24 Sep 09 SEO SIMPLIFIED: Why Not to Use Hotlinking on Your Website

Do you remember the hotlinking issues we talked about in the article titled, Do Not Allow Hotlinking, I discussed the way some webmasters uses to steal the bandwidth from another webmaster. This, of course, is immoral and unethical, but there is much more on stake than mere ethics and morality. In this article, I will tell you why not to use hotlinking on your webpage; what are the risks involved, etc.

Perils of Hotlinking

Hotlinking is used to steal bandwidth by not only the unscrupulous webmasters, but it is often used by innocuous newbies as well. The newcomers do not realize the perils of their action and take hotlinking as a device that can save their bandwidth and time else invested in downloading the same image and uploading on their server.

By direct linking to the resources hosted on another website, you are relinquishing your control not only on the resource but also on the block where you have used it. This gives the victim webmaster from whom you have stolen the resource has a full control of that block, which he can exercise at his will. At the least, he can replace the original funny picture or anything like that.

Some webmasters even will go as far as putting a warning sign in that block saying, you have stolen the resource, and the image or flash or whatever you displayed was not yours. How do you think your visitors going to react? And what if the webmaster writes an inactive link in the warning image urging the visitors to see how the original place looks like?

Add on these perils, the risk of lawsuit because of the infringement of copyright. I know, this has a very remote possibility, but you never know. What if the webmaster files a complaint with your webhosting, and the hosting decides to shut your site?

There can be many implications, therefore I strongly suggest against using hotlinking, if you mean business.