To Wix, or Not to Wix

In my Social Media class, we have been working on developing our portfolios for the last couple of weeks.  When we first started the project, I wasn't sure which tool I wanted to use to build my site. I have already used Blogger and some other paid site builders for my small business, so I decided to dig around and find out more about 3 site building resources that I have never used before: WordPress, Google Sites and Wix.

After researching a bit, I decided to go with Wix for my project because it drew me in more than the other site builders. There seems to be a greater range of customization with Wix than with Google Sites, whereas WordPress felt too overwhelming in its' customization possibilities. I might feel more comfortable taking on WordPress after more time in the ILT program (or maybe I need a degree in Computer Science?). 

In the past, I have been frustrated with the limiting features in the site builder I use for my business webpage. I feel like I always need to find a creative workaround to get what I really want, instead of using an intuitive feature that the site builder ought to include, but doesn't. For example, the site builder I used for my business page doesn't have a calendar function, so I had to create a course calendar in Publisher and upload to the site as a .pdf. Now, if clients want to see when courses are offered, they have to click an icon to view the .pdf. Yuck!

I enjoyed using Wix to set up my portfolio. It was very intuitive and easy to use. There are tons of great templates to start from, and everything is customizable. You could easily build a page that is professional, modern and easy to navigate in an hour. Of course, there are so many options to choose from that it would be just as easy to play around for days tweaking your site.

Wix HTML5 Editor

 While I was exploring Wix, I thought that it might be a good fit for my business website because it has more customization options, a cleaner look, and its free. There are a couple of other "needs" that I investigated to help me make my decision about moving forward with this idea. First, I was curious how to get my custom URL on Wix and what the cost would be for hosting. I also wanted to find out about SEO optimization and support on Wix. The last thing I needed to do is see if there are site tracking metrics on Wix that would give me information about who is visiting my site, how they got there, when they are visiting and for how long.

Here is what I found out about Wix:

Pros:

• Offers multiple apps to incorporate on site in Wix App Store
• Uses Google Analytics to monitor site traffic (including search terms used to find your site), but only available with premium account subscription
• SEO monitoring, which includes a tool to help further optimize your site's presence
• It is possible to transfer existing domains to Wix, but the process seemed sort of complicated. I don't know much about this at all, so it might be easy for someone who is well versed in web design. Here is a helpful tutorial I found after some digging:
  http://www.wix.com/support/main/flash/domains-email/setting-domain-other-hosts-ie-networksolutions-godaddy-etc/connecting-your-domain-1
  

Cons:

• Wix doesn't have email service if you buy a domain through their site, but supposedly, if you have an existing domain with email, you can link your email to your domain when you transfer it to Wix.
• Wix has a number of premium packages. For my business, I would need to go with the most expensive ($16/month with 1 year subscription). This is about $4 more per month than I currently pay. Wix also has some offers right now for vouchers on Facebook Ads and Google AdWords that would balance out the extra monthly cost.
• While building my portfolio for my class, I noticed that when Wix site builder is open, everything else on my computer runs slowly. I have learned to close down other websites/programs when I am working, but I have still had a couple of crashes. This is a minor annoyance, but I think the product that Wix offers make it worth dealing with.

I am still debating whether or not I will move my business site to Wix. I have really enjoyed using the site builder tool for my portfolio because it is very easy and I think the end product is professional and modern.

In any case, I won't have much time to migrate my business site until after this semester. I think I will wait and see how the next couple of months go with managing my portfolio and re-evaluate my decision to move my business site to Wix sometime in May.

I would love to hear any feedback you have about your experience with Wix. I'd love to check out the sites you've built with Wix, so feel free to post your URL in the comments.