WIX Website Tutorial – How to Make a Website with WIX

Search for “Wix website tutorial”, and you’ll find hundreds of guides teaching you how to drag elements, add pages, and publish your site. What you won’t find is honest advice about whether building your own website actually makes commercial sense for your business.

This guide addresses the question UK business owners actually need answered: should you invest 40+ hours learning Wix, or pay professionals to build a WordPress site that scales with your business? We’ll cover when Wix makes legitimate sense, the limitations that eventually force businesses to migrate, and the hidden costs that make “free” website builders surprisingly expensive.

ProfileTree has delivered over 1,000 web projects since 2011 across Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the UK. We’ve seen both successful Wix deployments and costly platform choices that held businesses back. This is what we tell clients as they evaluate their options.

When Wix Actually Makes Sense for UK Businesses

Before explaining why most growing businesses eventually outgrow Wix, let’s establish the legitimate use cases where this website builder delivers value without professional development costs.

Wix works well for:

Portfolio sites for freelancers with established offline networks. A Belfast-based photographer with referral business doesn’t need complex functionality – they need fast image galleries and contact forms. Wix handles this efficiently at £13-25/month.

Appointment booking for sole traders. A Newry massage therapist or Lisburn hairdresser can deploy Wix’s booking system in hours rather than days. The platform’s integrated calendar syncs with mobile devices and sends automatic reminders.

Simple brochure sites for established businesses. If your business relies on word-of-mouth and networking, and your website primarily validates your legitimacy rather than generating leads, Wix’s templates can quickly deliver a professional aesthetic.

Event microsites with defined lifespans. A one-off conference, charity fundraiser, or product launch with a 6-12 month timeframe doesn’t justify the cost of custom development. Wix lets you deploy and dismantle sites without long-term commitment.

The pattern: Wix suits scenarios where website complexity remains static, traffic expectations stay modest (under 10,000 monthly visitors), and the business model doesn’t depend on organic search rankings for customer acquisition.

The Real Cost of DIY Website Building: A Belfast Business Reality Check

“Free” website builders carry hidden costs that UK SMEs discover after investing months of effort. Understanding the total cost of ownership helps you make informed platform decisions.

Time Investment Most Business Owners Underestimate

A Lisburn retail shop owner recently told us she spent 40 hours across 3 months building her Wix site – primarily evenings and weekends when she should have been resting. At even a conservative £30/hour value on her time, that’s £1,200 in opportunity cost.

She then paid £240/year for Wix Business Basic (required for e-commerce), £120 for premium apps (inventory management, email marketing), and £15 for her. co.uk domain. Total year one: £1,575 plus 40 hours of her time.

Our web design service would have delivered a complete WordPress e-commerce solution for £2,800 in 6 weeks, professionally built while she ran her business. The £1,225 difference bought her months of stress and a platform that couldn’t integrate with her Square payment terminal.

The Features You’ll Eventually Need (That Cost Extra)

Wix advertises “free” but charges for commercial necessities:

£13-45/month for plans that remove Wix branding and enable custom domains
£12-35/month for email marketing apps if you exceed 2,000 contacts
£8-20/month for professional booking systems with automated reminders
£15-50/month for advanced SEO apps that match basic WordPress capabilities
£10-30/month for form builders with conditional logic and file uploads

A Northern Ireland B2B services company on Wix Business Unlimited (£35/month) plus required apps pays £720-900/year ongoing – approaching the annual cost of professional WordPress hosting (£200-400/year) plus maintenance (£500-800/year).

The difference: WordPress gives you complete control and unlimited customisation potential. Wix charges monthly fees and imposes feature limitations.

Platform Lock-In: The Migration Cost Nobody Mentions

Here’s what Wix tutorial content won’t tell you: migrating away from Wix is expensive and time-consuming.

A Newry-based marketing consultant built her reputation on Wix, then needed custom client portals and integrated blog functionality that Wix couldn’t support. Our website development service migrated her content to WordPress, but the process required:

• Manually exporting and reformatting 200+ blog posts (Wix export is notoriously problematic)
• Rebuilding contact forms and email integrations from scratch
• Recreating design elements that didn’t translate automatically
• Setting up 301 redirects to preserve her SEO equity (which Wix makes difficult)

The migration cost £1,800 and took 8 weeks – entirely avoidable if she’d started on WordPress. Platform lock-in is a real cost that impacts future business decisions.

