20 Best SEO Website Builders to Boost Rankings in 2024

Building a website can be tricky business. Believe me, I’ve been there. When I first started my online business, I was clueless about things like search engine optimization (SEO). I just wanted to get my site up and running.

But then I realized – if people can’t find your site on Google, you might as well not have a site at all! This was a tough lesson that cost me thousands in lost business.

After that rocky start, I became obsessed with making my website visible in search engines. And let me tell you – choosing the right website builder for SEO made ALL the difference. Once I optimized my site, traffic and sales started flowing in.

Now I want to help you avoid the mistakes I made. In this post, we’ll explore the key features that make a website builder SEO-friendly. I’ll also share my top recommendations for the best SEO website builders in 2024.

Let’s dive in!

What Makes a Website Builder SEO-Friendly?

SEO learner utilizing advanced website builder features for optimization, with light bulb and completed tasks indicating success.

Building a website is easy these days. With drag and drop website builders like Wix or Squarespace, anyone can throw together a nice looking site.

But just any old website builder won’t cut it if you want to rank in Google and drive traffic to your site.

You need to find the right SEO website builder. One that will help you build an SEO-friendly site that search engines actually like.

I get it though. Who has time to research the best website builders for SEO? You just want to get your site up so you can start attracting visitors!

But now I know that several things make or break a platform’s SEO game.

Here are the most crucial SEO website builder features I look for these days:

1. Built-in SEO Tools

Any builder worth their salt should have SEO tools built right in – I’m talking meta title editors, alt text generators, redirect managers. These give you optimization power without needing to be an expert coder.

2. Your Own Domain

Having your own custom domain instead of a clunky subdomain gives you instant credibility with Google. Plus it’s super branding friendly.

3. Secure Fast Hosting

Your site needs to load lightning fast and have max uptime. Slow, spotty hosting will tank your rankings – so solid infrastructure is a must.

4. Intuitive Editor

You want to be able to update and optimize pages easily without needing a web dev degree. Bonus points if they include SEO guidance for beginners!

5. Ecommerce Capabilities

If you’re running an online store, product pages need special SEO tweaks like rich snippets. Having ecommerce built-in saves you from juggling extra plugins.

6. Customization Options

While beginners can get by with point-and-click editors, advanced users need access to code for next-level SEO control.

7. Trustworthy Reputation

I scrutinize reviews and look for an established history. Battle-tested platforms tend to offer the most robust SEO infrastructure.

Templates – Professionally designed templates help you launch faster and look more polished.

Ease of Use – You want something intuitive that doesn’t require a web design degree!

Pricing – Pick the features you need and budget you can afford. Expand later as you grow.

Speed – Faster sites equal happier visitors and better conversions. Don’t neglect it!

Support – Even SEO experts need help sometimes. Make sure they have good options to assist you.

If you keep those areas in mind, you’re sure to find an SEO website builder that checks your boxes!

That’s why I put this guide together for you. I’ll save you the headache and show you the 7 best SEO website builders available right now.

I even break down the pros, cons and best uses cases for each website builder, so you can easily pick the right one for your specific needs.

Now let’s compare my top picks:

Shopify – The Best Ecommerce SEO Website Builder

Want to sell stuff online? Then Shopify is hands down the best ecommerce website builder you can choose right now.

They make setting up an online store simple and painless. And Shopify has fantastic SEO capabilities built-in to help you get your products found.

Here’s what Shopify offers specially for ecommerce SEO:

Why Shopify Rules for Ecommerce SEO:

SEO-Optimized Themes – Designed specifically to help your product pages rank.
Deep Analytics – Tons of data on traffic sources, top products, conversions and more.
Speed Optimized – CDNs, caching and image compression for fast load times.
Accept Payments – Securely accept credit cards and payments in 100+ currencies.

The one catch is that Shopify charges transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments. But honestly, the fees are worth it for everything you get from the platform.

For any ecommerce business, Shopify is hands down the best SEO website builder available.

Best For: Online stores big and small. If you plan to sell stuff online, Shopify can help you drive way more SEO traffic to your products. Try Shopify Free Now..

Weebly – Easiest to Use

If working with website builders usually makes you want to flip your desk, Weebly will be a breath of fresh air. It’s what I recommend to people who just want things to be simple.

My favorite parts:

Drag and Drop Website Builder: Adding content or changing design is SO easy and intuitive.
100+ Templates: Nice professionally designed templates to start with.
Great Support Articles: Answers pretty much any question you could have while building your site.

Pricing is reasonable too, starting at $6 month. One of the best values out there.

I’d say the only negatives are design customization is limited, and it can feel a bit pushy to upgrade to paid plans even when you don’t need to yet.

Best For: Beginners, bloggers, simple business sites.

Network Solutions

Network Solutions focuses on secure and reliable web hosting, domains, and online tools for small businesses.

