Direct link for photo no longer through my own domain

DanielW

Previously when getting the direct link for a photo in my account it is via my own domain. e.g.

http://www.dsw-photo.com/Other/AMKR/i-4tbgT8D/0/O/10.jpg

Now when I try and get the link, it is through the smugmug.com domain: e.g.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/SHDA/i-LHz2Fcn/0/O/08.jpg

This is a major hassle for me as I have often have to work with an internet connection where the smugmug.com domain is blocked.

How to get my own domain back in my links?

Any help with this is much appreciated!

DanielW

No longer able to direck link through my own domain
Not sure if this is a bug or a deliberate change. Previously when getting the direct link for a photo in my account it is via my own domain. e.g.

http://www.dsw-photo.com/Other/AMKR/...T8D/0/O/10.jpg

Now when I try and get the link, it is through the smugmug.com domain: e.g.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/SHD...Fcn/0/O/08.jpg

This is a major hassle for me as I have often have to work with an internet connection where the smugmug.com domain is blocked.

How to get my own domain back in my links?

Any help with this is much appreciated!

DanielW

Just tried to do it manually, i.e. change: https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/SHDA/i-LHz2Fcn/0/O/08.jpg to http://www.dsw-photo.com/Other/SHDA/i-LHz2Fcn/0/O/08.jpg

Seems to work ok(?)

tomnovy

Hi There,

I have reported this to our engineers - they will see what is going on here. Your custom domain should show instead of photos.smugmug.com

We will let you know as soon as we have any feedback from our engineering team.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Lille Ulven

Hi Tom,

In the mean time, can we just replace the photos.smugmug.com with our own custom domains - just wondering if that would get me to the same photo, didn't check yesterday and it would be a nice workaround until it is fixed

Thanks

Lille Ulven

tomnovy

Lille Ulven,

Yes, both of the links would work - for example:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Places/Rome/i-PBWjHbk/3/M/swirly-stairs-2b-M.jpg

replace with my domain

http://www.photom.me/Places/Rome/i-PBWjHbk/3/M/swirly-stairs-2b-M.jpg

Both links will work

JUST REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE HTTPS TO HTTP WHEN USING THE LINK WITH YOUR CUSTOM DOMAIN.

denisegoldberg

This is very interesting.

If I ask for HTML the img src use photos.smugmug.com but the <a statement uses my custom domain. I actually prefer this implementation - this means that the embedded photos will continue to show properly even if there is a problem with my custom domain.

I think this is a good option - if this is changed back to use the custom domain in both places, can the use of photos.smugmug.com be continued as a site option?

--- Denise

tomnovy

denisegoldberg wrote: »

This is very interesting.

If I ask for HTML the img src use photos.smugmug.com but the <a statement uses my custom domain. I actually prefer this implementation - this means that the embedded photos will continue to show properly even if there is a problem with my custom domain.

I think this is a good option - if this is changed back to use the custom domain in both places, can the use of photos.smugmug.com be continued as a site option?

--- Denise

This was always an option that was working. If you ever replace your custom domain with photos.smugmgu.com - the link would work without any issues.

But the fact that as default we are showing this url and not customer's domain - is a bug.

denisegoldberg

tomnovy wrote: »

This was always an option that was working. If you ever replace your custom domain with photos.smugmgu.com - the link would work without any issues.

But the fact that as default we are showing this url and not customer's domain - is a bug.

Yes, I know I can change it. But it is an interesting bug...

--- Denise

shandrew

Hi Daniel, can you tell me what ISP or what filtering service you have that blocks "smugmug.com"? I can work to get us removed from whatever block that is.

leftquark

The change to using the SmugMug.com domain was part of an intentional change to help improve the way in which everything loads on the site. We're also in the process of switching CDN's, the servers that deliver your photos at lightning speed, and when we make that change, we'll also be moving your galleries over to using photos.smugmug.com too (not just the share panel links).

As Andrew mentioned above, we're more than happy to work with your internet provider to get that block removed. With *.smugmug.com blocked, almost nothingn on your site will load (our CSS, JavaScript, etc are all on it. The only thing that would work are those direct links).

