The value of image link for Google

[bcc1234]

Hi,
I have a lot of clients' sites with links to my site under an image trigger (such as "powered by...").
All links point to my website.

Is it bad if the actual trigger image is loaded from my domain ?

Basically, which way is better:

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/"><img src="/mytrigger.gif" alt="..."></a>

or

<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/"><img src="http://www.mydomain.com/mytrigger.gif" alt="..."></a>

Can I get penilized for loading images from my site for the links that point to my site ?

[mortalfrog]

interesting question! I'd also like to know the answer.

I'd assume that it wouldn't be a problem, but I don't know anything...

[ciml]

I wouldn't expect it to matter and I've never read a suggestion that it would, but I wouldn't like to say I'm certain regarding any SE penalty. Next month could be a different story.

[luma]

I don't think it's a problem. There are lots of pages out there that have a "valid (x)html" link at the bottom and link to W3.org and the image is on W3's server.

Both ways have some advantages: If the image is on your server, you can update it (as long as you keep the width and height -- I hope you use these attributes).

If the image is on your customer's server, they might load faster.

[bcc1234]

well, yeah. The images are on the clients' sites right now, but I want to move them so I can do easy updates later on.