Website hacking techniques have become increasingly sneaky and invasive. Among the most virulent of these, we find Hotlinking. Many Internet users are unaware of it, but it is one of the most widespread malicious techniques on the Internet. Your site may even be a victim without you knowing it. Find out with us what Hotlinking is, the reasons for its use and how you can protect yourself from it.
Hotlinking: what is it?
Hotlinking is an act which consists of stealing media content (image and video) and bandwidth from a website. The principle is quite simple: the Hotlinker uses the URL of your media content, mainly images, on its web pages. This way, the content will be displayed on their website without using the bandwidth of their own website.
This technique is part of black hat practices. It is used by malicious Internet users with the aim of slowing down the loading of the source website and damaging its natural referencing. It is a technique generally used by competitors to stay one step ahead of other companies. You can consider it in a way as a practice of negative SEO.
How can you protect your website from this attack?
There are several methods that allow you to protect your website against Hotlinking.
Contact the site that is stealing your content
THE Hotlinking is not necessarily used intentionally. In some cases, it’s just a mistake. Less experienced webmasters who are new to the web can use your content without having bad intentions.
In this case, it is possible to resolve the problem by contacting the website and reporting the problem to them.
Use appropriate plugins
To protect your site and preserve your content, you can install appropriate plugins. You just need to find the one that suits you best and install it. If you have a WordPress website, it is possible to use the plugins developed by the platform. Prevent Content Theft is one of the best solutions.
Disable right click
To protect your images, you can disable right-clicking on your site. This technique prohibits Internet users from downloading images from your website or displaying their URLs. This way you can considerably reduce the possibilities of Hotlinking.
Use a CDN
One of the most effective methods to protect against Hotlinking is to use a CDN. This option gives you more security and allows you to considerably reduce the loading time of your web pages.
Conclusion
Now you understand, Hotlinking can negatively impact your SEO and slow down the loading of your web pages. It must be said, although illegal, more and more webmasters are using it, sometimes with the aim of sabotaging the competition. This is why you must take all possible precautions to protect your content and reduce the impact of this type of technique on your site.
Sommaire
