Wix includes free SEO tools with every website. They cover the basics — but "the basics" might not be enough to compete. Here's an honest look at what Wix SEO handles, what it misses, and where NetNav fills the gaps.
You've just launched your site, you're on a tight budget, and you need to get the foundational SEO settings right. Wix's built-in tools will help you set meta titles, connect to Google Search Console, and generate a sitemap. For the first few months, that may be all you need.
Your Wix site is live and you want to know how your entire digital presence is actually performing — not just whether your meta tags are filled in. You want monitoring, opportunity detection, local presence management, AI visibility, and someone watching over your site while you run your business.
Wix includes a suite of SEO features built directly into its website builder platform. The centrepiece is the SEO Wiz (now called the SEO Setup Checklist) — a step-by-step guide that walks you through basic SEO settings when you first launch your site.
Wix SEO tools are designed to help website owners without marketing experience get their basic SEO foundations right. They cover on-page essentials: meta titles and descriptions, heading structure, image alt text, URL customisation, sitemap generation, robots.txt editing, and Google Search Console connection.
For many Wix users, these tools are the first (and only) SEO functionality they've ever used. That's fine for getting started — but it creates a false sense of coverage. Having your meta tags filled in doesn't mean your digital presence is healthy, any more than having a front door means your house is secure.
Wix SEO tools are included with every Wix plan at no additional cost. They're designed for:
NetNav is a digital marketing companion that monitors, analyses, and guides your entire online presence — not just your website's SEO, but every part of how your business shows up digitally. Read our story →
Think of it this way: Wix SEO tools help you set up your website's on-page basics. NetNav is a companion that runs in the background, watches over your digital presence, surfaces what matters — both problems and opportunities — and gives you a clear, evolving roadmap for what to do next.
NetNav covers nine pillars of your digital presence:
Every finding comes with three things: what's happening, why it matters to your business in plain English, and step-by-step guidance on what to do about it. But NetNav doesn't just find problems. It actively identifies growth opportunities — gaps your competitors are missing, local search terms you could own, emerging channels where your business should be visible. See how NetNav works →
NetNav is designed for:
This isn't really a head-to-head comparison. Wix SEO tools and NetNav do fundamentally different jobs.
Wix SEO tools help you set up your website correctly. They're a setup checklist — make sure your pages have titles, your images have descriptions, your sitemap exists. They're about building the foundation. Once the setup is done, the tools are mostly done too.
NetNav monitors, guides, and improves your entire digital presence over time. It doesn't just check if your meta tags exist — it monitors whether your site is performing, whether competitors are overtaking you, whether your business appears in AI search, whether your Google Business Profile is working for you, and whether new opportunities are emerging that you should act on.
Think of it this way: Wix SEO is like a building inspector who checks your house once before you move in. NetNav is like a property management service that watches over everything, fixes issues before they become problems, and tells you when the market creates an opportunity to increase your property's value.
Put simply: Wix SEO tools help you launch correctly. NetNav helps you grow continuously. One is a checklist. The other is a companion. And they work brilliantly together.
