Smugmug Google Indexing and hot linking Question

SFM_MT_2014

Hi Guys, I have a paid membership with Smugmug for a number of years, but I have only recently started trying to embed my images (uploaded to a Smugmug Gallery) onto my website (using GoDaddy's Webbuilder service)


My question is weather my Smugmug photos that are embedded onto my website be indexed in Google's Search algorithms and if they are weather they will show up as images from my website or from Smugmug? (For example if I hover over the image in Google Image search will it say my website or smugmug)


When I first created and published the web page that has my smugmug photos embedded I had the Web Searchable option under Security and Sharing set to No. I changed it to site-setting over the weekend. does this option have any bearing on photos being indexed by google?

denisegoldberg

@SFM_MT_2014 said:
My question is whether my Smugmug photos that are embedded onto my website be indexed in Google's Search algorithms and if they are weather they will show up as images from my website or from Smugmug? (For example if I hover over the image in Google Image search will it say my website or smugmug)

What URL are you using when you embed the photos? That will determine the source of the photos.

SFM_MT_2014

The Url of the photo I'm embedding is from Smugmug and starts with this for example |photos.smugmug.com/Website-Photos|

I have used Photobucket in the past for embedding photos and when I was using that service the embedded photos would show up as coming from my personal website (not photo buckets) when I google image searched them. I'm not sure if it is similar with Smugmug.

denisegoldberg

@SFM_MT_2014 said:
The Url of the photo I'm embedding is from Smugmug and starts with this for example |photos.smugmug.com/Website-Photos|

photos.smugmug.com will show as an image from SmugMug.

Allen

If you use photos.smugmug.com it has no relevance to your site. Even if I change the share link to my domain they redirect the link back to photos.smugmug.com.

Link from share:
https://photos.smugmug.com/Birds/2018-Birding/Birding-2018-March/2018-03-10-Busch-CA-and-Weldon-Spring-CA/i-JmXqxkj/0/364716c3/M/7D5A5402_7D3-0-M.jpg
My preferred link.
https://www.photosbyat.com/Birds/2018-Birding/Birding-2018-March/2018-03-10-Busch-CA-and-Weldon-Spring-CA/i-JmXqxkj/0/364716c3/M/7D5A5402_7D3-0-M.jpg

Notice it changes to the Smugmug site so they get ALL the image search ranking results.

If I use the domain link embedded on blog does Google see it even though it's redirected?

leftquark

Allen,
Unfortunately much of what you wrote is either incorrect or misleading. Google most often indexes the page on which your photo was found, so they'll index both the photo (with its photos.smugmug.com URL) and the page which it existed (your custom domain). Clicking on that photo will take you to the page, so your site will be referenced and is what shows up when the user navigates to your site. Additionally, the link between the photo and your custom domain builds domain and page authority for your site by connecting a high ranking domain (smugmug.com) to your own domain via the image link, so your site also does benefit from this method.

denisegoldberg

@leftquark said:
...Google most often indexes the page on which your photo was found, so they'll index both the photo (with its photos.smugmug.com URL) and the page which it existed (your custom domain). Clicking on that photo will take you to the page, so your site will be referenced and is what shows up when the user navigates to your site. Additionally, the link between the photo and your custom domain builds domain and page authority for your site by connecting a high ranking domain (smugmug.com) to your own domain via the image link, so your site also does benefit from this method.

This makes sense to me if both an <a href= and an <img src= is used to place the photo on the OPs website. Is the same true if they only use the <img src= to show the photo as opposed to making it a clickable link?

Thanks for the explanation.

--- Denise

SFM_MT_2014

Hi Everybody, thanks for getting back to me!

Leftquark, it seems like google will indeed index the photos. I did have one other question. Does changing the Web Searchable option under the gallery settings to "site searchable" have any bearing on indexing?

Hikin' Mike

@leftquark said:
Additionally, the link between the photo and your custom domain builds domain and page authority for your site by connecting a high ranking domain (smugmug.com) to your own domain via the image link, so your site also does benefit from this method.

DA and PA are Moz metrics and NOT Google. Those are useless for ranking. I highly doubt that the links from smugmug.com to your custom domain are making a big difference in ranking. Just my two pennies.