healthy conversation- you can do all that and more on Wix.

To build a blog, you will first have to pick an appropriate template for the same. Wix offers users 8 stunning blog layouts to choose from, all accessible without any extra charges. You can preview the layout before applying it. Adding content to these layouts takes not more than a few minutes, plus, there are numerous plugins and extensions that you can apply for giving your blog a boost such as SEO tools, CMS functionalities, CTA buttons, newsletter tools.

10. Wix Marketing and SEO

Does Google Like Wix?

For Google, mobile-friendly designs are automatically ranked higher in their search results than the others. And Wix websites are Google-friendly to the core. Wix SEO is the most important SEO tool offered by Wix, using which you can quickly improve your website’s SEO.

Wix claims that 67% websites build on the platform have become visible on Google search results’ first page because of Wiz. The wizard works by asking you some basic questions, lets you fill your target keywords, and prepares a tailored plan of actions you need to take to optimize your website for Google search.

Wix’s head of marketing products, Sarig Reichert, has officially declared that the Instant Indexing feature of SEO Wix helps in near-immediate indexing, as it’s made in collaboration with Google. Google has also acknowledged that Wix websites are easily and quickly indexed, and owners can see their websites in search results almost immediately after publishing, without any uncertainty or waiting period.

Does Google Like Wix?

Source: mediapost.com

If you have a blog on Wix, you can use the ‘Turn on Google AMP’ option to boost your blog’s SEO for mobile visitors, and to make the pages easier to read on mobiles.

Also, Wix offers seamless integration with Google Keywords and Google Search Console, which means all your website’s search stats and traffic data will be captured and made available seamlessly, for you to carry out manual SEO planning, and make your websites more optimized for Google search.

Wix’s Site Booster App is very useful for local business websites to improve their local SEO, as it finding relevant directories and reminding you to sign up to them and submit your business listing, which in turn, is valued by Google.

What is Wix SEO Wiz and What are its Features?

Wix SEO Wiz

Wix SEO Wizz

The Wix SEO Wiz is a step-by-step tutorial available to site owners and contributors for boosting the SEO rank of your website. It tracks your performance and provides updates on the latest SEO trends although it doesn’t analyse blogs and e-commerce stores.

At Wix the SEO enhancement tools are not just limited to a list of relevant keywords. Here, users can access a personalized SEO program that is custom-made to suit their website needs.

Does Wix Support Google Analytics?

Google Analytics

Wix and Google Analytics

Google Analytic tools are not available to users who use the free version of Wix. You have to upgrade to a premium plan and connect to a domain to access the Google Analytic support.

Can You See Who Views Your Wix Site?

Although Wix does not offer a built-in method to track visitors on your website. It offers easy integration with other tracking and analytics services, such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Yandex Metrica, and Facebook Pixel. You can use Google Tag Manager to implement any third-party tracking pixel or code on your Wix website, enabling easy tracking of page views, clicks, and other events.

11. Wix App Market – Even More Features for Your Wix Site

Wix App Market

Wix App Market

The Wix App Market offers users a selection of free and paid apps, extensions and third-party plugins that would give your website the much-needed boost. There are over 250 apps here to choose from for email marketing, building forms, managing online stores, loading live stats and generating more traffic.

The apps can be installed and accessed on your website for free and give your business the much-needed boost to gather more subscribers. There are apps for e-commerce ventures, blogs, portfolios and web pages allowing you to calculate taxes, set event reminders, create beautiful forms, get more subscribers, and even connect with your clients via social media.

12. Wix VS WordPress

Here are the major difference between WordPress and Wix.

Ease of Use

WordPress is a self-hosted CMS (WordPress.org, we mean) and Wix is a fully hosted cloud based website builder, which is the first major difference between the two. Whereas you need to install the WordPress CMS software on your web server, there’s no such hassle with Wix. In general, the learning curve is very steep with WordPress, while Wix is among the most user-friendly and easy to use website builders.

The Editing Interface

Interface

Wix editing interface

Wix offers a fully drag and drop powered editor where you can drag and position content elements where you please. WordPress has recently launched a block based editor called Gutenberg. Whereas Wix is a WYSIWYG editor, WordPress is more abstracted (which means you don’t get full visibility of what your web page will look like). This means you have to frequently switch between preview and editor to make finer adjustments, which makes it more time consuming to work with WordPress.