WordPress vs Wix: The Comparison That Actually Matters for UK SMEs

Forget feature comparisons. The meaningful question is: what business outcomes does each platform enable?

When Wix Hits Its Ceiling

Most businesses discover Wix limitations when they try to:

Scale content marketing beyond basic blogging. Wix’s blog functionality works for 10-20 posts. At 100+ articles, the platform’s weak taxonomy, limited custom fields, and poor content relationship management become problems. A Belfast law firm trying to build topical authority in employment law hit this ceiling at 80 articles.

Implement advanced SEO strategies. Wix improved dramatically in recent years, but core limitations remain: limited control over site architecture, restricted access to server-side optimisation, constrained ability to implement technical SEO fixes, and poor handling of international SEO with hreflang tags.

These limitations don’t matter for businesses not competing for commercial search terms. They’re deal-breakers for companies that rely on organic search for revenue.

Integrate with business systems. A Belfast wholesaler needed their website to sync with their Sage accounting system, pull real-time inventory from their warehouse management software, and trigger automated reorder alerts. Wix couldn’t handle it. WordPress with custom development could.

Meet accessibility compliance requirements.Northern Ireland businesses serving public sector contracts must comply with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 (WCAG 2.1 AA standard). Wix’s limited code control makes comprehensive accessibility implementation challenging. Our web development services build accessibility into WordPress sites from the ground up, protecting businesses from legal risk while expanding their potential client base.

The WordPress Advantage (When You Actually Need It)

WordPress powers 43% of all websites globally for good reasons:

Complete ownership and control. Your website code belongs to you. You can modify anything, integrate anything, and move hosts freely. No monthly platform fees hold your site hostage.

Unlimited scalability. We’ve built WordPress sites serving 100,000+ monthly visitors without performance issues. The platform scales with your business without artificial limits or “upgrade to enterprise” pricing gates.

Custom functionality without limitations. Need a client portal? Custom booking system? Integration with your CRM? WordPress handles it. A Derry-based training provider needed a complex course booking with conditional logic, group discounts, and integration with Zoom – impossible on Wix, straightforward on WordPress.

True SEO control. Our SEO services leverage WordPress’s complete control over site architecture, speed optimisation, structured data, and technical implementation. We’ve moved multiple clients from Wix to WordPress specifically to unlock the SEO potential their previous platform blocked.

Cost-effective long-term. After initial development investment, WordPress hosting costs £200-600/year versus Wix’s £240-900/year in perpetual subscription fees. Over 5 years, the financial advantage compounds.

Decision Framework: Which Platform for Your Business?

Choose Wix if:

• Your website needs to remain simple and static
• You need deployment in 1-2 days, not weeks
• Your business doesn’t depend on organic search for customer acquisition
• Monthly subscription costs don’t concern you
• You’ll never need complex integrations or custom functionality

Choose WordPress with professional development if:

• Content marketing drives your business strategy
• You compete for commercial search terms in your industry
• You need custom functionality or business system integrations
• You serve public sector clients requiring accessibility compliance
• You want platform ownership without vendor lock-in
• You’re building for 5+ year horizons

How to Use Wix: The Tutorial Content You Actually Need

If you’ve decided Wix suits your business needs, here’s how to use the platform effectively without wasting weeks on trial-and-error.

Before Getting Started on Wix

Before anyone gets started with building a website – and this goes for all web builders, including Wix – you should have a brief idea of the finished product.

You should know what your website will be about and what content is needed. Is the website built on images, if it’s a photography portfolio? Will you need an about page, service pages, and contact forms?

Research your competitors online. Do they do anything on their website that you like? What content do they include? This research will give you an idea of how to complete the development stage without going in blind.

Plan your website before starting. Have an idea of the colours you’ll use, what pages you’ll need, and what specific features you require (gallery, booking system, contact forms). If you already have a logo, the colour scheme should complement it.

Wix Tutorial: Logging In or Signing Up to Wix

The easiest way to sign up for Wix is to use an existing social media account you already have. You have a choice between Facebook and Google. Use accounts linked to your business or professional social media.

If you don’t want to use social accounts, you can sign up directly with your email. Once signed up it will take you to the next stage of either starting with Wix Editor or Wix ADI.

Starting With Wix Editor

The Wix editor is the main way users start to build a website with Wix. Once you click to start with Wix editor, you can choose from a large range of templates available for your site. These relate to many categories such as e-commerce, design, and portfolio themes. You can also use a blank template and start from scratch.

