Before you improve anything, confirm the basics
Improvement advice only works if the foundations are in place. If your site is not connected to Google Search Console, your pages have no titles of their own, or some pages are hidden from search engines, fix that first. Our page on Wix SEO settings shows where those settings live and what to put in each.
If you are not sure whether to do the rest yourself or bring someone in, a Wix SEO expert is worth talking to once you know which jobs are left. This page assumes you are doing the work yourself and want to know where the hours go furthest.
The order below is by likely impact for an ordinary small business site, not by how interesting each task is. Interesting tasks are usually the ones that move rankings least.
The order that usually pays off
Eight changes, roughly from most to least reliable. Your own site may reorder them, and the next sections explain how to tell.
1. Make sure Google can see your pages. Nothing else counts if it cannot.
2. Give each page one job. One page, one searcher, one question.
3. Rewrite titles and openings of the pages that should earn money. Cheap, fast and often decisive.
4. Build the pages you are missing. Most small sites lack pages for things customers actually search.
5. Link your own pages to each other. It costs nothing and it directs attention.
6. Publish useful content on a steady rhythm. Slower, but it compounds.
7. Make pages load faster. Matters most on phones.
8. Earn mentions and reviews from outside your site. The hardest and the slowest.
The chart shows the same list by effort and impact. Anything in the top left is a better use of your next hour than anything on the right.
1. Make sure Google can see your pages
Open Google Search Console and look at which of your pages are indexed. If a page you care about is missing, find out why before writing a word of new content.
On Wix the usual causes are simple. A page may be set to hide from search engines. It may be missing from the sitemap because it is not published or sits behind a login. It may be so new that Google has not reached it, or Google may have chosen not to index it because it looks near-identical to another page.
Use the URL inspection tool to test one page at a time. It tells you what Google found and why. Fix the cause, then request indexing.
This is the highest-value step because it is binary. A page that is not indexed has no chance, and a page that is indexed at least has one. Our glossary page on Search Console for Wix goes through the reports worth opening first.
2. Give each page one job
List your important pages in a spreadsheet. Next to each, write the search it is meant to answer, in the words a customer would type. If you cannot name the search, the page has no job. If two pages share the same search, they are competing with each other.
Fix the overlaps by merging pages or by narrowing each one. A page called Services that tries to cover everything usually ranks for nothing. Split it into one page per service, each with a clear purpose.
This exercise also shows you the opposite problem, searches your customers use that no page answers. Keep that list for step 4.
Think about what the searcher wants. Someone typing a question wants an answer. Someone typing a service and a town wants to hire. Our page on search intent on Wix explains how to read the difference.
3. Rewrite titles and opening paragraphs
For each money page, rewrite two things. The title tag, so it names the page's subject the way a searcher would. And the first paragraph, so it answers the question outright instead of warming up.
A typical weak opening on a service page says that the company has been serving the area for many years and takes pride in its work. A strong one says what the service is, who it is for, what it costs to start and what happens next. The second kind is also what search engines and AI assistants lift when they need a clear sentence.
Do this to your ten most important pages before touching anything else. It is an afternoon of work and often moves a page up in a few weeks, because the page now matches the search more closely.
Keep the rewrite honest. Do not promise what you do not do, and do not stuff the same phrase into every sentence. Write the way you would explain it to a customer standing in front of you.
4. Build the pages you are missing
Most small business sites have a home page, an about page, a contact page and a services page. Customers search for much more specific things: a particular service in a particular town, a comparison, a cost, a how-to, a problem they have right now.
Go back to the list from step 2. Each unanswered search is a page you could write. Start with the ones closest to buying, such as a specific service plus a place, or a specific product type. Those searchers are ready to act.
Each new page should be properly different from the others, with its own details, its own examples and its own questions answered. Pages that differ only by a swapped word are thin and tend to be ignored.
If you sell products, our guide to Wix Stores SEO covers product and category pages. If you serve a local area, Wix local SEO covers location pages.
5. Link your pages to each other
Links between your own pages tell search engines which pages matter and how topics connect. They also help visitors find the next thing. And they are free.
The simplest method is to open each important page and ask what a reader would want next, then link to that page using words that describe it. A page about boiler repair can link to your boiler service page. A blog post about winter maintenance can link to both.
Avoid generic anchors like click here. Use the subject of the page you are linking to. Also avoid linking to the same page fifteen times from one article. Link where it is genuinely useful.
Every page should be reachable from your navigation or from another page. Pages with no links to them are hard for search engines to find. See internal linking on Wix for how to plan it.
