How to Do SEO for Wix

When I think about Wix, I think about one of the first platforms to master the art of drag-and-drop website building. It’s known for being user-friendly (while packing plenty of SEO tools).

Back in 2016, Wix’s SEO capabilities were subpar, to say the least. That’s no longer the case, as the company has made strides in improving SEO functionality over the years, and even hired SEO experts like Mordy Oberstein and Crystal Carter.

That said, even with Wix’s strong SEO foundations, there are plenty of areas for improvement that don’t quite make it an “all-you-need” SEO suite. 

This guide dives into what Wix does (and doesn’t) do well for SEO and how tools like SiteGuru can bridge the gaps.

Wix Was Built with SEO in Mind

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Wix promises to make SEO simple for everyone, no matter if you’re brand new or an experienced professional. To be fair, almost every website-building platform makes this claim. 

So, the real question is: does Wix deliver? 

Wix does offer a good balance between ready-to-go SEO tools and advanced options for those who want more control. It gives beginners a head start with pre-configured SEO settings so that their site is search-engine friendly from the start.

It also simplifies the initial setup with an SEO Setup Checklist. It walks you through key tasks like entering your business name, selecting your top keywords, and optimizing basics like meta tags, page content, and mobile-friendliness. 

In short: Wix makes fundamental SEO extremely accessible. However, it’s worth looking closer at these features to see how well they work in practice.

How to Do SEO for Wix (and How to Use Wix’s Features)

Make Sure Your Wix Website Is Crawlable and Indexable

Wix takes care of your XML sitemap automatically. As soon as you connect your site to Google Search Console (GSC), it generates and submits your sitemap – no manual uploads necessary. 

Bonus: your homepage gets instant indexing once verified.


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Speaking of GSC, Wix’s Site Inspection Tool (powered by GSC) lets you check for crawl issues like broken links or errors that stop search engines from accessing your content.

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Here’s what else Wix can do in terms of crawling and indexing:

• Custom Robots.txt and Noindex tags. If you need to hide certain pages from search engines, Wix gives you easy tools to block pages with a simple click. 
• URL customization and redirects. Keep your site clean and organized with custom URL slugs and seamless redirects whenever you update page links. You can create 301 redirects for your pages, with some of them being created automatically. Go to your Wix dashboard, navigate to "Marketing & SEO" then "SEO Tools" and select "URL Redirect Manager". Click + New Redirect. 

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• Crawl monitoring with Bot Logs. Wix tracks how search engines interact with your site. You can see which pages bots (like Google or Bing) crawl the most, where they spend the least time, and whether any errors are holding you back.

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This feature reports:

• Bot Traffic Over Time (how often bots visit your site) 
• Bot Traffic by Page (pages with too much or too little bot activity)
• Response Status Monitoring (issues like 404 errors that might block bots from accessing your content)

Add, Edit, and Manage Your Metadata in Wix

Wix gives you full control over title tags, meta descriptions, and URL slugs for every page. 

Whether it’s your homepage or a specific product page, you can adjust these elements right in the SEO Panels or through the Edit by Page tabs in SEO Settings.

If your site is larger, Wix’s AI Text Creator suggests title tags and meta descriptions based on your content, saving you time and making large-scale optimization much easier. You’ll find this tool available in both the SEO Panels and Edit by Page tabs, so it fits well into your workflow.

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Wix goes one step further for blog posts and product pages by letting metadata update automatically. For example, product names or prices can be pulled directly into the metadata, keeping it fresh and relevant without constant manual updates.

How to Add Meta Titles and Descriptions to Your Wix Site

Customizing metadata in Wix is quick and straightforward. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open your Wix Editor.
2. On the left, click Pages & Menu.
3. Find the page you want to optimize, and click the More Actions icon (three dots).
4. Select SEO Basics.
5. Enter your title tag under Title Tag (title in search results).
6. Add your meta description under Meta Description (description in search results).
7. Hit Publish at the top right to save your changes.

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Add Structured Data to Relevant Pages

Right out of the gate, Wix applies schema markup to key pages like product listings, blog posts, local business pages, and events. This means search engines can better understand your content, setting you up for rich results like star ratings or event details.

