Best way to deal with deleting a lot of images

[electrictalk]

Hi,

I work for a news site that has been around for 10 years. Recently we have been contacted by a number of parties regarding infringements concerning the use of images. We will need remove all the images. What is the best way to go about this? For our bigger site we are planning to get someone to replace the images but for our smaller sites we won't have much manpower so if we take it down there will be some broken links I assume.

Thanks!

[Dimitri]

What is the best way to go about this?

To obey to the take down notices. No matter how much it costs or the consequences for the site (like broken urls). Be lucky these are only notices, and not lawsuits. You (the company/site for which you work) infringed on the copyright of others, so "you" have to pay the price for it.

So to answer more precisely your question, if there is no way for you to automate the detection and deletion of pictures, then yes, get"humans" review all your pages, to edit them.

[tangor]

Another option---not elegant but IMMEDIATE---is to create an image with text (" New Image Soon!") as the image, one size fits all, and rename to the existing image. Upload, overwriting the image in question. This gives you breathing space, does not interfere with current image tags, and solves the removal request in the most expedited manner. It also reminds you every time you review the page what needs to be updated! :)

[RedBar]

Another option---not elegant but IMMEDIATE---is to create an image with text (" New Image Soon!")

I have absolutely no idea why however this has never worked for me!

I have images ranking well in G's SERPs with watermarks for domains closed 2/3 years ago, those images and sites have gone, departed, left the cyberspace, YET G still ranks them.

G lost the plot with images several years ago when they stole everyone's BUT their image search is still the best HOWEVER nowhere near as good as it used to be before their theft.

[electrictalk]

Thanks! Bare with me I don't know how it works on the backend and whats best for SEO. So say when the developers delete the images is there something they should do as well and will it leave 404? What's the best way that we should go about this without SEO suffering?

[lucy24]

will it leave 404?

Ideally, the deleted images should return a 410, though you may decide it isn't worth the trouble and just let them quietly return 404s. Sure, you'll replace them with other images--your pages still need pictures--but those will be different images, with different names. Redirecting oldimage.jpg to newimage.jpg is also an option, but personally I'd be inclined not to do it. Better to make a clean break.

There is some work involved in all this, because you'll also need to change the page HTML to point to the new improved fully legal images. But, if nothing else, a brand-new image with a new filename, new size and so on will make the offended parties less likely to suspect hanky-panky.

:: still not absolutely, entirely, 100% certain why this question is in the Google SEO subforum ::

[electrictalk]

Haha ya yesterday was my first day on this site so I thought it was to do with Google SEO because the main thing is my organic traffic doesn't take a dip at all because of this. What happens if I let the images turn to 404s and don't replace? Don't think my company has the manpower to hire someone to go through 3000+ articles. Is it possible to remove the images and not replace them without jeopardizing the SEO? If so how would I do that? Thanks so much you're so helpful!

[tangor]

Use the right editor, a bit of regex, and delete any image tags found ... can do on bulk (a file, a folder, a directory, or the entire stie).

Playing with dynamite, but is very possible!

I use Notepad++ to do these kind of things. :)

[tangor]

@electrictalk ... did anyone say Welcome To Webmasterworld? Looking above I realize I didn't! So welcome!

There are editors that will do what you wish ... RTFM before using them as these are very powerful, unforgiving, and do NOT know what what you want to do ... will only do what you tell them to do.

Best practice on a COPY of the site/folders first!