8 replies to this topic

[Early]

I am creating a very small website (about 4 pages). I consider using wordpress.com but only if there are not to much disadvantages when it comes to seo.
I am planning to use the seo title tag plugin so I can make good titles
do you guys think I'd still better go for a own hosting and url or is it not that important?

[gotlinks]

Go with your own hosting, it really is the better route!

[Jarret]

It is completely up to you.

You honestly don't need a plugin to SEO your titles. You just need to find a theme that uses the correct structure and layout for optimization. If the theme uses your post title as the title for your page, which it should be doing, then there is no use for a plugin.

Blogs hosted on wordpress or blogspot can still do well. It is just that having your own domain name gives you the advantage of people taking you a little bit more seriously. So many spammers use wordpress.com and blogpost.com to post their spam that when a normal visitor sees a link to one of them, they just see it as a possible spammer posting his spam.

[Jill]

If the theme uses your post title as the title for your page, which it should be doing, then there is no use for a plugin.

I disagree.

Being able to customize titles so that they're NOT the same as the post name can be very important. Title tags and article titles should not always be the same thing.

[Jarret]

Hey Jill, I can agree with you as well to a point.

Depending upon how the theme is setup, you don't necessarily have to have the article title the same as the post title. You could still use the post title as the page title and then setup an <h1> tag or something else to setup the actual article title. I think that is what I was trying to get at or does that not make any sense either?

I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on that.

[Randy]

If memeory serves we had a similar thread recently. And I believe the idea was that a blog that is hosted by wordpress has some pretty severe limitations compared to one where you install wordpress on your own domain with your own hosting.

I'm not sure if the ability to get a unique <title> is part of the equation, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Bottom line is if it's a site you're going to SEO and especially if it's a site that's going to have an e-commerce component, you'll want as much control as possible. Which usually means getting a domain and some hosting, then installing whatever software fits the bill.

[Jarret]

Hi Randy, I can agree with that as well. Especially when you mention the e-commerce part of it. Then I would definitely be getting my own domain and hosting.

I'm not saying that using wordpress.com or blogspot.com is bad in anyway, I would never use them personally myself, but it isn't impossible to get them to rank.

[Randy]

I would never use them personally myself, but it isn't impossible to get them to rank.

We can all certainly agree with that one. Otherwise none of Google's official blogs would rank for anything since they're all on a blog domain.

[OptimalPages]

I can speak with some intelligence about this, especially since blogging and WordPress are what got me turned on to SEO in the first place.

WordPress is a powerful blog management tool. Creating a blog on WordPress.com resulting in (http://yourblog.wordpress.com) is okay, but it is very limited in what you can do with SEO. To maintain 100% free status, you need to use a premade SEO-friendly theme. Luckily, there are a few available. However, you can't edit the .css or theme files without paying an additional fee.

By hosting WordPress on your own domain (like I do), you have the power of WordPress, all its plug-ins, and freedom to customize the blog template as you see fit.