Forensic SEO: how I finally got a Wix site indexed (and what I learnt about DNS, www vs non-www, and the joys of nameservers)
- Sophie Boulderstone
- Oct 5
- 5 min read
I usually love SEO. So when I’ve built and polished a site for months and Google still refuses to show a single page, that’s peak embarrassment. Time to roll up the sleeves and venture into forensic SEO.
Below is the full story and step-by-step process that finally sorted it. It’s written so you can follow it for your own site - especially if you’re using Wix with a domain bought at 123-Reg (or any other registrar).
The symptoms
Search Console said a handful of pages were “Indexed”, yet a site:yourdomain.com search showed nothing.
The site loaded on both:
Search Console kept muttering about “Page with redirect” for the root URL.
Wix’s Domains screen insisted the domain was “Connected by DNS”, while WHOIS said Wix nameservers were in charge. A stalemate.
The fix turned out to be a clean 301 redirect from the naked domain to the www version, and—because of a stale connection state in Wix—disconnecting and reconnecting the domain so Wix re-applied its default redirect logic.
Quick primer (plain-English, promise)
Registrar: who you pay each year for the domain (e.g. 123-Reg).
Nameservers: where the internet goes to ask “which records control this domain?”. Point them at Wix and Wix becomes the source of truth for DNS.
DNS records: the individual instructions—A, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.
A record: maps a hostname to an IP address (Wix uses 185.230.63.107, .171, .186).
CNAME: maps one hostname to another (e.g. www → a Wix target).
www vs non-www: pick one canonical home and 301 the other to it. I chose www.
Forwarding vs redirect: forwarding at a registrar is often a surface-level shortcut; a proper server-side 301 is the gold standard.
The small toolbox that saves hours
Tool | What it tells you |
Which nameservers are live right now | |
Live A and CNAME records across the world | |
Exact HTTP response chain (e.g. 301 → 200) | |
Google Search Console | Ownership, sitemaps, coverage and canonical hints |
Whether bots are allowed, and sitemap location | |
Page source (view-source:) | Your canonical tag and meta robots |
The forensic path I followed
Confirm who’s in charge
Check WHOIS: if nameservers show ns4.wixdns.net / ns5.wixdns.net, Wix is authoritative.
If nameservers point elsewhere, fix that first at your registrar.
Check live DNS
A records for @ → Wix IPs (185.230.63.107 / .171 / .186).
CNAME for www → a Wix target (often cdn1.wixdns.net or the site’s Wix alias).
Verify robots & sitemap
https://www.yourdomain.com/robots.txt should allow crawling and list your sitemap, e.g.
User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Make Search Console match reality
Add/keep the URL-prefix property for your chosen canonical with www:https://www.yourdomain.com/.
Submit sitemap.xml in that property.
The Domain property is optional once everything’s aligned.
Check the canonical tag
In the homepage source you should see:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yourdomain.com/">
Prove the redirect
Use https://httpstatus.io to test https://yourdomain.com.The ideal result is:301 → https://www.yourdomain.com/ then 200.
If you don’t get a 301, that’s the core problem.
If Wix shows “Connected by DNS” but WHOIS says Wix nameservers
This is a known stale state. What worked for me:
In Wix Domains, Unassign the domain from the site.
Reassign it to the same site.
Wix re-detects nameservers and re-applies its default non-www → www redirect.
Re-test on httpstatus.io. Once you see the 301 → 200 chain, you’re golden.
Alternative routes (only if needed)
If nameservers aren’t at Wix and you can’t move them, use the registrar’s Web Forwarding to set a 301 from the root to www, or mirror the A/CNAME set precisely and add a server-level redirect. But the cleanest life is letting Wix handle nameservers.
The fix that finally worked
After weeks of everything looking “right”, the site was still invisible. The missing piece was the server-side 301 from the naked domain to the www version. Because Wix thought the domain was still “Connected by DNS” (despite nameservers pointing at Wix), the redirect toggle wasn’t exposed.