Themes

Themes

Wix website editing

If we compare WordPress’ built in themes with Wix’s built in themes, the latter wins easily. Of course, there are premium WordPress themes that are equally good, but they will cost you anything between $25 to $500, which is an extra cost that you don’t have to bear with Wix.

Open/Closed Platforms

WordPress is an open source software, with an ever-expanding community of developers who keep on creating plugins, themes, and patches for the software. While the Wix community is not as widespread as WordPress (example, 500+ themes for Wix as compared to 11,000+ for WordPress), it still offers you several plugins and themes, apart from frequent backend code upgrades. Also, both platforms are comparable in terms of the knowledge base you can access online in the form of official forums, third party resources, etc.

Ecommerce

Whole both platforms support ecommerce, Wix offers the facility without the need to install any extra plugin (you just need to subscribe to an ecommerce plan), WordPress requires you to download additional plugins for the same. WooCommerce, one of the best ecommerce plugins, is free to install, but imposes a per-transaction fee. There is no such fee when you use Wix ecommerce.

SEO

Again, whereas Wix offers advanced SEO capabilities with every plan, WordPress only offers the most basic settings. And you need to install a free or paid plugin (of course, free plugin won’t offer advanced SEO features).

Dealing with Updates

Wix and WordPress both keep on upgrading fairly regularly. With a Wix upgrade, you won’t have to indulge in any housekeeping activity. On the other side, after a WordPress upgrade, you may have to manually update all your 3rd party plugins (some of which might not even be compatible with the latest WordPress version).

Because most modern WordPress websites use several 3rd party plugins, this becomes a major problem which aggravates with every WordPress upgrade. Basic WordPress or coding knowledge generally won’t help and you’d either have tobu alternative plugins or pay aprofessional to solve the upgrade-related problems.

More complex your website becomes, bigger the threat of chaos becomes, with every upgrade. It’s much smarter to let the product makers (as in the case of Wix) sort all the technical problems in the backend.

Pricing

Wix offers a total of 7 premium and one free plans, while WordPress is essentially free to install. With Wix, you have a known monthly fee, but with WordPress there are additional costs for everything, right from domain name ($12-15/year) to shared hosting ($3-15/month), from premium theme ($25-500, one time cost), and for essential plugins (such as Yoast for SEO, and WooCommerce for ecommerce).

Of course, there are free themes and free plugins, which may solve your problems, but that’s not always a guarantee.

Customer Support

Customer Support

Wix Help Center

Because WordPress is open source, it doesn’t have email, chat, or phone support, although the 3rd party developers whose themes or plugins you use may offer some support. Wix, on the other side, has phone, chat, and email support, as well as priority support in its VIP plan.

13. Pros and Cons of Wix

Wix comes with its own share of pros and cons like every other website development platform. We have discussed a few of them to give you a better idea about the site builder

Wix Pros:

User-friendly, Intuitive, loaded with features;

Comes with an advanced ADI framework;

Proprietary drag and drop powered editor which offers unprecedented ease and flexibility in webpage design;

Largest collection of free templates in the market currently;

Very affordable plans, also there is no pressure to upgrade;

Safe, easy payment options like PayPal;

Third-party email marketing plugins in Wix App;

On-board configuration and live editing features, also, WYSIWYG interface for quick previews;

Versatile, flexible and compatible with mobile devices;

Stunning templates and themes for free;

Reliable customer services.

Wix Cons:

Cannot change the template once the site is published;

You can’t switch templates without having to redo the webpages;

Wix’s monthly fee is pricier than competitors offering similar plans, which makes it an expensive website builder;

Lacks advanced marketing tools;

The limitless design possibilities can cause website creators to lose too much time in experimenting and sometimes defy design best practices.

14. API and JavaScript

API

API and JavaScript

Wix is usually considered to be a code-free platform, however, it does allow users access to the core HTML codes and meta tags. The Wix Code feature comes with a new IDE or integrated development environment where you can set up database collections, tweak the technical elements of the website, build web applications, and do more – all via APIs and customized JavaScript codes.

