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” Is SEO for web builders better than SEO for WordPress more effective?”
This is a good question and we get asked this often.
There are likely to be similar (yet frequently asked) questions, like:
- Which web builder is one that is the best for SEO?
- Does a particular website builder benefit from natural advantages in terms of ranking higher on Google?
- Everyone and their cats have told me they believe that WordPress SEO is most effective and only method to be ranked high within search engine results. Is that true?
- Many people believe that drag and drop website builders are not good for ranking on Google. What is the truth?
Want my quick opinion?
- I don’t know.
- Probably.
- True.
- A complete myth.
Are you surprised by my views? Perhaps?
If you are aware of the meaning of SEO (“Search Engine Optimization”) is the term you’re familiar with, it’s the principal vital elements of your site’s success.
If you’ve not had the opportunity to learn about SEO generally speaking, it’s a technique to aid your site in ranking higher in search results like Google.
When your website is given greater exposure in results from searches (ranks higher) and more visitors will come to your site.
Doesn’t that make sense?
In this blog I’d like to share my thoughts regarding SEO and web builders with you.
I’m unable to inform you which particular web builder software can be said to be the most efficient to use for search engine optimization, however I’ll attempt to dispel some of the popular myths and misinformation regarding SEO, from my personal experience.
Before we dive into the details, take a look at our top web builders that are rated:
Be aware that if you ask 100 people for their opinions on SEO You’ll likely receive 100 different opinions. I’m certainly not the top expert in any way (though I’ll link to a few of them in the discussion). I’m simply sharing what has we’ve found to work for us over the years and therefore it could be a good idea or not for you.
After I’ve signed my disclaimer, I hope that I won’t be slammed with rocks at me by the most ardent SEO enthusiasts. Most likely, however!
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Utilizing WordPress Does not mean you will be able to get higher search rankings
“There is lots of misconceptions regarding WordPress websites ranking higher than websites created with web builders. It’s not true from our experience.”
Say what?
I’m sure certain people are going to leap from your seats because I’m going to slam WordPress.
I don’t hate WordPress.
I actually like using it since after many years of creating websites using both drag and drop web builders and WordPress I’ve learned to master it and, dare I say it, I even learned how to write a tiny piece of programming!
In actual fact, this website is constructed on WordPress since it’s the ideal platform for writing blog posts.
When I first began making sites, WordPress was a hard beast to manage.
It was confusing, and way too technical (for dumb old me, anyway) and should I want to make any changes to the design or alter my content I would have to create code or employ someone who could.
I’ll admit it, WordPress made me feel stupid.
I was at in full-time employment and did not want to spend time getting into all the technical aspects associated with WordPress once I got back from the office.
So, I decided to drag and drop site builders and builders that helped me feel less stupid!
They helped me build websites swiftly, inexpensively and made me look like a code rock star in family fireside conversations ( major drawback: everyone began wanting me to create sites for their businesses…)
The question is why everyone who seems to have some knowledge about creating websites claim that using WordPress will allow you to get higher rankings in search engines?
Hmmm, excellent question. I’m not sure.
Perhaps they saw it on the internet and then recited it to other people? After a few times of this, it kind changed into a kind of “truth” You are aware of what I am talking about?
We’ve all been there and it’s easy to get it done online, where individuals aren’t held accountable for their actions.
I believed that too until the websites that were built using drag and drop web builder (such like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly) began appearing in the top results of Google.
The websites from our earlier projects surpassed even WordPress websites.
Oh! There’s no way! !
That’s exactly what I was thinking too, wasn’t it? !
Here’s the truth. “Everybody” affirms that WordPress has the greatest potential option for SEO, but how do they conclusively affirm this?
“The “Impossible” SEO Experiment That No One Has Conducted
“I haven’t come across any definitive evidence to show that WordPress websites are consistently ranked higher than non-WordPress sites. Most likely because no study exists?”
I was browsing the web and was hoping someone had done an experiment to find out whether the theory was valid that the use of WordPress can easily surpass websites built using drag and drop web builders.
Then I thought “How can someone come up with an experiment like this?”
I’m not a scientist by education, but I know that the most effective method to determine if any one element made an impact, is to keep the other variables identical and there is only one difference in the website builder was utilized.
It is only through this method that you can determine if the use of an online builder that you have chosen resulted in a positive change.
It is it possible to conduct an “pure” test? Could each site be exactly the same and receive exactly the identical treatment?
- Could every website have the same domain name? — It’s not possible.
- Do all websites contain exactly the same content? Yes. Yes
- Can each page be released at the same time? – Probably
- Do all websites receive the same amount of advertising? – Most likely not.
