By utilizing the most effective website builder for SEO, you can gain an advantage in the competition to achieve higher rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Starting their in-store or online shopping journey, a significant 59% of shoppers disclose that they research products or services on Google, emphasizing the importance of establishing an effective search engine optimization strategy from the beginning [1]. When your SEO is properly executed, you can generate a continuous flow of leads and customers effortlessly, at all times.
Fortunately, the majority of prominent website creators now prioritize SEO and provide various SEO-oriented features. This guide will present the top five creators to contemplate, their key SEO attributes, and the criteria for making an appropriate selection.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into our discussion about the top website builder for SEO.
Criteria for choosing the best website builder for SEO
When choosing an SEO-friendly website builder, it is important to take into account various factors. Apart from the basic requirements like user-friendliness and convenient drag-and-drop options, it is essential to select a builder equipped with multiple features that enhance the discoverability of your website through organic searches on Google and other search engines.
Top website builders offer a wide range of SEO functionalities, which encompass:
- Keyword support. Targeting specific keywords is a vital part of search engine optimization. Top website builders allow you to target keywords on your pages with ease.
- SEO prompts. Prompts are invaluable if you are a beginner, as they give you suggestions on what to do next, so you don’t miss crucial SEO elements as you optimize your site.
- Customizable title tags and meta descriptions. Title tags help search engines understand what a web page is about, while meta descriptions summarize the page’s content. Combined, title tags and meta descriptions boost clickthrough rates on your web pages.
- Image alt attributes. An image alt attribute, also known as alt description or alt text, describes what an image on a page is showing. Image alt text helps search engine crawlers understand what an image is about and enhances the chances of a photo appearing in image searches.
- Social media integration. A social media integration feature is a must for your omnichannel marketing strategy. Social signals help SEO because the more shares, likes, comments, and higher visibility your content gains on social media platforms, the more likely Google will see them as valuable and rank them higher.
- Mobile usability. Since almost 60% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s crucial that your site renders correctly on mobile and gives users a delightful experience when they browse your site—the best builders for SEO support mobile optimization [2].
- XML sitemaps. ? An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of your website’s essential pages. This URL listing of core pages is a vital part of technical SEO. XML sitemaps help search engines understand your site structure and which pages to crawl. Leading builders have built-in XML sitemaps capabilities.
- Custom permalinks. Customizable permalinks give you complete control of the appearance of your page URLs on search results. Excellent permanent links help search engines and searchers determine the relevance of a page.
When searching for an excellent website builder for SEO, it is important to consider the essential features and SEO best practices.
6 Best Website Builder for SEO
1. WordPress.com
Without a doubt, WordPress.com is one of the top website builders available.
It is simple to build an SEO-friendly website using WordPress.com. With the WordPress builder, you have the ability to customize SEO titles, meta descriptions, and preview how your post or page will look on social media and Google search. Additionally, you can personalize the formatting of your page and post URLs.
Ease of Use
Firstly, what makes WordPress so attractive to beginners is its core simplicity. With its base HTML and themes that are specifically designed to attract search engines, WordPress is capable of handling approximately 80 – 90% of basic search engine optimization (SEO) for your website.
SEO Plugins
For individuals with greater expertise, WordPress additionally provides the opportunity to utilize over 50,000 WordPress plugins, like Yoast SEO, that can be installed on your website in order to enhance your search ranking and enhance the experience for visitors. The pricing plans designed for businesses also encompass more advanced SEO choices and the integration of Google Analytics, enabling effortless tracking and analysis of your website’s performance.
Features
- Auto-generated and auto-updated XML sitemaps to help search engines index your pages.
- Custom page titles and meta descriptions to boost clickthrough rates to your website.
- Clean URL structure so search engines and people understand your page content.
- WordPress AMP Integration (previously Accelerated Mobile Pages) for faster load times on mobile devices.
- Auto installation of SSL certificates to assure Google and users that your site is secure.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up your website and reduce bounce rates.
Who Uses It?
With a usage of 43.2% among all websites, WordPress is regarded as the most popular website builder on the internet. This statistic becomes even more impressive when you take into account that there are approximately 1.9 billion websites in existence today. Notable entities that utilize WordPress include some of the industry leaders.
- TIME Magazine , one of the longest-running news magazines and news websites in the U.S.