Database Collection let you add all the text, images, and other content you need in a database, which you can then use to create what Wix calls Dynamic Pages. Essentially, this is about using a single design style that can adapt to all rows in your database, which in turn lets you create hundreds of pages without duplicating effort or content.

Wix is now focussing on letting users go beyond the capabilities of the Wix Editor. With Element APIs, tech-savvy and code-expert users can tweak the look and feel of content elements like never before. For this, you have to Enable Corvid in your Wix Editor.

Similarly, you can use JavaScript codes to create and add widgets to your website. Adding javascript is a quick and simple hack provided where people with technical knowledge can access their core code. Other API tools include Wix Bookings, Wix CRM, Wix Data..

15. Does Wix Provide Email?

Does Wix Provide Email?

Personalized mailbox

The email feature is not available with the free and Connect Domain plans. But you can get your business email with a domain name (which means you need to buy a premium plan). In all premium plans, Wix users get their customized business email address here for establishing a solid reputation for their business.

Once you have chosen a suitable plan and created a website the next step is to purchase a domain for your venture. Pick multiple mailboxes from the Purchase Mailbox section, choose a subscription package, pay and check out – it’s very quick and simple.

16. How Can you Add Google Tag Manager to Wix?

Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager

The Google Tag Manager lets you keep all your tags and external code snippets in one place. This makes tag management a lot easier and is available only to sites with a connected domain. First, you have to sign in to your Google Tag Manager account. Then copy the ID from the dashboard and add it to the Marketing Integration Tab of your website.

To retrieve your Google Tag Account ID you copy the id from your Google account and then add the copy it to your Wix code area. Note that Wix tech support doesn’t offer help in third-party platforms you will have to contact the service provider directly

17. Wix Support

Wix Chat Support

Wix Chat Support

Wix Chat Support

Wix help desk is replete with articles, FAQs and posts on pretty much every aspect of website development and e-commerce. You will be able to find a solution to all your problems here. For more personalized guidance, you can reach out to the team of technical experts and professionals who are always available at your beck and call. The live chat support connects you with an expert who can then help you figure your way out.

Wix Phone Support

Wix Phone Support

Wix Phone Support

You can even contact the support team and speak to them on the phone. Reach out to us on our toll-free number Call Center on 1-800-6000-WIX (949).

Wix VIP Priority Support

Wix VIP Priority Support

Wix VIP Priority Support

Wix VIP Support is available to users who have subscribed to the VIP plan and have logged in from their VIP account. As the name suggests, VIP support feature offers you immediate tech support in case you face any technical hassles.

Your emails and calls will be top priority thereby saving you ample time and effort. The call back services are available from Monday to Friday between 5am-5pm PST. The tech support is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

18. How do I get the most out of Wix?

Today, Wix is the most powerful web publishing platform around, and what contributes to its incredible popularity is the simplicity of the platform. Wix allows you to customize near about everything, thus making it the top choice for both professionals and amateurs across professions. But, the question is, how do you take your website to the next level using Wix? Here are some suggestions you can rely on.

Improve Search Engine Visibility

Improve Search Engine Visibility

Wix & SEO

Generating traffic for your business is the primary need and in order to do that, you need to ensure that your website is fully optimised. The Wix SEO wizard’s suggestions are perfectly suited to take care of all your needs. Another really good way in which Wix users have been abler to increase their visibility is by submitting their testimonials to the Wix Stories section.

Create Beautiful Landing Pages

Create Beautiful Landing Pages

Wix landing pages

A key to increasing traffic to your website also lies in creating spectacular landing pages, and Wix has a host of beautiful design templates to help you with it. Choose the most suitable one and tweak it such that it reflects the personality of your brand.

1. Take care of social sharing

This is the most crucial way of making sure that your website reaches out to as many people as possible. And what better way to do it than to customise your website’s Facebook thumbnail? After you hit publish, you can share your website directly on Facebook and Twitter from the Wix editor. This also helps in adding consistency for your brand across channels.

