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- Google Domination | Illuminating SEO
Google Domination | Illuminating SEO
- By Illuminating SEO
- Published 03/4/2009
- Search Engine Optimization
- Unrated
In this report I will discuss the benefits of paid hosting and domains versus the benefits of free hosting and domains, and explain when and why I use them. You may want to use them when I don’t; it is totally up to you. I am just going to inform you how and when I use paid vs. free domains and hosting so you can get an idea of what you could/should be doing for maximum success.
First, let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of each, and then I will discuss when I use each.
Free Domains and Hosting
Pros:
Obviously one of the pros of free domains and hosting is that they are free, which is nice if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on things you might not necessarily need. There are many different hosting sites to choose from, the most commonly used being Blogger and Wordpress. They are easy to create, and they are easy to customize.
These free domains also come with authority, so they are indexed and rank more quickly. They also rank more highly with less links than your own domain because of the authority they automatically have, due to the fact that Google trusts these domains.
They are very effective for testing a niche market without spending any money. Often people say to use Adwords to quickly test a market, but that costs money, and many people can’t spend that money to test the market. Using free blog hosting such as Wordpress or Blogger can allow you to quickly test the market and determine whether or not it will be profitable. You can set up a blog and have it ranking in 24 hours and you can see in a matter of days whether or not a niche is profitable. It’s not as fast as Adwords, but still quite quickly, and for free.
Cons:
These properties can be deleted at any point in time. You have no control over it whatsoever. If someone reports you, or the main site feels you are spamming or abusing the website, then your website can disappear in an instant, and all the work you had done
Over time, they do not rank as well as your own domains can. They do at first, but after time they do not rank as well. They also appear less professional, and may not convert as well as a well designed web page. (I have not done very much testing on this, so I don’t know if this is necessarily true)
Paid Domains and Hosting
Pros:
Paid domains and hosting are obviously in your control. Unless you steal content and get people angry enough to report you to your hosting company, then you will not lose your site. (You can also get around this by purchasing extra privacy so that they can’t look up your WHOIS information). You have complete control over what you can do with your domain, and you can design your site however you want.
With paid domains you can set up a Wordpress blog with
plugins and widgets that make it even more customizable than the Wordpress.com blogs. You can even find themes that are search engine optimized so that you can rank better than just a normal website, without doing as much work.
The last advantage of owning your own domain is that over time it ranks better than Web 2.0 properties, especially because Web 2.0 properties get spammed and begin to rank lower.
Cons:
Obviously paid domains cost money, which is a downside, especially when you don’t know if the niche is going to be profitable.
Your own domain will take longer to rank than free domains. They do not contain the authority that Web 2.0 sites have, so they have to earn trust from Google before they can rank well.
It takes a lot more work to create pages on your own domain, especially if you are not using a Wordpress blog on it. You either need knowledge of HTML or you have to hire someone to create a webpage for you, which will either cost you time or money.
When I Use Free & Paid Domains/Hosting
I use both free and paid domains at different times and for different purposes. When I first enter a new niche it is never possible to tell how profitable it will be before testing has been done. Because of this, I always test a market with a free domain. I used to use Wordpress, until I suddenly lost 6 domains in one day, so now I use Blogger to set up blogs for testing the niche markets I enter.
I start off by creating a Blogger blog that I use to get quick rankings and test market quickly and see how well the keywords convert to sales. I do not have a set amount of time to tell if a niche is profitable, as some niches are more competitive than others, and therefore take longer to see results.
I generally just see how well the traffic converts, and if I begin to make sales without having to generate lots of traffic, then I move onto a paid domain. I can’t state a specific number for what is a good conversion rate, but anything above 5% is a great conversion rate, especially for free traffic. A conversion rate of 2-4.9% is pretty good, depending on the market. 1-1.9% is an ok conversion rate, but it isn’t great. It all depends on how high the payouts are.
Once I have determined that a niche is profitable, I move the content onto my own domain, and change as many of the links that I created as possible so that they point to my domain. I then point links from the Blogger blog to my domain that I created, and state that the content has been moved, just in case anyone is looking for that same blog so they know where to go to find the content and all the new content that is added later.