- Playstation Blog , a website dedicated to insider news, game releases, and gaming tips for Playstation, owned by one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.
- Spotify Newsroom , the press website for updates, news, and music releases for the Spotify app.
- Vogue , one of the most well-known fashion and lifestyle magazines, which provides news on beauty tips, celebrity styles, and more.
- Disney Books , the official site for the Walt Disney Company’s publishing wing, which allows visitors to filter books by best sellers, characters, age, and more.
- Microsoft News , a site for news, features, events, press materials, stories about the company, and more from Microsoft.
- The White House , the official site for the White House, which hosts information about the latest bills, legislation, official statements, and more.
Final Thoughts
WordPress is an ideal website builder for beginners as it offers a user-friendly interface. It provides a built-in SEO tool and best practices to assist users in navigating their way through website building. Once users have a better understanding of their position, they can then utilize plugins and themes to boost their ranking.
If you decide to hire a website designer, you can be confident that they will know how to work with it since it is the most popular website builder.
If you have already gained a firm understanding of SEO fundamentals, it is important to remember that actively participating and engaging with WordPress is necessary to achieve success. The ability to freely modify and customize it according to your preferences can be highly advantageous for certain individuals.
2. Wix
Wix is yet another excellent website builder for optimizing SEO.
Wix is notable among leading website builders for its SEO capabilities due to its user-friendly interface. Its user dashboard is straightforward and includes a step-by-step checklist that assists website owners in navigating the search engine optimization process. The advantage is that you have the ability to customize the SEO checklist to match your specific niche and website requirements.
Beginner-Friendly
If you need an SEO website builder that guides you throughout the process, Wix is the ideal choice.
You can start building a website easily using one of their 500+ customizable website templates, without the need for coding.
In addition, the dashboard incorporates SEO tools, which are seamlessly integrated. The dashboard includes a built-in SEO Wiz that can guide you through the fundamental aspects progressively and also provide recommendations and objectives to enhance your website.
Wix also provides a comprehensive SEO guide to help you become more knowledgeable about its SEO tools if you want to improve your SEO skills.
Google Integration
Wix is highly integrated with Google, which makes it a top choice for website builders seeking high rankings on Google. By entering your tracking ID, you can effortlessly connect with Google Search Console and Google Analytics. This allows Wix to alert you if your site is underperforming according to your expectations.
SEO Tools
You definitely want to keep up because more than 53% of traffic comes from organic search. Every Wix site is designed with a solid infrastructure that meets the needs of search engines, enabling you to compete for organic search results right from the start.
Features
- SEO prompts to help you edit your URL slugs, open graph tags, structured data markup, meta tags, and more.
- Automatically creates XML sitemaps to improve the discoverability of your site pages by search engines.
- Auto generates customizable structured data markups to enhance chances of appearing in rich search results.
- Editable URL slugs for all your site pages.
- Add and customize title tags and meta descriptions to improve clickthrough rates on your site.
- Social sharing optimization to personalize images, titles, and descriptions of pages for a custom look when shared on social media.
Who Uses It?
Here are some of the big names that use Wix for their websites, as it is one of the fastest-growing content management systems and web hosting providers.
- SAP , the official website of the world’s leading producer of business applications and technology solutions.
- Lyft , the site for one of the biggest ride-sharing and delivery apps, which allows visitors to sign up as a driver or a rider.
- CBS , the online home of a commercial broadcast television and radio network, where visitors can watch shows and check broadcast schedules.
- Hilton , the official site of one of the world’s biggest hotel chains, where visitors can book hotels, resorts, and other getaways.
- Deloitte , a site for a professional services firm that provides tax, audit, consulting, and advisory services to many of the world’s leading businesses.
Final Thoughts
Wix’s easy-to-use setup is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. It’s a blessing for those who lack knowledge in website building, but although it offers basic SEO features, it may prove constricting and limiting when attempting to employ more advanced SEO techniques. By using Wix, you give up freedom in exchange for convenience. Alternatively, you can enlist the assistance of an SEO Expert.
3. Squarespace
Another strong contender for the title of the best website builder for SEO is Squarespace.
The Squarespace builder is equipped with a variety of pre-installed SEO tools. These selected features significantly enhance the visibility of your website’s ecommerce store on search engine result pages, resulting in increased traffic and customer acquisition.