Features & Benefits

Built-in SEO features like metadata editor
Free SSL certificate
Intuitive website builder
Scalable WordPress hosting plans
Solid uptime and performance

Pros & Cons

Pros

Trusted brand with 25+ years experience
Very reliable hosting infrastructure
Free domain for the first year
Helpful customer support

Cons

Website builder has limited capabilities
Renewal price increases
Can seem outdated compared to trendier competitors

Pricing & Value

Plans start at $5.99/month. Considering the trusted hosting and included domain, it offers decent value.

Best For

Established small businesses wanting a secure, no-frills hosting solution.

Hostinger – Fastest Loading Sites

If site speed is your top priority, Hostinger needs to be on your shortlist. Performance is what they do best – your pages will load lightning fast!

Standout features:

Optimized Servers: Makes your site load blazingly fast for visitors.
Free SSL Certificate: Essential both for security and SEO.
Easy-to-Use Interface: Everything you need is right at your fingertips.

Pricing starts at only $1.39 month too. Killer value!

My main gripes are support can be slow, and renewal pricing jumps up. But honestly most hosts do that, and it’s still affordable.

Best For: Beginners, bloggers, small ecommerce stores.

Wix – Best for Beginners Needing an Intuitive Site Builder

Wix is crazy popular website builder. Chances are, you’ve at least heard about them before.

They make it super easy for anyone to build a nice looking website without needing to know how to code.

But Wix isn’t just for good looks. They also have some handy built-in SEO tools.

Why Wix Rocks for Beginner-Friendly SEO:

SEO Wiz – Their SEO wizard walks you through optimizing all the key elements of on-page SEO.
Mobile Ready Templates – All Wix templates are mobile-friendly out of the box, so you don’t have to mess with responsive design.
Decent Analytics – See basic stats on visitors, top pages, referrers and more to improve your content.
Ease of Use – Everything is visual and intuitive, no coding skills needed.

Of course Wix isn’t perfect. Their free plan shows Wix ads which looks unprofessional. And advanced users might want more customization options.

But for beginners who value ease of use and great design, Wix is a stellar choice.

Best For: Small business owners, online stores, photographers, musicians and bloggers. Basically anyone who wants an intuitive, SEO-friendly site builder.

Squarespace – Powerful All-In-One Solution

Like Wix, Squarespace makes building beautiful, professional websites a breeze.

In some ways, I actually prefer Squarespace over Wix. But don’t tell anyone I said that! 🤫

Squarespace balances great design with functionality. Unlike Wix, you retain full ownership over your site.

And their included SEO tools are fantastic:

Why Squarespace Shines for SEO:

SEO Manager – Keyword research, metadata management and search engine indexing tools.
Built-in Image Optimization – Resizes images automatically for fast page loads.
Integrated Analytics – See visitor stats directly inside your Squarespace dashboard.
Easy SSL – Free SSL certificate to easily enable HTTPS security.

The one downside with Squarespace is their app ecosystem doesn’t have quite as many options for integrating other tools compared to Wix or WordPress.

However, if you want a beautiful all-in-one website, Squarespace is a stellar choice that can absolutely get you ranking high in search.

Best For: Squarespace works great for small businesses, online stores, restaurants, creatives and bloggers. It’s an all-around solid choice.

Webflow – For Designers Wanting Complete SEO Control

Designers listen up! Say hello to your new best friend…Webflow.

While site builders like Wix and Squarespace use pre-made templates, Webflow website builder that offers 100% customization and flexibility.

You can create completely unique, SEO-optimized sites all inside Webflow’s intuitive visual interface.

And since Webflow sites load from their own servers, you get speed and hosting built-in too.

Here’s what makes Webflow fantastic for SEO:

Why Webflow Excels for Custom SEO Sites:

Total Design Freedom – Customize anything and everything to your heart’s content.
Built-in Hosting – Lightning fast speeds, free SSL and HTTP/2 enabled.
SEO Site Mapping – See all pages on your site and how they connect for improved SEO.
PageSpeed Insights – One click testing and recommendations to optimize page speed.

Clearly Webflow crushes it in the custom design department. My main gripe is their pricing starts higher than basic shared hosting plans.

But for the ability to craft completely custom SEO sites all in one platform, Webflow is 100% worth it.

Best For: Freelance designers, marketing agencies and small businesses who value design flexibility and customization.

WordPress – Most Popular CMS Boasts Powerful SEO Plugins

Chances are you’ve heard about WordPress before. After all, over 40% of all websites run on WordPress!

As an open source CMS, WordPress grants you total flexibility over the look, feel and functionality of your site.