Wix also lets you customize your structured data with JSON-LD data. 

You can apply it to specific pages – like a single product page – or scale it across entire categories like blog posts. This means you can fine-tune how search engines interpret your content at both a detailed and sitewide level.

How to Add or Edit Structured Data in your Wix Site

1. Open your Wix Editor.
2. Go to Pages & Menu on the left-hand side.
3. Click the More Actions icon (three dots) next to the page you want to update.
4. Select SEO Basics and then switch to the Advanced SEO tab.
5. Under Structured Data Markup, click +Add New Markup.
6. Paste your custom JSON-LD code into the editor and click Apply.
7. When finished, hit Publish to save your changes.
   
   

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You can add up to five types of structured data per page, so feel free to cover different content types like products, services, or events. If you need a head start, use a structured data generator to customize markup based on your content type.

A Few Things to Keep In Mind

• Google won’t display rich results if your markup includes unsupported or irrelevant details.
• Wix suggests a 7,000-character limit for structured data, so keep your JSON-LD concise and focused.
• After adding schema, use Google’s Rich Results Test to verify it’s set up correctly and eligible for enhanced results.
  
  

Just note that the platform doesn’t flag pages that lack schema or have errors. A tool like SiteGuru helps you spot missing or incomplete structured data across your site, prioritize fixes, and make sure every page has the markup it needs to stand out in the SERPs. 

In SiteGuru, just go to Technical > Structured data for a comprehensive view like the following: 

Make Sure Your Site Is Performing at Top Speed

It’s old news that your website’s performance impacts rankings, user experience, and conversions. Wix offers built-in optimizations designed to keep your site running well, including server-side rendering, Global CDN, lazy loading, automatic image compression, and WebP image optimization. 

The Site Speed Dashboard

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Wix’s Site Speed Dashboard displays your site performance broken into two sections:

1. Real Visitor Experience, which pulls Core Web Vitals data directly from Wix, reflecting what real users experience when they load your pages.
2. Google PageSpeed Simulation, which integrates Google PageSpeed Insights to estimate your site’s performance across metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP).
   
   

In theory, that’s everything a website needs to run fast and well. But one of the top complaints about Wix is the code bloat and unnecessary scripts that slow sites down. This is a common challenge for CMS platforms, but it’s something to monitor.

Prioritize Mobile-Friendliness

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Every site built with Wix comes with a mobile-friendly version by default, designed for a smooth browsing experience on smaller screens. 

Always be sure to toggle the mobile-friendly view on your editor to enable the feature. Head to Settings in the top editor bar, select Mobile Friendly, toggle the option on, and then click Close.

Inside the Wix mobile editor, you can rearrange elements, hide sections, or add mobile-only features like call-to-action buttons, images, or text to better engage users on the go. You can use either the Wix app or your mobile browser to update text, swap images, add links, and tweak layouts in real time.

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Improve Your Wix Local SEO

Wix lets you create and manage your Google Business Profile (GBP) straight from the dashboard. With just a few clicks, you can update crucial details like your business hours, address, and services. 

Here’s how to set up your GBP on Wix:

1. Open your Wix dashboard and go to Marketing & SEO in the left-hand menu.
2. Select Google Business Profile and click Start Now.
3. Fill out all the required information about your business.
4. If your GBP already exists, the flow will take you to the Verify & Manage page to confirm your details.
5. If you’re setting it up for the first time, you’ll create your profile directly from Wix.
   
   

You’ll also have access to the GBP Insights feature, which can help you figure out whether you’re meeting your SEO goals or if you need to put in more work to make your profile more attractive.

In your Wix dashboard, go to Marketing & SEO, select Google Business Profile from the left menu, and click Insights to check your profile’s performance.

Keep in mind that reporting time zones differ between Wix and Google, so you might see slight discrepancies in your Google Business Profile Insights.

Add Google Maps Embeds to Your Wix Site

Wix makes it simple to add interactive maps to your site, so customers can locate you and you can signal to search engines that your site is relevant to local searches.

