Beware of the Wix site building tool!

byjetrbby80316

5K followers

8 years ago

Folks, beware of the Wix.com site building tool!

Here's how Kaju’s Off the Hook is turning a Wix major platform flaw into a Solution.

Since so many knowledgeable people here at WA have been so gracious to help me, it’s now my turn to share my story and hopefully contribute something back to warn my fellow Wa’ers. Some of you out there may already be aware this is happening.

By now you may have seen my numerous posts concerning the myriad possibilities I have pondered and my continued daily struggles on issues I grapple with concerning getting our great party band for hire site called Kaju’s Off the Hook’s and its SEO plan off the ground and optimized in full bloom to drive traffic.

Various actions I have taken so far to increase my traffic have included many of the recommendations made here by experts in WA, such as finding “low hanging fruit” long-tailed keywords on everything from using all social media to tutorials on how to hire a band for a party, find a wedding band, and considerations like changing my URL and permalink to a my a combination of my name and a great keyword.

Then a very smart and humble bear asked me if he could post a blog containing our PM conversation to share with WAers and suggested that I should split test, both very wise suggestions. Other very helpful and knowledgeable high ranking people here later suggested I change my current URL to a new URL, then redirect my current URL back to the new one. I shouldn’t lose my current meta titles and descriptions,

Contrarily, others told me don’t worry about possibly losing your current meta tags and don’t be too concerned over adding new ones, Google does not look at them and your content is way more important. Still other experts warned me don’t do it, as I could disappear from Google forever without a trace.

I am sure some of you are probably sick of hearing my SEO contemplations by now. But all awhile, unbeknownst to me there has been a much, much more pressing concern.

My Wix.com debacle – and how I will use it as a solution to gain an advantage

I created my site on the Wix.com builder tool because I was lured to its attractive and easy-to-use templates. The site is new and only live since February 1. Everyone compliments me on the design of the site and how the landing page hits you “right between the eyes.”

However, there is a much greater and insidious problem inherent with the Wix.com builder tool in that your site will appear differently across various screen resolutions and over different browsers.

No doubt the slideshow landing page and other sections of the site looks GREAT on MOST browsers and desktop displays, but if the site cannot view consistently over ALL browsers and resize over ALL screen resolutions for different size and types of desktop screens, isn’t the whole purpose defeated?. This is the major flaw with Wix.com.

Pity I didn’t realize the true scope of this much bigger problem until recently when a friend of mine who is a web developer caught wind of this and enlightened me.

First, check out how my slideshow landing page views on MOST desktop computers (about 80% of the people I polled) who viewed the site on browsers Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari: This screenshot was taken by Loes at Wealthy Affiliate, and this a consistent view from the majority of visitors.

Here the slideshow landing page is looking absolutely fine. This is what 80% of viewers currently see:

I couldn’t believe it at first, while the view from my Dell 22” screen (res: 1680 x 1050) and Mac Pro Air 15” screen was perfect, I began noticing how images and text were being cut off from the sides and top on different computer screens and at different resolutions. First red flag.

So here are several screenshots from DIFFERENT browsers viewed on different computers my friend forwarded to me.

1) First, this is how my slideshow landing page views on a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 4K (13.3” screen) in Chrome and Firefox- these screenshots speak for themselves.

You see the "Off the Hook" logo cut off on the left, and overall image cut off both sides.

2) This is how my song list views on Mozilla Firefox on a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 4K (13.3” screen). The left 1st column text is half cut off by the left side of the screen.

3 ) Now this is how song list views on a Mac Pro Air and Pixel Chromebook on Mozilla Firefox (24” screen). The left 1st column text completely bleeds into the right 2nd column:

4) Finally, this is how my slideshow landing page views on Mozilla Firefox on a large Mac 4K (37” screen). Now you see the "Off the Hook" logo cut off half from the top, and overall image cut off both top and bottom.

