WordPress SEO vs. Other Website Builders: Which is Best?
How does WordPress SEO compare with that of other website builders?
Frankly, it isn’t even close.
While it’s true that the best website builders have several good SEO features built in, they fall short of the robust range of optimizations that are possible in WordPress.
To be fair, WordPress doesn’t really belong in the same category. Unlike conventional website builders, WordPress is a powerful content management system, designed for nearly endless customizations (including search engine optimization). Traditional web builders are typically made for beginners, because they offer the simplest platforms for getting a site online without knowing any code. But therein lies the problem. Without the ability to add or significantly edit code, your SEO opportunities can be severely limited.
Let’s break down some of the core SEO features, configuration options, advantages and disadvantages of the top platforms vs. WordPress SEO.
Wix SEO
Wix is decent for SEO if you just want to tick off some of the essential optimizations without having the ability to manually edit the code yourself:
- Structured data option
- XML sitemap (automatically generated by Wix)
- Automatic robots.txt files
- Custom meta tags
- Canonical URLs
- SSL certificate included
- Responsive mobile design
- Good range of heading styles: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6
- Sites hosted by Wix
Squarespace SEO
Squarespace is very similar in its SEO capabilities, however there are some important differences:
- Structured data option (cannot be edited)
- XML sitemap (automatically generated by Squarespace)
- All Squarespace sites use the same robots.txt file
- Custom meta tags
- Canonical URLs
- SSL certificate included
- Responsive mobile design
- Limited to H1, H2 & H3 heading styles (sometimes template-specific)
- Sites hosted by Squarespace
Weebly SEO
Like the other builders, Weebly’s on-page optimization options are mostly limited to tags and optimizations that are baked into the templates.
- XML sitemap (automatically generated by Weebly)
- Manual robots.txt option
- Custom meta tags (however, some title features, such as site name, must appear on every page)
- Manual canonical URL option
- SSL certificate included with all plans
- Responsive mobile design
- Limited to H1 & H2 heading styles (unless integrating additional apps)
- Sites hosted by Weebly
WordPress SEO
WordPress goes beyond these features by offering a fully customizable platform for WordPress development and content management. Whereas the site builders above can make some optimizations easier for beginners, WordPress offers greater control over the code to optimize your site however you want.
- Freedom to choose your own host, so you have greater control over site load speed and PHP version
- Full access to edit and add code to CSS stylesheets, as well as HTML, PHP and TXT – this gives you total control of your SEO optimizations on the front and back end.
- Add structured data automatically with optional SEO plugins such as Yoast
- Add your own XML sitemap or use plugins to automatically generate it yourself
- Use plugins to easily define settings for your robots.txt and follow/nofollow settings
- Customize meta tags and/or have them automatically created by select SEO plugins
- Automatically add canonical URLs to each new post/page of content you publish (plugin-powered)
- SSL certificate is not included; however, you have more control over where you purchase it and can install it yourself
- Wider range of mobile-responsive themes and templates to choose from, allowing you to choose the best-performing, fastest-loading WordPress website designs
- Robust SEO plugins provide numerous other SEO features including readability scoring and keyword density checkers to ensure your on-page content is properly optimized.
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