Many website developers are familiar with the switch from Wix to WordPress, and there is plenty of information about that online. But the other way around? There's not much written about it. Is there a reason for that?
As Mindd Agency, we typically build websites and platforms from scratch or use WordPress for simpler websites. That's why I also decided to have our blog, becomedamngood.com, built by our team in WordPress. This site is more a showcase of my coaching activities as co-founder of Mindd rather than a formal part of our business. A side project, and as an entrepreneur, you know how much attention that gets from your team. 🙂
I regularly write articles on this blog, including about SEO and platforms like WordPress, but I had so far ignored Wix. During the research and writing about Wix, I noticed the platform had greatly improved. I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism of Wix.
What really excited me was that I suddenly had all sorts of ‘cool features & functions’ at my disposal that I could set up myself without the help of our designers and developers.
I'm no novice, but without in-depth programming knowledge, I could adjust the interface and functionalities exactly how I wanted. Then I thought: why not test by moving becomedamngood.com from WordPress to Wix? But was that wise in hindsight?
In this article, I share my personal experience with switching from WordPress to Wix. I discuss the benefits, the challenges I encountered, and the significant impact on SEO (search engine optimization) and organic traffic.
Why Switch from WordPress to Wix?
So why did I decide to move our blog, becomedamngood.com, from WordPress to Wix? The answer is simple: I wanted to see if I could achieve the same quality and functionality without graphic and technical support, and Become Damn Good was due for an update after 9 months. Moreover, Wix offered various integrations and automations that would make my work a lot easier without depending on our team. I got an extra hobby, and they had more time for our Mindd clients. :)
The Positive First Impression of Wix
During my first encounter with Wix, I immediately noticed how professional and versatile the platform had become. Where I was once skeptical, I now saw a platform ready to be taken seriously and also taking SEO seriously, which was not the case before. I started building a new site exactly how I wanted it.
Choosing a template and customizing the design went smoothly, and the back-end interface compared to WordPress was like a Formula-1 car. What a pleasure to work with! Within a few days, Wix had no more secrets for me, and I could work independently.
Cool Features and Ease of Use of Wix
What made me so enthusiastic were the numerous cool features Wix offered. Here are some examples I didn't have in the previous WordPress site:
Easily Beautiful Responsive Page Designs: Without any technical knowledge, I could design beautiful responsive pages that looked much better than my old WordPress pages. (Sorry Design-Partner Jochem, you can still design cooler, but nice that I can approximate it myself in my evening hours)
Signup Pop-ups and Live Chat: These features were easy to integrate and made my site immediately more interactive. I even get notifications about who is on which page and can proactively send an online chat message.
Payment Modules and Discounts: Setting up a payment module per offer and offering volume discounts went smoothly. For example, if you book 5 hours of leadership coaching, it's cheaper than booking an hour each time. Amazing!
Automated Email Capabilities: I could create and set up automated emails for before, during, and after a consultation. Even the invoicing is automatic, and creating an email or invoice layout is extremely simple.
Automatic Booking Calendar: This could be linked to my personal calendar, saving a lot of time.
Integrations with Other Platforms: Wix offered numerous integration options such as with Amazon, making the site much more visible.
AI Image Integration: This feature allowed me to easily create, add and edit images.
Loyalty Programs and Gift Certificates: A feature I always wanted. You can even manually send a discount code via chat when a new visitor is on your site.
Create Online Courses: Including options for one-time payments or subscriptions. Although not as well-designed, it is certainly an alternative to platforms like Udemy and other platforms and costs nothing extra.
Conduct Online Webinars: Both paid and unpaid webinars are possible, which is a great way to share your expertise.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wix is fully focused on visibility, sales, and customer engagement, making the platform incredibly attractive for startups or sites like becomedamngood.com. I haven't even mentioned the possibilities of sharing blog posts on social media.
Migration Process from WordPress to Wix Can Be Very Challenging
Despite my enthusiasm and the many advantages Wix offered, the real challenge began after the switch. In practice, migrating my content from WordPress to Wix turned out to be much more complicated than expected. The problems I encountered led to a real love-hate relationship with the platform, and that relationship still exists.
The First Major Challenges with Wix
The first major challenge was importing my existing content. Although Wix has an import function for WordPress content, it certainly does not work flawlessly. Here are some of the biggest problems I encountered:
Article Import Failed: The import function did not work well for my multilingual articles. I had to choose between Dutch or English, which was an extra difficult choice. At that time, there were about 450 Dutch and English articles.
Manual Content Formatting: All headers (H1, H2, H3), tables, and lists had to be manually reformatted. This took an enormous amount of time.
Images Not in Articles: Although the images were imported to the Wix site, they were not placed in the articles themselves. This had to be manually corrected.
Slugs and Internal Links: The slugs could not be imported, so all internal links had to be manually recreated. On average, that was four per article, which comes down to more than 1350 internal links manually adding. Wix does not yet have an internal link plugin like Yoast.
Meta Titles and Descriptions: These were not imported, meaning I had to manually re-enter all meta titles and descriptions.
Slugs Not Translated: Once bilingual, the interface translation goes smoothly, but you have to manually translate the slug per article. If you don't do this, forget about any search engine taking an interest in what you have to say.
Further Challenges and Adjustments in the WIX Integration
In addition to the initial problems, there were other challenges that emerged during the migration and use of Wix:
Dutch Translations: I chose to import my English articles, so the Dutch translations had to be manually added, which took a lot of extra time and effort.
