Is a self hosted website a must if I want to improve my site’s SEO?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Clare Xanthos: From what I’ve been reading, it looks like onsite SEO requires a self hosted wordpress site as opposed to a free wordpress site (what I have now).  ;If this is correct, I’ll have to move my website to the self hosted version of wordpress. Before I go to the trouble of migrating, I would like to double check that this move is necessary for SEO purposes.  ;In other words, is a self hosted website a must if I want to improve my site’s SEO? Thanks!
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  Mike Stetzer: I'm pretty sure the free WP version doesn't allow you to use any of the plugins or access advanced settings. Wordpress has an import/export feature that should make migrations easier.
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  Rahul Gemawath: What I have experienced,that shows the same thing. One of my friend have free wordpress website with lot of content and quite old too. Whereas my website is new and its just has one article in it. But still have good Alexa and se rank
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  David Edbrooke-Stainer: It depends on what you use the site for? Is it a Blog where you pass on your thoughts or is it something designed to earn you a living?
  
  Free WordPress blogs are ideal for everyday blogs and can still rank well; also the hosting is very good should you get a lot of traffic.
  
  Self hosted can come with problems. If you scrimp on the hosting costs then you could suffer later should something ever go viral.
  
  If you are happy with what you are getting then keep as if. You can always change later should you wish to capitalize on your work.
  
  If you do want to capitalize now; then move.
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  Clare Xanthos: +David Edbrooke-Stainer ;Thanks for this information. My website is a business and I need to increase traffic dramatically and hopefully get it to the first page of google.  ;The key question is: is it possible to do this on the free wordpress site and avoid moving? Thanks!
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  Clare Xanthos: +Mike Stetzer ;Thanks. Yes, it sounds like you need plugins to improve SEO. I'm just wondering whether there are any alternative ways of improving SEO on the free site.
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  Mike Stetzer: A friend of mine was in a similar dilemma a while back and I suggested that she move to the paid version. I'm also accustomed to many of the plugins, like Yoast, and I don't know how I'd function without them :).
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  Clare Xanthos: +Mike Stetzer ;Thanks...I think I will probably move, unless someone suggests a way of dramatically improving SEO without plugins.  ;I'm just hoping that it's not too much of a hassle maintaining the site as I'm not wordpress or website savvy and I don't want to spend a significant percentage of time or money on site issues.
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  Alan Renberger: I prefer to use plugins and self hosting, however I believe you could do a fair amount of building on wordpress.com.  ;Take it with a grain of salt but there is a blog post on wordpress.com entitled "All About SEO on WordPress.com".  ; The takeaway is use proper "slugs" and content, content, content.  ;If you decide to move to a self hosted site don't just look at price, find someone who can help you if an issue happens.  ;I have tried a few hosts and been happy with site5 for their support including live chat.  ;I am sure there are others out there that are great also.  ; If you would like some further info regarding a move or initial setup touch base and I will try to point you in the right direction.
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  Clare Xanthos: +Alan Renberger ;Great points here; thanks! I just checked out a wordpress article regarding SEO on the free site, which basically argues (as you noted) that the best ways of improving SEO is through "slugs" and content/blogging. Perhaps that route would be less time consuming for me...I'll have to think about it. Thanks again!
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  Lori Eldridge: If you self host your Wordpress blog then every post turns into another page and every page you add increases your website's size and possibly PageRank. It can also attract more links with more pages. Whereas if you have a blog separate from your website then google only counts one link from your blog to your website.
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  Clare Xanthos: +Lori Eldridge ;Thanks, this is helpful.
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  Lisa Parmley: Definitely don't start a business on a free WordPress site. Host it, even if it's a cheap $7 hosting plan. Make sure you get a domain and then buy hosting somewhere other than the domain registrar. You want full control over everything and some hosting/domain packages make it difficult to move your site later. I hope that helps!