Action that fixed it:I unassigned the domain in Wix and reassigned it to the same site.Immediately after, testing https://yourdomain.com at https://httpstatus.io showed:
301 → https://www.yourdomain.com/
200
Search Console’s “Page with redirect” complaint eased, and the site finally started qualifying for serving.
Step-by-step you can follow (Wix + 123-Reg flavour)
At 123-Reg (registration only)
Set nameservers to:
That’s all you should manage at 123-Reg. DNS records now live in Wix.
At Wix → Domains → Manage DNS
@ A records → 185.230.63.107, .171, .186.
www CNAME → Wix target (often cdn1.wixdns.net).
TXT records for Google verification (from Search Console).
Force a connection refresh (if needed)
Unassign → Reassign the domain to the site in Wix.
Purpose: make Wix re-apply the non-www → www 301.
Verify the redirect
https://httpstatus.io on https://yourdomain.com should show 301 → 200 to the www address.
Search Console clean-up
Use the URL-prefix property for https://www.yourdomain.com/.
Submit sitemap.xml there.
Use URL Inspection → Request indexing for your homepage and a couple of strong pages.
Content signals (quick wins)
Make small, visible edits to key pages (fresh timestamps, unique intro lines).
Add one editorial backlink from a site that’s already crawled frequently (a short blog post works).
These nudge Google to revisit sooner.
Things that will trip you up (ask me how I know)
CNAME on @: most DNS systems—including Wix—won’t allow a CNAME at the root. Root should be A records; the redirect happens at the web server.
Two active properties fighting: sitemaps sent to the Domain property while the site serves at a www URL-prefix can delay things. Keep it consistent.
“Both versions load, so it’s fine”: loading isn’t the same as a 301. You want a permanent redirect, not two copies of the site.
When (and when not) to transfer the domain to Wix
Useful if you want one home for billing and DNS, or if the dashboard keeps mis-labelling your connection and support suggests a transfer to clear it.
Unnecessary for indexing on its own. Google doesn’t care who your registrar is; it cares about DNS, redirects, canonicals, and content. In my case, the disconnect/reconnect achieved the same outcome without changing registrar.
Copy-and-paste checks you can run today
Nameservers:https://who.is/whois/yourdomain.com
A/CNAME globally:https://dnschecker.org/#A/yourdomain.comhttps://dnschecker.org/#CNAME/www.yourdomain.com
Redirect chain:https://httpstatus.io/(Test both https://yourdomain.com and https://www.yourdomain.com)
Replace yourdomain.com with your domain. For my case:
Redirect chain: https://httpstatus.io/ (test https://fractionalondemand.com)
Appendix A: sample Wix DNS (works worldwide)
@ A 185.230.63.107
@ A 185.230.63.171
@ A 185.230.63.186
www CNAME cdn1.wixdns.net (or your Wix site alias)
Email (Google Workspace) will have its own MX records—don’t touch those when you’re tidying the web records.
Appendix B: a tidy robots.txt (example)
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: *?lightbox=
Disallow: /_api/*
Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Appendix C: a one-liner for Wix Support (if the toggle won’t appear)
“Our WHOIS shows Wix nameservers (ns4/ns5.wixdns.net), but the dashboard says ‘Connected by DNS’ and I can’t see the non-www → www redirect toggle. Please refresh the connection type or apply a server-side 301 from https://yourdomain.com to https://www.yourdomain.com.”
The takeaway
Indexing problems aren’t always about content. Sometimes they’re about signals: which version of your site is the real home, and whether your infrastructure says that clearly. For me, the answer was a clean 301 from the naked domain to www, proven by httpstatus.io, after forcing Wix to refresh the connection by disconnecting and reconnecting the domain.
If you’re stuck, run the six checks above. I'm praying this worked and will update in a few days either way!