Building a website tends to fall into one of two camps: the hands-on method of writing HTML and CSS yourself, or the simple yet rigid route of website-building services that cut out the complicated stuff but risk making your site feel a bit cookie-cutter.
Wix, a leading website-building platform backed by the power of AI, offers a new way to create websites. For instance, Wix Harmony, a fully responsive editor, uses a hybrid approach to vibe coding and visual design, using Wix’s famous drag-and-drop editor with advanced AI features to streamline your website creation process. Read our thoughts about Wix Harmony.
Steps to building a website with AI
- Start the conversation: Use the Wix AI chat to describe your site.
- Go over your site checklist: Follow the steps, use Wix domain registrations and secure your brand identity.
- Choose or generate a design: Select a website template or let the AI build an initial design based on your preferences.
- Use the Wix drag-and-drop editor: Customize your generated layout.
- Manage and grow your site: Use the Wix dashboard for SEO and marketing.
Start the conversation
First, set yourself up with a free Wix account and sign in. From your account page, go to Create New Site, and you'll be presented with a simple AI box giving you the choice between Start Chat and Set Up Without Chat. If you want to use Wix Harmony, visit its page and follow the prompts to start the website creation process.
Setting up without chat will still use AI to guide you through the process, but the Chat option is more of a natural back-and-forth if you don't have several paragraphs of your website pitch on hand. This entire conversation, which feels like writing to a web designer, is powered by advanced AI tools such as Wix Harmony, which uses a hybrid approach to quickly translate your "vibe" into a concrete design brief.
If you choose the Chat route, Wix will ask you a series of questions about your site. Don't give one-word or robotic answers. Offer detailed, single- or two-sentence responses that succinctly summarize your goals for your site. Write as if you were writing to a web designer.
Going through the checklist
Once you've answered all the questions, Wix will take you to the dashboard for your site. You'll be presented with a list of tasks to complete to get your site live, such as performing a domain name search to secure your online identity. By using Wix domain name registration, you can ensure your brand is reserved immediately while you continue to design. Once you've done that, you can also create a business email, set working hours, and so on.
We suggest doing these things before designing the site—even if you just use placeholders for certain things—as these details will help Wix preconfigure the site; you can always change them later. (Though it's good to reserve a domain so nobody else can buy it during the time you're designing your site!)
Most of the steps here are self-explanatory and simply involve filling out boxes. You'll also have the option to edit the paid services that your site offers, and Wix will auto-generate services relevant to your site.
Choosing a design
Before designing your website, you can choose from thousands of ready-made templates. Filter them by industry, peruse new and most popular templates, or if you're feeling brave, start a blank one from scratch. You can also go to Inspiring Websites to get inspo from what real Wix users have created.
But if you want to see how AI can help you build a site via flowing prompts rather than templates, take the Generate a Design route.
Wix will start by building a site based on your initial AI consultation. If you don't like the generated design, you can select Regenerate Design to show something completely different or Tweak Design to keep the same general theme but shuffle things around a bit. If you want to make finer edits to a design that you generally like, you can do those later.
Regenerating creates dramatically different looks for your site. Each tweak or redesign creates a new version, but previous versions are saved, so you can always scroll back through them at the top of the page.
If none of the AI-generated versions are to your liking, you can get more specific about the design you want. In the Site Brief box on the left, click the blue-underlined "theme" text to make more specific requests about the theme.
Likewise, you can click the blue-underlined "layout" text and change text, box positioning, the amount of text on the page, and so on. Once you're done, click Continue With This Design.
Using the site editor
Next, it's time to dig into the finer points of the site design. On the Editor, you can select any element on your site's homepage (or other pages Wix has auto-generated) and tweak it to your liking. You can click any site element and make changes manually or with the help of AI.
For instance, if you want to change the site logo entirely, simply click Change Vector Art. Then you can use your own designed logo, existing ones, or ask an AI Image Generator, like Wixel, to generate a whole new one. Drag and drop site elements around the page, and regenerate any text or site element using AI (or your own manual tinkering).