Lille Ulven

leftquark but then wouldn't that change to using photos.smugmig.com mean that I am loosing SEO for lilleulven.com if I share my photos via that link (and even if I built up my internal sites with that link)?

photoclick

This is wrong. You offer custom domain then support it throughout the service. Please, find another way to "... improve the way in which everything loads on the site" Do not do it at my expense.

leftquark

Great question Lille and you'll be pleased to know it's actually the opposite: since Google doesn't increase page rank for links from your site to your site, having the link between SmugMug's high rank and your custom domain will increase your rank.

There's a lot of good SEO tools at moz.com. In it you can actually see how using my custom domain actually hurts my SEO since I have to built my own domain authority. My aaronmphotography page, which I invest time in building SEO for is about 60/200. My other SM site, which has no custom domain and I keep mostly hidden has a score of 85, due to the domain authority of SmugMug.

I'm not saying everyone should go out and drop their custom domains, I'm merely pointing out that having the SmugMug link can be beneficial to your SEO.

photoclick

I am confused. The change is only on the share popup, correct? Only when I am logged in and go to Share popup and select specific size to share I see the "... photos.smugmug.com/...", right? THis is the link that potentially share on fb, send in email, post in a forum or blog, etc. How does it make it " links from your site to your site" ? If the link has my custom domain it makes it a link from FB, Google, Blog, etc. to my domain. How exactly it hurts my ranking? Did you mean to say it does not promote your ranking instead?

leftquark

photoclick wrote: »

I am confused. The change is only on the share popup, correct?

Lille was asking about the change that will happen when we switch CDN's, which is that instead of photos being SRC'd from your custom domain, they'll be sourced from photos.smugmug.com:

Example:
Today: img src="http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Nature/Landscapes/i-DSXrR7R/0/Th/_DSC2277-Th.jpg&quot;
Soon: img src="http://photos.smugmug.com/Nature/Landscapes/i-DSXrR7R/0/Th/_DSC2277-Th.jpg&quot;

Links (a href="http://www.aaronmphotography.com....") will continue to stay at your custom domain -- everything else should stay the same, it's just that the photos served to the browser will come from photos.smugmug.com instead of your custom domain.

photoclick wrote: »

If the link has my custom domain it makes it a link from FB, Google, Blog, etc. to my domain. How exactly it hurts my ranking? Did you mean to say it does not promote your ranking instead?

Nothing hurts your ranking -- links from yourself to yourself just do not promote your rank. You could link to yourself a billion times and search engines won't care. They care about external links to you.

The "hurt" that I talked about isn't really a "hurt" so much as lost advantage. My custom domain has a domain authority of 24 and a page authority of 35 (for a total of ~60). SmugMug has a domain authority of 84; if I didn't have a custom domain my score would be 120 (84+35). So my potential SEO rank has been halved because I chose to use a custom domain. To me, having the custom domain is more professional and I'm willing to accept the lower rank while I build up my domains authority. One thing that will help build that domain authority is to have more/stronger links from sites with high domain authority (like smugmug), so that switch to using photos.smugmug.com above may help.

Lille Ulven

Thanks for the explanation, leftquark - that makes sense
SEO is still some weird science to me, tried to get a hang of it, but I have to admit that book was beyond what I could take in...

Have a great weekend

Lille Ulven

Cygnus Studios

I've stumbled across this and leads me to a question:

I want to send a client a photo, now my option is " https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-QkmP7f3/0/L/i-QkmP7f3-L.jpg " instead of " http://www.cygnusstudios.com/Portfolio/Beverages/n-FcW2RV/i-QkmP7f3/A " which I'm guessing by what I've read is supposed to help in some possible way.

However, this leads to 2 issues I've found.

First, it completely eliminates our studio name out of the address bar. Not the most thrilling aspect in my opinion. It kind of looks like were snatching images off smugmug.com.

Secondly and far less important. This new photos.smugmug.com completely bypasses the right click warning. Granted this is not the biggest issue in the world, because there are a billion ways to copy an image without doing a right click but still it kind of falls under the principle of thing.

leftquark

Hi Steve,
You can still send your clients links to your Lightbox, which will maintain both your custom domain and the right click message. Direct links to the photo load just the photo (as if you emailed it to them) and we (nor any other service) have any way of popping up the RCM.

