Impact of Hotlinked images

[jont]

Are there any consequences of hotlinked images in terms of SEO ... positive or negative.

I know how to stop / prevent / annoy hotlinking but interested in any views on SEO.

[RuralWeb]

If the hotlinked image has a link to your website URL, then that would be treated as a proper image link and will pass due link credits to your website.

[Darren B]

Not sure about seo, but obviously if you allow google to use the images im guessing it could end up showing the hotlink one.

That could be an interesting scenario if you used a pornographic image, i used a banner last time i set it up with my url's which if indexed could give a bit of free advertising, but the question is how does google see it?

Actually i must setup hotlinking again <plug> considering its part of the client control panel to make it easy for anyone to set it up on my hosting</plug>

[RuralWeb]

if you allow google to use the images im guessing it could end up showing the hotlink one.

It almost certainly will BUT people looking for images will come to the site and visit once which will increase your bounce rate as far as G is concerned and thats bad:eek:

[Darren B]

so if you do then you would be better to use something that is relevant to your site, keep it clean, polite and on topic in the hope it does not increase your bounce rate. Google takes all the fun out of it :D

[CymraegKev]

A good article (and comments) on this at SEJ: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-hotlinking-and-seo-are-there-any-benefits/6943/

[jont]

Cheers for the link Kevin