Incoming hot links good, bad, or pointless?

Hey all,

I spent quite a lot of time researching this topic yesterday and have come across so many different confusing answers throughout the last decade.

The general question I have is, is it good for my website when another website hot links my image?

I'm seeing a lot of conflicting answers. Some say it counts as a "vote" for the image, boosting its position in Google Images, others say it's worthless and it's just a way for another site to steal bandwidth.

The answers I'm seeing have been different going back all the way to 2008.

What is the general consensus on hot links in 2020? Is it good in any way for other sites to be hotlinking my images? Even if only a minimal amount of benefit?

Bump?

Yes, It has a few pros and cons. Looked like you have gone through with many details already. Straightaway I will give the answer I will not allow others to use my image.

Let them link to your image.

It will count as ranking signal.

But if that image start hogging bandwidth, enable hotlink protection.

Check with site quality and relevancy, it will increase your image ranking and your site will get some benefit. But yes it will also share bandwidth and if the linking site has better content than your site, then they will rank for your images.

If you no need, then you can add some condition code in .htaccess or use plugins.