Hotlinking is when another website displays images hosted on your account by linking directly to them. This uses your bandwidth without giving you any visitors. Hotlink protection blocks this.
How Hotlinking Hurts You
- It consumes your bandwidth for someone else's site.
- It can slow your account if your images are popular.
- You get no traffic or credit in return.
Enabling Hotlink Protection
- Log in to cPanel.
- Open Hotlink Protection in the Security section.
- Confirm the list of allowed URLs includes your own domain, including the
wwwand non-wwwversions. - Enter the file extensions to protect, such as
jpg,jpeg,png,gif, andwebp. - Optionally set a redirect URL for blocked requests.
- Click Enable.
Allowing Trusted Sites
If you legitimately share images with another site, add its URL to the allowed list. Search engines and social previews sometimes need access, so test that your images still appear correctly when shared on social media after enabling protection.
How It Works Behind the Scenes
cPanel adds rules to your .htaccess file that check where each image request comes from. Requests from your own domain are allowed; requests from other sites are blocked or redirected.
Verifying It Works
- Your own site should display all images normally.
- An image URL opened directly may show blank or your redirect, which is expected.
- Test social sharing to confirm previews still work.
If images vanish from your own site after enabling protection, your domain may be missing from the allowed list. Re-check that list, or contact support through the /contact page.