Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Can hotlinking images from multiple sites be bad for SEO?
-
Hi,
There's a very similar question already being discussed here, but it deals with hotlinking from a single site that is owned by the same person.
I'm interested whether hotlinking images from multiple sites can be bad for SEO.
The issue is that one of our bloggers has been hotlinking all the images he uses, sometimes there are 3 or 4 images per blog from different domains.
We know that hotlinking is frowned upon, but can it affect us in the SERPs?
Thanks,
James
-
Sorry, hotlinking was the wrong word to use, we're actually just embedding the images.
Is it possible that Google recognises that spammy sites (as an example) tend to embed lots of images and therefore use it as an indicator of spam?
Also, is poor netiquette ever taken into account? Again, maybe because Google is trying to find spammy sites?
For the record, it is something we'll be fixing (especially from a copyright point of view), but we're trying to prioritise this. If there's a potential SEO impact, we'll sort it quick, if not, then we'll do more pressing things first.
-
Okay, so hotlinking is the wrong terminology to use. Do you think embedding images is taken into account by Google?
For example, would Google see spammy sites embedding lots of images, and therefore use it as an indicator of spam?
-
That's confused me too! Embedding an image from another site is hotlinking. A href doesn't have anything to do with it.
-
Excuse me, it's late in the day. Embedding is still referencing the sites image URL right?
Also, what if the site changes the directory or something and all the images on your site now 404.
-
Another thing to consider is that requesting images from multiple sites will create a lag in load times. Most modern browsers will download multiple files in parallel from the one host. Multiple hosts will mean the page load will occur in series (not parallel) and this will create a slower load time.
Hope this helps!
Dan
-
Sorry, I assumed you meant you were hotlinking images, rather than just embedding them. If you're just using tags with no <href> defined (so just embedding, not hotlinking), then you're right - this won't cause a problem.</href>
-
Create and host your own image or use a royalty-free image so you won't suffer from someone claiming copyright, this should be your biggest concern here.
-
Takeshi is right. Bandwidth can cost money, so there's that as well as the copyright theft. You could also fall victim to a 'switcheroo': http://www.deuceofclubs.com/switcheroo/index.html - I've done this myself before by adding a polite message asking someone not to hotlink.
Google don't include hotlinked images in Google News so it is something they may take into account when ranking a page in their general search.
-
Surely that only works if it's an actual link, right? Simply using the tag shouldn't be regarded as a link by Google?
-
You are definitely missing out on image traffic by not hosting your own images. Plus, hotlinking is poor netiquette since you are using someone else's bandwidth without their permission. If the images are copyrighted, then you could be hit by DMCA requests which can negatively impact your SEO.
-
Hi James
A lot of this will depend on the site you're linking to.
It's long been a part of the ranking algorithm that if you link to sites that are seen negatively by Google, due to spam/malware/etc, then your site may be viewed negatively itself. Without knowing where your blogger has been linking from, it's hard to say - but it's worth running a check just in case.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does anyone know the linking of hashtags on Wix sites does it negatively or postively impact SEO. It is coming up as an error in site crawls 'Pages with 404 errors' Anyone got any experience please?
Does anyone know the linking of hashtags on Wix sites does it negatively or positively impact SEO. It is coming up as an error in site crawls 'Pages with 404 errors' Anyone got any experience please? For example at the bottom of this blog post https://www.poppyandperle.com/post/face-painting-a-global-language the hashtags are linked, but they don't go to a page, they go to search results of all other blogs using that hashtag. Seems a bit of a strange approach to me.
Technical SEO | | Mediaholix0 -
CSS background image links bad for seo?
On one of the websites I manage SEO for, the developers are changing how our graphical links are coded. They're basically coding in such away where there is no anchor text and no alt tag, so for example: So there's no anchor nor alt context for Google's crawler. How badly will this affect SEO, or is it extremely minimal and I shouldn't worry about? Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | JimLynch0 -
Multiple urls for posting multiple classified ads
Want to optimize referral traffic while at same time keep search engines happy and the ads posted. Have a client who advertises on several classified ad sites around the globe. Which is better (post Panda), having multiple identical urls using canonicals to redirect juice to original url? For example: www.bluewidgets.com is the original www.bluewidgetsusa.com www.blue-widgets-galore.com Or, should the duplicate pages be directed to original using a 301? Currently using duplicate urls. Am currently not using "nofollow" tags on those pages.
