Best website builder for SEO – top tools for top rankings!

For many businesses, ranking high on search engines is the best opportunity to get traffic and make sales. But which website builder platform should you use to get the best results?

Overall, website builders are not known for their search engine optimization prowess. Quite the opposite, really – website builders have often been the butt of the joke in the SEO community.

But the times of limited customization, hardcoded elements, and slow loading speeds are no more. Nowadays, website builders understand the needs of their clients and focus heavily on making SEO management simple, and advanced changes possible.

The question is not "can website builders do SEO?" anymore. Now, we're asking "which one is the best?" That's exactly what I'll help you find out.

On this list, I've put down the top 6 website builders that do well with SEO. Some of them offer easy-to-follow guides, letting anyone do basic optimization. Others provide you with unparalleled freedom to tinker with the most advanced features. And some try both.

Let's take a look at these SEO website builders – and see what they can do.

Best website builder for SEO – overview

Here are the best website builders for SEO:

1. Squarespace – all-around best SEO website builder
2. SITE123 – a SEO-friendly business solution
3. Zyro – the cheapest SEO-friendly website builder on the market
4. Wix – a simple, yet powerful SEO website editor
5. GoDaddy website builder – business, marketing, and SEO tools all in one place
6. Gator website builder – an affordable SEO website builder solution

1. Squarespace – best SEO on a website builder

Visit Squarespace

Squarespace is an excellent website builder for smaller businesses. This all-in-one platform offers built-in features for eCommerce, blogging, advertising, and – you guessed it! – SEO. The provided tools and checklists are rather simple, but for a beginner user looking to take on the world, this can be the best website platform for SEO.

The SEO section on the editor is where most of the tools will be found. There aren't many – but you'll find options to access an SEO checklist, hire an SEO expert, and even see the top-ranking keywords for your site.

I particularly liked the keyword search tool: it can be a good way to measure what works and doesn't work on your site.

You can also add meta information on all of your blog posts and pages, do 301 redirects, fully access and edit a pre-made sitemap. A full connection with Google My Business is also great if you're a local business looking to succeed in local search and Google Maps results.

There aren't many advanced technical tools – for instance, a lot of things (like structured data) can only be edited using code injections. But for basic business dealings, this is more than enough.

Squarespace is perhaps the best website builder for SEO if you want all the best results and data – while minimizing the amount of work you need to do.

Using Squarespace

Actually using Squarespace to make a website is actually very fun. It all begins by having to choose a website theme: Squarespace has over 110 options, and they're all rather gorgeous and modern. Covering most major niches, it was the absolute star when I was testing Squarespace earlier.

Then, you're just one simple setup process away from gaining access to the dashboard. This is where you'll be able to edit just about all that you want: that includes SEO as well!

Design-wise, you'll be given options to pick themes and colors. Then, you'll be able to see them working together with the theme – as you can build your Squarespace site from pre-made website elements, that automatically match your page's style.

Squarespace has no free plan: but it offers a 14-day free trial for you to build and test out the website. Once that is expired, there will be options for 4 premium plans. Here's what they are:

Overall, Squarespace doesn't offer a massive variety of powerful SEO tools – but it offers a great interface for managing your business and seeing what works. If you're a busy entrepreneur, looking for a website builder that can do many things and look good doing them – this is the perfect pick.

Visit Squarespace

2. SITE123 – an easy-to-use solution

Visit SITE123

SITE123 is a website builder, excellent for beginners. Fittingly, it lets you build a completely custom website in three simple steps. Plus, SITE123's unique block builder system lets you put together a big, custom, SEO-friendly website, without requiring any design or SEO knowledge. Just pick a niche, put a site together, and enjoy!

SITE123 comes with a built-in SEO tool, called "SEO Adviser". It simply analyzes your website, and gives advice on what can be improved, so the site ranks better on search engine result pages.

The final score out of 100 is a simple, easy-to-understand metric, combining all of your work into one number. As you can see, mine's 50: passable, but I should do better.

Other SEO tools go a bit deeper. I quite enjoyed the SEO Pages – Audit tool, which checks the keywords for your meta tags, titles, and focus keywords.