- Do all websites receive exactly the same backlinks as various web sites (when the other sites link to your website)? — It’s not possible.
It’s virtually impossible to create identical websites using different websites builders since it is impossible to control the reactions of other people to the different websites.
How can someone conclusively say that a certain web builder is more effective for SEO?
To illustrate this take a look at this example.
Let’s suppose that a couple of websites were developed to test this idea and the websites focused on dog training.
Each site was built using the same website builder but with the exact same content regarding dog training, the same style, received the exact same amount of advertising and even the identical domain name (which isn’t possible to prove, but we’ll continue on this assumption).
A beautiful day a dog trainer who is somewhat of a famous or authoritative person online (she creates digital magazines for dog training and has tens of thousands followers and followers) I came upon one of these nascent websites.
She stumbled upon the website that was experimentally created by Wix and was enthralled and wrote an article about it , and shared it with her thousands of followers.
So the site constructed using Wix received a lot of online acclaim from this renowned persona.
She had a link to her website on her personal website (which was ranked extremely high on Google in the sense that Google identified her site as an authoritative site) as did the majority of her followers because they are able to trust her opinion and what she had to say about your site.
Your site also earned the “15 minute fame” after a large number of people shared your site on their social networks.
Amazingly, Google also started to treat your website with respect and your site (built using Wix) begins to rank better, and more prominently in the results of searches.
Did this renowned dog expert have the same chance of coming across your other websites that are experimental apart from the one you built using Wix?
In our hypothetical experiment, the conditions In our hypothetical experiment parameters yes.
Does this mean you’re Wix website is better at SEO over other sites?
No. It’s not true..
The use of helpful and resourceful content is A major factor in receiving higher Google Engine Rankings – Not the Web Builder You Choose
“Google as well as other top SEO experts have verified that backlinks and contents are the primary factors to gaining higher ranking in search engines.”
Questions to think about:
- Did your website begin to gain recognition because it was created on Wix? — Do not think it was.
- Do you think your sudden surge in search engine rankings be better and/or worse had you were using an alternative web-based constructor (such such as WordPress, Squarespace and Weebly)? — I do not think so.
The sudden spike in the rankings for this experimental website has nothing to do with the website builder you chose to use.
It has everything to be related to search engines observing the site as useful as evidenced by an authority person and her reputable website linking to the website which is followed by lots of her admirers who have visited the site and certain of them linking to the site also.
“Social signals “social indicators” (people posting and discussing your site via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and others.) was a huge help as well.
All of these all are “signals” for Google to show that your site deserves to rank higher in the search results.
The gaining of these kinds of web endorsements In my opinion, this is among the best (if but not necessarily the most) efficient SEO techniques and is also one of the primary SEO ranking elements that Google evaluates.
Here’s a different method to consider this.
Do you believe that Google might suggest (basically approve) your site because it’s built with a certain web builder?
No. It suggests websites within results of searches because it believes that these websites can be beneficial to users.
If Google stopped providing results for searches that are most beneficial to the needs of users searching for information, users may think about using another search engine. And it could hurt Google’s business.
What is the process that lets Google determine if a site can be useful?
Primarily is based on “signals” like the location (quality) the backlinks come from and the amount (quantity) of backlinks your site receives via other web sites.
The most reputable SEO experts suggest that Google examines every website using more than 200 factors (or rankings factors). Each ranking factor has an distinct weightage.
The quality and quantity of backlinks are one of the two most crucial ranking factors.
If you’ve focused on this aspect, you’ll probably perform fairly well. It’s called what’s known as the “80/20” algorithm of SEO (meaning the majority of your results (higher rankings in search engines) are influenced by 20% inputs (focusing on getting quality backlinks from authoritative websites).
From the 200plus ranking factors, the web builder tool you chose to use is only one.
Although I’m not sure exactly how much importance Google gives this aspect (only Google knows) – however, I would guess that it’s not that important of a factor when compared against other elements.
However, Internet Code Guru’s Says WordPress has a cleaner and better Code Base than Drag and Drag Website Builders!
“Google does not have any issues understanding websites that use the most popular drag-and-drop website builders. WordPress could have a more refined code base, but its impact on SEO is likely to be minimal.”
Yes, the base code of some drag and drop web builders aren’t quite as “clean” like open-source software like WordPress.
However, Google has no issues with crawling or understanding websites created using website builders.
For example, Wix is actually highlighted in the Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, right just below WordPress under the section called “Help Google Understand Your Pages”:
This proves the fact that Google recognizes Wix as an “legitimate” web-based builder.