Squarespace was the pioneer in integrating with Google Search Console, making it possible for users to access information about their site’s top keywords click rates, impressions, and average positions on the SERPs.
Sophisticated SEO Capabilities
The belief is that if you desire something to be done correctly, you should handle it on your own.
By implementing your own code, Squarespace enables you to fully utilize advanced SEO techniques and technical tools to your heart’s content.
If you are already familiar with SEO best practices, the well-structured backend enables you to easily monitor them using its built-in features.
While Squarespace does provide some built-in SEO support, it is not as comprehensive as Wix. However, if you require assistance with SEO, Squarespace offers its own SEO checklist and a guide to enhance your website’s visibility on search engines.
Social Media Integration
Squarespace excels in social media integration by being compatible with more than 30 diverse social media platforms.
If you have a significant presence on social media that you want to take advantage of, Squarespace can simplify the management of your entire online presence. Having an active presence across multiple channels can greatly benefit your Google ranking, as search engines have a preference for sites that are endorsed by other sites.
Features
- SEO checklist to help you optimize your site using the latest search engine optimization best practices.
- Automatically add SEO page titles and descriptions that you can edit easily.
- Automatic markup of your content and product pages to enhance indexing by search engines.
- Clean page URLs that are easily readable by search engines and people.
- Edit how your page image looks when sharing your content on social media platforms.
- Automatic XML sitemap generation so you don’t go through the hassle of creating one manually.
- Google My Business optimization to help you stand out in local search results.
Who Uses It?
Squarespace has been utilized by diverse blogs, portfolios, online stores, and local businesses.
Final Thoughts
Using Squarespace, especially with a complicated template and limited guidance, can be somewhat challenging.
If you are new to creating a website and want to do it yourself, it would be more beneficial to use a different web builder or hire a developer. Nonetheless, Squarespace provides powerful and advanced SEO tools, as long as you have the knowledge to utilize them.
4. HubSpot
HubSpot is a platform for customer relationship management (CRM) that offers businesses software for various functions including operations, marketing, sales, content management, and customer service.
One of the various products it offers is a website builder with drag-and-drop functionality, enabling users to create websites without any coding or technical expertise.
Drag-and-Drop Functionality
Even though Wix provides excellent templates to initiate your website, even beginners can easily start using HubSpot’s builder due to its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
If you happen to be a visual learner, you will discover that creating and customizing is a breeze.
On the other hand, if you have experience in web building, it is probable that you will feel frustrated.
The HubSpot builder employs a language called HubL, not traditional coding language or templates. You can choose to learn HubL, but if you prefer more familiar territory, this may be seen as a drawback.
Great for Marketers
HubSpot’s content marketing is perhaps its most well-known feature. This is apparent in its website builder, which includes integrated lead management, mobile optimization, and built-in analytics and marketing tools.
Personalization is another aspect in which it excels. By leveraging HubSpot’s exceptional CRM system, you are able to effortlessly provide tailored content to distinct portions of your audience according to their activities and demographics.
Features
HubSpot possesses features that distinguish it from other website builders.
- A/B testing for the pages on your site
- Built-in ad management
- Integrated tips and coaching for SEO best practices
- Built-in customer service integrations
- Ease of moving an existing site (i.e. the HubSpot internal team can help you transfer your site to their builder)
Who Uses It?
HubSpot’s suite of tools and integrations are used by over 143,000 customers worldwide. Some great websites that utilize its builder include:
- Pressboard , a website that prominently features Pressboard’s content creator tools and media monitoring platform.
- The Room , a site for a marketing platform that targets influencers and brands, split into two distinct sections for each audience.
- Synlait Swappa Bottle , a site that highlights a New Zealand milk producer’s new product through interactive graphics.
Final Thoughts
HubSpot is an excellent choice for businesses that prioritize customer relations and require content-focused websites due to its marketing tools and CRM integration.
The drag-and-drop builder is user-friendly for individuals without web design experience, and the HubSpot team is available to offer assistance. Nevertheless, it is one of the pricier builders, and proficient developers may not value its distinct coding language.
5. Shopify
Shopify is an excellent choice for businesses in need of a scalable online store as it offers a fully-customizable website builder that simplifies the process of getting started with an eCommerce platform.
