The other day I searched for some images via Google Image Search to research a topic and quickly found an image that should’ve led directly to the content I wanted – but it didn’t. Instead, when I clicked through to the individual image, I saw something like this:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/624b3c6d69f8ea5ba4177856/1649097844715-K1TWKRNWG9BQ9YWP50K0/20140302_Trade%2B151_0503.jpg?format=1500w
On the one hand, it is noteworthy that they have a built-in CDN (content delivery network) to help service images up fast around the world. Still, on the other hand, I had no way to get to the original post I was interested in quickly.
Even though getting that image up was relatively easy for the website creator, and it was showing up organically, it wasn’t serving the content owner well because I didn’t end up at their site. I ended up with a URL that led me back to Squarespace with no context.
One bonus of having a custom website is that your image URLs will nearly always point back to your domain instead of a giant CDN repository serving thousands of websites. There are times for using Squarespace or Wix, but every little bit of traffic adds up. Once, when my wife Kate and I were still doing wedding photography for her business, she had a client book from out of state simply by finding a prior Garden Tent Wedding on Image Search. Depending on the path this bride took to searching, if we were on Squarespace, she might’ve just saved the image and never found us.
A custom website will be your best bet if you want maximum control over your web presence. Image paths are just another reason why.
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Takeaway:
Image paths can be a powerful tool when they lead back to your domain; when they lead to a Squarespace or Wix CDN, they get lost in an ocean of other website image files.
