Content is likened to the backbone of a website, providing value and establishing credibility with readers. However, the issue of website content being stolen, slightly altered, and appearing on another site constitutes copyright infringement and greatly affects the website’s ranking. Therefore, detecting and knowing how to prevent content theft, along with implementing effective security measures, is very important. In the following article, Optimal Agency will guide you on how to prevent website content theft.
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What is website content theft?
It is stealing published content from a website for reuse or to generate traffic or personal gain. The easiest way to copy large amounts of online content is using data scraping bots, also known as web crawlers.
Using someone’s work without permission is also content theft. This includes digital content types such as text, images, videos, audio,…, that are not provided for public use.
The most common form of content theft is plagiarism, which means copying and pasting content from one website to another without permission or proper citation. This is done on a large scale, using software that automatically scans websites and copies content.
Creating quality content is a difficult and time-consuming task, while stealing content is easy. Content thieves copy multimedia content to increase traffic and ad revenue on their websites by profiting from the work others have done.
Therefore, early detection and knowing how to prevent website content theft can reduce risks and enhance online revenue for your business.
How to identify stolen web content?
If you create unique content for your website and do not want others to repost it on their sites, you should check if your content is being copied. If you suspect that your online content is being stolen, there are several tools you can use immediately to detect duplicate content:
Copyscape
This is a free tool that helps scan for duplicate content on websites. By entering your website’s address and searching, Copyscape will automatically find it on other domains. If your content appears on other websites, it will show you the URLs of the violations.
Grammarly
It is a well-known among content creators. Besides checking grammar, this tool can help you detect if your content on the website has been copied. By copying and pasting your content into the request box, Grammarly will compare your text with 8 billion web pages and provide you with a report on websites containing duplicate content.
Additionally, you can use other popular duplicate content detection tools in the market like Unicheck or Plagiarism Checker, or image recognition and search tools like Tineye. However, these tools have certain limitations, such as if there is a lot of content, the check will take much time and effort.
While these may be good for editorial content, they cannot help you identify the gathering and theft of content like prices. Moreover, detecting website content theft is only the first step, and none of these tools can prevent online content thieves themselves.
How to prevent website content theft?
Block Web scraping bots’ IP addresses
One of the tools used by content thieves to steal from websites is the Web scraping bot. These content-stealing bots operate all the time to quickly detect the latest content and bring it back to the user.
The first method to prevent website content theft is to block the IP of web scraping bots. To do this, use Wordfence Premium to record the IP history, Hostname, and User-agent that have accessed your website. From there, filter out the web scraping bots to block them.
Step 1: Install Live Traffic mode
First, you need to set up Live Traffic mode by going to Wordfence, selecting Tools, and configuring as follows:
- Amount of Live Traffic data to store: 500-5000 depending on your website’s traffic, you can choose a number that is 1/4 of your traffic.
- Maximum days to keep Live Traffic data: 7-14 days.
- Traffic logging mode: All Traffic.
Besides, readers can refer to other related articles such as how to increase conversion rate for your website.
Step 2: Filter out web scraping bots for blocking
Next, you need to filter out the web scraping bots for blocking by clicking on Show Advanced Filters, then select URL. Next, choose Contains and click on Feed to see which web scraping bots have accessed your RSS.
To identify web scraping bots, there are User-agents often labeled as Bot or Human. They regularly access your website with consistent durations, like every 5-10-15-20-25 minutes. In Hostname and User-agent, look for words like feed, content, newspaper,…
You need to know how to identify these to avoid confusing them with friendly web scraping bots. Google’s bots will have Hostnames containing googlebot.com or google.com. Bots from sites where you have created bookmarks or backlinks will often contain the website’s name or domain.
Finally, click Block IP to block web scraping bot.
Step 3: Block web scraping bots
In this step, add commands to block web scraping bots with the identified characteristics by going to Wordfence, selecting Blocking, and configuring Custom Pattern.
Note: You should only fill in the IP Address Range or Hostname or User-agent for each blocking command. If all three are filled, it means that only if all three characteristics match will the block apply.
- Block Reason: Set a general name for easy remembrance.
- IP Address Range: Web content theft tools often change IP. Block them by changing the last number to 0/24.
- Hostname and User-agent: Enter keyword to block.
For web scraping bots that have Hostname and User-agent like normal people, you need to find the IP of those websites and block the entire IP range. At the same time, you check whether these websites have changed to new servers or not to continue adding new IP ranges to the blocking order. In addition, you can base on the frequency of visits and identifying characteristics of web scraping bots. If you detect any IP with such access frequency, block that IP range.
Add functions.php file
One of the effective ways to prevent website content theft is through RSS. The goal is for the thief to index after you, and after indexing, Google will know that it is copied. By inserting this code into the functions.php file of the interface. Modify the number and unit to the RSS update delay amount you want.
Add many internal links in content
When writing content on your website, insert many internal links related to the main content. This helps readers find more information from other articles supporting the main article and reduces the quality of the content after it is stolen.
Thieves usually delete your internal links while the original article directs readers to another article for more information. This makes readers uncomfortable and helps them realize the content is stolen. Generally, the strength of internal links in a stolen article is not as supportive for SEO as the original.
Add watermark (logo) to images
Most images in original website articles have a watermark. When thieves use your original images, they inadvertently promote your website.
Therefore, the next step in preventing website content theft is to use a design tool to insert logos into images in bulk before uploading. You need to insert it in ways that do not significantly affect the user experience but make it impossible for thieves to cover your logo.
Use DMCA and report violating websites
Sending a DMCA notice allows you to report online infringement. Removal requests can be made for each violation if the entire site cannot be removed. If a standalone website is using your content, first contact the person or website and request the removal.
If the request is ignored, you can cease and send an official DMCA notice to the domain registrar of the violating website. The notice should include information about the violated content. If this is ignored, you can send a C&D letter to the web host where the website is registered. If you have difficulty finding the web host, use the ICANN registration data lookup tool.
Request Google Index new content righ after posting
You must inform Google of your new article as soon as you post it. Access Google Search Console, paste the new article URL into the search box, select URL Inspection, and then Request indexing. If you are using WordPress, consider using the Instant Indexing for Google plugin to send indexes immediately after posting.
Use specific names in the content
Use your website’s brand name or business name more often instead of just using pronouns like “I” or “we”. This helps readers recognize that the content is from your website if thieves forget to edit the content.
By applying these methods, we hope you can prevent website content theft. Create creative content that provides value to readers and use protective methods to enhance your website’s ranking on Google.
Please see more:
- The most common mistakes when running Google ads in 2024
- How to increase conversion rate for website in 2024
- Popular Google Ads payment forms today
FAQ
If you copy content from someone else’s website, it can negatively impact your SEO. This will decrease your website’s ranking and affect your website’s data collection ability, among other issues.
One way to prevent content copying on your website is to disable the right-click function. This will stop people from being able to copy and paste your content. Additionally, you can blur your images. This creates obstacles for people to steal content from your website and use it without permission.
If you want to legally use content from another website, you should request permission from the owner. Then, keep a copy of that permission in a place where you can easily access it if there are any changes to it later.
