Can you prevent blog content theft? Are you concerned about your blog content being scraped from autoblogs or other websites? Many of you are not concerned about this as you think it is simple that you can get more traffic than those scraping websites and only original content can rank higher in SERPs.
But, what happens if your original content cannot rank higher than the scraped content?
Logically, original content should rank higher than scraped one and Google should understand this rule. However, there are many cases that the scraped contents rank higher than the original. That is a serious problem as you will definitely lose traffic.
Prevent Blog Content Theft
There is an interesting topic at Webmaster World which is highlighted on the homepage that mentions the original content of one website which is scraped from a Chinese blogger and ranks higher than the original. All complaints are submitted to Google and blogger.com but no reply so far.
After reading many replies from experts, I have learned a lot that can help me protect my content from copying. This has happened with my old blog once and I have successfully removed them not by Google, but by their hosting services.
Here are some tips that you should consider when identifying your contents are scraped by other websites:
1. Report to Google through Webmaster Tools
This is the first step and Google Webmaster Tools can help to remove the contents from their SERPs. However, it is very difficult as many bloggers fail to file these issues and got no response from Google.
2. Report to blogger.com
if those blogs are hosted on Blogspot, report spam blogs to Blogger. It can also be a great option if the scraped websites are hosted on blogger.com. Many blogs have been deleted after the report is submitted.
3. Submit to DMCA
This is another way that can get your content removed from the scraped websites by submitting a request to DMCA. If you are using its paid service, you will be happy as they guarantee to get those contents removed.
4. Delay your feed updates
Normally, autoblog plugins use feed addresses to retrieve content from your blog. If you set it to be updated immediately after you publish, you should delay it for one day or more. You can use a plugin like GD Press Tools to do so. This will ensure that your original content has enough time index in SERPs. See more ways to stop image hotlinking and stop RSS scrapping.
5. Use excerpts for feed
You can set your feed to excerpt rather than full feed. This can prevent people from stealing your content. Or at least, you can get some traffic from those excerpts.
6. Put copyright text in the feed footer
You can use GD Press Tools or other WordPress plugins to do this by adding a small text in your feed footer with your website’s URL. This can help inform readers that the content is not original.
7. Report to hosting or domain services
If the scraped websites is using other hosting services, you can whois or other services to see where the websites are hosted with. Contact the hosting providers to inform them about this. If it is US or other Western hosting services, you will surely get those accounts suspended soon. I have done this step and got the scraped websites suspended in two days with GoDaddy.
Those are necessary steps for your consideration when your content is scraped by autoblogs. Try to use all of them to get your content removed from the scraped sites. Good luck and I am happy to hear your suggestions or comments on your experiences. Here are more ways to stop online content theft.
Guest author Tran Tinh is a blogger from Vietnam who can make over $2,000 per month from blogging and is now blogging at A-Z Blogging Tips. You can also guestblog here and share your content safety tips.