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Starhugger
Posts: 661
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: Canada
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Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/2/2006 23:42:16
I've posted about some of this problem in other parts of this form, but I'll summarize here:
I've had an increasing problem with various sites hotlinking to images on my site. I suspect most of them think they've copied the image itself, not realising they have copied the location instead. I've disabled right-clicking on images but that doesn't always stop them. Most of these sites are blogs that don't provide a direct way to contact the owner. Even worse, I can't always trace which blog is doing the linking -- I only see references to the blog site but not always the actual blog name.
So..... Around the beginning of April, I changing my .htaccess file for a short time to block hotlinking to my site. It worked...a little too well. It kept the hotlinkers away, but it seemed to also block some language translation services who suddenly weren't showing up in my stats.
Meanwhile..... My Google traffic had finally been picking up since around December, after a very long time in the sandbox, it seemed. March was my best month for Google traffic and I was delighted. But at some point in April, my Google traffic suddenly dropped to a trickle and remains that way.  
Google algorithm hiccups notwithstanding, does anyone know if messing around with anti-hotlinking code in .htaccess might have hurt Google's feelings and now it's not speaking to me? How long before Google is likely to kiss and make up?
I've been thinking of trying to use .htaccess code that would target specific sites or domains (as suggested by Kitka in another thread), which wouldn't interfere with these translation services. But do I dare try this now?? I suppose it could be argued that the damage is done and I haven't got much to lose by trying (since Google is giving me the cold shoulder anyway), but I don't want to risk ruining my chances of getting back into Google's good graces either.
Thanks for any help and suggestions about this.
Starhugger
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Reflect
Posts: 4765
From: USA
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RE: Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/3/2006 8:37:20
Starhugger this would not effect Google, maybe Froogle as it uses your images.
Can you post the hotlinking snippet you inserted just for review, maybe something is going on in there?
However I would Google (no pun intended) for "Bid Daddy+google". This was a change that took place during that time period. Here is what Matt Cutts had to say...
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bigdaddy/
On other forums I have heard some major grumbling.
Also Page Rank got an update around that time period. While PR is not the whole picture that can account for a drop in Google IMHO. Reference...
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=10914
Not to add to your confusion. I would start looking at your sites PR to see if it has dropped. From there look into your htaccess file for syntax errors. Then research Big Daddy changes.
Take care,
Brian
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Starhugger
Posts: 661
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: Canada
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RE: Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/3/2006 15:43:20
quote:
ORIGINAL: Reflect
Starhugger this would not effect Google, maybe Froogle as it uses your images.
No, there's no way all that traffic was just images. Although it's funny that I could never figure out what keywords I was getting Google traffic from. Whenever I'd take a stab at sample searches (like using keywords showing up in my stats), I'd rarely come up in the first several pages in Google. So either I was getting off-the-beaten-track keywords, or I was getting very persistent users who didn't like whoever was listed before me in the search results.
quote:
Can you post the hotlinking snippet you inserted just for review, maybe something is going on in there?
 Oh no...I can't believe I didn't keep a backup of the code... (smacking self upside head) I just took a look through old threads about .htaccess that I had posted in the last couple of months and thought I would find it all there, but I must have pieced it together from various sources. Blast, now I'll have to figure it out from scratch again...
quote:
However I would Google (no pun intended) for "Bid Daddy+google". This was a change that took place during that time period. Here is what Matt Cutts had to say...
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bigdaddy/
On other forums I have heard some major grumbling.
So, if I understand this... Google (and other SEs??) are now relying (or starting to rely) on a central data center that provides information about sites on the net? Kind of like the news agencies like Reuters or AP? That would give them an AWFUL lot of power.
quote:
Also Page Rank got an update around that time period. While PR is not the whole picture that can account for a drop in Google IMHO. ... Not to add to your confusion. I would start looking at your sites PR to see if it has dropped. From there look into your htaccess file for syntax errors. Then research Big Daddy changes.
You know that's interesting you say that. I thought I had recently seen a drop in my PRs but since I was a bad girl and didn't record previous changes, I wasn't sure if my memory was playing tricks on me. But I'm sure all my pages were a PR3 and now suddenly many of them are a PR2, including my heaviest traffic pages which I find weird. But as traffic doesn't seem to affect PR, I guess they don't really care about that.
With the sudden spike over the last few months in G traffic, I was expecting a jump in PR to 4 or 5. Now it seems to have done an about-face.
<whine>Sigh... You know, I have worked my guts out to create a quality website, and I see so much crud out there (on the same topic) that seem to have a much higher PR, probably only because they've been around much longer than I have. There are some great sites out there, but also many sites that seem to only be "link farms" and pay-for-service sites that offer little or no real content to the viewer. So it's very disheartening when I see my status sliding back again after I've worked so hard. </whine>
Thanks for replying Brian. It sounds like my .htaccess fiddling was a coincidence with my traffic drop. Interestingly, my Yahoo traffic remains high (so far), and it took even longer for Yahoo to take me seriously. Keeping my fingers crossed that Yahoo doesn't take its lead from the Big G.
Starhugger
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Mojo
Posts: 2477
From: Chicago
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RE: Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/3/2006 17:01:53
quote:
No, there's no way all that traffic was just images.
Are you checking log files? I have a site that get around 25 visitors per day, but over 2000 image views from hotlinking or Google, MSN image search.
If you're not checking the log files with a decent analyzer you just don't know.
PR doesn't matter for shite. Don't worry about what you see in the toolbar.
There is just too much FUD being spread by Google.
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Starhugger
Posts: 661
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: Canada
Status: offline
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RE: Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/3/2006 17:22:26
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mojo
Are you checking log files? I have a site that get around 25 visitors per day, but over 2000 image views from hotlinking or Google, MSN image search.
Hey Mojo,
I use Awstats. My page views overall were up, my unique visitors were up, and the traffic referred by Google in the search engine section of the stats was way up. I identify hotlinking when there are no page views but there are hits from a certain URL. Or there are way more hits than referral click-throughs. Most of them are search engines and translator services, but sometimes I'll see site URLs and most are blogs. Depending on how popular the blog is, the amount of bandwidth used is more or less, but collectively it starts to add up. And I'm uncomfortable with the increasing rate of it.
I suppose it could be considered a form of flattery but I'd rather they didn't use my bandwidth to do it. And I wish they'd at least provide a link back to my site, which most of them do not. It's bad enough when they copy my own images, but I also have images on my site that are copyrighted and I have permission to use them. So when someone copies them, I feel obligated to prevent or correct that, as much as I'm able to.
quote:
There is just too much FUD being spread by Google.
LOL It's the traffic that I'm mostly concerned about. The drop in PR just seems to be an explanation or reflection of that.
Starhugger
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KO WEBSITES
Posts: 3
Joined: 5/4/2006
Status: offline
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RE: Blocking hotlinking and Google - 5/4/2006 14:42:18
We had this issue with one of our roofing Co. websites we built. East coast roofing Co's were using our online roof tile samples for their website. I got sick of it, so I changed the link/location of the sample page and left some 'not too nice' pictures at the old location for the east cost roofers to use.
Petty, but effective...
KO
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Printable Version 
mostly because I honestly believe that most of these people don't realise they're hotlinking to me. I think most of them are young people who just don't know better. I did use a very stern image initially, saying something like "This image is STOLEN!" But I decided to tone it down a bit because I saw that even Google images were getting that replacement image, at least temporarily. So I changed it to "Unauthorized use. This image might be stolen. See the original at..."