2. Utilise Wix of the Day

To give its own push to the websites using its platform, Wix has the Wix of the Day feature, which selects the most beautiful of sites created by its users and then gives it its own publicity push. Not only can you take design inspiration from that, but can also enjoy a massive push if your website makes it to the Wix of the Day.

3. Work on the aesthetics

Work on the aesthetics

Aesthetics of Wix websites

This is the next important bit. Nothing works better at attracting traffic than visuals. And Wix offers a ton of features to help improve that. There is the built-in Wix image editor with customizable options for both beginners and advanced users through which you can enhance your images. The beautifully animated picture galleries can take care of high image load by giving each of them a fresh and professional look.

4. Add great images

Add great images

Image upload

A stunning background is very important to add to the visitors’ pleasure and you can do that with the help of your own high-resolution image. The Wix Clip Art library has a huge selection of icons to help you visualise your concepts. The world has realised their importance after the emergence of Flat Design.

5. Add a news feed

A news feed seals the final bit of the aesthetic deal. It also serves two very practical purposes- the constant stream of content creates a sense of continuity and gives added value to your visitors, and the addition of relevant text improves your site’s SEO. If you want to create, style and display current news related to your site, there is the Latest News app to help you with it.

6. Stay connected

Stay connected

Business email address

Using free email services is something a lot of small businesses do, but it cuts down on the credibility of the business to a lot of experienced website visitors. With the Google App email option, you can create a personalised email address echoing your domain name.

7. Go for coupon codes

Coupon codes are a great way to add traction to your online shop. Use newsletter, social media (especially Facebook) campaigns or reach out to individual clients to ensure their distribution. And to help you with the newsletter there is WixShoutOut. Its fully customizable drag-and-drop editor makes it really easy to use. And it is very foolproof because it is already integrated into your Wix website account.

8. Analyse your stats

Analyse your stats

Website analyze

Analyzing your stats is also a great way of ensuring that you know which areas of your website you need to work on, and Google Analytics, GoSquared and Web-stat are there to help you with the tracking.

NOTE: Wix is totally mobile friendly. And its high customizability also takes care of a lot of the coding, meaning you don’t need to be a coding expert to get the most out of it. And if you are not comfortable with coding at all, there is the Wix ADI to help you build your website. With over 200 Apps and services, Wix enables you to take care of your website anywhere – at your workplace or while you are on the go. And you also get a lot even if you are building a free website. As they say, building a website has never been easier.

19. How Can You Improve Your SEO Wix?

With Wix, creating a website has become much easier even for people with ‘zero-coding’ experience. The modern techniques of drag-and-drop let a user create websites with a simple template.

How do you make the most of the Wix? What Words do you anchor to get more visitors? How do you make the SEO work at its optimum best in Wix? Wix has stellar SEO tools that help webmasters improve their websites’ search-engine friendliness. Ask no more, as, without further ado; we look at how you can improve your SEO, Wix.

In-built Tools

SEO Wiz: A built-in tool by Wix

SEO Wiz

Wix SEO Wizz

If you’re completely unaware about the math and algorithm that follows SEO and other web tools, then don’t worry, Wix has got your SEO demands covered by this free tool called SEO Wiz. The tool asks you a few basic questions, upon answering which, you will be guided by the tool with steps to take to improve your existing SEO.

67% of Wix users have benefitted from SEO Wiz tool that has catapulted their webpages among the top searches in Bing and Google. Google itself has acknowledged the way SEO Wiz has improved the ranking of the websites and noticing the appearance within seconds of publishing.

Using Local SEO by Wix Site Booster App

Wix Site Booster

Local SEO by Wix Site Booster App

Being a local business has its boons. Word of mouth promotion and marketing works wonders for the businesses but using local SEO can give your business a boost. The chances are that customers are lurking to be found,and some are looking for you online.

The Wix Site Booster App lets you use all these opportunities and register yourself on maps and websites that make appearances on the top results for that particular location.

Structuring the Website and Adding More Backlinks

Structuring the website is an essential component of your SEO as it makes easier for the search engine bots to maneuver through the website and its hierarchy. By structuring the website (in-built in Wix), Wix gives you instant results like improved metrics- time spent on the website and visits on the website.

The improved metrics are essential to improve your search engine ranking as these factors are taken under consideration when ranking the website. As all the templates available in Wix are already structured, you don’t have to worry about any of these intricate details.

