Ethics of blocking external hotlinking

Question

I'm just looking through some of the webmaster stats that Google provides, and noticed that the most common links to our website are to some research articles that we've put up in PDF format. The articles are also available on the site in HTML.

I was looking at the sites (mostly forums and blogs) which link to these articles and was thinking that none of the people clicking the links would actually get to see our website, and that we're giving something away for free and not even getting some page views in return.

I thought that maybe I could change my server settings to redirect external requests to these files to the HTML version. This way, the users still get the same content (albeit in an unexpected format), and we'd get these people to see our website and hopefully explore it some more. Requests coming from my site should be let through to the PDF. Though I don't know how to set this up just yet (keep an eye out for a follow-up question here), I'm sure this is technically possible. The only question is: is that a good idea?

What would you consider the downsides of redirecting traffic from external sources such that they see our site, not just get our content? Do they outweigh the benefits?

The only other alternate option I can see is to make our branding and URL much more visible in the PDF files themselves. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

I would add a page at the beginning of each article with info about the website, the current article and links to other articles on your website.

I find it more convenient than redirecting the user to a page on your website(that's annoying). Most people right click and download PDF files, what would that do when your redirect ;)

Answer 2

I would do it. It's your site and your data. The hot-linkers are essentially 'guests' and you can make the rules for your guests. If they don't like it, they don't have to link.

Answer 3

I'm usually opposed to all such redirects as harmful to usability. However, in this case a basic content-type negotiation takes place and this might be acceptable. However, make sure that this doesn't break downloads of the PDF documents for users who might have disabled their referers in the browser (I do this, for one).

Answer 4

Hopefully your PDFs are equally branded so that visitors will feel compelled to search further in your website. That might be just as important as having visitors briefly stop-over at your website.

Answer 5

If you go for this solution, see if redirecting to the HTML version also changes the file name displayed by the browser if somebody used 'save as' on the link, else an HTML page would be saved with a pdf extension. Apart from that, I can see no reason why you shouldn't do it.

As an alternative, see if you can add a link to your site to the top of the pdf file. This way they are reminded where it comes from even if someone else sent it to them by email.

Answer 6

Sure you could cut them off, but there is a bigger issue at play: Why aren't these people finding you before they are finding these moocher sites?

Possible reasons are:

a) they did find your site, but not the content they were looking for, even though its obviously there, or

b) your site never appeared in their search results.

You may want to consider a site redesign in order to address those concerns before cutting off what appears to be a reliable source of information about your target audience (for you and the people who get your PDFs from elsewhere).

In the meantime, I would suggest you allow the traffic, add a cover page to all of your PDFs that are basically a full-page ad for your site and then enlarge the font on the copyright section of each page so the authorship is very prominent. You have a built in audience now, they just don't know it yet. Show them where the source is.

Eventually, the traffic will come to you and know you as a reliable source for that information.