Built for: Wix SEO — Wix website owners setting up SEO | NetNav — Any small business owner (any platform)
| Feature | Wix SEO | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Wix website owners setting up SEO | Any small business owner (any platform) |
| Core philosophy | Get your SEO basics right | Monitor, guide, and grow your full digital presence |
| Price | Free (included with Wix) | Free Scan / Navigate £29 / Accelerate £49 |
| Works with any platform | Wix only | Any website platform |
| Feature | Wix SEO | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| On-page SEO setup | Meta tags, headings, alt text, URLs | Plus ongoing analysis and recommendations |
| Sitemap generation | Automatic | Checks sitemap health and indexing |
| Website performance & speed | Not covered | Dedicated pillar with business impact |
| Accessibility | Not covered | Full accessibility analysis |
| Security & trust signals | SSL included with Wix | SSL + trust markers + compliance checks |
| Mobile experience | Responsive by default | Dedicated mobile UX analysis |
| Content quality | Not covered | Readability, relevance, gaps |
| Local presence | Not covered | Local SEO, GBP, citations |
| Social signals | Not covered | Social presence health |
| AI search visibility | Not covered | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity |
| Competitor analysis | Not covered | Competitor benchmarking (Accelerate tier) |
| Feature | Wix SEO | NetNav |
|---|---|---|
| Setup guidance | Step-by-step SEO checklist | Plus ongoing roadmap that evolves |
| Ongoing monitoring | One-time setup | Continuous + proactive alerts |
| Opportunity detection | Not covered | Competitor gaps, local wins, AI visibility |
| Personalised roadmap | Generic checklist for all users | Tailored to your business and market |
| Score journey & progress | Not covered | Visual journey with milestones & timelines |
| Step-by-step fix guidance | SEO checklist items | Evidence, steps, estimated time |
| Learning resources | Wix help articles | Built-in Blueprint guides contextual to your tasks |
| Executive-ready reports | Not covered | Boss-ready reporting |
Core philosophy: Wix SEO — Get your SEO basics right | NetNav — Monitor, guide, and grow your full digital presence
Price: Wix SEO — Free (included with Wix) | NetNav — Free Scan / Navigate £29 / Accelerate £49
Works with any platform: Wix SEO — Wix only | NetNav — Any website platform
On-page SEO setup: Wix SEO — Meta tags, headings, alt text, URLs | NetNav — Plus ongoing analysis and recommendations
Sitemap generation: Wix SEO — Automatic | NetNav — Checks sitemap health and indexing
Website performance & speed: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Dedicated pillar with business impact
Accessibility: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Full accessibility analysis
Security & trust signals: Wix SEO — SSL included with Wix | NetNav — SSL + trust markers + compliance checks
Mobile experience: Wix SEO — Responsive by default | NetNav — Dedicated mobile UX analysis
Content quality: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Readability, relevance, gaps
Local presence: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Local SEO, GBP, citations
Social signals: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Social presence health
AI search visibility: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity
Competitor analysis: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Competitor benchmarking (Accelerate tier)
Setup guidance: Wix SEO — Step-by-step SEO checklist | NetNav — Plus ongoing roadmap that evolves
Ongoing monitoring: Wix SEO — One-time setup | NetNav — Continuous + proactive alerts
Opportunity detection: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Competitor gaps, local wins, AI visibility
Personalised roadmap: Wix SEO — Generic checklist for all users | NetNav — Tailored to your business and market
Score journey & progress: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Visual journey with milestones & timelines
Step-by-step fix guidance: Wix SEO — SEO checklist items | NetNav — Evidence, steps, estimated time
Learning resources: Wix SEO — Wix help articles | NetNav — Built-in Blueprint guides contextual to your tasks
Executive-ready reports: Wix SEO — Not covered | NetNav — Boss-ready reporting
Let's be specific about what you get with Wix SEO:
These are genuine foundations. If you haven't done these things, Wix's SEO Checklist will walk you through them.
That's not a criticism of Wix — SEO setup tools aren't meant to do those things. But many Wix users believe their SEO is "done" once the checklist is complete. It's not. The checklist is step one of a much longer journey.
Wix's SEO Checklist is a one-time setup guide. You work through the items — add your site title, connect Search Console, set page titles — and once they're checked off, the tool is essentially complete. There's no ongoing assessment, no prioritisation by business impact, and no monitoring of whether your changes are working.
NetNav starts with a comprehensive Scan across nine pillars — including everything Wix checked plus eight more dimensions of your digital presence. But the Scan is the beginning, not the end.
Wix gives you a checklist. NetNav gives you a journey. Here's what that looks like:
NetNav doesn't just tell you where you are. It shows you where you're going, what to do at each stage, and how long it will take. See how the roadmap works →
Wix tells you to add a page title. NetNav tells you what your page title should actually say and why. Setup guidance vs ongoing improvement.
Add a page title and meta description: Add a unique title and description for each page. These appear in search results and help search engines understand your content.
