Optimizing your website for search engine traffic expands your audience and helps people to find you among the competition. The higher your website ranks on results pages for search engines, the higher the click-through rate (CTR) for organic traffic. The top SERP listing has a CTR of about 30%, around 10x that of the #10 result. 

Your site’s SEO is continually working to improve your rank, but unlike Google Ads, it doesn’t cost money per click. When your company uses an SEO website builder, they improve user experience on your site, drive conversions, and grow brand recognition.

Building your site and then paying an SEO specialist to optimize and maintain it gets expensive quickly, and you may not see results for months, even as you’re paying for expertise. Instead, launch your site with a website builder that includes SEO. Then, you get optimization as part of your website solution. 

The significance of search engine optimization for business websites

There’s a reason that SEO gets so much buzz in the content marketing world. The top results in search engines are essential to the way consumers find businesses and products today. Whether searching on a tablet, computer, or smartphone, when someone searches for your products and services, being top in results increases brand awareness and site traffic, ultimately driving revenue growth. 

Using SEO for content marketing allows you to find those ideal prospects who are looking for your services. Websites optimized for keywords and phrases are the ones that capture the web traffic of consumers searching for products and solutions. When organizations use an SEO website builder, they can give equal attention to design, content, and SEO features.

Build a strategy with both on-page and off-page SEO

The search engine algorithm looks at all the text on your site and ranks SEO-friendly pages higher in the SERP. Optimized content should include everything from URLs and meta descriptions to headers and picture alt descriptions. The text that site visitors can see needs to contain keywords but also be impactful calls to action that inspire conversion. Off-page SEO is hidden from web traffic but valuable for the algorithm.

The best website builders for SEO should make it easy to access your site's metadata where high-difficulty keywords will make a big difference in the SERP ranking over time. 

Dedicated SEO tools vs. SEO website builders

There is as much misinformation about SEO as there are trustworthy sources. Google and other search engines try to keep details about their algorithms secret. While SEO agencies and freelance optimizers are relatively fast at developing “best practices,” the algorithm continually refines its methodology. 

The benefits of being ranked number one on the SERP show up in the bottom line, especially in competitive industries.

So, if websites could easily manipulate the system, then users wouldn’t be able to trust the top-ranked sites as high-quality information relevant to their search. 

Using pros for SEO knowledge

Hiring an SEO agency or freelancer to optimize after you’ve built your website means finding credible professionals, usually at a high cost.

Because there’s rampant misinformation, agencies can over-promise results and use black hat SEO tactics that temporarily increase ranking and traffic. Search engines eventually find and penalize these sites, ultimately driving down rankings.

Using a website builder for SEO

One of the biggest benefits of a website builder for SEO is every component of your site works cohesively to support the user experience. The best website builders naturally align a company's website with the goals of the search engine: to deliver high-quality information and seamless user experiences. 

Plus, you pay for less tooling and eliminate redundant costs generated by having multiple, siloed agencies working on your site, sometimes in conflict with each other.

What are the criteria for finding the best SEO website builders?

A good website builder offers simple SEO tools with their free plan and may provide more advanced optimization with a monthly subscription. The best website builder goes further to enable users to take control of their website's SEO with advanced features and a content management system that comes with a built-in SEO tool.

Whether you work with a designer or opt to go full DIY, consider the performance of the SEO tools. 

Ease of use

One of the trickiest aspects of SEO is that, unlike your website design, you have to keep working at it. Websites need new, optimized monthly content to increase and maintain rankings. Keywords and metadata should be re-evaluated around every six months. SEO can become an unpleasant chore if the website builders' tools and off-page content fields are difficult to access and edit.

The best website builders let users optimize SEO results by being easy to navigate and intuitive to use:

• Timely re-optimization for keywords that are beginning to rank
• Publish fresh content – a critical aspect of how the algorithm ranks pages
• Strategy adjustment for poor SERP performance

Reoptimizing a web page with intuitive tools can take just a few minutes. But even mildly frustrating work tasks, especially for websites, are easy to avoid or ignore, especially when you’re busy running your own business.

