How Do You Monitor & Deal With Plagiarism Of Your Content?
-
Hi everyone - hope you can help.
I have an e commerce store with lots of products. I write unique, original content for all of the products we sell. I must be doing a good job because I repeatedly find my content being used in blogs, word press sites, and pay per posts which then link back to competitors. I have the standard free copyscape logo pasted a the bottom of each page - hasn't deterred anyone.
I'm now thinking about using some sort of a cookie based software and installing the code on each page so that when they lift my content and use it, it will send a link back to that page on my site. I have called numerous plagiarizers in the past and threatened to sue using the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" phrase in the course of my conversation. It's tiresome. It's work. I am thinking after many years of frustration, that if I can't beat them I might as well try using this type of cookie based script/software approach to at least garner a link out it. And if the abuser catches it then maybe he'll stop mid stream and think twice about using...I mean copying my content.
Is using this type of cookie/link back to us script a good or a bad idea? How do you all prevent your unique, original content from being used? And finally, if I'm looking at this from a positive link building standpoint (meaning, maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong angle), what is the best practice for garnering a link from this type of ongoing occurrence?
-
Check out Tynt, use an auto-linking plugin, or periodically drop manual links within your content. That won't stop people from copying, but it will at least you links from lazy copiers.
-
Report it to Google using your Google Webmasters: http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=ts.cs&ts=1114905&hl=en
<a>What Google product does your request relate to? > Websearch</a>
Please specify the nature of your request > I have an issue not mentioned above that is legal in nature
Choose from the following options > I have found content that may violate my copyright
Are you the copyright owner or authorized to act on his/her behalf? > Yes, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed
Okay, mark this question as answered and give me a thumbs up. Also, since I helped you out, return the favor by answering a question for someone else. Happy times!
-
Why not just add anchor text to your works so that you are farming links without work?
-
Hiding links in content using CSS used to be a good way to do just what you want - gain a free in bound link from a scraper. Nowadays, most scrapers will also strip out links so the value is not there (it can still happen).
There are services such as CopyScape that will automate the work of catching plagiarizers. From what you describe, that seems like the best solution. Without an automatic solution you will need to send off the DMCA requests by hand.
Another option would be to block the scrapers at the IP level. This takes some time and skill, but there are turn-key solutions available.
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
-
Duplicate content
Hi mozzers, I've been doing some broken link building and it's been going quite well. I've made a high value page and asked webmasters to link to it to replace the 404s. My page was ranking on google, not well, you had to copy/paste a portion of the page for it showup. Sadly another webmaster has posted my exact post on their blog and now when you search for a portion of text, the copied page shows up on google instead of mine. He has give me the credit for it and linked to my page. Am I at risk of losing credit for my work and links as the copied page is ranking? Or will google figure it out as my page will have more links and the copied page links to me. Thanks
Link Building | | peterm20 -
Over Optimised Anchor Text (Internal & external)
Hi First - is it possible for internal anchor text to be considered 'over optimised' in terms of diversity or does that just apply to external backlinks ? For example If you have a main site section/page thats about a service you offer and you call the page this service and the URL this service and then link to it from many internal locations (but in a logical useful manner not just for the sake of it) using this service/keyword as the link anchor text i take it this WONT ever be considered over optimised anchor text since is completely in context, makes sense, is useful and after all is what the page/section is called (so would be strange to call it and link to it via any other term) ? Second - I have a project who's backlink profile is nice and diverse and could by no means be considered over optimised on a domain level. However looking at page level a main site section/page (as above) has only one back link with exact match anchor text from the BOTW directory, so in regard to that page keyword rich anchor text from this one backlink is at 100%. However the anchor text is what the page/section is called (title and url). I presume that this is also unlikely to be considered over optimised (since makes sense, is logical helpful and would be strange to name it anything else) or could it be considered over optimised ? Thanks Dan
Link Building | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Which is More Powerful? Content or Backlinks: Ecommerce Sales
Hello, Which do you guys think would bring in more sales: doubling the content across all category pages and top 30 products, or getting 10% more good unique root domain backlinks from broken link building? 350 products in total 50 main categories 150 subcategories. Product page content would be frequently asked questions for the product and would be added by the site owner who is an expert. Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Penguin: Carry On & Hope Or Start A New Site
I'm at a loss and no so-called SEO agency/expert I've hired appears to know the main causes of our post-Penguin downfall of our traffic. To set the scene, I set up a voucher code site (www.ozvouchercodes.com.au) in Australia 3 years ago and since, it's been growing very well up until Google launched the Penguin update in April. Having read as much as I could on the update my understanding is toxic links cause the slap. For on-site I've checked the site and tried to reduce keywords [spamming], increased [unique] content across the site and made sure there are as few instances of duplicate content as possible. To attempt to understand my back link profile I've used SEOmoz & Link Detective as the current SEO agency give me little visibility on this. It appears we're a little top heavy with 32% & 11% of are keywords containing 'coupons' and 'promotion codes' respectively. Consequently we no longer appear on those two terms but also hundreds of other terms we once appeared in the top 3 postitions. The Link Detective report downloaded also appears to have a number of back links with the words 'Penalized' and 'Banned' next to them. Unfortunately there is no explanation on Link Detective whether this needs action or not. My current SEO agency suggest that we have been too focused on a limited number of keywords and that a few more months of diversifying the range will solve it. So do I spend another £X amount for 3-6 months of SEO or drop the site on a new URL and start again. Any ideas? Any help is very welcome & appreciated. Henry
Link Building | | henryboyson1231 -
Curating Content. used to avoid, but now i'm having second thoughts
It's really hitting me now, because content curating is extremely common in a lot of other forms of media. I always avoided it because I didn't know the extent of any negatives that I might see from the search engines (duplicate content). Does anybody else curate content for their blogs? The main problem that I am having is that I just don't have enough time to publish the amount of content that I need. Outsourcing is the best alternative, and quite frankly, unless your high school English teacher needs extra money, it really isn't a very good one. Basically, i'm looking at content curating as a really good way to publish a lot of content, on more topics, a lot easier. What extent do you consider reasonable? How do you go about creating your content? What would you say is the easiest way to create content efficiently?
Link Building | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Same Content on Different Blogs
We host our blog on WordPress as part of our site. The blog "address" is www.website.com/blog/post. If I were to take the same content that's on this blog and post it on a Blogger account we have, would Google consider that duplicate content? If not, would there be any benefit to doing this?
Link Building | | rdreich490 -
Good Content Writing | How do I convince them?
Mozzers, I work in-house for a large lead generation for matchmakers. We do really well with PPC and that will always be there. They will always do PPC but have hired me to do SEO. We're ranking really good for some competitive key phrases as well. I believe in good content. I feel we should have a quality control for content just like we do before we run a a/b or a multivariate test. However there are people here who would rather pay $3 on oDesk for a article than a much higher price. How have you convinced your bosses or your clients that good quality content is the way to go? I've hassled for good links and got in contact with some bloggers who are ready to let us Guest Blog who have never done so before. What would you do?
Link Building | | eljetfan0 -
Changing Category Names in Wordpress Blog & Inbound Links
I'm working on a wordpress blog, /www.athleticfoodie.com, and I'd like to change the names of the categories so that I include keywords. If I change the current category name of "Healthy Recipes" to "Recipes for Athletes" will I lose the inbound links associated with the category and/or posts? Is there a way to prevent this?
Link Building | | EricVallee340