Wix is an industry-leading web creation platform that gives you everything you need to create, manage and grow your online presence. Whether you’re a passionate creative, budding entrepreneur, or established business owner, Wix makes it easy to bring your ideas to life thanks to a full range of intuitive tools and built-in features.
The first step when building a Wix site is to sign up for a free Wix account. To do this, go to the Wix.com sign up page. Register with your email address, Facebook account or Google credentials. Click Sign Up and you’re all set.
Creating a successful website begins at the conception phase. This should be driven by your goals for your site and who your target audience is. Do you want to make money online? Showcase your talents and land a job? Or maybe you want to create a space online for people who share the same interests as you? Whatever your ultimate goal is, it should be reflected in your choice of website.
To give you an idea, here are some of the most popular types of Wix websites:
Wix offers a variety of creation options, all you need to do is decide which one is right for you. Some key considerations for this would be how much time and effort you’re willing to commit to building your site and what your current level of expertise is in this area.
For example, the Wix Editor is perfect for people of all skill-levels as you can easily drag and drop what you need into a range of pre-designed templates. Editor X, on the other hand, is more suited to designers and web professionals as it offers more advanced features, such as layering and responsive breakpoints.
Another route you can take is to hire a professional. You can explore the full range of Wix Partners through the Wix Marketplace. Note that everyone here is verified by Wix, ensuring their skills are of the highest quality. To find the right match, browse past projects and customer reviews, or you can answer a few questions and get connected to a suitable partner.
Wix’s templates are researched by experts and professionally designed to meet the needs of each specific industry. This means that whether you’re a restaurateur or fitness professional, you’ll find all the unique features you need to cater to your customers. With over 900 options for you to choose from, it’s a good idea to explore these website templates by category to find the one that best suits your priorities and design preferences. You can also delve into these Wix websites for inspiration and to get an idea of what a template looks like in action.
No matter which template you choose, the Wix Editor gives you the freedom to add and remove site elements with ease so that you can adapt the look and feel of your site. Whenever you choose a template with Wix, you’ll automatically be taken to the Wix Editor where you can customize it as you see fit.
The Wix Editor is packed full of features to help you create the site you want. There are 3 main menus inside the Editor, which allow you to perform a number of different actions to build and manage your site. These are the left menu, top bar menu, and the right-click menu.
The left menu
The menu on the left side of the Editor contains all the features you need to build your site. Add elements and apps, and manage your pages. The features available in the left menu are:
: In this panel you’ll find tons of elements to add to your site. Use the tabs to navigate between the types of elements.
: Use this panel to add sections to your pages. There are a variety of pre-made designs available, or you can add a blank section to start from scratch.
: From here you can add, delete and manage your site’s pages.
: Manage your site’s colors, text themes, page backgrounds and transitions.
: Browse hundreds of apps in the Wix App Market and find the ones that suit your needs.
: Add media files to your Media Manager or purchase professional images and videos to use on your site.
The top bar menu
The menu bar at the top of the Editor contains several tools and settings.
From left to right:
The right-click menu
Right-click any element (on Mac press control and click) to open the right-click menu. Here you’ll find options and actions that vary depending on the element you click.
Adding pages to your site
Adding pages to your Wix site helps create an engaging and informative experience for your visitors. For example, you might want to add an About page, a Contact page, or a Terms and Conditions page. Wix offers a variety of pre-designed page templates with customizable elements to help you expand your site quickly and easily. Of course, you can always choose to build from scratch with a blank page. Either way, any new page you add will be automatically added to your site menu.
To add a new page, go to Menus & Pages on the left side of the Editor, click Main Pages and then + Add Page at the bottom of the panel.
Now that you’ve added all the pages that you want, it’s time to start putting your own touch on them. The Wix Editor contains hundreds of customizable elements that you can use to make your web presence completely unique. Choose from images, text, shapes, strips and more to create your site.
Click Add Elements on the left side of the Editor to start adding elements. Once you’ve added elements, you can customize them to suit your site’s look and feel.
Select an element and click the Settings 
, Design 
, Layout 
or Animate
icons to customize it. Depending on the element selected, you’ll see different customization options.
The Site Design panel can be used to adjust your site’s look, theme, and behavior. To get started, click Site Design on the left side of the Editor, and customize it with the following options:
Adding a social bar to your site is a great way to encourage visitors to keep up with your brand, plus it helps build your credibility.
To add a social bar to your site, click Add on the left side of the Editor, then click Social Bar. Drag this element onto your page and then add your own social links.
The good news is, Wix automatically creates a mobile-friendly version of your site using the content from your desktop site. This means that all your content is resized to suit smaller screens. But given that more than 80% of internet users surf the web on mobile devices, you may want to customize your site even more. That’s where the Wix mobile Editor comes in.
Some of the ways you can optimize the mobile view of your site include changing your pages’ layout, hiding desktop content and including mobile-only content. For example, a Back to Top button makes your site a lot easier to navigate for people scrolling on their phones.
To open the mobile Editor, click the Switch to Mobile icon 
 at the top of the Editor. To switch back to your desktop view, just click the Switch to Desktop icon 
. It’s important to note that changes to your desktop site affect your mobile site, while changes to your mobile site do not affect your desktop site.
One of the most important pieces of content on any site is the domain name. It gives your site a personalized, unique web address that people can use to find you online. For example, this website’s domain name is www.websitebuildertips.com
So, how do domain names work with Wix? If you publish your site for free, you’ll be given a domain by Wix. The format of a free Wix site URL is accountname.wixsite.com/siteaddress.
It’s easy to change this URL, as all you have to do is edit your account name or site address. You can edit your account name in your Account Settings. Your site address, on the other hand, is created when you first save your site, and this can be edited in your site’s dashboard.
Alternatively, you can remove the Wix branding from your URL by buying a custom domain. Wix is a certified domain registrar, which means you can find and register the domain for your site directly on the platform. A big bonus of upgrading your Wix site to Premium is that you get a free 1-year domain voucher. Once you’ve upgraded, just go to your site’s Domains page, click Buy a Domain, and follow the on-screen instructions.
Building a strong SEO foundation is critical if you want your site to get found in search results. Luckily, Wix gives you a personalized SEO Setup Checklist you can follow. To get started, go to SEO Tools in your site’s dashboard, answer a few simple questions about your site, and make sure you complete all the checklist tasks. If you do this, you’ll be well on your way to growing some organic traffic.
You can find the Save, Preview and Publish buttons at the top right of the Wix Editor. Click Save regularly so you don’t lose any of your work. Keep in mind, saved changes won’t appear on your site until it’s published. Click Preview to see how your site will look to visitors, and finally, click Publish in the top right corner when you’re ready for your site to go live.