• Open the Add Elements menu by clicking the + icon on the left side of the editor.
• Head to Contact & Forms and select Maps or Full Width Maps.
• Choose a map and drag it to the perfect spot on your page.
• Click Manage Locations to customize the details.

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Use On-Page SEO Assistance for Quick Wins

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With its own SEO Assistant, Wix guides users step-by-step in improving their content and technical setup. It offers guidance on…

• Adding a focus keyword to title tags, H1s, and subheadings.
• Writing alt text for images to boost accessibility and SEO.
• Ensuring proper hreflang tags for multilingual pages.
• Crafting meta descriptions that include the focus keyword.
• Using markup to qualify for rich results.
• Adding images or videos to enhance user experience and SEO.
  
  

The Assistant is undeniably helpful and reminds me a lot of Yoast SEO’s plugins for WordPress. The major drawback, however, is that you need to manually activate it for each page. This can be time-consuming, especially for large sites. 

Optimize Blog Content and Images Across Your Site

Blogging Tools

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Wix’s blogging platform is simple but offers over 900 free customizable templates for unique blog designs. Your Wix blog also comes with built-in analytics to track performance and refine your strategy.

To view your Wix blog analytics, head to the Analytics & Reports section in your dashboard, scroll down to Blog Reports, and select the report you want to dive into. The available reports include:

• Blog Activity Over Time (keep tabs on how views, likes, shares, and comments change over time)
• Top Blog Posts (find out which posts are your all-time best performers so you can double down on what’s working)
• Blog Activity by Time of Day (Discover when your readers are most engaged) 
  
  

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Add Alt Text to Images

With Wix, you can easily add alt text to individual images and galleries to give visually impaired users and search engines a better understanding of your visuals. Here’s how to do it for both individual and gallery images:

For individual images:

1. Open the Wix Editor and select your image.
2. Click the settings icon and enter a description under What’s in the image? Tell Google.
3. Add optional tooltip text under Does this image have a tooltip?
4. Hit Publish when you’re done.

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For gallery images:

1. Open your gallery in the Wix Editor.
2. Click Manage Media or Change Images.
3. Select an image and add a title or alt text.
4. Save and publish your updates.

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Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t yet let you bulk-edit alt text, which can be a pain if you’re working with a lot of images. 

Also, a heads up for one of the biggest issues with Wix: when you upload an image, it automatically changes the file name into a random string of letters and numbers. 

This isn’t great for SEO because search engines use descriptive file names to better understand an image’s content. If image search rankings matter to you (which they should!), you’ll have to change the file name yourself. 

How Third-Party Tools Like SiteGuru Complement Your Wix SEO

Wix’s SEO gaps all point to one thing: you’ll need to actively monitor your site on a daily basis – a task that’s tricky and time-consuming if you’re not already an expert in the field (and if you’re too busy actually running your business).

Using SiteGuru is more effective. It runs automated weekly audits and notifies you about issues, tasks you should prioritize to get better rankings, and potential opportunities. 

Besides giving you a prioritized task list, SiteGuru lets you know everything that happens on your website, SEO-wise. From newly indexed pages to new keywords, you’ll know exactly what goes on, as well as what to do, when to do it, and why.

SiteGuru also steps in to cover areas where Wix falls short by highlighting items such as:

• Orphan pages (pages that lack internal links pointing to them) and new linking opportunities
• Broken links 
• Thin content pages that need more substance to rank
  
  

It’s all laid out in simple, easy-to-follow language. Instead of wrestling with SEO technicalities, you get a done-with-you tool that lets you know when something needs your attention.

Is Wix Good for SEO, After All?

Wix is a decent choice for small businesses or sites in less competitive niches. But when the competition gets tougher or you need more advanced controls, it can feel limiting. 

If you’re looking for a website builder that’s 100% complete in terms of SEO…no such platform exists yet. Whether you’re using Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, you’ll need third-party tools to fill in the blanks. 

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to complicate your tech stack. SiteGuru works on every CMS, in any language. No plugins or server access is required. Try it free for 14 days.