Custom domain or free subdomain?
When a free subdomain is genuinely fine, and the point at which your own domain starts paying for itself.
This decision gets treated as a status question and it is really a practical one. A subdomain and a domain both work. They differ in what they cost, what they signal, and crucially in who controls the address if you ever move.
A free subdomain is fine longer than people think
If you are starting out, testing whether the work sells, or booking mostly people who already know you, a subdomain costs nothing and does the job. Clients care that the page loads and explains what you do.
Spending money on a domain before you have a page worth visiting is the wrong order. The page is the asset; the address is packaging.
What your own domain actually buys
Three things: it looks established to someone who does not know you, it is easier to say out loud and print, and it is yours. That last point is the one that matters most and gets mentioned least.
With your own domain, the address survives changing tools. Everything printed, linked and remembered keeps working. On any subdomain, moving means the old address stops being yours.
The point where it starts paying for itself
Once you are handing out the address to strangers, putting it on printed material, or spending money to send people to it, the domain is worth having. At that stage you are investing in traffic, and you should own where it lands.
The other trigger is email. Once you want an address at your own domain rather than a generic mailbox, you need the domain anyway.
Search engines do not care as much as you think
A custom domain is not a ranking trick. What moves search results is content people want and a site that is fast and crawlable, on either kind of address.
There is one real consideration: moving later means redirects and a period where search engines re-learn the new address. That is an argument for choosing the domain before you build a lot of links, not an argument that subdomains rank badly.
- Will a custom domain improve my Google rankings?
- Not by itself. Content and site quality drive rankings. The domain matters for control and perception more than for ranking.
- Can I start free and move to my own domain later?
- Yes. On Tulala you can start on a free subdomain and connect your own domain on a paid plan without rebuilding the page.
- What happens to my links if I move?
- You will want redirects from the old address, and search engines take a while to fully transfer. It is worth doing, just not repeatedly.
- Is a subdomain unprofessional?
- Not to people who already know you. It matters more when strangers are judging you from the address alone.
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