Mobile Optimization for Websites

Mobile-Optimization for Websites

Mobile optimization for websites

More than half the searches globally are done through mobile devices. If your website is not mobile-optimized yet, you’re losing a big chunk of potential visitors. Hence, having a mobile-friendly version of the website is essential and non-negotiable.

With Wix, it is super easy to implement AMP(Accelerated Mobile Pages) with built-in tools that rapidly load the webpage on your mobile device.

SEO Through Content by Using Wix

Using Unique Descriptions and Titles for Content

Using unique Descriptions and Titles for Content

Titles and descriptions

Repetitive content will confuse the SEO tools when ranking your website.Using Wix SEO Wiz lets you tweak the descriptions and titles in such a way that your SEO aspect is class A. The tool also gives suggestive headings for all your content to make it SEO friendly and have high searchability.

Using unique Descriptions and Titles for Content

Wix SEO

Apart from these, Wix also lets you personalize page URLs to optimize them for SEO. Image alt attributes, 301 redirects, heading structure (h1 to h6 for regular pages, and h1 and h2 for blogs), SSL encryption – all increase Wix’s SEO appeal.

Writing Impactful Content that Increases the Value

Writing Impactful Content that Increases the Value

Content writing

Including smart keywords in your content and regularly updating them is the key to appearing on the top of the search page and then create an impact on the user. Content is one of the most engaging aspects of any website and using that to draw more visitors in an art that is made easy by Wix Site Editor.

Because of seamless integration with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, Wix lets webmasters stay on top of important keyword stats and research for their website. You can easily use the insights on keywords to optimize your content for better search engine visibility.

Let Images Have A Description

Let Images Have A Description

Alt text for images

It’s known for a fact that images, videos, and multimedia boost the user experience of your website. The chances are that 50% of the users find you on google search through searching for images. Google is unable to read the images as we humans do; hence, adding captions to images is crucial to be found.

By describing the images through the pre-built feature on Wix, you improve your chances of being found on both the web search and image search feature of Google. If you are able to provide the right picture, you’ll have a happy user, which means only one thing- improved SEO.

Start with these SEO best practices today to boost your websites’ visibility online.

20. How To Develop A Site On Wix In 2 ways – Step By Step Guide

Wix Editor and Wix ADI

How to start building a website on Wix

There are two ways to build a website through Wix- The Wix Editor and Wix ADI. Wix Editor is a ‘plain-Jane’ and a simple method of creating a website from scratches through the drag-and-drop technique. You’ll have around 580 templates to choose from and then tweak them around to fit your business needs. The more advanced version of Wix utilizes Artificial Intelligence into designing and is known as Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). Wix ADI asks some questions from the user regarding the purpose of the website and once it gets all it needs; it creates a stunning website quickly.

How to Build a Site via Wix Editor?

Step 1: Strategizing Your Brand’s Website

Unless and until a firm idea about the website’s purpose is developed, it’s usually futile to create the website. Focusing on branding and marketing strategies would be the initial step towards creating a fabulous website. Further steps like defining brand identity, researching the competitors, identifying your target audience/market and preparing consistent branding material can help along to prepare a well-devised plan. These steps make the branding strategy a tad clearer before starting to develop a website.

Step 2: Signing Up for Wix

The next step is to get yourself registered with Wix. For signing up with Wix, you need to provide your email address and create a password for your account. From the next time, you do not need to register anymore, you require a username and password that is provided to you by Wix. Just use the same email and password for logging in.

Step 2: Signing Up for Wix

Signin up for Wix

Step 3: Approaching the Design via Wix Editor

Approaching the Design via Wix Editor

Choosing a theme

Wix Editor will ask some basic questions like, ‘What is the name of your website?’, ‘Does your website needs any additional features?’, etc. You can upload your brand’s logo if you have one. Lastly, choose a theme for your website and remember that the theme is about how your website looks and feels which is totally different from templates.