Your About page title isn't helping you rank locally: Your About page title is 'About Us' — generic and not location-specific. Your competitors use titles like 'About | Trusted Accountants in Sunderland Since 2005'. This helps them rank for local searches while building trust in the search results.
Evidence: Top 3 competitors for 'accountant Sunderland' all include location and trust signals in their page titles. Your current title matches 0 local search patterns.
Estimated time: 10 minutes
NetNav tracks your progress through milestones: from your first scan through quick wins, foundation fixes, growth phase, and ongoing optimisation.
This is the biggest difference between Wix SEO tools and NetNav — and the one most Wix users don't realise exists.
Once you complete the SEO Checklist, Wix's SEO tools are essentially passive. There are no alerts if your site speed drops. No notification if your Google Business Profile gets flagged. No warning if a competitor overtakes you for a key search term. No monitoring of how you appear in AI search results. No detection of broken links, expired SSL certificates, or accessibility issues that develop over time.
Your site changes. Your competitors change. Google's algorithm changes. AI search emerges as a new channel. Wix's SEO tools don't adapt to any of this after the initial setup.
NetNav monitors continuously and comes to you when something needs attention. This is the fundamental shift from "set up once" to "managed ongoing."
Examples of what NetNav catches that Wix SEO doesn't:
Wix SEO tools set you up. NetNav watches over you. For the first week after launching your site, Wix's checklist is all you need. For every week after that, you need monitoring — and Wix doesn't provide it.
Wix SEO tools don't address AI search visibility. They're built around traditional Google SEO — helping pages appear in standard search results. As more potential customers use ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity to find businesses, this is an increasingly significant gap.
NetNav includes AI search visibility as one of its nine monitoring pillars. It tracks how your business appears (or doesn't appear) when people use AI tools to find services like yours. Learn more about AI search visibility →
Wix SEO is optimised for traditional search. NetNav covers both traditional and AI search. As AI search grows, this gap becomes increasingly costly for businesses that aren't monitoring their visibility.
The way people search is changing. Increasingly, potential customers are asking ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI tools for recommendations instead of scrolling through traditional search results. If your business isn't visible in these AI-generated answers, you're invisible to a growing segment of your market.
Free. Included with every Wix plan from free to Business VIP. This is a genuine advantage — there's no additional cost for basic SEO setup.
Wix SEO tools are free and cover SEO setup. NetNav's Scan is also free and covers your full digital presence assessment. The comparison isn't really about price — it's about what happens after the setup.
If your budget allows £29/month, NetNav Navigate gives you ongoing monitoring, alerts, opportunity detection, and an evolving roadmap. That's the cost of a few coffees for a service that watches your entire digital presence while you focus on customers.
If you're a solo marketer, Accelerate at £49/month adds competitor benchmarking, AI visibility tracking, and executive reporting — the tools that prove you're on top of things.
Wix SEO is free and covers setup. NetNav's free Scan covers your full digital presence. The real value starts with Navigate at £29/month — ongoing monitoring and guidance that Wix doesn't provide at any price.
Scan — Free forever: Full 9-pillar digital presence audit. Navigate — £29/mo (£23/mo annual): Continuous monitoring + proactive alerts. Accelerate — £49/mo (£39/mo annual): Competitor benchmarking + AI visibility + executive reporting.
Free and built-in. No additional subscription, no separate login, no configuration. SEO settings are right there in the page editor. For a first-time website owner, this frictionlessness is valuable.
Guided setup for beginners. The SEO Checklist walks you through each step with explanations. If you've never thought about meta descriptions before, Wix makes it approachable.
Automatic technical foundations. Sitemap generation, canonical tags, SSL certificates, mobile responsiveness — Wix handles technical SEO fundamentals automatically. You don't need to know what a sitemap is for Wix to generate one.
Built into the editing workflow. When you're editing a page in Wix, SEO settings are right there. Title, description, URL, alt text — all accessible without leaving the editor. This keeps SEO as part of the content creation process rather than a separate task.
Wix's App Market. While the built-in SEO tools are basic, Wix's App Market includes third-party SEO tools (some free, some paid) that extend functionality. These can bridge some gaps.