I then leave the Blogger blog alone and move on to promoting my domain name, and continue with that market.
That is when I use free domains vs. paid domains. They both have their benefits and their disadvantages, but each disadvantage can be overcome. There is no set rule as to when to use free domains and when to pay for domains, but what I have stated above is a good guideline as to when to use each.
All the best to you and your business
First, let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of each, and then I will discuss when I use each.
Free Domains and Hosting
Pros:
Obviously one of the pros of free domains and hosting is that they are free, which is nice if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on things you might not necessarily need. There are many different hosting sites to choose from, the most commonly used being Blogger and Wordpress. They are easy to create, and they are easy to customize.
These free domains also come with authority, so they are indexed and rank more quickly. They also rank more highly with less links than your own domain because of the authority they automatically have, due to the fact that Google trusts these domains.
They are very effective for testing a niche market without spending any money. Often people say to use Adwords to quickly test a market, but that costs money, and many people can’t spend that money to test the market. Using free blog hosting such as Wordpress or Blogger can allow you to quickly test the market and determine whether or not it will be profitable. You can set up a blog and have it ranking in 24 hours and you can see in a matter of days whether or not a niche is profitable. It’s not as fast as Adwords, but still quite quickly, and for free.
Cons:
These properties can be deleted at any point in time. You have no control over it whatsoever. If someone reports you, or the main site feels you are spamming or abusing the website, then your website can disappear in an instant, and all the work you had done
Over time, they do not rank as well as your own domains can. They do at first, but after time they do not rank as well. They also appear less professional, and may not convert as well as a well designed web page. (I have not done very much testing on this, so I don’t know if this is necessarily true)
Paid Domains and Hosting
Pros:
Paid domains and hosting are obviously in your control. Unless you steal content and get people angry enough to report you to your hosting company, then you will not lose your site. (You can also get around this by purchasing extra privacy so that they can’t look up your WHOIS information). You have complete control over what you can do with your domain, and you can design your site however you want.
With paid domains you can set up a Wordpress blog with
The last advantage of owning your own domain is that over time it ranks better than Web 2.0 properties, especially because Web 2.0 properties get spammed and begin to rank lower.
Cons:
Obviously paid domains cost money, which is a downside, especially when you don’t know if the niche is going to be profitable.
Your own domain will take longer to rank than free domains. They do not contain the authority that Web 2.0 sites have, so they have to earn trust from Google before they can rank well.
It takes a lot more work to create pages on your own domain, especially if you are not using a Wordpress blog on it. You either need knowledge of HTML or you have to hire someone to create a webpage for you, which will either cost you time or money.
When I Use Free & Paid Domains/Hosting
I use both free and paid domains at different times and for different purposes. When I first enter a new niche it is never possible to tell how profitable it will be before testing has been done. Because of this, I always test a market with a free domain. I used to use Wordpress, until I suddenly lost 6 domains in one day, so now I use Blogger to set up blogs for testing the niche markets I enter.
I start off by creating a Blogger blog that I use to get quick rankings and test market quickly and see how well the keywords convert to sales. I do not have a set amount of time to tell if a niche is profitable, as some niches are more competitive than others, and therefore take longer to see results.
I generally just see how well the traffic converts, and if I begin to make sales without having to generate lots of traffic, then I move onto a paid domain. I can’t state a specific number for what is a good conversion rate, but anything above 5% is a great conversion rate, especially for free traffic. A conversion rate of 2-4.9% is pretty good, depending on the market. 1-1.9% is an ok conversion rate, but it isn’t great. It all depends on how high the payouts are.
Once I have determined that a niche is profitable, I move the content onto my own domain, and change as many of the links that I created as possible so that they point to my domain. I then point links from the Blogger blog to my domain that I created, and state that the content has been moved, just in case anyone is looking for that same blog so they know where to go to find the content and all the new content that is added later.
I then leave the Blogger blog alone and move on to promoting my domain name, and continue with that market.
That is when I use free domains vs. paid domains. They both have their benefits and their disadvantages, but each disadvantage can be overcome. There is no set rule as to when to use free domains and when to pay for domains, but what I have stated above is a good guideline as to when to use each.
All the best to you and your business
