Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for attracting the traffic that your website content deserves. However, the tools you use to build your site can work against you. That’s why it’s important to choose the best website builder for SEO.
Fortunately, there is a wide range of options to choose from, including builders designed with search engines in mind. If you choose the right platform, you should have no problems making your SEO plans a reality and creating a website that ranks highly.
To help you find the best solution for you, we’ve assessed five of the most popular website builders and examined some of their search engine-friendly features. In this post, we’ll explain the important factors to consider, and then break down each of the top options. Let’s get started!
What to look for in a website builder for SEO
When choosing a website builder, there are many factors to consider. Ideally, it should be easy to use and provide features that are tailored to your specific industry. For example, web designers may require different functionalities than eCommerce store owners.
However, regardless of your niche, it’s likely that you’ll want people to be able to find your site easily. It’s no exaggeration to say that SEO is vital to your site’s success. More than 53% of all traffic[1] comes from organic search. In fact, climbing just one place in Google’s results can increase your click-through rates (CTRs) by over 53%[2]. Therefore, if you’re not investing in SEO, you’re missing out on traffic.
Many website builders enable you to perform SEO-related tasks directly from their dashboards or page editors. For example, most will let you easily change page titles to include relevant keywords, and select mobile-friendly templates optimized for searches. This kind of functionality lets you work faster, and ultimately spend more time on other critical areas of your business.
Others also offer actionable suggestions, which can be particularly useful if you’re new to SEO. Builders that include SEO prompts and keyword support give you a solid launching point for optimizing your site for search engines.
On the other hand, if you’re well-practiced at building websites, you may prefer a platform that supports more complex optimizations, such as injecting your own custom code. By favoring a more feature-rich solution, you’ll be in a strong position to leverage the full extent of your SEO expertise.
Of course, you’ll also likely want to consider pricing. Fortunately, most website builders offer a range of plans that make it easy to find the best one for your budget and needs.
The best website builders for SEO IN A NUTSHELL
Already know what you need? Check out how the best website builders compare:
| Customizable Meta Titles | Image Alt Attributes | SEO Prompts | Keyword Support | Starting Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $14/mo |
| Squarespace | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $16.00/mo |
| Weebly | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $6/mo (billed annually) |
| DreamHost WP Website Builder | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | $2.59/mo |
| WordPress.com | ✅ (via Jetpack) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | $4/mo |
The best website builders for SEO IN DETAIL
Now that we’ve covered what to look for in a website builder, let’s explore five SEO-friendly options. Here are the solutions we’ll feature:
1. Wix
The Wix website builder makes it easy to optimize your site for search engines, even if you’re new to the world of SEO. This builder provides a complete set of tools built directly into the Wix dashboard. You can use these tools to optimize every part of your on-page SEO, from meta and canonical tags to URL slugs:
⚙️ Features:
- Full support for image alt attributes
- An SEO Wiz tool that provides actionable advice
- Automatic image optimization
- Auto-generated SEO-friendly meta tags for all of your site’s pages
- A flexible URL redirect manager
- Built-in XML sitemap that you can submit to search engines
Wix promises to help you fine-tune your SEO with minimal effort, thanks to its various time-saving features. This includes instant Google indexing, and patterned meta tags that you can deploy across multiple pages.
💵 Pricing:
Wix has a limited free plan with Wix branding. However, you’ll want at least the Site Booster app for SEO, which is only available on the $14 per month Unlimited plan and up.
👉 Check out our complete guide to making a website with Wix.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace’s dashboard provides more fine-grained control over your site’s SEO. Although the platform offers the occasional prompt along the way, this website builder is better suited to those who are familiar with SEO fundamentals:
You can even implement more advanced SEO techniques by injecting your own code. While this does put some advanced techniques at your fingertips, it also requires a certain degree of technical knowledge.
⚙️ Features:
- User-friendly configuration boxes where you can specify all of the key SEO elements, including meta titles and descriptions
- Integration with over 30 social media platforms
- SSL certificates
- Support for Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
- Built-in XML sitemaps
If you’re comfortable with writing code and implementing more complex SEO techniques, Squarespace can be a powerful tool. However, beginners may struggle to master some of its more sophisticated features.
