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The rule of the Internet is original content. This is what keeps people visiting your websites and it also speaks loudly about the quality of any given website. Unfortunately, the reality of the web is that content posted by developers and designers can be stolen and used in derivative works. This practice hurts SEO rankings as well as violating your intellectual rights.
Another aggravating factor is when the ripped content secures a higher ranking than your own, sending potential customers to another website. It’s vital that you learn how to find your stolen content and take care of the problem right away before larger issues arise.
Google recently made a change to its ranking algorithm, which resulted in a 12% shift in results. It also created a situation where websites with stolen content were confused with the websites that originally produced it. This made a major dent in the carefully crafted SEO of many content creators and led to a lot of upset, which led to many content creators protesting.
You have probably learned in the past that original content always outranks stolen content. This is unfortunately no longer true, and the following tips can assist you in finding your stolen content faster, as well as advise you on anti-theft measures.
How to Find Your Content
CopyScape is one of the best tools on the web for locating your content. It comes in a free and a paid version. The free version only allows the searching of links. Upgrading to the paid version will allow you to search for text as well as links, and see if there is any plagiarism taking place. If CopyScape finds anything, it will inform you of the location of the content so you can remedy the situation quickly.
Google Alerts was initially created for people to follow topics of interest, however, it can also help you keep track of your content. It does have its limitations, such as character input is capped at 2, 048 characters. This should not present a problem with searching, as an excerpt should be enough to find any of your content.
Graphic designers should seriously consider the Digimarc service. This places a watermark on all of your graphics that is traceable and will alert you when your material is used on a website other than your own.
How to Protect Your Content
If you have found out who has stolen your content, you can now bring that person or website to justice. Since Google is constantly indexing content on the web, you can move quickly to get your works indexed before another party does. If you have had a prior experience with stolen content, it’s imperative that you use SEO to your advantage now.
Using social media hub Twitter is a great way to get started. Posts and links on Twitter often get followed and indexed very quickly. The service is also an easy way to build a following that will get to know your work and reputation and can further protect you against plagiarism.
A pinging service such as pubhubsubbub can help spread the word through the blogosphere and beyond. Blogging platforms, such as Tumblr, provide a “reblogging” feature that can work just as well as Twitter for you.
A more drastic measure is the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice. This is an effective legal notice that protects your content very well.
How to Report Your Stolen Content
The best and most effective way to report your stolen works is through the DMCA. The DMCA is basically proof of your ownership of the content and will create the legal means for claiming that it’s yours.
The focus of the DMCA is preventing piracy by the blocking of ripped content. You are the author and owner of your content if you have secured an official copyright to it. Any party who challenges your ownership will feel the full effect of the law.
DMCA is a clear message from you to the person who stole your work to remove the content from their website. That party has the choice of either challenging it or simply taking it down. In most cases, the material is removed without incident. However, you should be prepared if the party does decide to fight back, as sometimes happens. A lawyer can be helpful in such predicaments.
A DMCA notice can be challenging to fill out, especially the first time around. You may want to engage the services of an attorney who is experienced in copyright law to help you. This will help the whole process proceed more smoothly. Google also provides a special DMCA page that is a good starting point for a complaint. It takes this type of complaint very seriously and will help you to get the ball rolling.
In order to proceed with a complaint, it’s necessary for you to find a U.S. Copyright Office agent to certify that you are the creator and owner of the content. This will help you establish a solid foundation for your complaint and help you focus on your concerns against the individual who stole the work.
Reporting your content as stolen is the first, very vital step once you have identified the thief. It will help you keep your rights to your content and maintain your precious SEO rank that you have no doubt worked very hard for.
The originality of content should not ever be underestimated. Text, photos and graphics on the web are not there to be plucked and used by anyone, for any purpose. Original content is what makes the Internet hum and your content is no different. Now that the whole effect of the Google Panda update is being felt, you should thoroughly check out your SEO ranking and determine that your website is the one being properly indexed. This is truly your best weapon for protecting your content from thieves and wannabes. Your content is quality, not pictures or graphics or words strung together for effect. Know your rights and protect yourself.
Brian Flores is a SEO and blogger for InMotion Hosting, one of the leading providers of virtual private servers in Los Angeles. He works with a team of awesome writers to post useful tutorials on WebHostingHelpGuy. You can follow him on Twitter @WHHG_InMotion or @BrianAFlores.
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excellent article.. thank you .. i’ve had my stuff ripped and it was annoying doing the footwork trying to contact the website admin .. I’d rather establish one central routine where I Just go through the DMCA way (though you said doing that has it own complications) and then just go that route for every violator I discover.