How to Prevent Image Hotlinking in WordPress (4 Easy Methods)

Image Hotlinking is a common problem. It negatively impacts your site’s performance and you also have to pay for bandwidth. There are so many users who are aware of the image hotlinking but they do not care. In this article, I’m going to share how to prevent image hotlinking in WordPress for bad guys?

What is Hotlinking and Why is It Bad

When a user copy and paste your site’s image URL to another site, it’s called Image Hotlinking.

For example, Using images on Abcd.com that hosted on JustBrightMe, shown image hotlinking.

However, this is not good. They use your site image on their website without your permission. In addition, they put negative effects on your site.

Here is downside of image hotlinking.

It badly affects the performance of your site and bandwidth. When a user sees the hotlinked image, it loads from the original server. If a high traffic site hotlinking your site’s images, then every request will process from your server which can slow down your site and increase the cost of bandwidth.

If you use a managed hosting or pay for bandwidth, then you have to spend more money. That’s why you should disable image hotlinking on your WordPress site.

If you want to see your Hotlink image, then just type in Google search box,

inurl:yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com

This command will show you some wrong results but there will be places where people have hotlinks your images.

How to Prevent Image Hotlinking in WordPress

There are lots of methods to disable image hotlinking such as using plugins, using Content Delivery Network (CDN), using the code snippet using cPanel. Here I will cover all the methods.

Note: Make a backup of your site before applying the process.

1. Prevent hotlinking Using .htaccess file

If you want to disable image hotlinking on your WordPress site by .htaccess file, then you just have to put some code snippets in your .htaccess.

You can use the free hotlink protection tool to generate code. This tool helps you to generate .htaccess Code Snippet. Simply enter your domain. Also, I recommend you to enter some popular search engines and social networks. You can see screenshot below,

Then hit on Generate .htaccess file. Your code will look something like this.

Now add Generated code to your .htaccess file. Here is a guide how to edit .htaccess file.

Congratulation! You’ve successfully disabled image hotlinking using the .htaccess file. Now no one will be able to hotlink your images.

2. Disable Image Hotlinking using Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a very popular Content Delivery Network (CDN) that allow you to disable image hotlinking from the dashboard.

First login to your Cloudflare account and click on the Scrape Shield tab.

Scroll down to Hotlink Protection section and turn on. It will keep your images safe from off-site linking.

In addition, If you have not yet installed SSL certificates on your site, you can also take advantage of Cloudflare Free SSL.

SSL certificates are very important to any site because Google is using it as a ranking factor.

3. Disable Image Hotlinking In WordPress With Plugins

There are many such WordPress plugins in the market that help to prevent image hotlinking. But Here I’ll use WordPress security plugins – All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin.

All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin is completly free and add great security and firewall to your site. The plugin also allows you to disable image hotlinking.

First, install and activate All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin on your site. Once activated navigate to WP Security >> Firewall >> Prevent Hotlinking and check the box of Prevent Image Hotlinking. You can see screenshot below,

4. Disable Image Hotlinking Using cPanel

You can also disable Image Hotlinking by going to cPanel. It comes with a built-in hotlink protection tool. Here is a guide on how to prevent image hotlinking using cPanel settings – Hotlink Protection.

That’s it all! Here I have shown you four different ways that will help you disable image hotlinking on your WordPress site.

Final Thought

Image hotlinking is not beneficial for many bloggers, and its direct impact falls on the performance and bandwidth of the site.

Thankfully, there are many easy methods for disabling hotlinking in WordPress. But I recommend you to disable it with the Cloudflare (if you use) or .htaccess file.

We’re done, and it’s now your turn! Find this article helpful? Don’t forget to share!