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Other websites copy content and giving a link back
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Hi,
I've just noticed a few back links in Google Search Console, I was excited. But when I saw the backlinks, 2 other websites that had completely copied my content and then gave a backlink to my website.
Is this bad for SEO and would google penalise my website for this?
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In my opinion it is bad to allow infringing content to appear on other websites. These are duplicate content. It is possible that they will outrank you in the SERPs or result in your page being filtered from the search results. Also, if you work hard to produce this content then you want people coming to your site to see it - not to the websites of others. If it appears on websites all over the web then why should people visit your website? Finally, if these folks use the content and give you an attribution link, that communicates to everyone who sees it that your content is available for reuse.
Google says that they are good at recognizing the original source of content, however, I know from experience that they are far from perfect. Some SEOs believe Google, and advise clients to distribute their content as a way of earning links. I would not listen to them.
We tell infringers to take our content down and when they don't comply we either submit DMCA to Google, their revenue source and their hosting - or we have an attorney send them notice. We are sending out three notices today.
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