These features matter. For someone building their first website, Wix's built-in SEO tools remove barriers that used to make basic SEO inaccessible. The question is whether basic SEO setup is enough for your business.
Wix's built-in SEO tools aren't trying to be NetNav. They're doing a different job, and they do it well. Here's what Wix handles genuinely well.
The best tool isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that actually makes your business better given who you are and how you work.
All reviews sourced from verified third-party review platforms and public community forums.
Not only can you — you should. This is the one comparison where we actively recommend using both tools together.
Wix is where your website lives. It handles the hosting, the editor, the basic SEO settings, the automatic technical foundations. That's its job and it does it well.
NetNav watches over your entire digital presence — including your Wix site, your Google Business Profile, your social signals, your local visibility, your AI search presence, and your competitive position. It monitors what Wix can't, catches what Wix doesn't, and guides what Wix won't.
Keep your Wix site. Add NetNav. That's the complete setup.
Wix's SEO tools are good at what they do — helping website owners set up basic SEO foundations without needing technical expertise. For the setup phase of building a website, they're exactly right: free, integrated, and guided.
But setup is the beginning, not the destination. Your Wix site needs ongoing monitoring, your digital presence extends far beyond your website, and the competitive landscape changes constantly. Wix's SEO tools weren't designed for any of that — and that's fine, because that's not their job.
NetNav picks up where Wix's checklist leaves off. It monitors your full digital presence across nine pillars, surfaces opportunities you wouldn't find on your own, catches problems before they cost you customers, and builds a roadmap that evolves as your business grows.
You don't need to leave Wix. You need to add the companion that watches over everything Wix can't.
Wix provides solid technical SEO foundations — automatic sitemaps, SSL, mobile responsiveness, and guided meta tag setup. For basic SEO, it's a reasonable platform. But Wix's built-in SEO tools are limited to on-page setup. They don't provide ongoing monitoring, competitor analysis, local presence management, AI visibility tracking, or performance alerts.
Wix covers basic on-page SEO setup. If you want to know how your site is actually performing, whether competitors are outranking you, whether your full digital presence is healthy, and what opportunities you're missing — you need more than what Wix provides. NetNav complements Wix by covering the nine pillars of your digital presence that Wix doesn't monitor.
Yes. NetNav works with any website platform — Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Shopify, custom-built sites, or anything else. You don't need to change your website or install anything on Wix. Just enter your URL and NetNav scans your full digital presence.
Wix includes: SEO Setup Checklist, meta title and description editing, custom URLs, heading structure, image alt text, automatic sitemap generation, robots.txt editing, Google Search Console integration, SSL certificates, and mobile-responsive design. These are all included at no extra cost with any Wix plan.
Wix SEO covers on-page setup — the equivalent of laying foundations. But a strong digital presence requires ongoing monitoring, performance tracking, local presence management, accessibility compliance, security oversight, competitor intelligence, and AI search visibility. Wix doesn't provide any of these. NetNav covers all of them.
No. NetNav isn't a website builder. Your Wix site is your home — keep it. NetNav is the service that watches over your digital presence, including your Wix site, and tells you what needs attention and what opportunities exist. They're complementary, not competing.
Yes — and we recommend it. Use Wix's built-in tools for basic on-page SEO while editing your pages. Use NetNav for everything else: ongoing monitoring, performance tracking, local presence, AI visibility, competitor benchmarking, opportunity detection, and your evolving roadmap.
We review and update this page quarterly to ensure accuracy. If you notice anything that's changed, please let us know.
Disclaimer: Wix.com Ltd is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison is based on publicly available information and was last reviewed in February 2026. NetNav is not affiliated with Wix.com Ltd.
Last updated: February 2026 · 12 min read · Reviewed quarterly for accuracy
This comparison is based on publicly available information from Wix SEO's website, publicly accessible pricing pages, and verified third-party review platforms as of February 2026. Pricing shown in approximate GBP equivalents. We have made every effort to ensure accuracy, but features, pricing, and capabilities may change.
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