While WordPress itself focuses mainly on content management, their library of SEO plugins is unmatched. Here’s a sample:

Why WordPress is Ideal for SEO:

Yoast SEO – The most popular WordPress SEO plugin on the market.
Rank Math – Comprehensive SEO suite with site audit and analysis.
SEOPress – Lightweight SEO plugin great for developers.
Google Analytics – See exactly how people find and use your website.

Clearly WordPress offers stellar SEO customization potential through plugins. Just be prepared to handle hosting, security and updates yourself.

If you’re up for the challenge you can build an incredibly powerful SEO site with WordPress.

Best For: Bloggers, content publishers, small businesses and users wanting maximum flexibility over their website’s SEO.

GoDaddy Website Builder – Decent Built-In SEO for Beginners

GoDaddy powers over 20 million websites. They’re most known for domain names but also offer a simple drag and drop website builder.

The GoDaddy website builder focuses mainly on beginner-friendly SEO features. Check it out:

What GoDaddy Offers for SEO:

Metadata Editor – Lets you customize titles, meta descriptions, alt text and more.
Sitemap Generator – Easily create XML sitemaps to improve search indexing.
Integrated Email & Analytics – See visitor stats and run email marketing campaigns.
SEO Recommendations – Suggestions during setup to optimize your site for search.

One catch with GoDaddy is you need to have your domain with them already. And coders will want more customization options.

But for simple small business sites, GoDaddy provides decent built-in SEO without the learning curve.

Best For: Very small businesses and entrepreneurs wanting an affordable, all-in-one online presence.

SITE123 – 100% Free Website Builder with Decent SEO Features

Last up is SITE123, which offers a completely free website builder option. Even their paid plans start at just $5.

They won’t provide the deepest level of SEO customization. But SITE123 still packs some decent SEO standard features:

What SITE123 Provides SEO-Wise:

Metadata Editor – Customize titles, descriptions and other metadata.
Sitemap Generator – Helps search engines index all your site’s pages.
SEO Manager – See keyword rankings and site visitor locations.
Ecommerce Support – Sell stuff with an online store (paid plans only).

My main gripes with SITE123 are storage limits for free users and not as many customization SEO options compared to other paid builders.

But for personal sites or launching very small passion projects, SITE123 is a decent free website builder choice.

Best For: Freelancers, solopreneurs and tiny startups wanting to test their ideas before paying for a site.

IONOS – Best for Beginners

IONOS is like the cute guy or girl next door – familiar, easy to work with, but still fun and helpful. Even if you’re an absolute beginner to websites, you’ll be up and running in no time.

Some of the things I love:

SEO Checklist: This handy tool walks you through optimizing things like titles, URLs, alt text, speed, etc. Super useful for beginners!
100+ Templates: Nice selection of professional designs so you don’t have to start completely from scratch.
24/7 Support: They have phone, live chat, email, forums…you name it. Help is there when you need it.

Pricing starts at just $1 month too. For all it offers, definitely great value!

The only real downside is storage space is limited on cheaper plans. But for most small sites, it should be fine.

Best For: Complete beginners, bloggers, simple business sites.

Webador – Most Affordable

If you’re bootstrapping it on a tight budget, Webador balances quality with affordability. You can launch a capable site for cheap.

What it has going for it:

Drag & Drop Builder: Very intuitive even for beginners.
100+ Templates: Professionally designed templates to start with.
Free CDN: Makes your site faster for a better user experience.

Pricing starts at $3 month after a free trial. Hard to beat value!

Limitations are less customization flexibility and not as many features as pricier competitors. But it will still meet needs for many basic sites.

Best For: Beginners, bloggers, freelancers, agencies.

Ucraft – Best for Agencies & Freelancers

While all the builders here work for agencies, Ucraft is specifically optimized for web design pros. It’s my top pick if you’re building client sites.

Winning features:

Style Manager: Easily create and manage branding guidelines clients love.
500+ Blocks: Mix and match elements for faster design.
Team Accounts & Collaboration: Share site access and feedback with clients.

Pricing is middle-of-the-road, starting at $8/month. Worth it for all the useful tools that save you time and impress clients.

My main complaint is support can sometimes be slow to respond. But otherwise it’s a fantastic builder for professional site designers.

Best For: Freelancers, agencies, creative pros.

Systeme.io – Most SEO Capability

Last but not least, if advanced SEO tools are your top need, System.io can’t be beaten. I’m continually impressed with their innovative features.

What sets them apart:

SEO Templates: Designed specifically to be search-engine friendly.
Detailed SEO Guidance: Learn over-the-shoulder from experts.
Advanced SEO Tools: Site audit, backlinks analysis, content gap finder.

Pricing is very reasonable too at $6/month. Packs a ton of value!

My main complaint mirrors – support can occasionally be slow. But their self-help content is so good you can often find answers without contacting them.

Best For: Anyone serious about driving maximum organic search traffic – from beginners to seasoned pros. This is my #1 recommendation for SEO results.