There’s no denying that hotlinking has the most negative effects on website owners. Hotlinking might seem like an easy way to acquire website assets, but in reality, it can also cause them harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the five main reasons why you should avoid hotlinking at all costs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Unauthorized reuse of assets is unethical.\u00a0<\/strong>Unauthorized reuse of content assets is theft. You must obtain permission and rights to use the content unless it is under the creative commons license.<\/li>
- You would be stealing resources from another website owner and increasing their hosting costs.\u00a0<\/strong>A hotlinked image consumes a considerable amount of bandwidth on the origin server every time it is viewed. Therefore, the perpetrator is not only stealing content, but also stealing website resources from the original owner.<\/li>
- Hotlinking can have legal repercussions.\u00a0<\/strong>Legal and monetary consequences can follow hotlinking copyrighted content. If the original owner sends the perpetrator a copyright infringement notice and the perpetrator does not respond, the original owner can file a lawsuit.<\/li>
- There is no control over the hotlinked file.\u00a0<\/strong>Hotlinked images are connected to the original website. In the event that the original owner decides to modify or delete the content at any time, the changes will also appear on the perpetrator’s website.<\/li>
- The act of hotlinking is unprofessional.\u00a0<\/strong>As a result of hotlinking’s bad reputation, adopting this practice can negatively affect your reputation. You may be perceived as lacking originality and not respecting other users’ rights.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Hotlinking: How to stop it<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now that you know why you should stop hotlinking, you may be wondering what you can do instead if you would like to use images from other websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most important thing is to make sure you have the right to use the image. You can sometimes obtain images by asking the owner for permission. There are some that are under strict legal license, such as copyrighted photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as you receive permission or have handled the legal process, you should upload the file to your own server or use a third-party provider. For images, use an image hosting service like Imgur<\/a>. In this way, you won’t be stealing bandwidth from the original website owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For whatever reason, you may not be able to acquire the image you want. Here are some alternatives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Find a similar replacement<\/strong>. You might still be able to convey the same message with a different image. Try acquiring a similar photo if you can’t get a specific one from another source, such as a stock image service like Unsplash, Shutterstock, or Pexels.<\/li>
- Link the page, not the image.\u00a0<\/strong>If you can’t replace the image with a similar alternative, you may want to include a link to the original web page. You might not be able to show the image exactly as you wanted, but your visitors will still be able to see it by clicking on the link you provided.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Hotlinking: How to prevent it<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In order to prevent content and bandwidth theft, it is very important to implement hotlink protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is important to remember that hotlink protection will not harm your website’s search engine ranking. Your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts will remain unaffected as long as you don’t prevent search engines from indexing your images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are few ways to prevent your assets from being hotlinked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Method 1: Accessing cPanel Settings<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hotlink protection can be enabled directly through cPanel. The process should be similar for other control panels. Follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Log in to your hosting account and head to the cPanel dashboard.<\/li>
- Under\u00a0Security<\/strong>, select\u00a0Hotlink Protection<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
- Under\u00a0Block direct access to these extensions<\/strong>, choose which file extensions you would like to protect. Once applied, visitors won\u2019t be able to view the direct links attached to the file extensions you\u2019ve selected.<\/li>
- In the\u00a0Redirect blocked requests to this url\u00a0<\/strong>field, you have the option to enter the URL of an error page you want to show visitors who attempt to hotlink your website.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Method 2: Using an FTP Client<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Another option is to edit your website\u2019s .htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file by accessing it through an FTP client like\u00a0FileZilla<\/strong>\u00a0or the file manager on your hosting account\u2019s control panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind that this method involves editing your website\u2019s code, so be careful \u2013 a small error can render your site unusable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Once you\u2019ve connected to your website\u2019s FTP or opened up the file manager, navigate to the\u00a0public_html\u00a0<\/strong>folder.<\/li>