Other SEO features include access to sitemaps, 301 redirects, and Google Webmaster tools functionality. Overall – that's a decent suite of features. First and foremost suited for beginners, SITE123 focuses on the basics. But that's not a bad thing.

Using SITE123

SITE123 is a great pick for beginners because it tries to minimize the amount of work and decisions you need to do. If you're not willing to spend a lot of time and brain cells trying to figure everything out, you'll love this.

And that was it...Once the niche was nice and selected, I got to see the starter page SITE123 made for me.

From there, the fun begins! Instead of offering separate elements or little sections, SITE123 has over 160+ pre-made pages, filled with placeholder content – this was by far my favorite thing on a pretty big review on SITE123 I did earlier.

In order to make massive, functional sites, you'll just need to choose from a wide array of options.

As soon as you’re done editing: just publish your site, check your SEO with the available tools, and you're golden.

Speaking of gold – just how much will SITE123 cost?

Well, the platform offers one free plan and 5 additional paid options.

If you want to use the SITE123 SEO tools, you'll need to upgrade to one of the most expensive packages here. Its name? Gold.

And while it is expensive, there's a silver lining there. These prices are valid when purchasing the provider for 12 months: if you pick a longer period, the prices will reduce. The very same Gold plan costs just $13.50 a month when buying for 10 years in advance.

A bit of an investment, sure – but if you're really into the idea of building big, SEO-friendly websites quickly, this might just be the way to go.

Visit SITE123

3. Zyro – the cheapest website builder

Visit Zyro

Zyro is the cheapest website builder on this list, and possibly in the entire market – but it punches way above its height. The platform is modern, easy to use, and wickedly fast (which is always great for search engines!). And while the SEO features are limited at best, they're super simple to use. This is a bargain big superhero many have asked for.

The chronology of an SEO website builder is usually as follows – first, there's a website builder. Then, it sucks at SEO. Later on, someone in a board meeting agrees that this needs to change. Finally, with future updates, website builder becomes more and more SEO friendly.

Being by far the newest website builder on this list, Zyro seems to have skipped all of these awkward growing pains. Mobile optimization, fast loading times, and clean URL structures were all set up from Day 1. So, ranking on search engines with Zyro should be a piece of cake.

Seamless Google Analytics and Tag Manager integration let you monitor your SEO and business efforts, while on the editor itself, you're given the opportunity to edit page titles and descriptions to suit your desired keywords and look good on search engins.

You can also use the platform to edit alt tags of your images, as well as set up custom URLs.

There are also several free-to-all AI tools. SEO people might appreciate the smart AI writer, which will create simple, SEO-optimized copy based on your business needs.

This isn't the only smart AI tool Zyro has at its disposal: check out our detailed Zyro evaluation to find out more about it.

All in all, Zyro doesn't have a lot when it comes to SEO, but it's a super-fast website builder with some good AI tools and basic editing options. Speaking of "editing"...

Using Zyro

Zyro uses one website builder – with two different approaches on how to reach it.

The AI generator will ask you several questions about your business, and make a simple website, fitting to the theme.

Or you can pick the theme yourself – Zyro has over 130 simple options, separated into 10 different sections.

Once the starter site is created, you'll get to see the editor. I liked it – a simple and clean interface is intuitive and easy to learn. There are no massive pre-made pages like on some other builders, but I appreciated the simplicity.

Speaking of things I appreciate, let's use this opportunity to move on to Zyro pricing. There is no free plan – but you'll find these 3 options:

SEO tools are available on all premium plans. Google Analytics and Tag Manager are available from the Unleashed plan and up.

Overall – this is excellent value. Being a few times cheaper than many other website builder options, Zyro is a great option if you're looking to build a modern, SEO-optimized website on a budget.

Visit Zyro

4. Wix – simple and powerful SEO website builder

Visit Wix

Wix is an excellent website builder, with many beautiful templates and two distinct website editors, perfect for users of all skills levels. You'll also find over 700 templates, some excellent first and third-party apps, and of course – a full SEO suite, offering just about anything you can ask from a website builder.

