Yes, when you first get into Blogging, you should try Blogger or WordPress.They are easy blogging platforms and can be used by anyone with basic knowledge of Blogging and web design. But when you start to get serious about blogging, you need to invest some money and get a custom domain name, something that can take your blog forward and in the right direction.So why should you move your Blogger/WordPress Blog To a Custom Domain? I will give you 5 good reasons for it –
1. Top Level Domain Good For SEO
A top level domain has the potential to get a higher Search Engine Rankings than a Sub-Domain, this difference may not be too much but it is big enough to make a difference.Search Engines prefer Top Level domains to sub-domains, this is a common fact and a well documented one.This can be proved by taking the example of top ranking sites for any keyword, you will find more top level domains than sub-domains.
Some SEO services do not accept sub-domains as customers, this can hamper your SEO, if you do not know how to do it yourself properly.
2. Brand
No one will buy a product from you or hire you for the services you provide if you have a .blogspot.com or a .wordpress.com sub-domain.If you wish to make sales, then having a custom domain is a must, no customer will trust a Brand online that does not even have a custom domain name.However good your services and products may be, you won’t makes sales unless you get the trust of customers.
I found out that my Tech Blog, which was hosted at a Blogspot Sub-Domain (Page Rank 4) did not earn great respect from visitors, hence I moved to a custom domain with a .org, Top level domain (TLD) name, after which my Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers and Subscribers has tripled.
3. Advertising Programs
Many top advertising-publishing programs (CPM Ad Networks) do not accept Sub-Domains into their program as they feel that including sub-domains will decrease their reputation as a top publishing program.
You can clearly see by this that there is more respect to be had if you own your own Domain Name.
Even with Ad Networks such as Blogads, advertisers are more willing to advertise on your site if it is a top level domain, I have had first hand experience with this.
4. Domain Remembrance
People are more likely to remember your website name and visit it again if you have a custom domain.I had a blog-spot domain that had more than 20 letters in it, hard to remember isn’t it? So I moved to a simple top level domain with only 7 characters in my Domain Name, much easier to remember.I have to say that my direct traffic has increased a lot in the week following the transition to a custom domain.
5. Problems with Blogger and WordPress
Blogger:
- Limited Templates.
- Lack of customization options.
- Permalink Re-Structure not allowed.
- Not Great for SEO.
Read in-depth about the problems with Blogger.
WordPress:
- Cannot Place Google Adsense Ads.
- Limited Plug-Ins.
- Not Great For SEO.
- No Great Improvements in the Free WordPress Blogging Platform over the years.
I hope these reasons are enough for you to consider moving to your own custom domain, I did it and I am happy with the results, I am sure you will be too.
really helpful post. I knew – of course – that you are not taken seriously as a blogger if you don’t have your own domain name – but I thought about that in terms of your customers. I didn’t realise that some advertising programmes will reject you on that basis – although it does make sense. have shared this on blogbods. Important bloggers are aware that not having their own domain could limit their earnings.
reallly this is helpfull for me . i thought domain name is not important to earn money . now i am going to buy a custom domain formy blog . . thanks again
1: Top Level Domain Good For SEO
2: Brand
3: Advertising program
4: Problems with Blogger and WordPress
5: Domain Remembrance
Well it's easy. You want to talk about your shitty life, use free hosting&domains, you want to get serios and be a pro, buy a domain. That simple.
Gautham..I loved the intent of the post. If bloggers are serious they will have their own custom domain and if the blog is part of a business, then they will host it on their website.
However, I must disagree with some of your points on WordPress and Blogger. Self-hosted, custom-domain blogs on either of these platforms are more than successful.
Whilst both platforms may have once been considered poor for SEO, this is not the case any more. WordPress has some terrific SEO plugins (many by Yoast). Blogger is owned by Google, so I doubt they're not doing anything for it's ranking results.
Spot on Quentin. You said it all. Google loves Blogger blogs because it belongs to them and WordPress is highly optimized for the search engines even without any SEO Plug-ins.
Absolute, it is because of these major reason that people are moving towards custom domain as they are more likely to get better profits in terms of everything
Whosoever is doing blogging just for time pass or as a hobby then for them, I think that free blogging platforms are the best options. But if any individual who seriously wants to do blogging and his or her motto is to earn good amount of money from it then they should compulsory use the custom domain for their blogs.
Custom domain will create the huge and positive impact on the readers as well as on advertisers too. So its not late for those bloggers who do not have custom domain, they can easily get it, its not a big deal.
Thanks for your valuable information
Mack
Hi,
first, thanks a lot for sharing this post.
i agree with you in all points, because, i start with blogspot in juli for learing about online marketing, seo, blog, linkbuilding and all the others. But blogspot is for learning. You can`t use plugins, or other templates.
Santa had a present, my own domain and my work rank better. it`s great!!!!!!!!!
Hi Gautham,
If anyone has to become a successful blogger then he or she must use custom domain for blogging. With sub-domain no blogger would be ever able to achieve name, fame and money. So if any blogger is serious about his or her blogging, then he or she should use custom domain to achieve all the goals, that they have seen as a blogger.
Branding helps to be popular and create more brands..
I have recently registered a custom domain for my business website and it seriously helps a lot to get traffic to your site. Registering with the name of your company makes it easier for people to find your site which in turn would help you increase your business. Even I had a blogspot.com domain name earlier for my site and now I can see the changes myself as soon as I switched.
Thanks for this grate post, now i am thinking to use custom domain not blogger or wordpress
@Bhupendra This is true that branding always help for easy promotion and now if you really comes to know about custom domain than without waiting time I recommend you to go and grab name. And do the same kind of hard work as you do on free domain.
Gautham
building a blog on a custom domain is always the best, it helps us brand ourselves, and its more professional
If you want your blog to become a brand, then you are most likely to use a Custom domain..
Branding is always important for any blog, simple case is HBB 🙂
Nice POst. I feel the custom domain will reduce the traffic for short period of time. That’s my experience.
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