There are many internet reports that Wix is really harmful to SEO. I haven’t found any tangible evidence of this yet.
In reality, John Mueller of Google answered this question directly in response to a person who asked a question on the Google Webmaster Central Help Forum in which he asked if Google is averse to Wix and if sites built using Wix perform poorly on search engine results.
Here’s the Google solution:
In addition, Gary Illyes of Google verified the fact that Google does not offer preference to websites created with static HTML or AJAX (basically the various language programming):
Websites created using Wix are constructed with HTML5 along with AJAX technology. Based on Google’s assertion earlier, the tech Wix utilizes to create your website is acknowledged and appreciated by Google.
Below here are Rand Fishkin’s thoughts about Squarespace (Rand manages Moz which is the leading authority on the subject SEO). SEO):
His post was made in 2014, but I think Squarespace’s SEO capabilities continue to be strong in the present day.
Recap
Before we get into SEO and website builders Here’s a brief summary of what’s been talked about to date:
- Google does not base its ranking decisions solely upon the website builder you used or did not use. There are more than 200 ranking factors, and the website builder you choose to use is only one of them.
- The most popular drag and drop websites also feature robust SEO capabilities. Google can recognize websites built using these platforms.
- Instead of focusing upon “which web builder best for SEO” Instead, you should focus on producing top-quality content for your audience and then promoting or sharing the information. This is a excellent way to attract top authority figures to share your site’s URL and to share your site with their followers. This is the simplest and most effective method to prove to Google that your site is worthy of more search engine results.
Yes, Drag and Drop Website Builders Have Some flaws
“With drag and drop site builders, it is impossible to modify or tweak every aspect of your site. With WordPress it is possible to take more control over the majority of aspects of your site.”
Drag and drop site builders come with their own set of problems when it comes down to SEO, however.
The advantages of creating websites without writing one word of code, and without technically proficient, means you don’t have total control over every single part of the process of creating your site.
For instance, while Weebly (one of the most simple web builders) allows you to modify your HTML and CSS codes for your website however, you aren’t able to control or alter other aspects, like the speed of your website’s hosting.
Speed of loading websites is one of the Google ranking factors.
If your website pages load extremely quickly, that’s an excellent thing in SEO, since it will improve your users’ experience (nobody wants to wait around long for websites to open these days).
With WordPress you have the ability to manage speed and performance of your site by upgrading to a more powerful hosting provider (which will also mean that you’ll have to pay more) or tweaking your server by utilizing skilled developers.
Are you looking for a reliable web hosting service? Take a look at our article about the best web Hosting Services
However most websites built using WordPress use the shared host that’s similar to the speed of hosting that you can get from drag-and-drop website builders.
As we mentioned earlier above, you are able to enroll in a web hosting service which will load your site more quickly, however it costs you (can be as low as $30 to several hundred dollars each month as opposed to about 5 dollars per month in the shared host).
Pro Tip to Improve the speed of loading pages:
The most significant contributor for slow loading speed is large images. To increase your website pages speed of loading be sure to:
(1) Compress your images using free image compressors like Compress JPEG.
(2) Use the correct image size.
For instance, you shouldn’t put in an image with a dimension of 1,000 pixels by 1000 pixels. then reduce it to 500 pixels by 500 pixels in order to be able to fit it on your website page. Your site is loading the first huge image (1,000px by 1,000 pixels) which takes much longer for it to open. Resize all your images using the free image editor and this will improve the speed of loading.
Another issue that web page developers face is that they aren’t able to customize your website’s URLs (URLs).
It’s well-known that using keywords (what the page’s contents are) on your page’s URL as well as keeping your URL as brief as is possible, can provide SEO advantages.
With most web-based builders, you aren’t able to modify or control your page’s URL.
If you have labeled your page by the title ” Awesome Rare Dog Training Methods for German Shepherds” Your page’s URL will automatically change to:
www.example.com/awesome-rare-dog-training-techniques-for-german-shepherds
Although this isn’t a huge problem but the majority of SEO experts will suggest that it be changed to one that is less cluttered and focused like:
www.example.com/dog-training-german-shepherds
The reason is that the words used in the URL can assist Google concentrate on what’s relevant to your website.
With WordPress you can create this change without difficulty.
While the majority of drag-and-drop websites don’t permit you to do this, Wix and Squarespace do allow you to modify or customize URLs (see this and this).
