The provided source materials indicate that GoDaddy’s Website Builder presents significant challenges for search engine optimization (SEO). While the platform offers some basic tools, its overall functionality and performance hinder effective on-page and technical SEO efforts. The data suggests that businesses utilizing GoDaddy’s Website Builder may experience difficulty ranking highly in search results due to slow load times, limited control over key SEO elements, and a lack of recent improvements to SEO features. As of June 2024, GoDaddy’s Website Builder powers approximately 0.5% of all websites, significantly less than WordPress (43.4%).
On-Page SEO Fundamentals
GoDaddy Website Builder provides an “SEO Wizard” intended to guide users through basic on-page optimization. This tool assists with adding keywords, creating meta tags, and suggesting page titles. However, the source materials express skepticism regarding the quality of the suggested titles, noting that they can be spammy or unhelpful. The wizard’s process is also described as slow for updating fundamental SEO ranking factors. A critical limitation is the inability to set custom SEO titles and meta descriptions for blog posts; titles default to the headline, and meta descriptions cannot be added. The materials caution against keyword stuffing in page titles, a practice considered outdated.
Technical SEO Considerations
Technical SEO performance with GoDaddy’s Website Builder is a significant concern. The platform automatically generates XML sitemaps, which aid search engine crawling and indexing. However, these sitemaps are not editable. More critically, the platform suffers from slow load times, primarily attributed to heavy script usage. Testing revealed a Google PageSpeed Insights score of just 41 and a total blocking time of 7000 ms for a basic blog post. Layout stability issues were also observed. These performance issues are particularly detrimental given the importance of Core Web Vitals—speed and layout stability—as ranking factors since 2021. While GoDaddy’s Website Builder offers fast hosting, optimizing images for compression is recommended to mitigate speed issues. The platform does offer mobile-optimized templates, and sites are responsive, meaning they adapt to different screen sizes. Google indexes the mobile version of sites, so previewing on both desktop and mobile is advised.
Site Speed and Core Web Vitals
The data emphasizes the negative impact of slow load times on SEO. The test site’s performance metrics—a PageSpeed Insights score of 41 and a total blocking time of 7000 ms—indicate substantial room for improvement. Slow loading speeds can lead to higher bounce rates, negatively affecting search rankings. The source materials suggest image compression as a potential optimization strategy, utilizing GoDaddy’s image optimization tools. However, the underlying issue of heavy script usage remains a core technical challenge.
GoDaddy’s SEO Toolset
GoDaddy Website Builder includes several built-in SEO tools, including the aforementioned SEO Wizard and mobile optimization features. The platform also provides image optimization tools to reduce image file sizes. The SEO Wizard guides users through basic optimization steps, but its effectiveness is questioned due to the quality of its suggestions and the time required for implementation. The materials highlight the importance of leveraging these tools, but also acknowledge their limitations.
Content Strategy and Updates
The source materials emphasize the importance of regularly updating website content to improve search rankings. Creating content that addresses the needs of the target audience is also recommended. However, the platform’s limitations in controlling on-page SEO elements may hinder the effectiveness of content marketing efforts. The data does not provide specific guidance on content length, keyword density, or other content-related ranking factors beyond the general recommendation to write for the audience and update content frequently.
Conclusion
The available data paints a concerning picture for businesses relying on GoDaddy’s Website Builder for SEO. The platform’s limitations in on-page and technical SEO, coupled with slow load times, present significant obstacles to achieving high search rankings. While GoDaddy provides some basic SEO tools, their effectiveness is questionable, and the platform has not seen substantial SEO improvements in the past three years. Businesses seeking robust SEO capabilities may find GoDaddy’s Website Builder inadequate and should consider alternative content management systems.
Sources
- https://www.seobility.net/en/blog/godaddy-website-builder-seo/
- https://codinov.com/godaddy-website-builder-seo-guide-how-to-optimize-your-site/