Google image search - Why you may have lost traffic

[bigbong]

The plugin is now available through Wordpress. If you haven't installed the plugin yet, just search for the plugin in the WP "add plugin" section and it should install automatically.

 

[bigbong]

Just a brief note to let you know that we are updating the imaguard site with some proper content and that the above examples will stop working.

To install Imaguard either search for it through your WP dashboard or download the files from the WP plugin hosting to make sure you get the latest version of the plugin:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imaguard/

 

[ivanpenev]

Well done, everything is ok now. And it's official now, just one click away from your site's dashboard.

 

[thehighmind]

Thank you very much for the last version of imaguard.
I just installed the plugin on my website and works great. I don't see at the moment the text on the images on Google Images Search but I think is because of my cache.
I also got some traffic back from Google Images.
I noticed that when your website images are showing in browser like sitename/view-image/?img=image path, are some plugins that won't show up in the page layout, plugins like: facebook comments, related pictures, wp single post navigation. It's not a big problem.

 

[bigbong]

Thank you very much for the last version of imaguard.
I just installed the plugin on my website and works great. I don't see at the moment the text on the images on Google Images Search but I think is because of my cache.
I also got some traffic back from Google Images.
I noticed that when your website images are showing in browser like sitename/view-image/?img=image path, are some plugins that won't show up in the page layout, plugins like: facebook comments, related pictures, wp single post navigation. It's not a big problem.

Hi,

Yes, most likely your images are already in your browser cache without text-over-image and your browser won't reload them until the cache expires or is reset. If you clear your browser cache it should hopefully work (at least no bug reports so far).

The page where the image is shown is quite simple so far. Menus and ads in footer and browser should show and so should basic widgets. We are looking into allowing more detailed page control in later updates. We just wanted to get something out as quickly as possible to help with the immediate problems with Google's new image search.

PS! If you guys are happy with the plugin, please tell all friends and post in forums where you are active. And I would very much appreciate if you could vote on Wordpress too. We spent quite a few hours working on this and are anxious to spread it to as many people as possible. It's the only way to fight Google on their new image search...

You can vote on this page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/imaguard/

 

[thehighmind]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I looked into my website error logs and I found a few MB log with only this error:
"[11-Feb-2013 11:24:03] PHP Warning: Division by zero in /wp-content/plugins/imaguard/helpers.php on line 24"
Any idea why? I saw this error on all my websites where I have installed imaguard plugin.

 

[bigbong]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I looked into my website error logs and I found a few MB log with only this error:
"[11-Feb-2013 11:24:03] PHP Warning: Division by zero in /wp-content/plugins/imaguard/helpers.php on line 24"
Any idea why? I saw this error on all my websites where I have installed imaguard plugin.

It will occur in two cases:

1. Someone has used the plugin to try to open a non-existing image, or
2. You have set the preferred width or height in the settings to 0

What that function does is to calculate a correct ratio for resizing the image. So if either the image size is 0 or the desired output size is 0, it will give a warning. Nearly any time it will be someone trying to load an image that doesn't exist (f ex guessing on the image name if they first opened img-1.jpg they will try to see if there is an img-2.jpg too).

 

[redmoon]

Is the plugin not working anymore or is it just me? It was working just fine yesterday but now when I check my images in Google they are now hotlinking again.

 

[thehighmind]

I just checked and had the same problem on both of my websites where I have imaguard installed. Just deactive the "Show text over image" and it will work again.

Is the plugin not working anymore or is it just me? It was working just fine yesterday but now when I check my images in Google they are now hotlinking again.

 

[bigbong]

Is the plugin not working anymore or is it just me? It was working just fine yesterday but now when I check my images in Google they are now hotlinking again.

Could you PM me a search example? Works fine for our test sites.

 

[ivanpenev]

Just saw today that I lost all of my rankings for images even for super easy keyword with 300 searches. Maybe google figured out we are "cheating" or it's maybe just a coincidence. But it's for absolutely all images so I don't think it's a coincidence. Will wait for a few days to see what is going to happen.

 

[thehighmind]

I just sent you a PM, I hope I was clear enough

Could you PM me a search example? Works fine for our test sites.

 

[thehighmind]

I don't think it's about that, but if it is we may lose our rankings too, so I will let you know if I see some changes.

Just saw today that I lost all of my rankings for images even for super easy keyword with 300 searches. Maybe google figured out we are "cheating" or it's maybe just a coincidence. But it's for absolutely all images so I don't think it's a coincidence. Will wait for a few days to see what is going to happen.

