Preventing hotlinking of your images

Hotlinking is when another site displays your images by loading them from your server. You pay the bandwidth for somebody else's content.

How to spot it

High traffic on image files without matching visitors in your statistics. The server logs show which site the requests come from.

What it costs

On a photo-heavy site it can be a substantial share of your usage. And if your images are large it also slows your own site at peak times.

How to block it

A rule allowing images to load only when the request comes from your own domain. Build in an exception for requests without an origin, otherwise some legitimate tools break.

Watch the side effects

Block too broadly and your images disappear from social previews and image search results. Allow those sources explicitly.

The gentle alternative

Replace the image with one carrying your logo instead of blocking it. The other site then advertises for you free of charge.