site builder seo tools

Website builder SEO tools are a great way to make sure that your site is optimized for search engines.

The first step in building a new website is choosing the right platform. There are many different options, but they all have their advantages and disadvantages. The best tool for you will depend on your needs and budget.

Once you’ve decided on a platform, it’s time to get started! You’ll need to choose a name for your site, add some content, and make sure it’s easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.

site builder seo tools

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. View full pricing here.

👉 Check out our complete guide to making a website with Wix.Get started 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 $14.00 to $49 per month. A 14-day free trial is also available.

👉 Check out our complete guide to making a website with Squarespace.Get started 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.Get started with Weebly

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).Get started with Dreamhost WP Website Builder

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 XML sitemaps
• 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.Get started with WordPress.com

#1. Wix

Perfect for absolute SEO beginners

Starting at $14.00/month

Editor’s Choice

site builder seo tools free

Wix

Perfect for absolute SEO beginnersOUTSTANDING

4.8out of 5

• Basic SEO tools built-in
• Easy-to-use editor
• Step-by-step guides

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $14 – $56 / monthSEE PROS & CONS

Ease of Use

A complaint sometimes levelled against website builders is that they’re great for creating websites, but not for strengthening your SEO. There used to be some truth to this, but not anymore. Wix has improved its SEO game over the last few years, to the point where it’s actually a market leader.

SEO is a long-term game, and you need platforms that can help you keep on top of it. Wix is one of the best SEO website builders for those still learning the ropes. Its SEO Wiz walks users through the essentials step by step, suggests improvements, and even sets goals for you. It’s no wonder that Wix came first place in our ease of use testing, with a top score of 4.4 out of 5.

No coding is required with Wix. From meta titles to 301 redirects, SEO is built right into the Wix dashboard. Every page has dedicated SEO settings, and every image you upload has an input for alt text – which is how search engines understand images.

Features

Wix excelled in the website features area of our research. It scored an all-time record 4.9 out of 5 in this category, thanks to its comprehensive set of tools.

One of Wix’s standout features is the strength of its Google integration. Web analytics tools are essential for understanding your site’s traffic, and Google is the gold standard. Connecting Google Analytics and Google Search Console to Wix sites is simply a case of entering your tracking ID.

SEO is actually much more straightforward than it seems sometimes. Wix makes your site’s SEO upkeep easy, and it will let you know when you’re falling short.

Wix has implemented a bunch of SEO features in the last few years, and the Help Center is as comprehensive as you’re likely to find anywhere. Even if you don’t use Wix, its SEO guide is well worth a browse.

The tradeoff with Wix’s ease of use and in-house functionality is that it falters when it comes to more advanced SEO methods. Structured data (which gives search engines additional, highly relevant information about your site) is becoming increasingly important in SEO. Adding structured data to Wix has to be done manually – meaning with code. Of course, there are tools out there to help you create your markup, as well as information in Wix’s SEO guide, but it’s still not the most beginner-friendly process.

This is a minor gripe, but one worth being clear about. The learned SEO students among you may find Wix stifling after a while. That’s the game with website builders, though: the price of convenience is control.

Site speed is another factor that’s becoming increasingly important in SEO. When we carried out our testing and analysis, Wix’s Google performance score came out at 87 (out of 100). Although this is the highest out of all the builders in this list, Google would still class it as “Needs Improvement,” with 90 out of 100 marking the beginning of “Good.” Its server response time is also a little disappointing, taking around 0.9 seconds to deliver a response. To put that into context, GoDaddy only took 0.3 seconds and Squarespace 0.5 seconds. Google usually recommends aiming for less than 600 milliseconds.

For the most part though, Wix does well in the SEO world. It understands that its users aren’t techies, and manages to strike a superb balance between usability and control. Not only does its builder make SEO simple, it also teaches the basics whenever you’re unsure what something means. If you want a comprehensive, supportive SEO experience, Wix is a prime option.

