Google Images redesign (Jan. 2013), traffic drop and workaround

Prx
(@parneix)

11 years, 2 months ago

[Moved to Miscellaneous Forum – this isn’t really a WordPress issue]

Hi,

It’s being documented by numerous webmasters on various forum (see links below): Google Images redesign –implemented around Jan. 25, 2013– allows user to get hi-res version of any image without visiting the website where the image is hosted, resulting in significant loss in traffic from /imgres referral (which can be monitored from Google Analytics>Traffic Sources>Referrals>click on “google.com”)

This post is not about throwing stones or calling names, nor panicking, but simply documenting possible workaround. Solutions exist: see for example http://goo.gl/owaa4
And try to get hi-res version of those images: you’ll be redirected to the actual page of the original website where the image is hosted (NOT simply redirected to the home page of said website).

I believe it’s a kind of hotlinking protection, but I’m not sure how it works. Furthermore, hotlinking protection is a delicate tool to use:
1) You don’t want your image NOT to be indexed by Google Images
2) You need some bot to be able to access them: Facebook, Twitter (for their OpenGraph protocol), etc.

So I was wondering if anyone has some experience about this issue. Relevant links follow:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/l8HrtHF_dzs
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4537063.htm
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/l8HrtHF_dzs

Thanks,

P.

Viewing 6 replies - 16 through 21 (of 21 total)

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Nina Papaioannou
(@nina-papaioannou)

11 years, 2 months ago

Hi,
I can’t find my blog images in google image search. What does this mean? Help!

http://trendsurvivor.com

Thread Starter Prx
(@parneix)

11 years, 2 months ago

@nina: It would be better for you to open another thread about this issue and, if possible, to provide more details about the nature of your problem. It would allow you to get more useful suggestions and comments.

P.

jordanmcclements
(@jordanmcclements)

11 years, 2 months ago

This plugin works pretty well for me.:-

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imaguard/

A big thanks to the writers from me!

(It would be perfect in my eyes if it allowed redirection to original post, but it’s still brilliant).

Thread Starter Prx
(@parneix)

11 years, 2 months ago

@jordanmcclements That looks really promising. It has option to let Googlebot crawl the site and also whitelist friendly referers.

As for allowing redirection to the original post, they talked about it here, provided some code to hack the plugin accordingly and wrote that it may be included in the upcoming versions. Which is great news.

Thanks for sharing!

P.
Emilian Robert Vicol
(@byrev)

11 years, 1 month ago
As an alternative, try WP-PICShield, perhaps fits your needs :
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/byrev-wp-picshield-hotlink-defence/
- Caching Support – Save resources & speed-up your website.
- Pass-Through Request with “HTTP/1.1 200 OK” response; without redirection to new images; results in search engines is not affected!
- Anti-IFRAME Protection, make sure that your site content is not displayed embed in another website (a.k.a bing search images result)
- Redirect direct-link images from google images to: attachment template page, single/gallery or home page (optional, enabled by default)
- Protection against unauthorized requests
- For a quick execution, configuration is applied directly from customized script file. (works even if the plugin is uninstalled and the settings are manually added)
- Allow Online Translators (will be served directly)
- Allow share button for socials sites. Facebook, Pinterest, Thumblr, Twitter, Google Plus – will be served directly; without this, share button will not work! (optional, enabled by default)
- Allow self server – Share images to: WordPress via RPC and Twitter via RPC, will not work without this update !
- Source host over image in QR-BarCode Format. Bottom right position; Offers the opportunity to visit the site with smartphones using “barcode scanner” software (optional: disabled by default)
- Allow self server – Share images to: WordPress via RPC and Twitter via OAuth, will not work without this update !
+
- Custom Watermark image/opacity,
- Write source host over images
- Custom image transparency value
- Custom PNG watermark filename
- defines a list of search engines or bots that are allowed to access/crawl the real images
- defines a list of other sites (referrer) that are allowed to display images from your site.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/byrev-wp-picshield-hotlink-defence/
jonathantimar
(@jonathantimar)

10 years, 8 months ago

It took me a long time to figure it out, but I finally was able to defeat Google and their sneaky tactics. I have written a comprehensive guide so that you can stop Google image search from stealing your photos.