In other words: this link will continue to exist and be displayed in the share menu: http://www.cygnusstudios.com/Portfolio/Beverages/n-FcW2RV/i-QkmP7f3/A

Cygnus Studios

So we're kind of just limited to the photo link button instead of choosing a size button?

I could live with that.

Ferguson

If I follow this, it is VERY BAD

leftquark wrote: »

The change to using the SmugMug.com domain was part of an intentional change to help improve the way in which everything loads on the site. We're also in the process of switching CDN's, the servers that deliver your photos at lightning speed, and when we make that change, we'll also be moving your galleries over to using photos.smugmug.com too (not just the share panel links).

As Andrew mentioned above, we're more than happy to work with your internet provider to get that block removed. With *.smugmug.com blocked, almost nothingn on your site will load (our CSS, JavaScript, etc are all on it. The only thing that would work are those direct links).

I'm not sure if I understand this, but if I do I object strongly.

Links to my photos and galleries are used by third parties with some regularity (such as universities, news sites, etc.) There are two aspects of this I consider positive, one is that people SEE that link, and I associate the custom domain with my work and that's a good thing. The other is that these links to my custom domain and specifically galleries or photos on Smugmug, I believe, enhance the find-ability of my site.

If you start visibly changing the links, so that people browing my web site SEE smugmug instead of my customer domain, I object. Right now when one (for example) hovers over the collage landscape, they see my custom domain - that's what I want them to see, not Smugmug. When I put in a hyperlink by relative addressing, I want that replaced with my custom domain, not smugmug, so that people who see it see mine, but more importantly so people who might copy that link to credit me do so by my custom domain.

And the get-a-link is really unacceptable as well, though it is possible to manually adjust it.

I pay Smugmug to allow me to use a custom domain, and I fully expect that custom domain to be used in every visible place. What's invisible I do not care, do what you want. But anything a user of my photos sees should see only my custom domain.

Please confirm whether or not that will be true?

EVERY VISIBLE LINK that a non-owner will see should be the custom domain. Is it?

photoclick

^^^
What Ferguson said - every visible link must have my custom domain name.

Aaron, about SEO... so you are changing where SRC attribute links to an image on my site. Now (soon) it will link to "photos.smugmug.com...." instead "www.mydomain.com..." Great. Great for Smugmug that is. I see what you are saying about lost advantage. Now Smugmug can realize all that lost advantage by making ALL custom domain websites to visibly point to SMugmug domain for EVERY IMAGE. Your ranking will skyrocket Brilliant move! The only one who is gaining here is Smugmug.

Now, when search engine crawls my site it will see a LOT of links to smugmug. The search engine will logically think that Smugmug must be super popular: so many websites are pointing to it!!!!! But wait, search engine, when crawling MY site, will NOT see ANY images that have address such as "www.MYDOMAIN.com/gallery/blha..blha.."

I am kind of disappointed. I understand technical reasons... but disappointed the way it is presented. The only entity it is good for is Smugmug, not us, people with custom domains.

David_S85

Just found this thread. Yup, my custom domain nor my smugname appear in links now. And to make it worse, the right click protection is now broken because of this. Also destroys further SEO. At what Smugmug charges for the commerce level, this is going to piss off a great many paying customers in a hurry. I look forward to a very quick fix to this by Smugmug.

Aaron wrote:

Nothing hurts your ranking -- links from yourself to yourself just do not promote your rank. You could link to yourself a billion times and search engines won't care. They care about external links to you.

Yes, true, they care about external links to me. But the recent change does hurt my SEO. Let's say I've got thousands of photo posts embedded in forums and blogs all over the internet. They now have links to photos.smugmug and not to my custom domain or my davidwatts.smugmug location. Only helps Smugmug. Bad for me.

Ferguson

David_S85 wrote: »

Yes, true, they care about external links to me. But the recent change does hurt my SEO. Let's say I've got thousands of photo posts embedded in forums and blogs all over the internet. They now have links to photos.smugmug and not to my custom domain or my davidwatts.smugmug location. Only helps Smugmug. Bad for me.

