This article we will be comparing different CMS platforms; namely WordPress, Wix and Squarespace.
I know what you may be thinking; what the heck is a CMS platform? A Content Management System (CMS) is a software product that allows you to create, edit and manage content on your website.
We will be comparing how each CMS platform helps improve Search Engine Optimisation (also known as SEO) at no monetary cost. For those of you who are not familiar with SEO, it is the strategy of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through improving your ranking within Google search engine results; your Google ranking being where your business name appears in your Google search results (whether that be the first or fifteenth page).
To help you decide which CMS product you would like to use in future, we will also be also be reviewing the level of customisation and scalability available and how much of a learning curve is involved for WordPress, Wix and Squarespace:
WordPress
Customisation
– Offers more personalisation and more flexible in terms of functionality and aesthetics
– WordPress has thousands of plugins to choose from to improve functionality; many of which are free
SEO
– WordPress is the best CMS out there for SEO
– Opportunities to improve SEO in a standard WordPress website are limited, but the beauty of WordPress is that it has some super powerful free plugins that will really step up your SEO efforts and will give you a competitive edge over other CMS products
Scalability
– WordPress is fairly flexible; it can be used as a simple blogging website or it can be scaled to deliver a sophisticated look and functionality for a global brand.
Learning curve
– WordPress involves a greater learning curve in terms of learning how to use the product compared to other products.
Wix
Customisation
In Wix, you are limited to the enhancements that Wix deems necessary, and you are forced to pay whatever price they set if you want it on your website
SEO
– Wix doesn’t have a great reputation for SEO; Google search engine bots have issues crawling it which can impact your SEO.
Scalability
– Simple websites with beautiful design templates you can choose from. However, past that point, if you want to scale your website, it is not so easy
– Most developers will not touch a Wix websites because Wix does allow them to access the raw code; which allows them to make their client’s requested changes.
– Wix has a limited set of additional features. This can be frustrating if you build a site and later down the road you want to scale and add extra functionality. Wix doesn’t support that level of functionality.
Learning curve
Easy to use
Squarespace
Customisation
– Squarespace is not created for those who want to customise or play too much with the design: it is a platform which, generally, pushes you to choose a website template, put in text and images and then press ‘publish’.
– If you want a greater level of customisation, you’re hit with extra monthly fees for any additional Squarespace features you want to get
– If you don’t want to pay these fees for extra customisation, then you’ll have to rely on your own or a developer’s extensive knowledge of coding languages.
SEO
– In terms SEO, you can’t do much here except write search metadata for the home page to help improve your Google search ranking. All other pages have their metadata auto-generated, which isn’t great.
Scalability
– There’s really not much you can do to scale your website in terms of design and content. If you want to upgrade to marketing features e.g. Mailchimp, Facebook Pixel you will have to upgrade to their marketing plan.
– In terms of ecommerce, each Squarespace plan has a restriction on how many products you can sell, and that makes it much more expensive than selling products on WordPress
– You are limited to plugins and features that are built in. Squarespace works if you want a simple website with beautiful design but there is not a lot of opportunity for scalability if you want to increase the size your website
– Squarespace can’t make secure membership websites
Learning Curve
Easy to use
Why WordPress wins?
WordPress is the actually the most widely used CMS platform with 75 million websites under its belt. Squarespace and Wix only have respectively, 1m and 1.2m websites.
Why?
When comparing the WordPress against its competitors, it wins in terms of Customisation, Features, Scalability and SEO.
Customisation, Features and Scalability
With a greater customisation and scalability, we can make your website look exactly the way you want it to. WordPress have 44k free plugins available; most of these plugins are free, can help your website function the way you want and make it look the way you want. Squarespace and Wix respectively have limited plugins available and if you want additional functionality and to scale up, then you will need to pay for these or pay for a developer to make the changes you want.
SEO
SEO is like gold dust to your website. To make your website appear higher up on Google Search results, you either have to pay for ads or implement organic (free) SEO tools that will improve your Google Search ranking. Paid advertisements are quick, short term ways of improving your SEO. However, organically improving your SEO reach is a more effective strategy that will yield greater long-term results and returns. Opportunities to improve your organic SEO reach are very limited on Squarespace and Wix, but on WordPress there are ample opportunities to improve organic SEO reach. Even better, there are numerous other opportunities to take your SEO to the next level through the use of plugins.
Don’t know where to start with SEO on your new WordPress site? At Crunchy Carrots, we offer a SEO consulting service which allows you create a personalised organic SEO strategy that will deliver optimum results. Contact us to learn more.
Sounds great – any downsides?
Every product has some downsides; the downside of WordPress being is that it requires a bit more of a learning curve than its competitors. However, that’s what we are here for at Crunchy Carrots. We can provide guidance whenever needed and if you are still not very confident, then we can provide WordPress training so you can make your own adjustments to your website with ease. Contact us to find out what WordPress training and guidance we can offer you.
Ultimately the benefits of the WordPress platform blow its competitors out water and the benefits far outweigh any downsides.
Now more than ever, brands need an online presence to be seen and heard in an increasingly digital world. At Crunchy Carrots, we offer personalised websites on, you guessed it, the best CMS platform out there: WordPress.
Not only do our services include web design and development but we can extend your online impact through our logo design services and our photography and videography services.
Further reading on topics areas explored in this article
What is SEO?
Search engine bots
Article link about Meta-data