SEO features

We touched on the importance of having both off-page and on-page SEO features, but not every website builder provides the same access to important fields. Website builders for SEO give users access to:

• On-page content: Search engine algorithms prioritize H1 headers, H2 headers, and paragraph text (in that order). Identify and designate H1 and H2 when for high-volume keywords. 
• Page URLs: Customizing service page URLs with keywords is one of the basic SEO features. 
• Image alt descriptions: Alt descriptions are an accessibility feature that can improve an SEO ranking by being accurate and using keyword placement.
• Page metadata: SEO meta titles and descriptions appear on the SERP. They’re your first CTA and a high-value area for off-page SEO.

It should be easy to find and edit basic SEO features in a website builder. These are the places that it’s crucial to revisit every six months and re-optimize for the keywords where you’re currently ranking but have yet to reach the first search engine results page. The best website builders will also integrate Google Search Console and Google Analytics to assist with keyword research and SERP tracking.

Support

It’s the nature of any program or platform to have bugs and issues occasionally. Knowing it’s easy to get support and guidance is essential, especially if you opt not to work with a developer for your website. 

Most website builders make it easy to contact a support team. But the best SEO website builder will have a support team invested in resolving the issue, whether it’s a bug with the site or you need help learning how to use one of the platform’s tools. 

Comparing 5 of the best website builders for SEO

Wix

The Wix website builder is a DIY platform that offers customizable templates for businesses. It’s easy to jump in and throw together a professional-looking website in just a few hours. In the website builder for SEO, users can use the Wix SEO Wiz to plan and optimize, but it only provides basic SEO tools for trying to rank web pages. 

For business owners interested in getting more hands-on with their web presence, Wix has learning hubs to learn more about SEO basics, web design, and more. Wix also offers an option to hire professionals to work on your site's different aspects, including design, SEO, online stores, and web development. 

But it’s up to business owners to either use the website builder to optimize or hire a professional for help from the Wix marketplace, which can be a time-sink finding a well-rated agency or professional that’s in your budget and offers the services you need.

Pros

• Fast launch options using templates
• SEO customization for URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions
• Wix Learn offers videos to learn more about SEO keywords, strategies, and blogging 

Cons

• Have to hire third-party agencies for professional help
• Difficult to navigate the right design level for your needs
• Unpredictable pricing and services when using the expert marketplace 

Weebly

Weebly is another DIY website builder that offers customizable templates for fast website building. Like Wix, it’s relatively easy to navigate the SEO tabs on each template page and adjust the page title, meta description keywords, and URL.

The Weebly platform also offers a Google AdWords coupon for signing up, giving new users a $100 credit when they spend $25. Weebly has an optimization guide for users who want to make the most of the website builder for SEO. It’s a thorough walk-through about keyword research, building a strategy, and how to analyze the traffic data through the platform.

However, unlike with Wix, there’s no professional marketplace where users can hire help if they aren’t interested in customizing and optimizing their site. The platform allows integration from various apps to make the most of the site, including SEO for boosting traffic, eCommerce and marketing, social media, and more.

The downside is users have to set up accounts with many different platforms instead of operating exclusively from their website builder dashboard. 

Pros

• Fast launch options using templates
• Cheapest website builder with a free domain included with a monthly subscription
• SEO customization for URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions
• SEO learning guide for DIYers building their own optimization strategy

Cons

• No option for professional help for design or optimization
• Have to use third-party SEO plugins for optimization and analytics
• Need an advanced knowledge base to get the most from the platform

Squarespace

One of the original DIY website builders, Squarespace set the standard for drag-and-drop website design and customization that Wix and Weebly now follow. The basic monthly plan is also one of the cheapest website builders for SEO. The Squarespace website builder also kept pace with the industry in offering tools for ecommerce and search engine optimization. 