Step 4: Choosing the Wix Template for a Pre-built Site

Choosing the Wix Template for a Pre-built Site

Choosing a template

Click on ‘Create a New Site’ option from the top-right corner of the page that has a drop-down menu labeled as ‘Site’. Next, choose from an exciting range of options for websites that are available to you. Once you’ve maneuvered this, then choose from 580+ templates that are offered by Wix. If you want to narrow your search, use the template filter or the categories and sub-categories search section.

Step 5: Adding Functions and Site Elements

Once you have your template ready, it’s time to tweak around and shape the website according to your needs. For this, first, choose a background from the numerous options available to you. The color, illumination, hue and the contrast of the background can all be adjusted with a toolbar. A user can upload an image of your choice as a background for high-customization. The background is not limited to images only, as you can create a video background too.

Further, add a few quintessential design elements to your website to give it a fuller appearance. These design elements can be but not limited to: images, texts, text blocks, videos, blog, music, gallery, button, box, slideshow, list, menu, contacts, social, etc.

For special websites, you can opt for the various functions like blogs, RSS feeds, Wix App Market or a ‘bookings’ section.

dding Functions and Site Elements

Adding buttons

Step 6: Set Up a Blog, eCommerce and Add Applications

Set Up a Blog, eCommerce and Add Applications

Adding app to a website

From the ‘blog manager’ menu, select ‘add blog elements’ option to add a blog to your website. Even though it’s not a compulsory addition, but having a blog gives the website a lot of credibility and better connectivity with customers as it presents something else apart from buying and selling.

Use the Wix App Market to add extra applications that can be quite handy for your website. eCommerce websites can use the online selling application or the online ‘store manager’ application. Basically, the app market makes your website more trendy and attractive.

Step 7: Publish Your Wix Website

Publish Your Wix Website

Publishing a website

To publish your website and then go live immediately, just click on the Publish button on the top right-hand corner that says ‘Publish’. You’re now live and ready to host users.

Publish Your Wix Website

Website is live

Once you’re done with publishing your website you can keep track of the progress, RSS feeds, SEO and site management tool.

How to Build A Site via Wix ADI?

Step 1: Get Started with Wix ADI

Sign-up for Wix using an email address and a created password. Signing-up is free and requires no additional card details. Once, you’ve created the id and password, you can use the same log-in details from next time. Remember that Wix gives a free trial for a month after which you can decide what plan to take from next time.

Step 2: Approaching the Design via Wix ADI

After you have successfully registered and logged in, browse to the top right corner that is labeled as ‘Create a New Site’ under the ‘Site’ option. Then choose the option that says ‘Start with Wix ADI’. The next question that immediately pops up to the window is regarding the type of website that you want to create. Answer the question, ‘What kind of business do you want to create a website for?’ and let the ADI take care of the rest.

Approaching the Design via Wix ADI

Choosing a busines niche

Step 3: Adding Features To Your Website

Adding Features To Your Website

Adding features to a website

If there are any desirable features that you want to display on your website, they should be mentioned when the ADI software asks for the trivial information on the start page. If you’re looking to create a blog, sell via an online market or to take appointments and bookings, you can choose them via the optional features page. Next up, the ADI will ask for a name for your website and if you have any, then a business address and contact details. While answering the questions, try not to skip or miss any questions as they are what form the basis of customizing your website creation with ADI. For more accuracy and relevance, answer as many questions as you can.

Step 4: Choosing a Design

Choosing a Design

Choosing a design

Once you’ve got your preferred feature selection and important business information, the ADI from Wix is almost ready to create your website. The following screen will ask you for a preferred color scheme to design the outlook of your website. You can choose from a range of in-built options available to you as quick designs. The design of your website will be based on what kind of audience do you want to attract or who are the people who’d be browsing your website. Do not hesitate if you don’t like the design as you can always change it later if you don’t like it.

Step 5: Selecting a Style

Are you satisfied with the overall design of the website?! If not, then you can tweak and customize as many times as you’d like to till you get an absolute peach. You can add media, change the fonts and add applications that would make your website more interactive. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s accurate! Just what every website designer needs, what everyone needs.

Selecting a Style

Selecting a style

Selecting a Style

Selecting a home page design

Step 6: Publish your Site

After you have finalized the design and style of your webpage you can publish the website by clicking the ‘Publish’ option on the top right-hand corner.