Before starting your build, you should know about the different elements the editor offers:

Background element: Change the background of your site on whichever page you’re on. Use images from Wix or your own uploaded images, as well as videos for the background. You can also choose solid colour backgrounds.

Add element: The building block of your website. All options in the add element will be everything you need to build your website.

App Market: Allows users in Wix to add social media, online store apps, and more. These apps will help your site reach its full potential.

My Upload: Where users of Wix can add images, vector images, videos, fonts and other documents.

Start Blogging: Manage or upload new posts to your site. Posts should surround the topic of your site.

Sell Online: If your site has this element, you can start selling products. If not, you can find it in the app market.

Pages: Manage your pages and add new pages. All of these pages come together to make your website.

Site Settings: Connect your domain name, add your favicon, set up a professional mailbox, and configure analytics.

Adding Navigation and Basic Elements

To add navigation, go to the Add Element and select Menu. Wix will automatically include each of your pages within the navigation bar. Drag and drop it onto your page, then resize it to the size you want. Place it in the page header so the navigation appears on every page of your site.

To add a title, go to the add element. Many sites use logos as their titles. In the add element, go to add image, then drag and drop whichever image you want and stretch it to the desired size.

If you don’t have an image for a title or don’t want one, use text as the title. Go to the Add Element, add text, choose the style that suits you, and customise the colours and alignment.

How to Delete on Wix

It’s very easy to delete within Wix. Wix uses the backspace button on the keyboard to delete. Simply click on the section of text, box or strip to delete and hit backspace. You can also double-click on the section and press the delete button (trash can icon) that appears.

GDPR, Accessibility and UK Regulatory Compliance for Wix Websites

UK businesses face specific legal requirements that generic Wix tutorial content written for American audiences completely ignores. Understanding these obligations protects you from fines and expands your addressable market.

GDPR Compliance for UK Wix Websites

Since Brexit, UK businesses still need to comply with UK GDPR (which mirrors EU GDPR for practical purposes). Your Wix website requires:

Cookie consent banners are configured in accordance with UK law. Wix provides a cookie banner tool, but the default settings don’t meet UK legal standards. You must:

• Obtain consent BEFORE setting non-essential cookies
• Provide granular control (not just “accept all”)
• Log consent for audit purposes
• Allow withdrawal of consent easily

Access this through Site Settings > Cookie Banner in your Wix dashboard. Configure it to meet UK requirements, not default American-style notifications.

Privacy policy covering UK requirements. Your privacy policy must explain what data you collect, the legal basis for processing, how long you retain it, and data subject rights under UK GDPR. Wix’s generic privacy policy templates often cite California law (CCPA) and need UK-specific adaptation.

Data processing agreements. Wix acts as your data processor. Review their DPA to understand your legal responsibilities. If you collect sensitive personal data (health information, ethnic origin, political opinions), you need explicit consent with higher bars than basic contact details.

Accessibility Compliance for Public Sector Clients

The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 require WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance for any organisation providing services to UK public sector bodies. This includes:

• Proper heading hierarchy (H1-H6 used correctly)
• Alt text for all meaningful images
• Sufficient colour contrast (4.5:1 for normal text)
• Keyboard navigation support
• Screen reader compatibility

Wix sites can achieve basic accessibility, but advanced compliance requires code-level control that Wix restricts. If you pursue public sector contracts, this becomes a real limitation.

Our web development services build accessibility into WordPress sites from the foundation, providing the code-level control needed for comprehensive compliance.

UK Payment Processing and VAT Considerations

Payment gateways: Connect Stripe UK, PayPal, or Wix Payments configured for GBP transactions. Avoid connecting US-based payment processors that charge currency conversion fees on every transaction.

VAT settings: Wix’s e-commerce dashboard allows VAT rate configuration. Set this correctly from day one:

• 20% standard rate for most goods and services
• 5% reduced rate for specific categories (children’s car seats, home energy)
• 0% zero-rated (most food, books, children’s clothing)

Get this wrong, and you’re either overcharging customers or personally liable for unpaid VAT.

Making Tax Digital (MTD): If your turnover exceeds £85,000, you must use MTD-compatible software for VAT submissions. Wix doesn’t integrate with MTD directly. You’ll need accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks) to bridge this gap.