 

[bigbong]

I'm still seeing your images in google search? (I think you PM'ed me the URL of your site a few days back, right).

The only thing that may cause a deindexing of the images would be that google sees the redirect, in which case it will reindex them later when it crawls the site if you have white listed googlebot it shouldn't happen. Unless google is using some other crawler with fake Agent Type. You may want to review your site visits and look for bots and also look out for anything from Mountain View, CA.

 

[ameyrajeshirke]

felt a bit weird when i first saw it,sometimes when i click on see the original site it doesnt open

 

[bigbong]

Just a bit of summary after some PMs:

1. Make sure to put bots on agent white list. googlebot and googlebot-images are obvious choices. There are some more in the plugin readme file, but if someone can post a comprehensive list here it would be appreciated. Avoid entering "Yahoo! Slurp". User agents isn't really meant to have exclamation marks and spaces, and Yahoo are being idiots here. Simply write Yahoo.

2. I'm still looking for someone to post / PM a link to an incorrect redirect. I am still thinking it is cache related, but will investigate if someone provides a link.

3. Re deindexing issues: after some PMs, no-one has been deindexed, but one person has lost some ranking. Google shouldn't see the redirect in the first place because, as far as is known, Google image bot sets local referrers (it will show having clicked on one of your internal links). But you should put the bots on the white list to be extra certain.

If google had actually spotted the redirect, they would have deindexed images pending next crawl as far as I know.

Now, we will wait and see if there are anyone else saying they've lost rankings. At least one person has also gained ranks so we are not seeing any clear picture at the moment.

If it turns out to be a problem, we will rewrite the Imaguard in a way where WP will add a encoded timestamp to all images on the site:

Test.jpg -> test.jpg?timestamp=GDHJDT

If the timestamp is missing or more than, say, 5 hour old, then Imaguard will redirect or show text-over-image.

That way local users and crawlers would have 5 hour to go from the referrer page to the image itself. That together with the current crawler whitelist and the fact that googlebot-images is supposed to be setting local referrers anyway, should prevent any problems. The downside is of course that any picture can be hotlinked for 5 hours after each crawl.

I'm not too keen on changing Imaguard in this way (not just because of the extra work involved in rewriting it) but also because it adds another layer of complexity and also allows frequent crawlers to permanent hotlink if they crawl f ex every 4 hours.

Therefore I suggest we wait a bit to see what happens.

 

[thehighmind]

I sent you a PM with incorrect redirect.

Just a bit of summary after some PMs:

1. Make sure to put bots on agent white list. googlebot and googlebot-images are obvious choices. There are some more in the plugin readme file, but if someone can post a comprehensive list here it would be appreciated. Avoid entering "Yahoo! Slurp". User agents isn't really meant to have exclamation marks and spaces, and Yahoo are being idiots here. Simply write Yahoo.

2. I'm still looking for someone to post / PM a link to an incorrect redirect. I am still thinking it is cache related, but will investigate if someone provides a link.

3. Re deindexing issues: after some PMs, no-one has been deindexed, but one person has lost some ranking. Google shouldn't see the redirect in the first place because, as far as is known, Google image bot sets local referrers (it will show having clicked on one of your internal links). But you should put the bots on the white list to be extra certain.

If google had actually spotted the redirect, they would have deindexed images pending next crawl as far as I know.

Now, we will wait and see if there are anyone else saying they've lost rankings. At least one person has also gained ranks so we are not seeing any clear picture at the moment.

If it turns out to be a problem, we will rewrite the Imaguard in a way where WP will add a encoded timestamp to all images on the site:

Test.jpg -> test.jpg?timestamp=GDHJDT

If the timestamp is missing or more than, say, 5 hour old, then Imaguard will redirect or show text-over-image.

That way local users and crawlers would have 5 hour to go from the referrer page to the image itself. That together with the current crawler whitelist and the fact that googlebot-images is supposed to be setting local referrers anyway, should prevent any problems. The downside is of course that any picture can be hotlinked for 5 hours after each crawl.

I'm not too keen on changing Imaguard in this way (not just because of the extra work involved in rewriting it) but also because it adds another layer of complexity and also allows frequent crawlers to permanent hotlink if they crawl f ex every 4 hours.

Therefore I suggest we wait a bit to see what happens.

 

[bigbong]

Replied to your PM. Think it was a cache issue and not something visitors would experience, but keep letting me know if you guys find something that may be a bug.

 

[redmoon]

Just sent you a pm bigbong!

 

[pitbulllopez]

you have shared really informative stuff about the update on images. i see these images are used by most of the people around the internet.