Of course they can't change existing links. And since it is you who give out the links, at least so long as they work, you can change them to use your domain (tedious and should be unnecessary of course).

What I'm more worried about is the implication that (as an example) the links on the page of a gallery will change, so someone hovering over a page and seeing the link to that photo will start seeing smugmug instead of my domain (as an example).

At least the get-a-link is still under our control; links people see while browsing the pages and galleries are not.

What's really annoying about this is that it is yet another change of function that was put out there without any announcement, discussion, warning, etc. I fully believe someone sees this as doing good, that it may make something run faster (for example). But the way you flush out bad implications is by letting your users also have input into the changes.

leftquark

Do your opinions change if I tell you that links aren't changing, it's just the SRC of the photos served? You'd still link to www.YOUR_CUSTOM_DOMAIN.com when you click on the thumbnails, it's just that the thumbnail image would be served from http://photos.smugmug.com/whatever/filename.JPG instead of www.YOUR_CUSTOM_DOMAIN.com/whatever/filename.JPG?

Ferguson

leftquark wrote: »

Do your opinions change if I tell you that links aren't changing, it's just the SRC of the photos served? You'd still link to www.YOUR_CUSTOM_DOMAIN.com when you click on the thumbnails, it's just that the thumbnail image would be served from http://photos.smugmug.com/whatever/filename.JPG instead of www.YOUR_CUSTOM_DOMAIN.com/whatever/filename.JPG?

I think it's OK but let's make sure we are talking about the same thing. Attached is a screen shot of a gallery, and showing (bottom left) links as I hover over them. What will those links show?

I think it will be OK, as I think the links there are from the A tag which has an HREF as opposed to the IMG tag with the SRC. The SRC isn't visible, I think (except in debug which is moot), so I don't think I care.

I also don't think any of this impacts things like Google Analytics for the pages, since they are primarily page oriented, which relates to...

And at any time (other than shopping cart or leaving my site) will the address bar at the top change from the custom domain?

It's not internal access that concerns me, it is what people browsing the page see.

photoclick

I agree with Ferguson that "... let's make sure we are talking about the same thing". There are many variables here. You have an A tag with hreff attribute that points to the display size file. Inside that tag there is an IMG tag with the SRC attribute that poitns to the image of the thumbnail displayed right on this page. WHich one are we talking about?

Ferguson - I believe the entire html of the page is important for SEO purposes. Google bot reads the entire visible html. We will never know how exactly google treats all of that data... but it sees all these links. Now it will see majority links pointing from my domain to some other domain. Logically, this situation can only benefit that other outside domain. Perhaps it does not hurt my ranking.. but why whould I be promoting some other site on my dime? I am not trying to be problematic or difficult, but seriously... I am paying you to promote my site, not the other way around. In case I am wrong in my technical assertion - please, let me know.

photoclick

And by the way - I totally appreciate you are asking our opinion in something that normally would be an internal technical decision.

Ferguson

photoclick wrote: »

Now it will see majority links pointing from my domain to some other domain. Logically, this situation can only benefit that other outside domain. Perhaps it does not hurt my ranking.. but why whould I be promoting some other site on my dime? I am not trying to be problematic or difficult, but seriously... I am paying you to promote my site, not the other way around. In case I am wrong in my technical assertion - please, let me know.

If it can't promote your site (and I tend to agree that links to the self-same site would hardly make sense as relevance indicators), why do you care that it might promote smugmug?

That just seems rude.

I would agree if it was either-or, and by choosing that you are hurting your own domain, but if for free you can help smugmug, why not?

photoclick

Ferguson - you are raising a philosophical question I'll be happy (if you care) to chat about it any time. I just don't want to sidetrack this thread.

Ferguson

photoclick wrote: »

Ferguson - you are raising a philosophical question I'll be happy (if you care) to chat about it any time. I just don't want to sidetrack this thread.

Fair enough, but you brought up the issue. I'm happy if it doesn't hurt me, and it doesn't show my viewers some other domain as they browse mine.