THEN I looked under the hood and delved further into the many, many complaints on the Wix site from dissatisfied customers all about this SAME issue, and noticed that Wix seldom if ever responded to these dissatisfied customers’ complaints. And it was the SAME exact issue I am currently having a major problem with on the Wix.com platform.

Can do me a favor? Go to https://www.othusa.com. Let’s see if we can get some other views. How does the slideshow landing page and song list look on your computer? (For the song list, hover over “More”)

So I thought I would shed light here…..

Thinking Out Loud…..

Apparently Wix.com doesn’t have a solution to this problem. Rarely when they ever answer any online complaint, the only solution they can provide is to tell you to relocate your images “between the dotted lines” in your site editor, but this improves nothing.

On the screen size displays where the images are cut off, even after implementing this suggested change they remain cut off. They claim that no web builder out there contains a function that will automatically auto fit your images over various screen sizes and resolutions, and one must continually monitor real-time changes made to the site over many different browsers, but I have found this just isn’t true. (Read d below)

They should really just give me my money back, but I doubt they will. And sadly, they haven’t given any indication and I have zero faith they have any plans for a fix or even the know-how to correct this major flaw in their web builder platform in the foreseeable future.

Turning a major Wix platform flaw into solid SEO Split Testing

So here is what I have decided……

1) I will keep my current URL and site as https://www.othusa.com and do nothing to it. This URL I have owned for years. And I won’t sweat or stress whether Wix will give me my money back or not.

Currently this site ranks high on Google for certain search terms when doing an incognito search, and my Facebook page always appears on Page 1 in even when typing in such a generic commonly used term as “off the hook.” I suppose that is merit enough to keep my current URL.

2) Next, I will rebuild the new site IDENTICAL in design and function to my current site using a different platform such as Word Press or some other web builder tool.

My web developer friend is very partial to Word Press: she has a client that built his site on Wix who wasn’t happy with the speed but was satisfied overall otherwise until she offered to build the same site for him on Word Press. Having witnesses the results, he now abhors Wix and swears by Word Press.

I compared both IDENTICAL sites and from what I see here are MY conclusions:

a) The Word Press site functionality is miles better

b) The Word Press speed is much faster

c) The Word Press colors are crisper

d) The Word Press site fits all the site images over many different screen resolutions to compensate for different viewer screen sizes. Hence, zero images were cut off on any display.

Apparently, the Word Press has an “image screen resizer” (out of lack for a better term) built into its platform. The Wix.com does not, which is appalling and frankly unbelievable from a big company that boldly claims “…we build professional looking websites.”

3) Next, I will assign the NEW URL either https://kajupartybands.com or https://kajuoffthehook.com which are domains I own to this new identical site; the former contains my name and a relevant keyword contained in my content, and the latter contains my name and the name of the band.

Not only should this give me better SEO to drive more traffic, over time both URL names present greater upside to brand my business better

4) Whenever I add new content such as a new blog or images, I will add the SAME content to BOTH sites. I will add the same “low hanging fruit” keywords, but will alter the meta titles and descriptions. Slightly. Everything else will stay the same.

5) Finally, I will use this as an opportunity to conduct my SEO split testing to see which site ranks traffic-wise higher over time, and keep constant tracking of my analytics - comparing the traffic and search progress from both sites over a predesignated time period. Let’s say weekly over a 3-6 month period.

Comparing both identical sites with different functionalities over time should yield where the visiting customer is receiving the more satisfying online experience, and therefore should translate to higher traffic.

Hence, the winner of this test of the “identicals” should define my ultimate SEO plan moving forward.

Note these results will be based on 100% organic traffic. Right now I don’t plan on doing any paid advertising i.e. PPC, campaigns. But if I do later change my mind, I will do the identical same campaign for both sites.

Stay tuned. I will keep everyone posted as split testing progress moves along.

Please feel free to “chime in” your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions here.

And thanks so much for listening!

Cheers,

Kaju