As a blogger, you know how important it is to protect your content. Plagiarism and copyright infringement are two of the biggest threats to bloggers, and if you’re not careful, your hard work can be stolen in an instant. In this article, we will discuss seven things that you can do to help protect your content and stop plagiarism from happening.
Leverage SEO to outrank plagiarism
SEO is one of the best ways to protect your content. By optimizing your blog posts for search engines, you can make it harder for people to steal your content and pass it off as their own. There are a number of ways to optimize your content for SEO, but some of the most important things to keep in mind are using keyword-rich titles and descriptions and using alt tags for images.
Content marketing for authority
Another way to protect your content is to market it effectively. By promoting your blog posts through social media and other channels, you can reach a larger audience and make it more difficult for people to steal your content without being caught. When you promote your content, be sure to use unique and eye-catching images and headlines to make it more likely to be shared.
Have plagiarism removed from search engines
If you find that someone has stolen your content, there are a few things you can do. First, you can contact the site owner and ask them to take down the infringing content. If they don’t comply, you can file a DMCA complaint with their hosting provider. Finally, you can contact Google and ask them to remove the infringing content from their search results.
Ignore it and wait for them to fail
Oftentimes it’s not good publications and renowned authors who would steal blog articles and other kinds of posts and copy from you. It would be more common that random trash sites to deploy bots and have them scan and harvest the Internet for content based on keywords. Based on my own experiences these usually don’t stick around for a long time and eventually just disappear as quickly as they popped up.
What do the experts say about what you should do?
Copyscape, by Indigo Stream Technologies, is a website that helps people find stolen content. They started in 2002 and help people find copied content on the Internet. They are one of the most renowned institutions and almost synonymous with online plagiarism checks. They recommend the following steps on how to respond to plagiarism.
1. First contact
If you find that someone has copied your work without permission, you can try contacting them to ask for it to be removed. You can find contact details on the website.
2. Whois lookups
There are a few things that bloggers can do in order to stop plagiarism and protect their content. One is to use a Whois service to find out the website owner’s name and telephone number and contact them directly. This will help to get the stolen content taken down.
3. Blame game
If you find that someone has plagiarized your content, or stolen your images, you can contact their web hosting company and report the abuse. This information is also available through a Whois search.
4. Formalities are prerequisites for advanced steps
There are a few things that bloggers can do in order to stop plagiarism and protect their content. One is to send a formal ‘Cease and Desist’ letter notifying the offending party that they must remove the stolen content from their site.
5. DMCA FTW
One of the most effective is to file a notice of Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with search engines such as Google and others. This will cause the offending site to be removed from their search results.
6. Internet Archive for evidence
Bloggers can use the Internet Archive to show that the content appeared on your site at an earlier date than it appeared on the offending site. This website stores web pages and clearly shows at what date which kind of information was available in what location. Use the Internet Archive as a resource to prepare neutral evidence in case of disputes.
Closing remarks
By following these tips, you can help protect your content from plagiarism and copyright infringement. Remember to SEO your blog posts, market your content effectively, and take action if you find that someone has stolen your work. With a little effort, you can keep your content safe and sound.
YouTube: Preventing Plagiarism with Copyscape and Grammarly (Steve Dotto)
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by LTUMMY.
