The mainstay of any good website or blog is the content and find out if it will be copied can help you to protect the value of your efforts.
Every blogger or freelancer writer knows that create original and high quality articles takes time and commitment, and if someone copy and paste your content brings you a real loss.
The practice of copying of the content is very popular on the Internet, and unfortunately it is almost impossible to avoid.
But there are a number of tools that can help you fight this scourge.
How to Protect YOUR Content
There is a nice plugin, called “CopyLink”, that you can download and install in your WordPress blog .
” CopyLink is a WordPress plugin developed by Dejan SEO which places automatic links on text copied from your website” .
Of course once someone have copied your content, they can easily remove the link that is produced automatically, but at least is a way to let copiers know that you are willing to protect your content.
Or if someone copy your articles and “forget” to mention you as source, this plugin will remember them that you are the owner of the content.
Also, for those who do copy and paste drastically, without even checking it, this plugin spread the link to your site around the web, giving you SEO benefits.
The attribution prefix (e.g. Via: or Author: ) can be customised in the plugin settings page.
CopyLink can also track additional statistics such as: IP address, date, user agent, link and copied content. This information can be stored in the database for future reference.
How to Check if YOUR Content is Copied
It can happen that your site is copied and then it can be penalized by Google, which would give to the other site the ownership of your content. All this can depend on many factors.
For istance there are some sites that works as aggregators, they take their content directly from the Feeds of other sites, re-publishing content within few minutes.
Now, I am sure that Google knows how to decide who is the owner of the content, but …
If you feel that your content is copied, you need to contact Google’s DMCA agent, for that you can use the form and to mail or fax you can use Mail/Fax Process.
Some useful links also here :
Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
Yahoo!: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/spam_abuse.html
Here below you find a series of tools that you can use to check if your content is copied around the web.
- Copyscape.com : it finds duplicate content and check if your content is original;
- Plagiarismdetect.com : plagiarism checking system;
- Tineye.com : it finds your copyright image that are used in other sites;
- Plagium.com : it tracks copy content by pasting or typing your original text;
- Duplichecker.com : you can upload original content and find copy content;
- Articlechecker.com : check articles with text and URL.
Of course the suggestion is always the same, DO NOT COPY !
Check this article, that explain : How to Write High Quality Content in 7 Steps .
Write your own original content !
February 16, 2012 at 3:47 pm
I use Copyscape to check for duplicate content; never tried the others.
I also read an article about one blogger whose Google SERP dropped quite a bit and he couldn’t work out how or why as it was fully optimised (which he verified using various online tools). Eventually he found out that someone had stolen his content by posting the exact same article on their website. Once he requested them to take it down and they removed it his rank went back to normal again. Pity I can’t find the article (will check my history) but he used Copyscape to find and duplicate content.
p.s. Typo on “For istance”
February 16, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Hi Niall,
thanks for sharing the history.
Actually I have also read about copied contents and benefits went to the copier …
There are mechanisms or facts that still remain obscure to us mere mortals: how works exactly the complicated formulas to index pages by Big G and all other search engines …
I really would love to know, “exactly”…
February 17, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Lol, I noticed something quite funny at the top of your page: I’ve been using Google Adwords recently and my ads keep showing just after the post title. It’s quite funny!
BTW Erik, have heard of any sites losing SERP rankings due to Google’s algorithm change which is supposed to penalise you for too many ads and ads that affect the readability of content of an article?
February 17, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Yes, many sites, actually, Niall.
See for example Stevescottsite.com,
he had a completely different blog before, with
ads showing, and after the last Google/s algorithm, he completely changed the layout and theme of his site, showing Zero Ads.
It is a choice, even though radical…and it also depends if those ads are really making money or not…
As you know,
Google penalize the sites that shows too many ads above the folder.
I also removed all the ads in my site that does not make actually money, or that they do not worth to be still there.
A part of this,
I can tell you that I am re-writing my old posts, the ones
I published in 2010, when I was not aware of anything about SEO, internet marketing, Google Panda, etc…
See, for istance, too short posts, with no internal linking, general information, without giving real help to people…
Well, I already changed just 15 posts of more or less 100 that I want to review, and my organic traffic already raised a lot !
February 17, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Ok, cool! I haven’t monetized my site yet so doesn’t really affect me yet I guess.
February 16, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Thanks for your site and thanks google translate. Sorry, i’m french.
Laura.
February 17, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Hello Laura,
je suis content que mon article vous a aidé …
heureusement il y a “Google Traduction” !
February 17, 2012 at 3:19 am
Protect your website with copyright. No matter whether you run a business or simply enjoy blogging, you can register an official copyright and display a license on your website.
February 17, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Hi Rosie,
thanks for the suggestion.
Although it does not cost much, you still have to invest some money for the registration…
February 17, 2012 at 8:37 am
Thanks for sharing this good information Erik, it is not fair for original writer to see their article copied by others. that is why internet marketers created a site that can detect copied article , for example the copyscape.com and plagium , these are some site I have tried using before to detect when that article is being copied.
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February 17, 2012 at 4:52 pm
I recommend Copy Scape. Maybe I’ll try the other tools too, in the near future, but until now I’ve been working with Copy Scape which has been more than satisfactory
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February 18, 2012 at 5:41 pm
You can use Google to check if your content is copied or not by pasting content in the search box. That’s what I do.
February 20, 2012 at 4:50 am
Hi, Erik,
I did not know for CopyLink, so I am very glad you decided to write about it and introduce its features. I was familiar with CopyScape and that is what most of my acquaintances and colleagues are using. We are happy with it, but some improvements are always needed, so I can try checking out your suggestion, too.
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February 21, 2012 at 5:36 am
Hi Erik! Thanks for the wonderful features. That’s the power of technology. Can it trace also the duplicate copy but with a little changes???!!!
February 21, 2012 at 11:44 am
The Free tools listed above check the exact duplicate content,
if you want to trace duplicate copy with some little changes,
I think you need to use a specific software…
February 21, 2012 at 7:43 am
Some writers are use to copy other writers content and it is truly unfair. It is good to check more often if your content is copied or not so that you will know.
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February 22, 2012 at 1:17 pm
I used copyscape to check what are some duplicate words. Copyscape is a good tool for some of the people that are still new on writing. Some of the tools are free but if you want to check your article with duplicate content I require using copyscape.
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February 24, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Erik-
Great information. I can’t wait to use the plugin CopyLink. I have a lot of trouble with duplicate content. I use copyscape but i have so many sites with duplicate content (footer, header, etc.)that those show up first and I am not able to dig down and see other pages unless I pay. Any suggestions?
Thanks
sean
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March 24, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Thanks for this post now i can easily detect weather some one copied my post or not.
keep posting such types of information.
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