Free subdomains are tempting to web developers who want to develop a new website for their new business. However, before you embark on it, learn more about its pros and cons before your proceed.
Subdomains are easy to use:
It is easy to search free domains, especially when large numbers of them advertise about themselves. In addition, due to large traffic to their sites, they easily show up on very first few searches. In fact, it is very tempting to register subdomains on their sites, as they invoke very little procedural steps to do so. You are only required to fill out your email address and desired site address against password for theft protection. After filling out these details, you are redirected to your subdomains. However, only when you are redirected, you come to know about their real features and disadvantages.
Subdomains can be deleted without notice:
On contrary, it is difficult to judge which site might suit you best. With large number of domains available and sharing similar features, you may get confused choosing one over another. Most domain owners allow restricted uploading of few megabytes. This means you only get few megabytes of storage. This may add to your difficulty if you want to upload free content on your site in order to attract large traffic to site. To make the situation worse, you may receive notifications for deleting free content that is objectionable according to the rule of domain hosting. Sometimes, it happens forcefully. That is, your content is removed without notice. This can be problematic as all your hard work will be wiped out at the domain owner’s whim.
Start Charging on subdomains:
Most people who register on free domains experience unjust charging after their site runs on fully developed scale. With increase in traffic, website developers face the crunch, as they receive blackmailing from domain builders on making hefty pays threatening permanent deletion of their websites. It is quite difficult to mitigate such problems, as you cannot take a legal stand against domain owners. This is so because most domain owners purposefully make it a point to include terms and conditions that relieve them from carrying any responsibility or liabilities for malfunctioning before assigning the domain to you.
Loss of Search Engine Rankings:
If you want to move your site when it is registered under subdomain, you will not be able to keep all those backlinks and you will lose all the search engine rankings. This is because whenever you move a site or a page from one address to another, you need to inform the search engine with a 301 redirect (this is sort of like a change of address card). A 301 redirect will tell the search engines that your site or page has moved and it should transfer all of the “link credit” to the new address. However, with free subdomains, you won’t have access to .htaccess files -which is where you need to place the 301 redirect command for the search engines. Thus, you’re essentially stuck from a search engine perspectives.
Mutual Profit Models:
Most domain owners allow you to build subdomains only on the condition that you let them post their advertisements for free. This is fine, until you invest time building your site on their domain. However, once you complete your site, you lose opportunities to earn money from it. This is perhaps the biggest drawback of building sites over free subdomains. It not only hurts you, but also hampers your opportunity to earn money. However, there are some domain owners that provide you with genuine ways of making money. They allow you to make money on websites you built using their domains. In addition, they allow restricted access of adding advertisements to your site. Thus, they practice two-way mutual profit models. That is, they earn along with you.
Now that you know the cons of using free subdomains, it is entirely up to you on whether you choose to use free subdomains or not.
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