For improving traffic - Is it better to have your own domain?

[cheapcanuck]

Right now I am using Blogger to host my blog, writing daily and researching as much as I can the best ways to drive traffic to my site. Before I get too far along in this process am I better off registering a .com domain and getting hosting? Do the major search engines like unique domains better? How about the habits of the average surfer? Do they care whether the URL they follow has its own domain name? Thanks for any advice?

[bradblog2]

From personal experience, I think google favours .blogspot domains because it is their service you are using. I am currently ranked first for "Daily Rambler" when there is a fair amount of competition when using blogger.

Heres what I did. I started my blog on blogspot for about six months and then I kept my other one going and started one on a .com domain. Since blogspot is free and allows ultimate customization.. You have nothing to lose

Until you realize that you really want to spend money on a .com, use blogger to figure out if this is something you like doing!

I hope this helps you out!

[timarcher52]

I've registered a .com domain for my site. I'm note sure if that by itself helps you get better traffic. In fact, I hope it wouldnt matter to google. Instead, hopefully they'll find the best content match for what your searching for, regardless of whether its on its own domain, or on a blogspot account.

However, I have read online that it seems google may rank sites higher who have their domains registered for a longer period of time. So instead of registering your domain for a 1 year period at a time, register for more. When I registered my domain I went for 3 years. This seems to make sense as a domain registered for a longer period seems to show a little more of a financial commitment by the website owner.

[steveyu85]

I am also interested to know that whether it is worth to spend money to get own domain names and web hosting? I am currently using blogspot platform.

[veikoh]

Your domain is about branding. The domain name have little bit effect to your SEO rankings when used as keywords like any URL or directory name but it's much more a branding issue as you can market it better.

[jshaffstall]

Others have already said it, but I'll chime in, too. Search engines don't care, per se, that you have your own domain name. In fact, as mentioned, Google plays favorites with web sites, and likes Blogger blogs.

That said, having a keyword based domain name will boost your search engine rankings a bit. Probably not enough to make it worth switching from Blogger just for that.

If you're thinking about using Pay Per Post or any of the sponsored post services, having your own domain name and hosting will open up a wider range of opportunities.

If you have your own domain/hosting, you essentially own your own online business. You can sell it, you can build it to the point where it supports you, you can make absolutely nothing from it. Whatever you want. But nobody else has any control over the site, unlike when you host with Blogger (they can choose to shut down your site for any variety of perceived violations of their terms of service).

If you're convinced that you'll be blogging for a while, most people do switch from Blogger to their own domain/hosting at some point to get complete control over their site. So if you already know you want to keep blogging long-term, switching now would be less painful than switching later.

When you switch, you get to use Wordpress, which generally has a richer set of functionality when you include all the plugins available.

So there are a lot of advantages to having your own domain and hosting, but improved traffic isn't a direct benefit.

Jay

[chilleddude2002]

just wanted to say thanks for some of the replies in this thread, very useful input. i did the stupid thing of purchasing a domain before starting my first blog and can say it was a waste of time. on my second blog which i put more time and effort into, i use the web based wordpress which seems to be okay but would like to think in the futre i'll head towards purchasing a domain and hosting..

[timarcher52]

Why was purchasing the domain for your first blog a waste of time? Was it just for a blog that you dont maintain anymore?

[chilleddude2002]

Originally Posted by timarcher52

Why was purchasing the domain for your first blog a waste of time? Was it just for a blog that you dont maintain anymore?

Hard to explain as the blog was setup for an idea I had which worked well for a month or two but then died.. and the domain just doesn't seem to have helped at all. Maybe its because I'm new to the whole blogging thing and should have looked into it more but just feel the money I spent on the domain has gone down the drain as the box stand web address would have done the same job.

[blogenhancingtips]

I don't really see a domain as a huge deal. I would really just focus on good content and good marketing. If you have those two things than anyone can bring in a lot of traffic to their web site. However, if you only one and not the other than you're going to have problems keeping readers or even bringing in traffic. Domains aren't that expensive and you can even pay for one on blogger so does already set up for you if you like blogger. I will also make it so your will automatically redirect to the one you paid for on blogger.