Domains vs. Free Hosting

[klaw07]

Do Altavista, and search engines in general list Domain names faster than free hosting sites? That is what I have heard, I have also heard that domain names are often given higher rankings. Feedback?

[seth_wilde]

klaw-

I don't have any hard stats to back me up, but it has been reported in the past that free hosting sites are given somewhat of a penalty in serps when compared to regular domains.

Besides the ranking issue, AV has been know to ban entire blocks of IP address which could get you in trouble if you're using free hosting or virtual hosting.

All in all, if your serious about your e-business, I would seriously consider buying your own domain and hosting it on it's own IP.

[scott]

If I only had a dollar for every place one of those stupid "angelfire" sites has edged me out! The industry for my site in general lends itself particularly well to free sites, so I find them abundantly in the top 10 for most of my KWs. If the SEs don't penalize, they certainly should. Just on the basis of annoyance alone. It doesn't seem to matter how crowded their site is with ads or that they have those damn popups!