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.

With various kinds of barriers, it is always difficult for newcomers to delve into a web market. Termed as sandboxes, barriers plague a lot of newcomers specifically in the field of search engines by prohibiting their sites to get up and join the Top Positions Club. Fresh sites tend to stay at the bottom of the list until it gets mature enough. There is no direct confirmation or information yet regarding this issue but the staff of Google hasn’t denied it either, even implying its existence. Furthermore, search engine optimization (SEO) specialists have witnessed and testified themselves of having noticed well optimized, but, new sites never rank high on Google, while catching up painlessly and rapidly on other search engines like MSN and Yahoo! The average lockup period of such sites for Google varies from one case to another, but on average, it generally lasts for about six to eight months.

Sandbox and Aging Delay

Such treatment may seem unfair in the public eyes, but there is a fair amount of reasoning why Google and other search engines resort to such kind of measures. Blackhat practices like creation of duplicate content, keyword stuffing and bulk buying of links have, for some time now, allow new sites to get on top of searches in just a considerably small amount of time. With those kinds of unethical practices, Google chose to penalize the newcomers which, in some cases, have been used by companies to support their older sites by generating tons of backlinks in just over a night. This kind of modus, when successful, depreciates search engine results significantly, prompting Google to take precautionary actions to ensure that such acts would not be tolerated. The sandbox, in effect, works like a probationary period for new sites, a safeguard against farming fake sites, lengthening their usually short-term payoff with the hopes of decreasing its usage.



Sandbox and aging delay shares the same meaning and implication and used interchangeably by SEO experts. Aging delay literally means that sites are being delayed until they become mature enough, until they come of age, age that is not defined and differs from each site to another – even for sites launched in the same day and indexed within the same week. Sandbox is something beyond any site owner’s control, something unavoidable for newcomers. But just like anything inside the web today, just like any problem you encounter, there are always workarounds, or perhaps solutions, that eradicate or somehow minimize the damage that such counter measures put up by Google and other search engines result.

Minimizing Sandbox Damages

The Google sandbox seems impossible to control. Fortunately, there are steps owners can take to make its effects less disparaging for their newly built sites. As mostly the case of most computer-related issues today, users are presented with a number of viable workarounds that are often subdivided into ethical and unethical, or legal and illegal options.  Unethical or illegal approaches may give you additional penalties if not a complete ban from Google. Thus, such tricks will not be discussed in this article.

Before delving into a more detailed discussion on the tips and techniques of minimizing sandbox damage, it must be clarified and understood that sandbox is unavoidable and unstoppable. The best thing one can do is learn to get used to it and wait patiently for the jailing to expire. Attempting to fool Google (e.g. using sandbox tools to bypass the filter, writing exaggerated letters to the management) will surely do no one any good, and may even worsen the situation.

While waiting and stuck in the spells of sandbox, here are some of the countless initiatives you can do:

• Gather content and good links actively.

Good links coupled with relevant and fresh contents are proven to take you to the top over time. Always keep in mind that when getting links, it is important that they need to be from reliable sources link CNN, Fortune 500 sites, DMOZ and other reputable places. One necessary thing not to forget is that .edu, .gov and .mil domains are usually exempted from the sandbox filter, and as such, they could really be of great help. Getting myriad links a month will kill your site. Build links slowly and constantly.

• Formulate plans and work maps ahead of time.

Contrary to the usual practice of launching sites when they’re already complete, launch a couple or more pages anytime you have them. This will trigger the clock and time will be running along with your site’s development.

• Buy old and expired domains.

The sandbox effect is concentrated generally for new sites on new domains. Buying old or expired domains and launching your site there will consequently give you less problems.

• Host your newly-built site on a subdomain of a well-established host.

However, free hosts usually are not good picks in terms of SEO ranking. Unless the domain itself is blacklisted, the sandbox effect does not severely affect its new subdomains. You can also have a separate subdomain from your main site, and just link its contents to the main one. Redirecting from the subdomained site to the new one is also advisable although in some perspectives, it can be viewed as a way of fooling Google.

• Keywords do not have to be popular.

Being sandboxed does not necessarily mean that your site is not being indexed by Google at all. While waiting to get to the top with the most popular keywords, you will learn in time that even unpopular keywords with sufficient optimization are enough to keep you up to date and on pace with other sites.

• Increase traffic by relying more on non-Google ways.

Always keep in mind that Google is just one of the continuously growing numbers of search engines these days. So it is a good thing to include on your SEO efforts to include some other search engines readily available out there. Go for the ones with relatively short or don’t have sandbox effect at all.

Think positive and do not be over impatient. Just remember that the older the wine or the cheese, the better they are; and so do your domain and website.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSeo.com © 2009