SEO Problems with Categories: Wix did not allow categories to be displayed in the slugs, which was very detrimental to the SEO strategy of Become Damn Good.
Site Speed: After the migration, the speed of the site dropped drastically, both on mobile and desktop. We were fortunately able to solve this problem with the WebSite Speedy plugin. The site speed dropped to 24 on mobile and 64 on desktop.
Plugins Not Multilingual: Many plugins are not multi-language, which is a significant barrier. For this, you need to use an app like Weglot. But apart from the considerable - actually absurd - monthly costs, that tool doesn't work at all! It's so worthless. It's also bad that you can't translate everything in Wix.
All in all, I hoped that with all our hard work, the search engines would not be too alarmed, but unfortunately, the opposite was true. Organic traffic dropped by 70% within six days after going live, and that was painful!
How We Tackled and Solved Wix Migration Problems
After the many challenges we encountered during the migration from WordPress to Wix, we had to be creative and resourceful to find solutions. Here are some of the main adjustments and solutions we implemented:
Manual Content Transfer: Because the import function did not work properly, we chose to manually transfer a lot of content. This was very time-consuming but ensured that all articles were correctly transferred.
SEO Optimization: Despite the limitations of Wix regarding slugs, we adapted our SEO strategy by carefully revising the internal link structure and manually entering meta titles and descriptions. This was essential to improve our visibility in search engines.
Use of Plugins: To optimize the site's speed, we used the WebSite Speedy plugin. This helped improve the loading time of both the mobile and desktop versions of the site, which is crucial for the user experience.
Redirects: Because the English articles contained a lot of internal links that no longer worked, we had to work with many redirects. That was less work than recreating all internal links, but still a lot of work.
Will I Continue to Use Wix in the Future?
Despite the many setbacks and the huge loss of traffic, I am still very enthusiastic about Wix. The fact that you can create a complete site that looks fantastic and works within two to three days is impressive. Especially for starting blogs or budding entrepreneurs, this is a great option. Where a simple responsive WordPress site can easily cost thousands of euros and take 1 to 2 weeks in terms of design and technology, you can start within a few days for a fraction of those costs. For beginners, this is really a plus. However, for more serious sites or platforms, it is not an option.
Will I eventually return to WordPress or have something built for Become Damn Good? I think so, but I'm not sure yet. It all depends on what upgrades Wix has in store. Until then, I will continue to follow and use Wix's capabilities with great interest.
Do I advise WordPress users to take the same route if you are already getting or have a lot of traffic? In principle, no, unless you have a team of developers around you. But we ourselves will now continue to use Wix for new small clients who quickly need something to generate sales or position themselves, because Wix is a great platform for that.
A Brief Comparison Between Wix and WordPress
Choosing the right platform for your website can be challenging, especially when deciding between popular options like Wix and WordPress. Both have unique advantages and are suited for different types of users and purposes. Here is a brief comparison to help you determine which platform best meets your needs.
Feature | Wix | WordPress |
Ease of Use | Extremely easy to use with beautiful, design-focused templates. | Requires more technical knowledge, but offers extensive control and customization. |
Development Time | Very short; templates can be customized by a novice. | Longer; often requires a designer and developer to customize templates. |
Ideal For | Startups, bloggers, or small businesses needing a quick and attractive online presence. | Users needing advanced features, full control over SEO, and extensive customization. |
SEO Tools | Basic tools available; Yoast does not work within Wix. | Advanced tools available; Yoast SEO plugin is highly effective and widely used. |
Template Variety | A good selection of visually appealing templates. | Extensive variety, but may require professional help to adjust. |
Backend Control | Limited control over backend; designed for ease of use. | Full control over backend, beneficial for advanced customizations and SEO optimization. |
Cost | Monthly subscription based on plan; includes hosting and support. | Costs can vary; often includes hosting, themes, plugins, and potential developer fees. |
Plugins and Integrations | Fewer plugins compared to WordPress, but sufficient for basic needs. | Vast number of plugins available, offering extensive functionalities and customizations. |
Hosting | Built-in with all plans. | Requires separate hosting, offering flexibility but adding extra costs. |
Support | 24/7 customer service via phone, email, and chat. | Dependent on hosting provider; often limited to forums and documentation. |
E-commerce | Built-in e-commerce features, easy to set up. | Extensive e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce available. |
Updates and Maintenance | Automatic, without user intervention. | Requires manual updates and maintenance by the user. |
Security | Fully managed by Wix. | Dependent on user and hosting provider; often requires additional security plugins. |
Customization | Limited by the templates and tools Wix offers. | Unlimited customization with access to the code. |
Learning and Support | Plenty of tutorials and customer support available. | Large community with extensive tutorials, forums, and documentation. |
Mobile Optimization | Automatic mobile optimization for all templates. | Often requires additional adjustments or plugins for optimal mobile display. |
App Integration | Limited to the Wix App Market. | Huge amount of integrations via plugins and external services. |
User Permissions | Limited number of admins with specific rights. | Detailed user permissions and roles for multiple administrators. |
Multilingual Websites | Supports multiple languages but with limitations. | Extensive support for multilingual websites with plugins like WPML. |
Blog Functionality | Built-in blog functionality, easy to use. | Very extensive blog functionality with many customization options. |
Overall, the choice between Wix and WordPress depends on your specific needs and technical skills. Wix offers a fast and easy platform for those who want to go online quickly with a beautiful design, while WordPress provides more flexibility and control for users who need advanced functionalities and extensive SEO optimization.
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