10 Best Website Builders for SEO

There are many website builders to choose from. Each has its own features and functions.

However, when it comes to search engine optimization, not all website builders are equal. 

A lot of SEO comes down to things a website builder can’t do. Although using one can make launching and maintaining your website faster, whether it’s SEO-friendly or not often comes down to how you use it. 

That’s why it is important to choose a website builder that has the right functionality (and limits restrictions) for your project.

We've put together a list of the 10 best website builders for SEO to help you make an informed decision.

These tools make it simple to create designs that look good and make your site search engine-friendly.

The 10 Best Website Builders for SEO

Here are some of the top website builders to consider:

1. WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular website builders worldwide, renowned for its SEO-friendly features. In fact, over 800 million websites use WordPress as their content management system (CMS).

There are two versions of WordPress—.com and .org.

The .com version offers a free basic content management system (CMS) and offers additional paid plans for extended features such as ecommerce functionality.

WordPress.org, however, is the software that you host on a third-party web host.

WordPress offers various third-party plugins and themes that allow you to tailor your site to your specific needs. 

It offers page builder drag-and-drop plugins like Elementor, allowing even beginners to create beautiful, professional-looking websites.

WordPress also has several SEO-focused plugins that help ensure that key elements of your on-page and technical SEO are on point. With Rank Math and Yoast being some of the most popular. 

These plugins allow you to automate a number of SEO tasks including:

• Monitoring 404 pages and setting up 301 redirects
• Adding alt text to images
• Adding meta descriptions to pages where they are missing
• Tracking the Google indexing status of your pages
• Generating schema

Many plugins have automated features that can help you keep on top SEO best practices as you update your website and add new content. 

What We Like

• Intuitive and user-friendly
• A wealth of customization and themes
• Available SEO plugins that can take care of SEO functionality, which is great for beginners

Further reading: WordPress SEO: The Ultimate Guide in 28 Actionable Steps

2. Wix

Wix is a popular website builder known for its easy-to-use interface and drag-and-drop functionality.

Wix offers some features that make it a solid option for SEO.

The platform provides a built-in SEO tool called Wix SEO Wiz that guides users through optimizing their website for search engines.

It offers step-by-step instructions to improve website visibility and allows users to customize essential SEO elements, such as meta tags and URLs.

Wix also automatically ensures your website is mobile-friendly. This is essential for SEO since mobile friendliness is one of Google’s ranking signals.

Wix ensures your website looks good and functions well on various devices, enhancing the user experience (UX) for all your site visitors.

Wix offers a free plan with a domain and hosting for one year but will display Wix branding on your site.

To remove the branding (and be able to connect an existing domain), you’ll need to move to a paid plan starting at $16 monthly. There are higher-tier paid plans that include additional features. 

What We Like

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for easy website creation with various templates
• Easy-to-use environment allowing you to manage your posts, link your social media accounts, import an email list, and set up a newsletter signup
• Wix App Market allows for additional customizations, such as website chat, bookings, and forms 

Further reading: Wix SEO: How to Rank Better with Your Wix Website

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that’s great for creatives like photographers and designers. Known for its stunning design templates, Squarespace offers unbeatable aesthetics. 

The tool offers a wide range of professionally designed mobile-responsive templates, ensuring your website looks great on any device.

But what about SEO?

Squarespace offers customizable meta tags, URL structures, alt tags for images, and built-in XML sitemaps. While less extensive than WordPress plugins and features, these features allow for basic to intermediate SEO optimization.

Squarespace also offers unique features. One is a mobile app that allows you to edit your site directly from your phone. Plus, Squarespace Blueprint allows you to design custom website templates. 

Squarespace offers plans starting at $16 monthly for a basic website builder with limited features. You must choose a higher tier if you want more advanced capabilities like ecommerce functionality.

What We Like

• 140 themes that are already optimized for mobile devices 
• Their mobile app for Android and iOS allows you to edit your website directly from your mobile device 
• Squarespace Blueprint allows you to design your own templates with custom fonts, design, layout, and color palettes

Further reading: Squarespace SEO: 6 Tips to Optimize Your Site

4. Weebly

The Weebly website builder offers a range of features for creating and managing websites. It’s popular with those who want a DIY option due to its easy-to-use interface. 