At the top left corner, you can go through the different pages on your site. Heading over to the Book Online page, for instance, you can click on Manage Services and add the services that you created earlier in the dashboard (or create new ones). Once you've entered the details of the services you want to offer, click Save, close the dashboard, and those services will be auto-populated on the page.
Each element of your site is similarly intuitive; the options available to you always adapt to the contents of that element. For example, on the Portfolio page, you'll have the option to manage projects and add past work you've done to the dashboard, which will then auto-populate on the page.
Wix has a community of third-party developers who've created countless add-ons for the platform. So once your design is in place, you can flesh out your site with third-party contact forms, booking systems, online stores, menus, and memberships. Just click Add Apps on the left-side pane of the Editor, and then browse Wix's App Market for both free and paid apps. These tools are ready to slot straight into your site. Just click Add.
You can add the free Social Feed app to your homepage, which links to your social accounts and lets visitors see your social media activity right there on your site. No matter which app or plug-in you choose, you can drag and drop it wherever you want on the page. (You can also cut and paste it to other pages on your site.) Then just double-click it to start using its features.
Wix automatically generates a version of your site for mobile, too. Click Switch to Mobile at the top of the Editor screen to view your site in mobile form. When you first do this, you'll have the option to choose some basic elements, such as how the header looks when users scroll, the positioning of contact actions, a Back to Top option, and so on.
The mobile editor works similarly to the desktop editor, but instead of having the option to delete elements, you can hide them. Click the crossed-out eye icon to remove elements from the mobile version of your site. You can then view all these elements by clicking the eye icon on the left-hand side.
At any point while editing your mobile or desktop site, you can click Preview to go into browsing mode and use your site as a visitor would. It's good to jump into this regularly so you can get a feel for the user experience and test that everything's working as it should.
Manage the site from your dashboard
Once your site is up and running, you can manage your whole enterprise, big or small, from the Wix dashboard, which is available on mobile and desktop. Click Booking Calendar to get an overview of client bookings, your work schedule, and booking analytics, which show data such as the most popular times of day to book, top clients, and traffic sources for your bookings.
On the Catalog page, you can continue adding and editing services and other elements, such as gift cards and coupons, to help drive bookings.
When your site is live, you'll also unlock Wix’s AI agents on the dashboard. You can speak to the Marketing Agent, which will give recommendations for how to improve your site's visibility and search rankings. The Front Desk Agent, meanwhile, can prioritize your most important inbox chats and generate replies in your business's voice to help save time.
In the Getting Traffic section, you'll find actionable insights for search engines and your website visitors' behavior. You can link your site to Google Analytics and Search Console to get key insights about how your site is performing in search engines and bespoke advice about how to improve visibility. Here, Wix can also help you create ad campaigns tailored for Google, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as branded emails with templates in your site's style. You can generate an email promoting a particular service you offer, for example, or send a newsletter updating your readers on the latest happenings with your business.
If you want to dig even deeper, then check out Wix Studio, a website-building platform for agencies, creatives, and developers that offers more advanced functionality. Features here include multi-brand management, project management, and multi-user collaboration. You can even go full hands-on and work with custom code.
The above guide was based on the free version of Wix (no credit card needed, no subscription trap). If you want features like an increased threshold for collaborators on your site, higher-tier marketing tools, and extra storage space, you'll need to pay for one of the subscription packages, which offer more bang for your buck than comparable packages from other website builders. Head over to the official Wix site to find out more. You can also keep up with new features, news, and other developments at the Wix LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, and Facebook pages.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to scale a professional site?
For designers, developers, and marketers managing multiple sites, Wix Studio is the website-building platform. With high-end design capabilities and streamlined workflows, it empowers agencies to scale exceptional websites with maximum efficiency.
Can I move elements manually after AI builds the site?
Yes. Wix website builder offers drag‑and‑drop editing. You can use the Wix drag-and-drop editor to move any element, ensuring your site matches your exact brand vision.
Is cloud hosting actually secure?
Yes, every site includes Wix’s cloud infrastructure web hosting and website security, providing enterprise-grade infrastructure that automatically handles everything from high traffic to cyber threats.