Connecting a .co.uk Domain to Your Wix Website

Most UK businesses prefer .co.uk domains over .com addresses. Connecting an existing .co.uk domain from 123-Reg, GoDaddy, or Namecheap requires specific DNS configuration.

You have two options:

Pointing (keeping your domain with your current registrar): Update the DNS records to point to Wix’s name servers. This keeps your domain registration separate, but it requires proper DNS configuration.

Transferring (moving domain to Wix): Transfer your domain registration to Wix. This simplifies management but locks your domain into Wix’s ecosystem (creating migration headaches if you later switch platforms).

For .co.uk domains specifically, ensure your current registrar doesn’t charge “transfer out” fees (some UK registrars do). Budget £10-15 for the domain renewal that typically accompanies transfers.

Hosting, Domains, SEO and Wix Premium Plans

Adding a Domain and Hosting to Your Wix Site

With Wix, you get a free domain, but ‘Wix’ will be attached to the address (yoursite.wixsite.com/something). This is terrible for search results and professional credibility. You’ll want to buy your own domain and connect it to your website.

Premium domain names can be expensive, especially those that combine country codes like .co, .uk, and .ie with popular keywords.

Wix offers free hosting, but Wix adverts will appear on your site if you use the free plan. To change this, you’ll need to upgrade to a Wix Premium plan.

Upgrading to Wix Premium: UK Pricing

Once you upgrade to Wix Premium, you’ll see no adverts on your site. You’ll also get access to Google Analytics, which helps your site rank in search engines. Your hosting and domain can be connected when you upgrade to premium.

Wix UK Pricing Plans (2026):

Light Plan (£13/month, £126/year):

• Remove Wix ads
• Connect custom domain
• 2GB storage
• No e-commerce
• Suitable for basic brochure sites only

Core Plan (£25/month, £240/year):

• Everything in Light
• Accept online payments (crucial for e-commerce)
• Customer accounts
• Basic marketing integrations
• Suitable for small online shops with limited products

Business Plan (£35/month, £336/year):

• Everything in Core
• Professional logo maker
• Social media logo files
• Video hours: 5 hours
• Best for businesses with moderate e-commerce needs

Business Elite Plan (£127/month, £1,219/year):

• Everything in Business
• Priority support
• VIP response team
• 100 video hours
• For established e-commerce businesses with high traffic

SEO with Wix SEO Wiz

The basics of SEO help search engines understand your website and what it’s about. Using algorithms, search engines rank your site appropriately for specific searches. Ideally, you want your site on the first page of search results, which requires consistent effort.

Wix SEO Wiz makes basic SEO steps easier by offering suggestions, such as keywords which relate to your website. Once you set your keywords, the tool analyses them. Have a mixture of short-tail and long-tail keywords, as long-tail keywords are easier to rank for. The tool then offers you an SEO plan.

Wix SEO Limitations to Understand:

Basic SEO compliance doesn’t achieve first-page rankings for competitive terms. Wix improved dramatically in recent years, but limitations remain for businesses serious about organic search:

• Limited control over site architecture and URL structures
• Restricted access to server-side optimisation
• Constrained ability to implement technical SEO fixes
• No meaningful control over page speed beyond basic optimisation

For businesses where SEO drives revenue, these limitations eventually become problems. Our SEO services leverage WordPress’s complete control over technical implementation to help Belfast and Northern Ireland businesses rank for commercially valuable search terms.

When to Migrate from Wix to Professional WordPress Development

Most businesses outgrow Wix when they need:

Content marketing at scale. Publishing 100+ optimised articles requires robust content management Wix doesn’t provide. A Belfast law firm trying to build topical authority discovered this at 80 articles when their Wix blog became unmanageable.

Advanced lead generation. Conditional forms, multi-step lead qualification, CRM integration, and sophisticated email automation all hit Wix’s functional ceiling quickly.

E-commerce beyond 50 products. Wix handles small online shops adequately. At 100+ SKUs with variant combinations, custom shipping rules, and wholesale pricing tiers, the platform struggles.

Custom functionality. Client portals, membership areas, custom dashboards, and specialised tools require development freedom that Wix restricts.

Public sector accessibility compliance. Comprehensive WCAG 2.1 AA compliance requires code-level control that Wix doesn’t provide.

ProfileTree has migrated dozens of businesses from Wix to WordPress when platform limitations blocked growth. We preserve SEO equity during migration, ensure design continuity, and deliver functionality your previous platform couldn’t support.

Is Wix Better Than WordPress?