6. Publish useful content, steadily
Content is slower than the steps above, but it is what builds depth over time. One strong article that answers a real customer question can bring visitors for years.
Pick questions your customers ask you in person, on the phone and by email. Answer each one fully on its own page. Keep a rhythm you can maintain. A post every two weeks for a year beats ten posts in a week followed by silence.
Link each article to the service or product page it supports, and link back from the money page. Our guide to Wix blog SEO covers what to write and how to connect it.
Honest depth matters more than length. A page that covers a subject properly, with real examples from your work, will outlast one stuffed to hit a word count.
7. Make pages load faster
Slow pages lose visitors, and many of your visitors are on phones with an average connection. Wix handles much of the technical delivery, but what you add to a page is your responsibility.
The common causes are large images, video that starts on load, many apps adding scripts, and heavy animations. Run a key page through Google's free PageSpeed Insights and read the specific suggestions. Fix the biggest one first.
This ranks seventh because it rarely decides rankings alone. It more often decides whether a visitor who found you stays. Our page on Wix site speed and SEO goes through what to check.
8. Earn mentions and reviews outside your site
The hardest step is also one that separates strong sites from average ones. Search engines and AI assistants look at what other people say about you, not only what you say about yourself.
Ask happy customers for reviews on the platforms your buyers use. Be listed accurately in the directories and associations relevant to your trade. Offer a useful quote or fact to a local publication or a trade blog. Each real mention is a vote of confidence.
Do not buy links in bulk. They are cheap for a reason and can do harm. Our glossary page on backlinks for Wix explains what makes a link worth having.
For how assistants like ChatGPT decide which businesses to name, see the page on how AI assistants pick businesses, and the Wix-specific AI search citation guide.
How the order shifts for your kind of site
The list is a default. Three common situations change it.
A local service business. Steps 3 and 4 carry the most weight, because customers search a service plus a place. Build one strong page per service and per main area, then collect reviews. Outside signals matter early for you, since local results lean on them.
An online shop. Step 4 means product and category pages, and speed climbs the list, because shoppers are impatient and mostly on phones. Duplicate or thin product descriptions are the usual weak spot, so rewrite the descriptions for your best sellers before adding new products.
A creator, consultant or professional. Content depth and outside mentions rise. People search for answers and for a name they can trust, so a few excellent articles and credible mentions elsewhere do more than dozens of thin pages.
Whatever your type, finish step 1 and step 3 before skipping ahead. They are the cheapest, and they show you how your site really performs. If you want a short plan sized to a small team, Wix SEO for small business picks the first few hours for you.
What to skip, for now
Some tasks feel productive and rarely move anything for a small site.
Obsessing over one SEO score. Scores from tools are rough guides. A page can score well and still not answer the search.
Rewriting every image alt text before fixing titles. Alt text is worth doing, but after the pages themselves are right.
Adding more apps. Each one can add weight. Add one only if it solves a clear problem.
Changing your page addresses. Unless an address is truly bad, leave it. A change needs a redirect and brings risk for small gain.
Moving platforms because of a rumor. Wix sites can rank well. Whether to stay is a separate decision and our Wix SEO review weighs it fairly.
How to know it worked
Write down your starting point before you change anything. In Search Console, note clicks, impressions and the number of indexed pages over the last three months.
Then check monthly, not daily. SEO changes take weeks to show and daily numbers bounce. Compare the same period a month or a quarter apart.
Look at which pages gained, and which searches they gained for. That tells you what to do more of. Look at which pages lost, too. A sudden drop on one page usually has a specific cause such as a changed title, a removed page or a setting flipped by accident.
Keep a plain log of every change with its date. When something moves, you will know what to credit or blame.
How RunOctopus handles the heavy part
Steps 4 and 6 are the ones most owners run out of time for. Writing the missing pages and keeping a steady stream of content is simply a lot of work.
RunOctopus is a done-for-you service. Its AI, Ollie, researches your business, then writes and publishes pages directly on your own website. It works with Wix, Shopify, WordPress and WooCommerce. A team plans, writes, reviews and publishes alongside Ollie. You install nothing, approve nothing, upload nothing and schedule nothing. Pages go live on their own.
The first week brings 8 long-form articles, 6 pages and a custom interactive tool built for your niche. After that it is 175+ pieces of content a month, written, published and linked. You also get reports on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business. The 90-day promise is more visibility on Google and in AI answers within 90 days, measured against the 90 days before you joined, or every dollar back.
You can see the plan before you decide anything. Get the free site read: paste your address, Ollie reads your site and shows the plan. No account, no call.