I'm getting a great deal of traffic from google images too, but to an image I no longer have! It was hosted on Imagecave anyway, but still they come...it's very strange!
I think they use everything, including any text near the picture.
As far as I know Google uses two different bots, the normal one which supplies data to the main Google and another one for the images. I think you can block the image bot in your robots.txt. You might find something in the "For Webmasters" pages at Google.
Armin is right. I had the same problem just a few months ago and my bandwidth had gone through the roof. A robots.txt has sorted that out and my bandwidth is at a much more sensible level.
I think the information you need is here. The instructions only work for sites with access to their own server, so you should be covered (but I'm not, damn those bloody Googlebots).
They look at everything I think. In theory DG's robots.txt file should do the job. In my experience, however, it's not totally effective. But even a reduction (and it should be a big one) is better than nothing. There are, apparently, also things that could be added to that "code" but I've never tried that as yet. Maybe I'll give it a go and let you know.
Whilst I love having visitors, the bandwidth has been creeping up month by month (I'm well into my 3rd GB this month - and it was only last October that I started using over 1), and I know that, as Lynn says, it's the image searches that are doing it.
Yes, I could solve it be putting less on the front page, but I'd sooner solve it in a more constructive fashion.
I'm getting a great deal of traffic from google images too, but to an image I no longer have! It was hosted on Imagecave anyway, but still they come...it's very strange!
Posted by Ron on 26 April, 2005 at 8:11 PMI think they use everything, including any text near the picture.
As far as I know Google uses two different bots, the normal one which supplies data to the main Google and another one for the images. I think you can block the image bot in your robots.txt. You might find something in the "For Webmasters" pages at Google.
Posted by Armin on 26 April, 2005 at 9:42 PMArmin is right. I had the same problem just a few months ago and my bandwidth had gone through the roof. A robots.txt has sorted that out and my bandwidth is at a much more sensible level.
Posted by Lynn on 26 April, 2005 at 10:28 PMI think the information you need is here. The instructions only work for sites with access to their own server, so you should be covered (but I'm not, damn those bloody Googlebots).
Posted by diamond geezer on 27 April, 2005 at 12:05 AMThey look at everything I think. In theory DG's robots.txt file should do the job. In my experience, however, it's not totally effective. But even a reduction (and it should be a big one) is better than nothing. There are, apparently, also things that could be added to that "code" but I've never tried that as yet. Maybe I'll give it a go and let you know.
Posted by NiC on 27 April, 2005 at 8:27 AMThanks all, especially DG.
Whilst I love having visitors, the bandwidth has been creeping up month by month (I'm well into my 3rd GB this month - and it was only last October that I started using over 1), and I know that, as Lynn says, it's the image searches that are doing it.
Yes, I could solve it be putting less on the front page, but I'd sooner solve it in a more constructive fashion.
Posted by Blue Witch on 27 April, 2005 at 8:36 AMI don't know what you are all talking about. Googlebots...robots....It's all Chinese to me (that's a hint BW).
Posted by Mr BW on 27 April, 2005 at 12:31 PMYes, Mr BW is right... where's our next Duck lesson?
Posted by NiC on 28 April, 2005 at 9:51 AM