89% of business homepages built on Webflow pass four basic SEO checks, the best of any major website platform, against 62% on WordPress and 56% on Wix. Each platform has its own common gap, and most are a setting away from fixed.
Analysis of 25,708 business websites, including 7,515 WordPress and 1,853 Wix websites · websites of US businesses listed on Google, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.89% of Webflow business homepages pass all four basic SEO checks, the best of any platform with 200 or more websites, against 62% of WordPress homepages.
- 2.56% of Wix business homepages pass all four basic SEO checks, and 45% of Drupal homepages, the lowest pass rate of the large platforms.
- 3.48% of Shopify business homepages have no H1, the main heading that tells search engines what a page is about, against 21% of WordPress homepages.
- 4.36% of Squarespace business homepages have no meta description, the summary Google can show under a search result, against 20% of Wix homepages.
- 5.4% of Wix business websites have no structured data, the code that describes a business to search engines, against 19% of WordPress websites.
Summary
A florist is choosing between website builders and asks which one is best for Google. Every sales page says its platform is "SEO-friendly". What she really wants to know is whether the websites people actually build on each platform get the basics right: a page title, a description for search results, a main heading and a secure connection.
These four basics decide how a homepage appears in Google and whether Google understands it. A missing title or description means Google writes its own, often badly. A missing main heading leaves the page's topic unclear. A website without a secure connection gets a "Not secure" warning in the browser. None of them is hard to fix, but each is easy to miss when a template does not set it for you.
Platforms differ widely. 89% of Webflow business homepages pass all four checks, against 62% on WordPress and 56% on Wix. The lowest pass rates are on Drupal, Shopify and several ecommerce platforms, mostly because homepage H1s and descriptions are left unset. Each platform has its own common gap, and it is usually a default setting rather than a hard limit.
What we measured
On September 23 and 24, 2026 we checked the websites of US businesses listed on Google, 25,708 in all, and identified the platform each one is built on. We compared the 11 platforms with at least 200 websites each. For each homepage we checked four basics: a title tag (the headline Google shows for the page), a meta description (the summary Google can show under that headline), at least one H1 heading (the page's main heading) and HTTPS (a secure connection).
A homepage passes only if it has all four. We also measured each check on its own, and looked at up to three pages per website for structured data (code that tells search engines the business name, address and type), a sitemap (the file that lists a website's pages for search engines), pages kept out of Google's index, and titles too long to show in full.
Webflow leads the platforms
Webflow homepages fail at least one check 10.6% of the time, far fewer than any other platform. GoDaddy (35.4% fail), WordPress (38.2%) and Wix (44.3%) come next. The lowest pass rates are on Drupal (55.3% fail), OpenCart (55.2%) and Shopify (55.1%), where more than half of homepages miss at least one basic.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 25,708 business websites, including 7,515 WordPress and 1,853 Wix websites · websites of US businesses listed on Google, September 2026
Webflow homepages rarely miss a heading (4.7%) or a description (7.2%). On platforms where owners build their own websites from a template, the fields a template leaves blank tend to stay blank.
Each platform has its own common gap
The platforms fail in different ways. On Shopify, the common gap is the H1: 48% of Shopify homepages have none, the highest rate of the four largest platforms, against 30.8% on Wix, 28.2% on Squarespace and 21.2% on WordPress. On Squarespace, it is the meta description, missing on 36% of homepages. Drupal homepages are often missing both, at 41.7% without a description and 30.3% without an H1.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 25,708 business websites, including 7,515 WordPress and 1,853 Wix websites · websites of US businesses listed on Google, September 2026
| Platform | No meta description | No H1 |
|---|---|---|
| Webflow | 7.2% | 4.7% |
| GoDaddy | 31.3% | 3.8% |
| WordPress | 25.6% | 21.2% |
| Wix | 19.6% | 30.8% |
| Squarespace | 36% | 28.2% |
| Shopify | 16.3% | 48% |
| Drupal | 41.7% | 30.3% |
Wix and WordPress trade places depending on the check. Wix homepages are more likely to lack an H1 (30.8% against 21.2%) but less likely to lack a meta description (19.6% against 25.6%). A platform's pass rate is the sum of these small habits, which is why the fix is usually a single setting in the theme or page editor.
Wix and Squarespace lead on structured data and sitemaps
The pass rate is only part of the picture. 1.3% of Squarespace websites and 4.5% of Wix websites have no structured data on the pages checked, against 19.3% of WordPress websites and 62.4% of Drupal websites. Wix also adds a sitemap to almost every website, missing on 1.1%, against 9.9% for WordPress. On these platforms, the defaults do most of this work for the owner.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 25,708 business websites, including 7,515 WordPress and 1,853 Wix websites · websites of US businesses listed on Google, September 2026
70.5% of Squarespace websites and 54.2% of Shopify websites have at least one checked page kept out of Google's index, against 14.7% on WordPress and 4.2% on Wix. Owners on those platforms should check that none of their service, product or location pages is among them.
What this means for businesses
Do not pick a platform for SEO alone. Every major builder can pass these checks; what matters is whether someone fills in the fields. On Wix and Shopify, check that your homepage headline is set as an H1. On WordPress, Squarespace and Drupal, check that every key page has a meta description. On WordPress and Webflow, add structured data for your business name, address and type.
If you already have a website, test your homepage for the four basics today: title, meta description, H1 and HTTPS. It takes minutes with your browser's page inspector or any free SEO checker, and on most platforms the fix is a setting.
Whatever your platform, our technical seo services check these basics on every key page and fix the ones your template left blank.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/website-platform-seo-pass-rates">Webflow Websites Pass Basic SEO Checks 89% of the Time vs 62% for WordPress - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). Webflow Websites Pass Basic SEO Checks 89% of the Time vs 62% for WordPress. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/website-platform-seo-pass-rates
Webflow Websites Pass Basic SEO Checks 89% of the Time vs 62% for WordPress - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/website-platform-seo-pass-rates