Ideal for Large Stores
Whether you currently oversee numerous products or plan to expand in the future, Shopify’s builder will offer the necessary assistance.
The builder has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, accompanied by video guides that provide step-by-step support for those who require additional assistance.
eCommerce Features
Shopify includes a wide variety of features that are intended to enhance the user experience of customers.
- Thousands of free and paid apps to add to your store
- Shipping and dropshipping options
- Abandoned cart recovery as a standard feature
- Product management tools (including inventory management)
- Multi-channel integration that allows you to sell your products on channels like Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, and more
- Support for various payment options
- Ability to sell digital products
- Automatic tax calculations (using default sales tax rates)
- Point-of-sale for physical transactions (e.g. pop-up stores, fairs, exhibitions, etc.)
SEO Tools
In addition to the conventional SEO tools such as meta titles and descriptions, headers, alt text, custom URLs, mobile compatibility, 301 redirects, SSL certificates, canonical tags, and Google Search Console, Shopify also provides:
- In-house analytics and Google Analytics integration
- Standard blogging tools
- Email marketing tools
- Multilingual site support
Who Uses It?
Among the vast number of eCommerce stores hosted by Shopify worldwide, here are a few that have achieved notable success.
- Fashion Nova , an American fashion store for women that primarily operates online.
- Gymshark , a British fitness apparel and accessories brand.
Final Thoughts
Shopify is highly regarded as a comprehensive eCommerce solution due to its exceptional performance in its field. It possesses a deep understanding of the needs of its users, allowing them to enhance the shopping experience for their clientele.
If you find yourself in a difficult situation, you can rely on Shopify support, which is available round-the-clock, to ensure peace of mind knowing that assistance is readily available.
Shopify relies heavily on apps to enhance its functionality, which can result in higher costs due to expensive transaction fees and paid apps, exceeding your initial expectations.
6. Magento
Magento is available in two versions: a free open-source software called Magento Open Source, and a more expensive, fully-featured eCommerce solution known as Adobe Commerce, which was formerly known as Magento Enterprise.
In both instances, it is a potent web builder that has the capability to assist businesses in constructing an exceptional website.
Open Source vs Adobe Commerce
The following features are included in both versions of Magento:
- Global selling
- Integrated checkout, payment, and shipping
- Mobile-optimized shopping
- Product management
- Instant purchase
- Use of apps to extend site functionality
- Site search for users
- Page builder
In contrast, the Adobe Commerce version offers extra functionalities such as advanced marketing tools and customer segmentation, alongside optimized cloud architecture from Adobe and round-the-clock technical support.
Open Source is primarily appealing because it is free to download and allows for extensive customization. Nevertheless, Adobe Commerce undeniably offers a more robust range of features.
Better for Bigger Businesses
Open Source appears favorable for small businesses due to its low initial expenses, as depicted on paper. Nevertheless, it can pose difficulties for novices when it comes to installation, lacking convenient features like a one-minute signup or a drag-and-drop template. Instead, one is required to personally configure the setup.
When it comes to ensuring accuracy, it is advisable to employ an individual with expertise in development work. Nevertheless, once Magento is installed, it becomes relatively simple and easy to use.
SEO Tools
When used alone, Open Source lacks a comprehensive set of SEO tools. It allows access to basic features such as custom URLs, customizable meta information, and an automatically generated sitemap. However, if you desire more advanced tools, you must rely on apps or consider upgrading to Adobe Commerce.
Who Uses It?
Some of the largest brands using Magento are those that power over 20% of the leading online stores in the U.S. and Canada.
- Coca-Cola Store , the online shopping platform for the world’s beloved soda brand.
- Moschino , the online boutique for luxury Italian fashion house Moschino.
- Jaguar , a website centered around the Jaguar, a renowned athletic sports car and luxury sedan.
- Helly Hansen , an online store for Helly Hansen, which sells skiing, sailing, and other outdoor apparel.
Final Thoughts
If your business is ready to expand and requires a website builder to aid its growth, Magento is a highly potent option that guarantees satisfaction with its impressive capabilities.
If you are a beginner and lack the financial resources or technical skills to manage Magento, it would be more advisable to opt for the alternative website builders mentioned in this list.