Technical SEO | | AllIsWell0 -
Google Showing Multiple Listings For Same Site?
I've been optimizing a small static HTML site and have been working to increase the keyword rankings, yet have always ranked #1 for the company name. But, I've now noticed the company name is taking more than just the first position - the site is now appearing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position (each position referencing a different page of the site). Great.. who doesn't want to dominate a page of Google! ..But it looks kind of untidy and not usually how links from the same site are displayed. Is this normal? I'm used to seeing results from the same site grouped under the primary result, but not like this. any info appreciated 🙂
Technical SEO | | GregDixson0 -
Will bad things happen if I cancel 301 site redirect?
Hi, please someone help! We have two identical websites, say A & B. Because of the not so good SEO establishment, site B was built and site A was 301 redirected to site B weeks ago. For some reasons, we have to reuse site A, which means we have to cancel the 301 redirection. (Sound a little crazy) So the question are: 1. Can we conduct the action? 2. If we cant, what's the reason? 3. If we can, what would be the best practice? Thanks for help in advance! Plus: we also CARE what would happen to site B if the 301 is cancelled? Will it grow healthy like a new site?
Technical SEO | | Squall3150 -
Bing rank drop off for multiple sites
Hi Mozzers, Seeing some wacky stuff going on on some sites I manage. In more than a few, the ranking on bing has dropped basically overnight from page one spots to not being found on the first 100 positions. Anyone else seeing similar results? Some of the sites are fairly new, some have been around for ages, some are wordpress, some are not. I've been searching for some news of a big change on bing, but keep reading about bing dropping the thin sites during black friday. In one example, I had the site set up in BWT for a while, and had a look at the data. The reports show that the pages are crawled, the index summary shows pages indexed, and there seems to be no crawl errors, but rankings are absolutely gone. Also, I can't see the sites in bing if I search "site:example.com" in bing. Here's 2 examples, the first would make sense since it's pretty thin as I havent added much content yet: http://homewindowtint.org but this one doesn't make sense to me. Sure there's a few errors, but to be dropped like a rock seems weird http://www.ahmedandsukaram.com
Technical SEO | | rosstaylor0 -
On a dedicated server with multiple IP addresses, how can one address group be slow/time out and all other IP addresses OK?
We utilize a dedicated server to host roughly 60 sites on. The server is with a company that utilizes a lady who drives race cars.... About 4 months ago we realized we had a group of sites down thanks to monitoring alerts and checked it out. All were on the same IP address and the sites on the other IP address were still up and functioning well. When we contacted the support at first we were stonewalled, but eventually they said there was a problem and it was resolved within about 2 hours. Up until recently we had no problems. As a part of our ongoing SEO we check page load speed for our clients. A few days ago a client who has their site hosted by the same company was running very slow (about 8 seconds to load without cache). We ran every check we could and could not find a reason on our end. The client called the host and were told they needed to be on some other type of server (with the host) at a fee increase of roughly $10 per month. Yesterday, we noticed one group of sites on our server was down and, again, it was one IP address with about 8 sites on it. On chat with support, they kept saying it was our ISP. (We speed tested on multiple computers and were 22MB down and 9MB up +/-2MB). We ran a trace on the IP address and it went through without a problem on three occassions over about ten minutes. After about 30 minutes the sites were back up. Here's the twist: we had a couple of people in the building who were on other ISP's try and the sites came up and loaded on their machines. Does anyone have any idea as to what the issue is?
Technical SEO | | RobertFisher0 -
First click on SEO redirecting to a competitor site?
I just experienced something VERY odd and wondered if any of you had an idea of what it might be. When I did a search on Google and clicked the top SEO listing I was taken to a competitor of the number 1 listed site i.e. NOT the site I clicked on. When I clicked the back button and clicked it again, I was taken to the correct site. This happened with two different searches and I was taken to two different sites. Could this be a clever/sinister cookie implemented by the competitor; a site I frequent regularly? Could this be malware implemented by an affiliate? Could this be a Google glitch?
Technical SEO | | Red_Mud_Rookie0