Wix Gallery

 Click the image below to expandWix SEO Wiz will design you an effective SEO plan based on a few questions about your site.Wix will provide you with a customized SEO checklist, to make sure you don’t miss anything.Wix’s SEO documentation is clear, thorough, and easy to navigate. It’s a valuable resource, even if you don’t wind up using the Wix website builder.Wix makes it simple to optimize your site for mobile, which is key for SEO.

Ready for a Beginner-Friendly SEO Experience?

Wix is extremely easy to use, making it ideal for beginners who are new to SEO but still want effective results.Get Started With Wix

#2. Squarespace

Great choice for those more confident with SEO

Starting at $12.00/month

Squarespace

best for boosting your site’s SEO with in-built featuresEXCELLENT

4.7out of 5

• Hands-on control
• More advanced tools
• Better for intermediates

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $12 – $46 / monthSEE PROS & CONS

Ease of Use

Squarespace is the tall, dark, and handsome enigma of the website builder world (or it likes to think so, anyway). Its SEO features are sophisticated and well integrated – but don’t expect to have your hand held like you would with Wix. That’s not to say that Squarespace doesn’t offer any support at all, but it’s not built into the website editor in the same way as Wix. This means that if you’re a beginner, you might just have to do a little bit of hunting before you find the information you’re looking for.

Squarespace has a highly organized, almost CMS-like backend. This makes it easy to stay on top of SEO, provided you’re already familiar with best practices. The dashboard still offers the odd prompt or explanation, just not in quite the same guided tour way as its peers. If you do need some help though, Squarespace has produced an SEO checklist and a guide to improving your site’s search engine visibility, both of which contain a really thorough breakdown of everything SEO. If you’re a beginner, you certainly won’t be left to do it all on your own, but compared to Wix, it’s a more casual, controllable experience.

Features

Compared to Wix, the majority of Squarespace’s features are already built into the backend – including a generous suite of SEO tools. There’s less emphasis on apps and plugins, making this builder ideal if you want to keep everything centralized.

So, what does Squarespace specifically offer in the SEO department? Meta titles and alt text aren’t the only factors to consider (though they are important). Your site also needs links! Squarespace’s social media integration is second to none, and a vibrant, multichannel online presence can do wonders for SEO. After all, search engines trust sites that other sites trust.

Squarespace has grown with the times and now automatically generates structured data for your pages. This means you won’t have to fiddle around with code or add it all yourself like you would with Wix. It also offers keyword support, allowing you to check the “Search Keywords” panel to see which search terms are driving the most traffic. Both of these features boost Squarespace’s beginner-friendliness, and allow you to have a greater knowledge of what your SEO is doing and how it’s working to boost the visibility of your website.

One drawback of Squarespace is that it can be a bit fiddly depending on the template you’re using. It can be tricky to know where to enter alt text, because some templates only give you the option to add a caption. The caption actually functions as your alt text, but that isn’t immediately clear.

Additionally, in our site speed analysis, we found that Squarespace isn’t the fastest of the builders. This is because its templates are all very image-centered, meaning that each one is pretty heavy. Still, Squarespace did perform well in terms of server response time, beating Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.com with a response time of 0.5 seconds – which comes in very neatly underneath Google’s recommended target of 0.6 seconds!

On the whole, Squarespace is an excellent option for SEO. If you want a builder that will teach you the basics of SEO, Wix fits the bill better than Squarespace does. But Squarespace has always carried itself as a more sophisticated website builder, and its SEO tools reflect this. If that sounds like your vibe, give the free trial a spin to see if it’s meant to be.

Squarespace Gallery

 Click the image below to expandSquarespace’s editor is structured and clean.Squarespace’s SEO capabilities are a little more advanced, but you’ll still get some tips along the way.Some SEO tasks, like customizing your URLs, are pretty straightforward.

Want to Put Your SEO Knowledge to Good Use?