💵 Pricing:
Subscriptions range from $16.00 to $49 per month. A 14-day free trial is also available.
👉 Check out our complete guide to making a website with Squarespace.
3. Weebly
Weebly makes search engine success simple, by building all of its essential SEO features directly into the page editor. This includes setting the image alt text, meta titles, and descriptions:
⚙️ Features:
- A permalink editor to control your site’s URL slugs
- An SEO Settings menu for every page and post
- An App Center with almost 50 SEO-focused plugins (including the RabbitSEO app, which enables you to perform SEO espionage on your competitors)
- Built-in XML sitemap
- Helpful checklists and guides
Web analytics are important for understanding your site’s traffic. Armed with this information, you can continuously refine your SEO strategy. Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two of the most popular traffic analysis tools. With Weebly, integrating with these important solutions is as simple as entering your tracking ID.
💵 Pricing:
Costs range from $6 to $26 when billed annually. A free plan is also available. However, it’s extremely limiting. For example, you won’t be able to connect a custom domain.
4. DreamHost WP Website Builder
DreamHost offers a drag-and-drop website builder to all its WordPress customers. This tool will guide you through the process of setting up a WordPress website, making it a great choice if you want to build a site using WordPress.
When it comes to SEO, WP Website Builder provides on-page tips in real-time. The feature enables you to optimize your content as you’re writing it. DreamHost plans also come with many performance-boosting tools. Since Google has confirmed that it uses speed as a ranking factor, these features can further enhance your SEO.
⚙️ Features:
- Free SSL certificate
- Mobile optimization
- Built-in caching
- Jetpack Professional bundled with some plans
You can also add the DreamHost SEO Toolkit to your hosting plan for $4.99 per month. This comes with 100 automated checks and verifications. It also provides a personalized SEO plan and checklist:
💵 Pricing:
Subscriptions start at $2.59 to $16.95 per month. DreamHost also offers a money-back guarantee (97 days for shared hosting and 30 days for DreamPress plans).
5. WordPress.com
As one of the best-known website builders in the world, WordPress.com makes it easy to create and publish a professional-looking and high-performing site. When writing your posts, you can use the Jetpack plugin to set up your own custom SEO titles, descriptions, categories, and tags:
⚙️ Features:
- Auto-generated sitemaps for your WordPress site
- A Publicize feature to help share your content on social media
- Customizable templates for SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Ability to optimize your permalink structure (available on WordPress.com’s Business and eCommerce plans only)
- Option to install your own WordPress SEO plugin
You can also optimize your images for search engines by providing descriptive image alt text. While some website builders may require you to provide your own SSL certificate, it’s worth noting that WordPress.com generates this important security certificate automatically.
💵 Pricing:
While WordPress.com does offer free plans, you’ll need the paid Business or eCommerce plans to access the platform’s SEO tools. These plans start at $30 per month.
⚠️ Note – WordPress.com is not the same as self-hosted WordPress – you can learn about the differences here.
Choosing the best website builder for SEO
The right website builder can improve your search engine rankings. However, with so many options to choose from, finding the one for you can feel overwhelming.
To help ensure that your builder is helping rather than hurting your SEO, we’d suggest checking out these five popular solutions:
| Customizable Meta Titles | Image Alt Attributes | SEO Prompts | Keyword Support | Starting Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $14/mo |
| Squarespace | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $16.00/mo |
| Weebly | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | $6/mo (billed annually) |
| DreamHost WP Website Builder | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | $2.59/mo |
| WordPress.com | ✅ (via Jetpack) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | $4/mo |
If you’re eager to learn the fundamentals of effective SEO, platforms such as Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.com emphasize ease of use. If you opt for WordPress.com in particular, you always have the option to migrate your content to WordPress.org. This will unlock some more advanced SEO options, including dedicated plugins such as Yoast SEO.
For more experienced users, Squarespace gives you greater control over your SEO. However, it helps if you already have some degree of technical knowledge – or you’re eager to learn!
Do you have any questions about picking the best website builder for SEO? Ask us in the comments section below!
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