We Just Found Out One Of Our Writers Has Been Plagiarizing - Now What?
-
I just found out one of the writers we employ has been simply copying and pasting content from other websites into our clients' websites. She's been doing this for about six weeks.
We are going to speak with our clients to apologize and let them know that the problem is being rectified, but my question is how to best address this issue from an SEO standpoint? I know that the content needs to be rewritten, but those links are now six weeks old - is it best to remove them altogether and start from scratch, or just rewrite the content under the old link?
Are there any steps that I'm missing to solve this?
-
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!
-
There is no reason I know of to delete the pages. Just rewrite the content and make sure you have a valid sitemap. Things should be just fine.
-
Agreed - looks like you caught it fairly soon - so as long as you act fast you should be fine.
-
Hi Rachel,
My advice is to take a look at your analytics to see if the articles are generating traffic or links to the site. If they are, I would keep the same URL and just rewrite them. If the articles are not contributing traffic or links to the site, there's no harm in just removing them, then rewriting the articles and putting them on another URL.
Hope that helps!
-Trung
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best place to find quality freelance writers?
I have a substantial writing project. One long piece (giveaway PDF), 20 or so follow-up pieces. About a specific medical condition. Where do I find a writer to work with?
Content Development | | Byron_W0 -
Updating Content - Make changes to current URL or create a new one?
I'm working with a content team on a job search guide for 2019. We already have a job search guide for 2018. Should we just edit the content of the job search guide for 2018 to make it current for 2019, which means the job search guide for 2018 would not exist anymore or should we keep the 2018 guide and just create a new web page for the 2019 guide that way both exist. We currently rank very well for the 2018 job search guide.
Content Development | | Olivia9541 -
One Page Website Blog Content Question
Hi guys, I'm new to the art of SEO and am learning every day from all the fantastic content here, I have a question that I can't find an answer to, hope it doesn't stump you like it has me... I have a one page website (www.neilwilliamsvoiceover.com) that I need to put more content on for SEO purposes but needs to be kept as one page. I've set-up a blog via blogger, and have that on the website but it's in iframe, which I've now discovered is ignored by search engines. So, my question is, is there a way to pull my blog feed into the website and have it recognised by search engines as content for the website? Would I use an RSS feed or feed burner or something else completely?! Thanks for your time and help in advance.
Content Development | | BamMK0 -
Opinions about good article writers and where to find them
I want to hire out to someone who can write some good quality articles for my site. First has anyone had experience with this and do you recommend this. Also are there any ideas where I could start in looking for this. Websites? Freelance? Let me know
Content Development | | cbielich0 -
SEO All in One Not Showing Up
I am working at a company that has had SEO All in One installed on our Wordpress blog for awhile, but the Meta data is not being published. When looking at a draft of the post the fields are automatically filled with the blog post (I would like the possibility of manually changing the meta sometimes). However, regardless of that the Meta titles, etc.. on the live site are blank and don't use what is written in the SEO All in One pack at all. Any suggestions for me? Thanks!
Content Development | | theLotter0 -
Content Writers / Blog Posts
Hi there Would anyone know where i could fund affordable, reliable blog post writers who would be able to produce quality posts at affordable rates? What would the accepted rate be etc? Regards Stef
Content Development | | stefanok0 -
Displaying archive content articles in a writers bio page
My site has writers, and each has their own profile page (accessible when you click their name inside an article). We set up the code in a way that the bios, in addition to the actual writer photo/bio, would dynamically generate links to each article he/she produces. Figured that someone reading something by Bob Smith, might want to read other stuff by him. Which was fine, initially. Fast forward, and some of these writers have 3,4, even 15 pages of archives, as the archive system paginates every 10 articles (so www.example.com/bob-smith/archive-page3, etc) My thinking is that this is a bad thing. The articles are likely already found elsewhere in the site (under the content landing page it was written for, for example) and I visualize spiders getting sucked into these archive black holes, never to return. I also assume that it is just more internal mass linking (yech) and probably doesnt help the overall TOS/bounce/exit, etc. Thoughts?
Content Development | | EricPacifico0 -
My WebSite has two sections with overlapping, or redundant articles on the same topics. Google is only listing one or the other article in Search Results. What should I do to have both pages (similiar but unique content ) to be listed?
My Web Site has two sections with overlapping, or redundant articles on the same topics. Google is only listing one or the other article in Search Results. What should I do to have both pages (similar but unique content ) to be listed? Example: http://www.womenshealthcaretopics.com/pregnancy_week_12.htm http://www.womenshealthcaretopics.com/pregnancy_12_weeks.html
Content Development | | docjamesmd0
