How to Use Wix in 2023: Step-by-Step Guide

Website-building tools make it easy for individuals to create personalized sites that promote their digital identities. The Wix website builder is one of the most intuitive and user-friendly site builders on the market, making it an ideal option for small business owners who are just starting out, entrepreneurs launching a new brand, and people seeking a basic site to promote their digital content. The Wix editor offers a blend of versatility and ease, even for the non-tech savvy.

By learning how to use Wix and a few of its key features, you can create your own custom site with just a few clicks. Even better, the Wix Help Center is there to guide you every step of the way.

Why choose Wix for your website in 2023?

With all the website builders available, why choose Wix? What are the benefits of Wix?

Wix is an end-to-end site builder that allows you to design, host, and manage your site through a single platform, creating a more streamlined experience. Wix also has both free and paid plans that provide different levels of functionality depending on the type of site you want to build. 

As of the date of this post, if you’ve been asking, “is Wix free?“, the answer is yes! You can use it for free, but also explore various Wix plan options depending on your needs. Wix pricing is competitive and offers excellent value for money, even when compared to other solutions like Squarespace and WordPress (learn more about Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress with our guide).

Regardless of the plan you choose, you can enjoy access to beginner-friendly, automated website design tools, including AI that can create a personalized website template based on your preferences. 

Put simply, you can use Wix to easily develop a range of digital content, including: 

• Personal websites
• Business websites
• Online portfolios
• Blogs
• Basic online shops through the Wix store

Wix ecommerce features make building your website more of an online shopping experience than an involved digital development project. You can pick from hundreds of Wix template options, then use the drag-and-drop editing tools to customize your site’s appearance. To expand the functionality of your Wix site, you can look for add-ons in the Wix App market, which includes integrated tools from third-party developers.

Wix’s ease of use, versatile features, and accessibility explain why 3.8 million websites currently use Wix as their content management system platform.

Getting started with Wix on Name.com

Name.com integrates the Wix platform with your other brand assets, allowing you to easily manage your Name.com new web addresses, your Wix site, your professional email, and your other online workspaces all in one location. 

To sign up for Wix on Name.com:

• Login to your Name.com account and navigate to the Wix Website Builder page
• Explore Wix’s different plans
• Choose the plan that best aligns with your needs

Select the free, ad-powered plan to get a look at the interface and publish your first site under a Wix subdomain, or go straight to a business plan to get your site up and running with a complimentary custom domain for one year. 

After adding your selection to your cart, Name.com will instantly direct you to the Wix website builder—no additional accounts or logins are necessary. The Wix interface will then give you a series of prompts to guide the creation of your website, gathering information about: 

• The type of site you want to create
• The name of your business
• The digital features you want to incorporate

Don’t worry if you’re still working out these details—you can skip the prompts or change your answers later on as needed. 

Once you’ve input some basic information, Name.com will lead you to your Wix dashboard. There, you can connect your unique domain name and start designing your website using the Wix editor.

Choosing a template for your Wix site

When you click ‘Design your website’ on your Wix dashboard, you’ll have the option to explore and customize over 800 pre-made templates—that’s more than you can get with other website builders. Wix also conveniently sorts these templates into categories, making it easy to find options that best reflect the website you want to create, whether that’s a portfolio for your photography or a shop for your clothing line. Simply browse through your chosen category and click on each template to view a live preview. 

Once you find an option that fits your brand or personal style, it’s time to edit. Wix will automatically open the template in its drag-and-drop site builder. There, you can manually adjust the design elements of your site to bring your creative vision to life.  

Introduction to the Wix site builder

Wix’s site builder lets you instantly visualize the changes you make to your starting template. Using the left hand side panel, you can easily customize different elements of your site, including:

• Pages – Adjust the navigation for your website, add new sub-pages, and create drop-down menus.

• Visual aspects – Choose between background colors, text colors, and fonts. You can even add visual transitions between pages.

• Apps – Explore add-on features for your site, such as tools for booking, inventory management, and live customer chat.

• Business features – Add products to your online shop, set up payment methods, manage your blog, or incorporate other useful business tools. 