While it may not have the same level of customization and advanced SEO capabilities as some other platforms, Weebly still provides some features that make it a good option for search engine optimization.

You can set individual on-page elements within the Weebly Editor, like meta descriptions and URLs. However, it does have its limitations compared to platforms with more comprehensive plug-in and add-on libraries.

Weebly has both free and paid plans. 

The free plan is fairly comprehensive, with similar features to both Wix and Squarespace. And the paid plans are priced between $10 and $26 monthly.

What We Like

• Weebly has an app store to install free and premium apps on your site
• The Weebly mobile app allows you to build, manage, and track your website from your phone 
• There are hundreds of themes to choose from and the option to import your own

5. GoDaddy

Although best known as a domain name and hosting provider, GoDaddy also offers an all-in-one website builder.

GoDaddy offers some features that make it attractive to those new to SEO. It has built-in tools like Google Analytics integration, keyword research guidance, mobile optimization, and more.

GoDaddy does have some customization limitations when it comes to SEO. Headings (H1 and H2) can’t be easily customized. And URLs, which are auto-generated based on your page titles, are not simple to change. 

Godady's website builder doesn't offer a free option. However, the pricing plans are still budget-friendly, starting at just under $10 monthly. 

What We Like

• Easy-to-implement SEO features like built-in Google Analytics
• A suite of integrated tools, such as email marketing and appointment setting
• Ability to switch themes easily, as your site will automatically reformat

6. Hostinger

Hostinger is a great option if you're looking for an affordable and powerful website builder with advanced SEO features.

The platform offers all the basic SEO features you'd expect—such as on-page optimization, meta tags, and descriptions, Google Search Console integration, and more.

Hostinger offers both free and paid plans.

The free plan is limited in terms of features, but Hostinger has a range of plans to suit different needs. And its least expensive plan comes in at just $2.99 per month. 

Perfect for bootstrapped businesses or those just starting.

What We Like

• Ecommerce functionality on their lowest paid plan (at $2.99), unlike many other website builders that require you to pay for an additional ecommerce plan
• Free AI tools are available, such as a free logo maker. Which can help you start up a new business on a budget.

7. Site123

If you’re looking for a reliable and budget-friendly website builder with plenty of SEO features, Site123 is worth considering.

It covers all the basics, such as meta tags and descriptions. And has its own site audit feature called SEO Adviser.

It also has built-in features like an automatic sitemap generator and Google Analytics integration to help you boost your search engine rankings. 

One of Site123’s most impressive features is how simple it makes it to create multilingual sites. With the right subscription, it is possible to add five language localizations, and Site123 will automatically translate all of your content. 

Site123 also offers free and paid plans to choose the one that best suits your needs. The free plan is limited in features, but it is still an excellent option for those just starting.

The paid plans start at $12.80 per month and come with additional features such as a custom domain name and a wide range of templates and designs.

What We Like

• Built-in SEO audit tool
• SEO Advisor gives you a checklist of things to include on your pages
• Automatic content translation easily creates multilingual sites with up to 5 language localizations 

8. Gator

HostGator is primarily known as a web hosting provider but also offers a website builder called Gator Website Builder.

Image Source: HostGator

While Gator may offer fewer advanced SEO features than some dedicated website builders, it still provides some functionality to optimize your site for search engines.

It covers all the basics, such as meta tags, meta descriptions, and keyword optimization.

Plus, it has built-in tools like an automatic sitemap generator, responsive design templates, and Google Search Console integration to help you maximize your online presence.

Gator offers paid plans, starting at $4.95 per month for the basic plan.

What We Like

• Pricing plans include mobile responsiveness, making your website mobile-friendly
• Plenty of room for customization, allowing you to switch themes easily. And it includes royalty-free stock images.
• Excellent blogging options and customizations 

9. HubSpot

If you’re looking for a website builder offering more than just the basics, HubSpot might be the perfect choice.

