Is pagerank given through the IMG tag and is it redirectible?

Can you HTTP redirect images that people have hotlinked on your website?

[jmatthew3]

1) if one page has an IMG tag that points to an image hosted on another server, is any pagerank given to that domain?
2) can that pagerank be diverted through HTTP redirects?

I've got people hotlinking images on one of my sites. I move the files, but if I'm getting any pagerank from those hotlinked images, I'd like to keep it.

Note: yes, I know I can do more to protect the images, i'm merely curious about the pagerank given and if I can redirect it via, say a 301 (or some other http code)

Thanks!

[doc_z]

1) if one page has an IMG tag that points to an image hosted on another server, is any pagerank given to that domain?

No, you're not getting any benefit from those hotlinked images. PageRank is only transferred (to the target page) if there is a link on the image.

[soapystar]

the question is..do you get picture rank?...does it boost the picture in the images search?

[wanderingmind]

I remember that Matt Cutts said the answer would be part of Google's 'secret sauce' and therefore declined to answer.

[photopassjapan]

Hmm...

Not exactly the same question but i figured it's better not to open a new thread for it... ;)

We can come down to the conclusion that an image having a link on it just doesn't work for passing pagerank and such... or something. Anyway it just doesn't work, and we need to have it fixed.

We designed the site with a lot of picture links, some pages aren't even accessible from other kind of referrers than a thumbnail of a photo... which...

... was a bad idea.

Now, if we were to add captions... ( a short version of the alt text ) or use the sometimes already added caption-text as a link...

What do you think would happen?
I mean to our pages in G :P
Would it be bad?

I meant would using something like this cause a problem:

<a href="page.html"><img tag>Caption</a>

or even...

<a href="page.html"><img tag><br>Caption</a>

... please help me out, what do you think G will say about this ( if anything )? I just don't want to have any more complications out of being so damn resourceful :( ... but... adding 2 links for the same page would sometimes result in ... er... much more links than it should :P

( an album with 50 pics would have 100 links... and that's a bad too, in my opinion... but what do i know... )

...any ideas?

[tedster]

It's a good idea, I think. I often use this approach and it seems effective - as long as the captions don't repeat the same keywords too often.

Back to the main topic, I noted back in the day when getting a new domain "out of the sandbox" was a major challenge that serving some of its images from an established domain seemed to help. Not truly PR, I think, but some kind of influence in the overall algo.

[soapystar]

now the question is does it matter if you have hotlink protection? The code on the other domain remains pointing to your site, its just that image doesn't load. Does a spider know that? and if it did would it matter?

[Sweet Cognac]

...serving some of its images from an established domain seemed to help

Are you saying that hotlinking to images on an established domain used to help get a new website out of the sandbox?

When I do a mydomain.com check for links, all the webpages that are hotlinking to my images are all supplemental.

[tedster]

I'm saying it seemed to help back when the sandbox effect would set up like concrete, pre-Big-Daddy. Being in the supplemental index is not the same thing as the sandbox effect, at any rate.

[Sweet Cognac]

I understand and thank you Tedster, but when their websites were "new" they were probably in the sandbox when they hotlinked to my pics.

So, I guess the OP's 2nd question needs to be answered. Can their links be redirected somehow?