This question misframes the decision. Both platforms serve different business needs:

Wix excels at: Speed to deployment, ease of use for non-technical users, and adequate functionality for simple business websites with static requirements.

WordPress excels at: Scalability, custom functionality, true SEO control, platform ownership, and long-term cost efficiency.

The right choice depends on your business model, growth trajectory, and technical requirements – not which platform is “better” in abstract terms.

What’s genuinely better: making an informed platform decision aligned with your 5-year business goals, not your immediate deployment timeline.

How Much Does Wix Cost?

Wix is one of the largest website builders in the world and offers a free service tier. However, professional websites require premium features, including a domain name, site apps, and priority support.

Apps range from forms and online store applications to business tools and booking systems. These can determine whether your site meets business requirements or falls short of them.

For UK small businesses, expect total annual costs of £240-900/year, depending on which plan and apps you require. Over 5 years, this exceeds the cost of professional WordPress development plus hosting.

Is Wix Good for E-Commerce?

Wix offers many e-commerce features and apps. Depending on which template you use, e-commerce may already be built in. You can also add e-commerce to your site using the app market if your template doesn’t include it.

Wix can be good for e-commerce if your needs remain modest:

• Under 50 products
• Simple shipping rules
• Standard payment processing
• Basic inventory management

Beyond these parameters, Wix’s e-commerce limitations become problems. Complex product variants, wholesale pricing, custom shipping calculations, and integration with warehouse management systems all push against Wix’s functional ceiling.

Can I Earn Money From Wix?

Yes. You can earn money from Wix. Depending on what your site is, you can earn money through:

Selling products: E-commerce sites on the web builder. This is the main way users earn money from Wix.

Having your own domain: Professional domain names help your site rank higher within search engines, driving organic traffic that converts to revenue.

Advertisements on your site: These will be your own ads, not Wix ads, so you’ll need a premium Wix account.

Blogging, drop-shipping and digital marketing: Other revenue models that work on Wix platforms.

The question isn’t whether you can earn money from Wix (you can), but whether platform limitations restrict your earning potential compared to alternatives. That’s the more meaningful question for UK businesses evaluating platform ROI.

Does Wix Have Support?

The main way users can get support from Wix is by phone, available in three languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Wix also has a help centre where users can find help for many different problems, ranging from setting up a blog to understanding Wix billing. It’s essentially a large FAQs centre. You can also find help on Wix’s social media accounts, where they create and share useful articles.

Making the Right Platform Decision: WIX Website Tutorial

Most Wix tutorials teach you how to drag and drop elements. This guide asked a more fundamental question: Does your business need a website builder, or does it need a website that builds your business?

The Cost Question Nobody Frames Correctly

Wix over 5 years (Core plan plus apps) costs around £2,400. WordPress professional development costs around £6,800 over the same period. That makes Wix look cheaper until you consider what each investment delivers.

Wix offers deployment speed and the convenience of a monthly subscription. WordPress gives you complete SEO control, unlimited custom functionality, platform ownership, and scalability without artificial limits. You’re not buying website software. You’re buying strategic flexibility for your business.

The Migration Pattern We See Repeatedly

ProfileTree has migrated dozens of Belfast and Northern Ireland businesses from Wix to WordPress. The pattern repeats: Wix works perfectly for 6-12 months, then businesses hit limitations as they grow. Blog management becomes clunky, SEO ceilings become visible, and functionality requirements exceed platform capabilities.

Migration at 18-24 months costs £1,500-3,000 plus lost SEO equity during transition. The business that started on WordPress is 18 months ahead in content marketing and technical optimisation. Choose for where you’re going, not where you are today.

When Each Platform Makes Sense

Choose Wix if:

• Your website needs to remain simple and static
• You need deployment in days, not weeks
• Your business doesn’t depend on organic search for customers
• You’ll never need complex integrations or custom functionality

Choose WordPress with professional development if:

• Content marketing will drive your business strategy
• You compete for commercial search terms
• You need custom functionality or business system integrations
• You serve public sector clients requiring accessibility compliance
• You’re building for 5+ year horizons

Your Next Step

ProfileTree offers free platform consultations for Belfast and Northern Ireland businesses. We’ll assess your requirements and recommend the approach that serves your business goals – whether that’s Wix, WordPress, or something else entirely.

Platform decisions impact your business for years. Invest 30 minutes in a consultation to help you choose the right time the first time.

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