HubSpot is primarily a marketing platform offering a comprehensive suite of tools for inbound marketing, CRM, and sales.

While HubSpot's focus isn’t solely on website building, it does provide a website builder that integrates seamlessly with its other marketing tools, making it perfect for larger businesses.

HubSpot comes with everything you need to get your site up and running quickly and easily. Plus, it has some advanced features that will help you get the most out of your SEO efforts. 

HubSpot also features powerful tools designed specifically for SEO. Such as real-time analytics, meta tag management, URL optimization, sitemap generation, a bulk page editor, custom redirects, and Google Search Console integration.

There is a limited free plan available for the HubSpot drag-and-drop website builder. The paid plans include the Hubspot CMS and range from $25-$1200 per month.

What We Like

• Comprehensive suite of inbound marketing and sales tools, plus advanced SEO features
• A wide range of SEO features

10. Shopify

Shopify is one of the world's most popular ecommerce platforms. It powers more than 1 million online stores in 175 countries. 

Shopify allows you to create an online store in minutes. That’s thanks in large part to the platform’s SEO-friendly website builder.

Shopify offers an easy-to-use website builder specifically for ecommerce stores.

Its features include drag-and-drop page builders, custom domain support, blog posts, SEO optimization tools, and more.

It also comes with advanced add-on features such as breadcrumb navigation and auto-linking of keywords. This feature automatically picks out keywords within your content and creates internal and external links for them.

You can get the most out of your website with Shopify's more than 8,000 apps, tools, themes, and other free features.

Shopify offers a three-day free trial for new users to test the platform. After that, prices range from $39-$399 per month, depending on your needs.

What We Like

• Comprehensive set of SEO tools designed specifically for ecommerce websites
• Wide range of add-ons specifically for SEO, including apps that automatically create internal and external links to keywords within your content
• 24/7 customer support

Further reading: Top 18 Shopify SEO Tools to Boost Your Online Presence

What to Look for in an SEO Website Builder

Here's a quick checklist of what you should look out for when choosing an SEO-friendly website builder:

• Mobile responsiveness: Look for a website builder that ensures your website is mobile-friendly. Ideally, one that automatically optimizes your design for mobile devices.
• Page load speed: Find a website builder that prioritizes fast-loading pages. This builder should use techniques such as caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), and optimized code to enhance performance.
• Customization of on-page options: A good website builder should provide enough flexibility to customize SEO elements, such as meta tags, headings, and URLs. It should also automate SEO tasks, like redirects.
• Technical SEO-friendly: Check if the website builder allows you to set up and manage essential technical SEO elements easily. Such as canonical tags, robots.txt files, and redirects. So search engines can correctly crawl and index your site.

One way to ensure your website checks all of the above is to use Semrush's Site Audit tool to scan your site for on-page and technical SEO issues.

To get started, simply head over to the Site Audit tool, enter your domain, and click “Start Audit.”

Next, customize your crawl settings. 

You can limit the number of pages you crawl, decide whether your site is crawled for mobile or desktop, and allow or disallow specific URLs.

You can also schedule automatic daily, weekly, or monthly audits to ensure your website health stays in top shape.

When you’re happy with your settings, hit “Start Site Audit.”

From here, the tool will crawl your site and look for any SEO issues you should be aware of. You will receive an email letting you know when it’s done.

Next, you will be taken to the audit overview. This will give you a score for your overall site health and a list of top issues.

If you head over to the “Issues” tab, the tool will tell you which issues it found on your site. It will detail what each issue is, how much of a priority it needs to be, and how to fix it. 

From here, you can work your way through fixing the issues. You can even export each issue to your task management software by using the “Send to…” button. 

Start Building Your SEO-Friendly Website

Having the best type of website for SEO is a great place to start.

But you’ll also need to ensure you're implementing SEO best practices. 

Harness the potential of Semrush’s comprehensive suite of SEO tools to delve into keyword research, competitor analysis, on-page optimization, and more. 

These tools offer valuable insights and data that can improve your website's visibility in search engine results.