301 redirects and custom meta titles for each page come as standard. Each image can be given custom alt tags – letting search engines fully understand them. You can also access sitemaps, and edit the robots.txt file.

The main SEO interface on Wix lets you easily access most of these tools.

This is where you can also access Wix's SEO guide – which offers all the required tools and help on all stages of the SEO journey.

Everything about Wix SEO appears to be suited to beginners and their goals: so perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising to see that adding structured data still requires code.

However, Wix is taking massive leaps to improve its platform: Wix today is much better at SEO than it was two years ago. So keep an eye on it – we may soon see a tool for structured data as well.

For now, however, Wix acts as an excellent SEO learning tool. The tutorials and guides are available on every corner of the site. If you're a beginner user, who wants to both learn and benefit from SEO, this is an excellent starting point.

It's not a complete article – not yet. But Wix is the best website builder for SEO there is.

Using Wix

Moving away from "SEO", and onto "website builder" – let's take a look at what it's like to use and deal with Wix.

Once you sign up, it's decision time. Wix has two website editors:

ADI is an AI-powered option that generates a website for you based on your responses and business information. Don't waste your time sweating which one to pick – all the choices can be changed or reversed, and you can make several websites on the same account.

ADI is really fun to play around with – it can take only a few minutes to have a website nice and ready. You really don't need to do anything but just point at the things that you like.

On the other hand, the classic Wix Editor follows a very different route. It features over 700 pre-made website templates, covering a big variety of niches. And once you finally choose, you get greeted by the most in-depth editor a website builder can offer.

With complete freedom to place everything anywhere, and design everything to your heart's content, Wix Editor can get a little intimidating. I even said so myself when I was doing a massive Wix analysis.

But once you get used to it, and its hundreds on blocks and elements, it's an experience like no other.

Wix pushes the envelope of what website builders are supposed to do. It offers full customization for just about every facet of your site, including SEO. Or instead, it can also make everything as simple as possible.

Which option is better for you? That's yours to decide.

How much will all that cost? Wix offers a free plan, 4 plans for regular websites, and 3 plans for eCommerce. Here are the plans for regular websites:

And here are the plans for eCommerce:

All of the plans offer access to the main Wix SEO features – except the free one, which doesn't have the main SEO feature of letting you connect your own domain.

Overall, Wix is an excellent SEO website builder, with the right mix of features for both beginners and advanced users.

Visit Wix

5. GoDaddy website builder – business solutions for busy SEO experts

Visit GoDaddy builder

GoDaddy does everything. It's a web hosting provider, it's a domain registrar – and it also offers an easy-to-use website builder, complete with advanced marketing and SEO tools. This is a busy person's builder: everything here on this platform is made to save your time, and give the easiest, most concrete route to make a perfect business website.

By far the biggest jewel in GoDaddy's crown is called InSight. It's a smart tool that helps you determine and reach your business goals. At first, you tell the platform who you are, and what do you wish to do.

Moments later, you'll be given a full action plan – describing what and where you should do.

Some of this advice will be directly related to SEO – and of course, just like with business management, GoDaddy has a full guide for that one as well.

The helpful SEO wizard (available from Standard plan and up) will help to improve your website. First, you'll get to simply describe your page in just a couple of words...

Then, you'll be taken on a little trip to improve your website, add meta titles and descriptions, as well as update your site copy to rank better on search engines.

Looking for something a bit more in-depth? GoDaddy also has a dedicated SEO team you can contact to get additional help for the site. If used correctly, additional help can make GoDaddy the best website builder for Google ranking purposes.

You can request a call and ask them to tailor your site for your specific keywords. There isn't a set price, however, it's expected that a GoDaddy SEO expert should cost around $50 an hour. Just a few hours of their time can make a massive difference to your rankings – which can be an excellent one-time investment. Not to mention, that compared to SEO agencies, this is an excellent deal.

GoDaddy has the SEO basics – and not much more. However, the basics are intuitive and easy to understand. And if you want something more, there are professionals by your side, just one phone call away.