Squarespace has great SEO tools for those who want more control over their website.Get Started With Squarespace

#3. WordPress.com

Great for those who want a hands-on experience

Starting at $4.00/month

WordPress.com

Great for those who want a hands-on experienceGOOD

3.5out of 5

• Features depend on plan
• SEO lacks on basic plan
• Steep learning curve

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $4 – $45 / monthSEE PROS & CONS

Ease of Use

Let’s start with the great news: WordPress.com takes care of 80-90% of basic SEO mechanics for you. WordPress themes are designed to appeal to search engines – in fact, much of the HTML is actually formatted with search engine crawlers in mind. But if you want to be more involved in your site’s SEO, then you have a few options.  

Features

WordPress offers four different pricing plans, and the amount of SEO features you’ll get depends on the plan you choose. The Free and Personal plans, at $0.00 and $4.00/month respectively, offer only the basics when it comes to SEO. That’s enough for personal websites, but if you’re looking to scale, you’ll want either the Premium ($8.00/month) or the Business ($25.00/month) plan.

You’ll get Google Analytics integration on the Premium plan, but advanced SEO tools don’t come into the mix until you upgrade to the Business plan. If you do choose to upgrade, you’ll have access to your site’s:

• Front page meta description: edit the general summary of your site that viewers will see in Google results
• Custom post meta description: edit the meta description of individual pages
• Custom title formats: customize how your site’s content titles appear on the SERPs
• Search and social previews: see how your site will look on search engines and social media before you publish it

On top of this, you’ll also be able to install more advanced SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO, which will help you take things to the next level.

Previously, WordPress.com ranked last in our top five best builders for SEO. However, things have changed since we carried out our site speed test as part of our SEO analysis. Site speed is key to SEO, because search engines like websites that load quickly. WordPress.com performs better in this area than Weebly and Squarespace, with a Google performance score of 76, making it worthy of third place. However, its server response time could still do with improving. It took 1.3 seconds for anything to start happening, putting WordPress.com in second place behind Weebly.

If you know your SEO, and want to be very involved in the process, then WordPress.com is a great choice. That being said, you will sacrifice some ease of use in order to get that hands-on experience – WordPress isn’t as intuitive as builders like Wix.

WordPress.com Gallery

 Click the image below to expandYou’ll be asked what features you need when setting up your WordPress site……But you’ll only get SEO tools on the $25/month Business plan and above.Still, WordPress offers plenty of themes that were coded with search engine crawlers in mind.

Ready to Take Charge of Your SEO?

If you want to have plenty of control over your website’s SEO, then WordPress’s hands-on approach will be a perfect fit.Get Started With WordPress.com

More information:

• WordPress.com Review – Our full overview of the WordPress.com platform

#4. Weebly

Has dozens of high quality, helpful SEO apps

Starting at $6.00/month

Weebly

Has dozens of high quality, helpful SEO appsEXCELLENT

4out of 5

• Many SEO apps available
• Basics mostly built-in
• Plans are cheap

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $6 – $29 / monthSEE PROS & CONS

Although Weebly’s website editor may no longer be as simple as it once was, this builder has thankfully kept its SEO processes easy and straightforward. Everything from meta descriptions to web analytics is baked into the platform. Like Wix and Squarespace, Weebly keeps all the essentials in-house.

Meta titles and descriptions, custom URLs, and alt text are all part of the page editor. Integrating Google Analytics and Search Console is as simple as inputting your tracking ID.

However, we did find Weebly’s mobile optimization lacking. Although using the mobile editor is as quick and easy as clicking a button, the effects aren’t so impressive. In fact, many users have complained that as soon as they view their websites on a mobile device, all of their formatting goes out the window. This is a big oversight on Weebly’s part, as mobile optimization is an important part of SEO.

Features

Weebly’s plugin library is very strong, and there are dozens of SEO-focused plugins in its App Center. Options like Site Booster (which helps your site appear on Google Maps, among other things) prove that it’s worth having a browse. All in all, Weebly’s SEO is thorough and easy to use.

In an odd omission, Weebly doesn’t currently allow you to customize alt text on product images. Regular image? Go nuts – but you’re out of luck if you’re trying to sell stuff. We’d be surprised if this was the case for much longer, but it’s a caveat to keep in mind if selling online is central to your plans.