• Media – Browse a library of images and videos that you can use to enhance the design of your site.

Within each category, you can scale, rotate, and flip individual design elements and widgets with the Wix design toolbox. And at any point, you can save, preview, or restore previous versions of your site. 

Using Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)

If you don’t want to pick out a template yourself, look no further than Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) wizard. Wix ADI uses the information from your initial setup prompts to generate a personalized site for your brand or small business. 

And, just like Wix itself, learning how to use Wix ADI is intuitive. Simply follow the additional ADI prompts to select any add-on features you want to see incorporated into your site and choose a general color scheme.

Once it has enough information about your preferences, the ADI will generate a few layout options to choose from. You can also add key pages directly in the ADI wizard, such as an About Us page or a contact form. 

Launch the ADI-generated site right away, or use it as a jumping-off point for further site customization. 

Customizing your Wix site

Whether you’re starting with a template or a full ADI-made site, you’ll need to customize the text and content of your site. This is what will make your website your own and convey business-specific content to your customers. 

Consider starting with basic adjustments, like changing your header names. Then, dive into the creation of more nuanced content by adding text boxes, widgets, and other elements. With the drag-and-drop interface, you can simply click on the area of the site you want to customize—relevant prompts and toolbars will pop up right away. 

As you experiment with your changes, keep these tips in mind for optimizing your customizations:

• Use the Wix Page Switcher to customize each page.

• Start by creating a visual theme that you can use for every page, then make section-by-section changes as needed.

• Enhance your copy by using the ‘Create AI Text’ feature in your text boxes.

After getting your desktop site squared away, head into the Wix mobile editor to see how your website appears on mobile devices. You can toggle back and forth between the mobile and desktop views by clicking the corresponding icons at the top of the page. 

The mobile editor lets you adjust how your headers and quick actions appear on a phone screen with streamlined versions of the desktop design tools. And, if you don’t like how a design element looks on mobile but still love it on your desktop layout, you can simply use the hide feature to remove it from your mobile layout.

Publishing your Wix site

Another reason to use Wix in 2023? When you’re ready for your site to go live, you can publish it straight from Wix. 

First, thoroughly explore your website in preview mode to make sure everything is in place. Then, make any final edits. Once your site is ready, simply click the publish button in the upper right header. At this point, Wix will give you a live link to your customer-ready website.

If you notice anything you want to change after publication, you can navigate back to your dashboard and edit your site. 

Managing and updating your Wix site

Once you have a functional site live on the internet, you can focus on managing your digital content, expanding your features, and finding the best upgrades for your site. For instance, if you started with the free plan, you can easily upgrade your plan to remove ads, get more storage, customize your domain name, and add an online store through Wix ecommerce features.

Unless you eventually want to redesign your website, your updates through Wix will mostly be content-related. This includes using the Wix blog manager to:

• Add new posts
• Make edits to previous posts
• Create automated posting schedules for pre-planned content

If you have an online shop, you can also use the Wix dashboard to:

• Add new products
• Manage discounts
• Adjust your inventory categories as needed

Once your site is in full swing, you can also start exploring Wix’s marketing tools and analytics reports. Gathering information about traffic, sales, and site maintenance can help you make adjustments to support improved functionality and optimize your site for success. 

Finally, remember to leverage your social media channels to drive traffic to your site. By linking your site to your social media accounts, you can create a unified online presence for your brand.

Build your Wix website today with Name.com

By understanding how to use Wix, you can effortlessly create a website, strengthen your online presence, and connect with your target audience. Get started with Wix’s automated site development tools, then make detailed adjustments to meet your specific preferences—all without writing a single line of code. 

By setting up your Wix site through Name.com, you can oversee all your accounts on one streamlined platform. So, whether you’re scheduling a blog post, managing your business emails, or utilizing the domain name search tool to pick out a custom domain name for your next business venture, Name.com will keep you organized and help drive your brand’s online presence.

Sources: 

Moneyzine. Interesting Wix Statistics & Facts for 2023. https://moneyzine.com/startup-resources/wix-statistics/ 

Forbes. Wix Review 2023: Features, Pros & Cons.https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/wix-review/