Site Review: Free Websites By Wix

by CB on Jun.04, 2010, under Marketing Your Business, ecommerce

A free website is easy to come by. If you’ve ever searched for one, you probably found a whole slew of competing service providers. Some are full-featured, robust website builder interfaces, and others are not.

Before we get into where Wix falls on this spectrum, let’s talk about how you would use a free website. This is a service that’s targeted to individuals launching hobby sites and solo entrepreneurs launching micro businesses. For those who need to keep their launch costs to a minimum, the free site can be a decent option. But there are drawbacks, and you shouldn’t go down this road unless you are comfortable with those drawbacks.

First, truly free websites come with ads on the pages. Whether those ads negatively impact your business really depends on what business you are in and how you are using the site. Check out your competitors’ sites to see what they do. If you are trying to sell something on your site–particularly something that’s readily available elsewhere–think about the sales impact of having competitors’ ads on your pages.

Second, if your site takes off, you will eventually want to transition away from the free platform. You may not be able to take your site’s design with you and you may not be able to redirect the free site. If you can’t redirect it, you will have to contact all of your customers and give them your new URL. That can get expensive, and could result in lost business.

Free sites by Wix

I am not personally a fan of free websites in general. The issue I have with them is that the site designs are boring and not adaptable. Wix breaks this mold with a full selection of modern, flashy templates. The templates are organized by category, and the offerings include eCommerce sites, business sites, consulting sites, real estate sites and several other hobby- and interest-oriented categories.

You can preview the templates, but you have to register on the site to launch the editor. You can also build your site from scratch, using Wix’s editing tools.

Another nice feature is the detailed tutorial section, complete with how-to videos.

Premium upgrade

Wix also offers a premium upgrade, in the event you grow out of the free version. With the premium service, you can get rid of the ads and use your own domain name. You also get extra storage and bandwidth, plus access to Google analytics data.