Using GoDaddy website builder

You can call GoDaddy website builder J.K Rowling because it is all about the wizards. But the wizard for setting up your website will require just two things – choosing a website name and picking a category.

Soon after, you'll gain access to your pre-made website, already full of content that's supposed to fit your selected niche.

Adding and editing content to your site is possible through pre-made sections – there is a pretty good selection, and you can use the editor to change their size, accent colors, alignment, and more.

Finally, instead of themes, you'll simply be given around 20 different layouts, which will adapt around your existing content and media. This way, making sweeping design changes on your site is easier than ever.

Now – how much will all of this simplicity cost? Well, GoDaddy doesn't offer a free plan. But you can try any of the 4 premium plans for free, with no credit card required. Here's what they are:

If you want to make the best out GoDaddy's SEO features, you'll need to pick a Standard plan or higher. But even then, GoDaddy still remains very affordable. Even more so, if you choose to use GoDaddy to sell online – at only $16.99/month, the Ecommerce plan has one of the best values in the market. I do talk more about this on my GoDaddy website builder review.

But overall, for all your SEO-related purposes, GoDaddy offers a simple way out – this is a great option if you go for function over form, and results over needless tinkering.

Visit GoDaddy builder

6. Gator website builder – cheap and simple SEO website builder

Visit Gator

Gator is super cheap and notoriously simple to use, making it an excellent website builder for beginner users. It has a simple website editor tool, that simply puts together a website based on your design preferences. And once that is done, you can get to SEO optimization – which, for a builder this simple, are pretty well fleshed out.

You can customize post and page settings, adding custom URLs, SEO titles and descriptions, as well as featured images.

On the site, you can also do easy smart linking with internal pages, images come with pre-added alt tags, and you're free to customize them to your liking. The sitemap is also fully generated and available for your convenience.

Full Google My Business integration is also there to help you rank on local business results.

There isn't much you can do, but all the basics are here. Combining that with a very simple website editor, your mission to charm Google's robots can literally start in minutes.

Using Gator

Upon registration, Gator offers you two options. You're picking between the Express and Traditional editors. Here's a piece of consumer advice: always go for Express. It's an updated version of the builder, offering better visuals and more extensive editing options. I looked at both of these options earlier in the year when I was reviewing Gator.

Once you pick (correctly), the builder redirects you to a setup screen. At first, it appears to be nothing special – just your casual "What do you want your site to do?" stuff.

Later on, however, things start to shift – instead of being given a stock website to build and edit, you'll actively take part in its creation.

This means choosing the preferred fonts, colors, and navigation styles.

Then, you'll finally make it to the editor, which lets you to choose from several different layouts for your site sections, as well as adding new ones.

As for pricing, Gator is one of the cheapest website builders out there. There is no free plan, and no free trial – these are the available options:

Let's begin by having a look at the three premium plans:

This is excellent value: much better than one offered by many other website builders. SEO tools are available on all these plans, so you can have a fully optimized site at a pretty low price. What's not to love?

Best website builder for SEO – conclusion

Good SEO on a website builder is certainly possible. Not only possible but there are multiple excellent SEO-friendly website builder options for you to choose from.

Choose wisely, put in some elbow grease, and soon enough, you'll be on the top pages of your desired search engine results. On this post, I've shown you the best tools – now it's up to you to put them to good use.

Here are the best website builders for SEO:

• Squarespace offers a simple, business-forward solution letting you manage all of your business – SEO included – from one simple interface.
• SITE123 offers a simple, minimalist way to build solid, SEO-friendly websites with no web design skill required.
• Zyro is the cheapest website builder on this list: it offers excellent performance, Google's optimization tools, and simple SEO solutions.
• Wix is incredibly well-rounded, offering both advanced SEO options for professionals, and simple solutions for beginners. It's an excellent all-rounder.
• GoDaddy website builder goes all-in on simple business and marketing. It's a great solution for busy entrepreneurs.
• Gator website builder is a simple, budget-friendly SEO website builder, perfect for beginners.

Best website builder for SEO – FAQ