Website Builders Can Provide You With the majority of the SEO Tools
In actuality, drag & drop web builders already provide you the majority of the SEO tools, so you can improve your site to be more SEO-friendly:
The best SEO Website Builders:
| SEO Features | Wix | Squarespace | Weebly |
| Page Title | √ | √ | √ |
| Meta Descriptions | √ | √ | √ |
| Page Level Heading Tags | H1 to H6 | H1 and H2 | H2 is the only option |
| Sitemap | √ | √ | √ |
| Image Alt Tags | √ | √ | √ |
| Customizable URL | √ | √ | √ |
| Mobile Friendly | √ | √ | √ |
| Ability to add Media (Images or videos) | √ | √ | √ |
| The connection is made to Google Analytics | √ | √ | √ |
| It is connected with Google Search Console | √ | √ | √ |
A guide from Wix regarding its SEO options. Additionally, you can see how they’ve developed an “intelligent” system that will help you with the SEO set-up procedure. Check out the SEO Wizard here. Make sure to watch the video.
The guide of Squarespace regarding their SEO features
A guide from Weebly regarding their SEO features
Be aware that these are referred to as ” On-Page SEO” which means little pieces and pieces that you can set up directly on your site to enhance it’s search engine user-friendly.
While these are crucial take note of the 80/20 rule we mentioned above.
The majority of the SEO benefits you receive will be derived in the form of “Off-Page SEO” (things that you can carry out on your own website that could result in better search results) particularly getting authority web sites to connect to your site. This tells Google that a trusted website endorses your site.
It’s not simple to do, but who said ranking your website top within search result pages is simple and simple?
It takes time, work and perseverance, just like creating an enterprise!
Conclusion: Effective SEO doesn’t depend on only website builders. It’s all on the Individual.
There’s no doubt that it’s true that WordPress is more effective on the SEO front from an On-Page perspective. If you take the assertions as truth then you’ll be very dissatisfied when your site doesn’t automatically appear in the top results in search results.
There is many things going on in SEO than choosing which website builder you should use. The choice of a good website builder is only going to affect the search engine rankings.
I’m of the opinion that choosing the best website builder is equally crucial from the perspective of what you’d like to receive from the website builder, including:
- Experience of the user (building sites can be enjoyable and exciting, but not as much as pulling teeth)
- What is the amount of resources you are able to put into your website (time and money)
- If you’re keen to handle the technical elements of your site
If you don’t have the enough time or desire to learn the technical aspects of creating and running websites, or do not have the money to pay an expert designer or developer If so, WordPress isn’t the right choice for you.
We’ve got an extensive discussion about this concept here.
Be aware that there are more than 200 factors that affect search rankings. With WordPress and a little technical help from a competent developer you can refine your website to make it more appealing to search engines.
However, drag and drop website builders aren’t terrible for SEO even. They aren’t as flexible as WordPress and can be tweaked on-page SEO won’t propel you from the search results’ page to the top of page one.
In order for Google to give your website pages with high ranking in search results it is essential to show that your website’s content is beneficial for users. To make this happen one of the most important things they will need to look at is the presence of other authoritative websites that are linking to your site. Additionally, they want to observe your websites being discussed and shared on the web.
In other words, your site needs to be given something of a “celebrity” position.
How do you do it? Through consistently producing highly informative, useful content that is available online. What else can you do to be ranked highly on search engines If your content isn’t top of the line?
Additionally, you’ll have to market your content instead of waiting around, hoping for someone to find your work.
It’s easy to imagine that if you optimize or do everything right with your website, that you’ll get good rankings in search engines. It’s a lot more difficult and challenging to produce high-quality content and disseminating it to your target users.
It is a lot of work reaching out to the thought leaders and experts in your area of expertise to build relationships with them . They could possibly endorse or hyperlink back to your website. This isn’t any different from going to social gatherings to meet with people and exchange ideas and thoughts.
It’s much simpler (and more relaxing) to stay at home and work on your cover letter and resume. Making them perfect is essential and, without doubt. However, putting yourself on the market is more effective and efficient. Real relationships open numerous opportunities.
It is not easy to achieve the “celebrity” standing for your website can be a struggle and requires the time (think decades, not hours). This is why anyone who is dedicated to the long-term is more likely of success, while those who quit after just a week since the website isn’t listed in the top spot of search results will forever disappear from the internet (and say that they’re disappointed that the site builder they were using wasn’t working ).
The main point is, receiving a better rank in the search engines IS feasible – regardless of the website builder you choose to use.
If you’re new to creating websites, or you’re lacking the technical skills or the money (time as well as money) to make use of WordPress I suggest you explore drag and drop web builders. You don’t have to be a programmer to create a professional-looking website on your own.
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