Ben
03-27-2009, 02:49 AM
In the past year or so I found in my logs that several forums and blogs regularly hotlink to the pictures and movies on my free sites. I decided to put a stop on it, and inserted a .htaccess code that gives them a funny picture instead of the pic they wanted to hotlink.
But, is that good practice both in terms of SEO and popularity of your freesite hub?
I see that Google Images has no problem displaying pictures from my free sites even now when hotlinking is disabled. However, some other search engines are not so smart (e.g. MSN).
Do you think it helps or hurts your sales if people hotlink to your freesites? I think it's probably not good to allow hotlinking because the hotlinkers don't use your text with your linking code, just the bare picture. So you don't get credit for any sales that may result from people seeing your hotlinked pictures or videos.
The only positive thing I see about hotlinking is that someone liked your choice of pics :D. There is also a remote possibility that the more tech savvy surfers will take a loog at the source of the hotlinked picture on the forum and eventually visit your freesite, but is that realistic to expect?
But, is that good practice both in terms of SEO and popularity of your freesite hub?
I see that Google Images has no problem displaying pictures from my free sites even now when hotlinking is disabled. However, some other search engines are not so smart (e.g. MSN).
Do you think it helps or hurts your sales if people hotlink to your freesites? I think it's probably not good to allow hotlinking because the hotlinkers don't use your text with your linking code, just the bare picture. So you don't get credit for any sales that may result from people seeing your hotlinked pictures or videos.
The only positive thing I see about hotlinking is that someone liked your choice of pics :D. There is also a remote possibility that the more tech savvy surfers will take a loog at the source of the hotlinked picture on the forum and eventually visit your freesite, but is that realistic to expect?