Photos: To Host or Not to Host?
Posted by Mike | Filed under Web HostingAdding images to your blog adds a lot of value. There is a lot of truth to the saying, “a picture says a thousands words.” But (there is always a but!) should you host your photos on your server or on a free server like photobucket.com? There are pros and cons to each, but I recommend using a free host if you are on a shared server with a small budget. Images hosted on Photobucket can save you $100+ a month for a popular blog!
Hosting Images on your server
Having an image in your blog that is hosted on your server may help you get traffic, but not the traffic you are looking for. If you have images on your server it is likely that search engines like Google and Yahoo will archive your images in their image search and searchers will find your site. The problem with that is most people that find your image grab it for their purpose and never truly visit your site (I get 1-2 page views from these types of visitors). In many cases if you do not prevent hot linking (having someone show the image on their website while it is hosted on yours) then they will just be visiting your site to steal your bandwidth. For example, if you have an image that is 100k in size and the bandwidth thief has a popular site that he posts your image on you may be in trouble. If 1,000 people view that image that is 100 MB of bandwidth or a killer for a shared host and a limited budget! Image this with 100s of images on your site and you can see how you can lose GBs of bandwidth without getting any traffic.
Hosting images on a image host
The high cost associated with bandwidth thieves is why I highly recommend hosting your images on a free image host like Photobucket. You simply upload the images to their server and display them on your blog. The bandwidth is minimal and your users and visitors will never no the difference! I do this with 99% of the images I host on my blog. If you have a blog with a lot of images it can be the difference between using a $2 a month shared plan and being forced to move to a Virtual Private Server (typically $10-$50) or a dedicated server ($100+).
Some of you will still be resistant to hosting all your images on a free host so let me give you some tips if you still plan on hosting your images on your server!
Tips for Hosting Images on your Server
- Hot link protection! You can typically do this through a few clicks on your server or you can update your .htaccess file. When you hot link protect you can still authorize specific sites to hot link your images (like Google and other search engines).
- Compress your images. Do not upload images that are bigger than 100k. I actually recommend 10-75k as your maximum. Use .gif files if you can or .jpeg files if the .gifs are not clear enough. Use Photoshop or another program and compress those images!
- Save them with SEO in mind! If you are saving an image ensure you save the file if search engines in mind. If you are saving a picture of Denise Richards save your file as “Denise-Richards-picture.gif”. Use the - vice the _ for better SEO. Search engines see a - as a space, but don’t read the underscore or _ as a space. So, when someone types “Denise Richards Picture” in Google they will find your images better than if you save it as “image120434.gif” or use underscores.
- Use the ALT TAG. The ALT TAG is the text that shows up when you mouse over an image. This again helps with SEO and having your page found!
hmm…I used to host my images on free server but for some unknown reason most of my images get deleted
Another point that makes me refrain from hosting images on free server is PR leak.
Anyway, I think I should hot link protect my images and change the underscore to hyphen now, thanks for the tips
Some free image hosts will remove images if they break the terms of service. For instance, adult images would likely be reported and removed. I have never had a problem with Photobucket regarding images being removed or having exceeding a limit. I have heard of people with several thousands of photos!
I think you meant VPS (Virtual Private Server,) not VPN.
Anyway, I most of my images on my own server, at least the pictures in my articles. However I have a Flickr Pro account that I use for my photo gallery. Here’s the photo gallery: http://www.automoblog.net/photos/
All of that is actually done through a great plugin by tantannoodles, and you can implement the photos directly into posts if you want. It’s a great way to host photos on Flickr and use them flawlessly on Wordpress. The $25 or so a year for the Flickr Pro account is worth it. Plus if you get Dugg (I’ve been a couple times) it doesn’t take all your bandwidth.
By the way, I’d stay away from the free ones like Photobucket; too unreliable.
Egon, you are correct with the VPS! I will make the change. Also, thanks for the great inputs!
I personally don’t like using free servers to host my images because of the fear of getting all my images deleted. What if the free host shuts down? (although it’s unlikely) Well, Photobucket seems like a nice option though. Will use it whenever I need to post pictures.
Some excellent points so far.
I would say if the image is very important to the article host it on your server. It is good to host some images on your server to have some exposure to Google and Yahoo image search.
If you have a dedicated server with a lot of bandwidth to spare you should host your images with the recommendations I provided. Hot ink protect them and ensure they are bandwidth friendly!
I much prefer to host them on a third party site like Photobucket for many of the reasons you used.
A word to the wise, it’s come to light that you shouldn’t use Flickr, though. Instead of them showing up in search results and leading visitors back to your site like would happen with PB, it links back to Flickr….you get no image search traffic from it!
[…] because they are there to take your image or leach off your server. See my articles, “Photos: To Host or Not to host?” for the benefits of hosting your images on your server compared to a free image host. Back […]
well i go to host my own images but for sure you will get banned if you upload any images that with TM’s or Copyrights so upload only images/pictures that are not covered with TM’s or Copyrights if you have many images and you upload it in separate server then that would be time consumiing…