Wix, website builder, website development

Not a Coder? Wix Can Help

WIX is a website builder that’s fully customizable from layout to content. Even though it’s initially free, users can pay for features like plug-ins, domains, and extra data. While it has a large number of users, hosts more than 72 million users, and is valued at $750 million dollars, it doesn’t necessarily mean the site is for everyone.

A Little Background Information

Wix was founded in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami, and Giora Kaplan. While its HQ is located in Tel Aviv, there are offices in San Francisco, New York City, among other places. Originally, Wix ran on Adobe Flash, but later in 2012 was replaced by HTML5.

Getting Started

Signing up is relatively simple – you go through a tutorial that helps you write your first post, tells you how to place images, etc. – the real challenge is picking a theme.

There is a good amount of pre-made themes to choose from, all of which have been made specifically for certain types of blogs or websites. Most, if not all, are free for use and can be tweaked afterwards. What’s nice about them is that they look sleek and professional, which helps if your site is going to be shown off to the public.

There are blank templates to use for those who are a little more creative or daring. These allow the user to design their website the way they want with little to no guidelines. Designing a layout is just a matter of dragging and dropping different elements where you want them to be. However, it can get a little overwhelming to work without a guideline, so this is best for people who like to play around with different designs and looks.

Unfortunately, once templates and domain names are chosen, they can’t be changed.

Mobile View

Wix mobile

What’s interesting is how much customization Wix gives creators. They can change how their site looks on mobile phones by simply pressing the button to switch to mobile mode. From there, the creator can decide what mobile viewers can see by hiding or allowing them to see certain things and adjusting the size of content. iOS and Android have similar views of the pages.

SEO Options

SEO options are limited unless you have a Google Analytics account, and even then a custom domain and premium account are required. Although, Wix does offer a number of site statistics and SEO tools in its AppMarket. If you’re in need of better SEO options, it could really add up for those smaller companies, freelancers, or entrepreneurs. Free users will still have Google Webmaster tools for insights.

Let’s Talk Pricing

There are features that do require a bit of money in order to get special features. Packages run from $4.08 a month to just under $25 a month. These include keeping sites ad free, extra storage, and professional site reviews.

Plug-ins and other apps can be purchased from the market space. These run anywhere from free to $10 a month. There are some that allow for trials too, in case you want to test it out before purchase. These include both Wix made and third party apps like social media feeds, PayPal, and even hotel booking.

Help is Just a Click Away

Wix offers users a lot of help and support. You can get in touch with someone if need be, whether it be by phone or clicking a button, or go through a massive collection of links for help. You can also put a password on your website for more strict viewing options.

In conclusion, Wix is great for people who are patient, creative, and don’t mind getting a little messy with creating their own page. People who don’t know how to code will find it a little easier than learning the language itself, but may find difficulty in how much goes into actually making a site. What would help improve the site is if domain names and templates could be changed, as well as not having such a high price on SEO features. That being said, Wix still provides people with a good tool to make their own sites.

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