Squarespace goes further than Wix and Weebly by providing customers with an SEO checklist to ensure their website is optimized correctly. The website builder has an analytics dashboard for users, including the ability to conduct keyword research. 

Like Wix, Squarespace offers vetted experts for subscribers to hire to create finished sites. There isn’t an option for SEO-specific experts or agencies, just marketing. The platform will match users with experts who deliver the services they need, or offers the option of browsing available agencies.

Pros

• Platform includes SEO keyword research and analytics
• Option to hire vetted professionals for support
• Fast launch options with industry-specific templates

Cons

• Can be hard to find an agency in the marketplace that provides all the services you need
• Unpredictable pricing for SEO optimization and strategies
• Time-consuming to customize templates and work through the SEO checklist

WordPress

WordPress has been around since the early days of the internet. At first, it was a popular blogging platform. The WordPress website builder adapted and evolved to become the most-used platform on the internet.

Users select a template, customize it to their business, and use the WordPress SEO plugins to optimize. Unlike Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, the WordPress website builder limits SEO tools to the higher subscription tiers: Business and eCommerce. 

WordPress keeps its expert support in-house. Built by WordPress connects business owners with a design team who conducts a consultation and then creates a custom website that’s SEO optimized. They operate on an average four- to six-week timeline, from initial consultation to launch. 

For business owners who want to DIY, the WordPress site builder relies on PlugIns and Apps to provide customers with tools to operate their online business. The website builder for SEO includes the standard tools for customizing metadata, but the platform doesn’t include keyword research or analytics without a third–party plugin.

Pros

• In-house professional design and launch support with Built by WordPress
• Fast launch options using templates

Cons

• Have to use third-party apps to build a toolbox, including SEO, email marketing, and eCommerce
• SEO tools are only available at the higher subscription levels
• Long timeline to launch using the Built by WordPress service

B12

B12 offers unparalleled speed and customization as one of the best website builders that includes SEO. Using an AI-generated design that expert designers and copywriters refine, businesses can be online with a custom optimization in 30 days. 

Businesses at every stage of operation can find the tools and support that meet their current and future needs with the B12 site builder. An SEO specialist takes the lead in creating a successful SEO strategy in tandem with the website design and launch. B12 copywriters include the strategy’s relevant keywords into website copy, both in critical on- and off-page locations. 

The B12 website builder also includes streamlined tools and integrations to support conversion and onboarding, such as custom forms, pop-ups, banners, and more.

For business owners who don’t want to log into a bunch of different platforms, you can run almost every aspect of your online business through the site builder. As the best website builder, features include advanced SEO tools and ways to streamline operations:

• Advanced SEO features and a dedicated SEO team
• Six-month content calendars and SEO strategies
• Optimized monthly blog posts
• Customizable online scheduling 
• Online payment and invoicing tools
• Contact manager and email marketing 

Using B12, you can operate every aspect of running your business while experts handle SEO efforts and help your site to climb the SERP for relevant keywords. You can focus on serving clients with all of the tools you need at your fingertips. 

Pros

• Work with an in-house expert team for design, copywriting, and advanced SEO options, with a single point of contact
• Plans include advanced technical tools, mobile optimization, and monthly optimized content
• Ongoing support to ensure the website continues to perform as expected
• Fast turnaround with 30 days from the AI draft to launch
• Powerful tools are included with supported integrations for all major platforms

Cons

• Higher price-point for the monthly subscription

The importance of combining your professional website and SEO strategy

When you launch a professional website, there's an understandable impulse to worry about the design first and everything else, such as newsletter signup forms, appointment scheduling, and SEO, once you go live. But a website’s tools for lead generation and capturing organic traffic should integrate with the design as a part of the website. 

B12 is the best website builder for professional services with built-in SEO. Not only are there powerful tools integrated into the platform, but you get ongoing expert support for content development to make an SEO-friendly site. B12 does more to ensure your site creates brand awareness, drives conversions, and increases revenue from the moment it launches.