Are DIY Website Builders SEO-Friendly?

�So are website builders SEO-friendly?�

�Which website builder performs best from an SEO standpoint?�

These are probably the most common questions I get asked from aspiring webmasters. Frankly speaking, there are no black-and-white answers to these tricky questions, as everything depends on so many things. I have been in the website builders business for a long time and I have been involved with reviewing dozens of site construction kits, but I can�t still give a straight answer to this question.

One of the biggest issues I face when tackling the topic is that some site owners believe that their SEO outcomes will uniquely depend on SEO capabilities of the chosen platform, not their individual actions. This is wrong, but I don�t blame them, since many website builders are actually misleading potential customers adding those �Super SEO-Friendly� badges to their landing pages. But what exactly stands behind these badges? The ability to specify meta tags and rewritable URLs? Let�s take a closer look at website builders to see if their usage can influence your SEO campaign.

Things That Matter

As I see it, website success doesn�t solely depend on web design tools you use to create your website - it�s more dependent on the product you promote and marketing tactics you use. However, we shouldn�t underestimate the importance of using cutting edge, SEO-friendly web design technologies which are fortunately being implemented into the market of website builders pretty quickly.

1. Web Technologies

When speaking about web design technologies I mean staying away from Flash (or al least using less Flash) and using more �digestible� or engine-friendly programming languages instead. You�ll be surprised to learn that in olden times many website builders used to be exclusively Flash-based services (until Flash was proven to be SEO-unfriendly). Take Wix for instance. It had been using a platform based on Adobe Flash till March 2012. Since then it has been using HTML5.

2. On-Page SEO Features

When picking a site builder, pay attention to what we call �SEO blocks� or �SEO packs�. Typically, these allow users to easily insert meta tags: title, description and keywords. Website builders with advanced SEO capabilities, like uCoz for example, in addition to the standard features, allow site owners to use a noindex meta tag that prevents all robots from indexing the chosen page. With uCoz you can use this tag on the �Modules level�. In simple terms, you can appoint it for your e-Shop, Forum, Blog or any other structural unit - there�s no need to set it for each single page manually.

3. Off-Page SEO Features

You may think that site builders have nothing to do with off-page SEO. But they do. Certain website builders, namely Yola, provide their upgraded users with Google AdWords and Facebook credits to help them promote their growing business.

Actually, each website builder has its own, unique mix of SEO features and perks. Some offer easy robots.txt file upload and editing, while others provide automatic SEO monitoring. What I was trying to tell with this post is that sitebuilders doesn�t differ dramatically from WordPress and other popular CMS used for website creation in terms of SEO. It�s your marketing skills, business goals and ambitions that help gain better results. Focus on your product, generate great, engaging content and your efforts will be rewarded, sooner or later :).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Howard Steele is the owner of SuperbWebsiteBuilders, a website dedicated to DIY site builders reviews and comparisons.