- Within the\u00a0public_html<\/strong>\u00a0folder, find the\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file and download it.<\/li>
- On your computer, make a copy of the original\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file in case something goes wrong.<\/li>
- Open the\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file\u00a0using your preferred text editor.<\/li>
- Copy and paste the following code into the file:
<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\nRewriteEngine on\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?:\/\/(www\\.)?google.com [NC]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?:\/\/(www\\.)?bing.com [NC]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?:\/\/(www\\.)?yahoo.com [NC]\nRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?:\/\/(www\\.)?yourdomain.com [NC]\nRewriteRule \\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ \u2013 [NC,F,L]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n- Change\u00a0yourdomain.com\u00a0<\/strong>to your site\u2019s actual domain.<\/li>
- Save the edited\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file and upload it back to the\u00a0public_html\u00a0<\/strong>folder.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Method 3: Using a CDN<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Using a\u00a0Content Delivery Network (CDN)<\/strong>\u00a0for your website has many benefits. A CDN can increase content delivery speed, providing better performance for your visitors. It can also offer asset management features for website administrators, hotlink protection being one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process of activating hotlink protection will vary depending on the CDN provider you use. The following tutorial will go over how to set up hotlink protection on two popular CDN providers \u2013 Cloudflare<\/a> and KeyCDN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s how to activate hotlink protection on Cloudflare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Log in to your Cloudflare account and navigate to the dashboard.<\/li>
- Select the\u00a0Scrape Shield\u00a0<\/strong>app, which is located on the right of the apps bar.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
3. Switch\u00a0Hotlink Protection<\/strong>\u00a0on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Scrape Shield app by Cloudflare specifically prevents image hotlinking and supports .gif<\/strong>, .ico<\/strong>, .jpg<\/strong>, .jpeg<\/strong>, and .png<\/strong> file types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s how to activate hotlink protection on KeyCDN:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Log in to your KeyCDN account and go to the dashboard.<\/li>
- Select\u00a0Zone Referrers\u00a0<\/strong>from the sidebar.<\/li>
- Click\u00a0Add Zone Referrer<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
- Enter the URL of the zone referrer. Zone referrers are the URLs that are allowed to view direct links of your website assets. URLs that aren\u2019t included in the zone referrers will be blocked.<\/li>
- Select the\u00a0Zone\u00a0<\/strong>from the drop-down menu.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Click\u00a0Add\u00a0<\/strong>to save your settings.<\/li>
- Feel free to add multiple zone referrers.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Method 4: Using a WordPress Plugin<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you use WordPress as your website\u2019s\u00a0content management system\u00a0(CMS), there are several\u00a0WordPress plugins\u00a0available that can prevent hotlinking. We\u2019ll go over three of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Feel free to add multiple zone referrers.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Click\u00a0Add\u00a0<\/strong>to save your settings.<\/li>
- Click\u00a0Add Zone Referrer<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Save the edited\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file and upload it back to the\u00a0public_html\u00a0<\/strong>folder.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Within the\u00a0public_html<\/strong>\u00a0folder, find the\u00a0.htaccess\u00a0<\/strong>file and download it.<\/li>
- In the\u00a0Redirect blocked requests to this url\u00a0<\/strong>field, you have the option to enter the URL of an error page you want to show visitors who attempt to hotlink your website.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
- Under\u00a0Block direct access to these extensions<\/strong>, choose which file extensions you would like to protect. Once applied, visitors won\u2019t be able to view the direct links attached to the file extensions you\u2019ve selected.<\/li>
- Link the page, not the image.\u00a0<\/strong>If you can’t replace the image with a similar alternative, you may want to include a link to the original web page. You might not be able to show the image exactly as you wanted, but your visitors will still be able to see it by clicking on the link you provided.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- You would be stealing resources from another website owner and increasing their hosting costs.\u00a0<\/strong>A hotlinked image consumes a considerable amount of bandwidth on the origin server every time it is viewed. Therefore, the perpetrator is not only stealing content, but also stealing website resources from the original owner.<\/li>
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