Site speed is another area where we found Weebly to be slightly lacking. It achieved a performance score of 72, matching Squarespace. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that Squarespace sites are often heavy because they have so many images. This isn’t the case with Weebly, but its server response time was still the slowest of the five – it took 1.4 seconds to load.

These things aside, Weebly seems to cover most of the vitals when it comes to SEO tools. It also helps keep things simple for beginners. When we tested it, we found that Weebly was one of the only website builders that made it easy to set up 301 redirects, something that can be quite intimidating for SEO novices. From page titles to custom product URLs, Weebly provides a good selection of SEO tools.

Weebly Gallery

 Click the image below to expandEdit your titles and page descriptions in a few simple clicks.A lot of Weebly’s SEO functionality is available through its App Center.Add alt text using the ‘Advanced’ tab when you upload a new image.

Ready to Take Your Pick of the Best SEO Apps?

We love Weebly’s large app store, which has plenty of tools to help you optimize your site.Get Started With Weebly

More Information:

• Weebly Review – Our full overview of the Weebly website builder

#5. GoDaddy

Great for those who want outside help with SEO

Starting at $9.99/month

GoDaddy

Great for those who want outside help with SEOGOOD

4.4out of 5

• Poor SEO on Basic plan
• Great SEO on other plans
• Good value for money

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $9.99 – $19.99 / monthSEE PROS & CON

Ease of Use

Ease of use is one of GoDaddy’s strengths. This builder scored 4.1 out of 5 in our most recent round of testing for this category. And it’s not just the website editor that keeps things simple – GoDaddy has the same attitude towards SEO, too. In fact, GoDaddy is an awesome option for SEO newbies who are looking for a website builder with Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI).

With ADI, the platform creates your website for you based on your answers to a few questions. It’s a similar process with SEO. Like Wix, GoDaddy walks you through its SEO tools, and it only takes a few minutes!

Features

Unfortunately, GoDaddy’s SEO features are practically nonexistent on its cheapest Basic plan ($9.99/month). That being said, if you upgrade to the next tier (the $14.99/month Standard plan), you’ll see a huge increase in SEO capabilities, including targeted keyword suggestions from GoDaddy’s team. If you upgrade even further, you’ll also have access to its “SEO Wizard” tool, which provides you with targeted keyword suggestions to help optimize your pages.  

You can then track your search ranking over time to see how GoDaddy’s keyword suggestions (or your own SEO brilliance) have improved your rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages). You can view your site’s progress at any time via your account dashboard.

All of GoDaddy’s plans include GoDaddy Insights, a smart learning tool that analyzes your site and gives you a tailored action plan to help you grow your online presence and measure your site’s performance.

If you want to take your optimization efforts a step further, GoDaddy’s SEO services team gives free consultations over the phone, where they’ll ask about your business/blogging goals and your budget.

GoDaddy’s SEO Services option costs $6.99/month, and you’re essentially paying for the SEO team to conduct a site audit and research your target market. Based on that info, the team will “regularly make SEO updates to boost your website in search results.” The major plus here is that there’s very little work to be done on your part – the GoDaddy team will fully take the reins. 

We’ll be honest – $6.99/month isn’t very cheap for the kind of work that GoDaddy’s SEO team performs. But if you do decide to spring for this service, it will yield a ton of SEO benefits – after choosing a recommended plan and allowing on-site optimization, 80% of GoDaddy clients saw first-page results for their targeted keywords within six months.

In terms of site speed, GoDaddy is second only to Wix, scoring 83 in our performance testing. Its server response time is excellent, too – it only takes 0.3 seconds to load.

GoDaddy Gallery

 Click the image below to expandYou can make basic SEO changes using the settings menu in the editor.GoDaddy will guide you through the SEO optimization process.During the optimization process, you can specify the keywords you’d like your website to rank for.After you’ve completed the optimization process, GoDaddy will give you a summary of actions to look over.

Ready for an Easy SEO Experience?

GoDaddy is perfect for entrepreneurs looking for an easy, all-in-one SEO package. We like how GoDaddy does a lot of the work for you!Get Started With GoDaddy

Conclusion

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