It's not surprising that so many content creators do nothing but copy content and publish it under their name – it's difficult and time-consuming to create high-quality website content.
Loss of traffic and a decline in customer loyalty are two negative consequences of stealing website content. In addition, the site that published the original content gets pushed down in search rankings. This article will provide some actionable tips on how you can protect your content.
Most Commonly Copied Content
The most frequently copied content includes blog posts, images, and audiovisual components. Typically, websites steal content using software that scans competitors' platforms and copies content automatically. They do this to generate ad revenue and traffic, which they otherwise couldn't achieve because of their content's poor quality. They might also copy product descriptions and customer reviews on ecommerce sites.
How To Check For Copied Content
There are a few ways to find out if someone copied your content. The easiest one is a simple Google search. Type parts of your text in the search engine, and you might see copies of it elsewhere, published with very few or no changes.
You could also have software installed to monitor the web for copies of your content. When it detects such, you'll get an automatic notification.
You can also use Copyscape to check for duplicates or use image search tools and recognition software.
Add A Content Locker
If your site is on WordPress, adding a content locker is a great idea. It will get you more followers apart from deterring thieves. If you lock your content on WordPress and it's high-quality, your visitors will share it on social media or sign up for your email list. To motivate them, you can ask them for an email in exchange for unlocking the content.
The Types Of Lockers
You can lock content by setting up a membership site to which only members get access. Another way is via WordPress' built-in password protector.
If you choose the so-called social locker function, only people who agree to share your content on social media can access it.
Finally, WordPress's opt-in locker feature mandates users to register for an email list to access the content. This is the most feasible option if you want a simple way to get more subscribers.
How To Protect Images
As mentioned, images are one of the most commonly copied components. You can watermark your images to provide proof of ownership. There are all kinds of different watermarks, from almost invisible ones to viewable logos.
While watermarks aren't guaranteed to keep thieves at bay, they will require them to put in more effort and make the theft more obvious. It is not very easy to remove a watermark.
Add Copyright To Your Site
You can add a copyright notice to your site to eliminate any doubt as to the content's accessibility. The notice can be added to the footer. The exact text is not important, but you should mention the word "copyright" or include the respective symbol and the name of your site, and the year it was created. You need to update the notice every year your site is live.
You could add that your terms and conditions prohibit scraping and stealing content.
How To Block Bot Addresses
On the subject of scraping, bots that steal content are getting increasingly popular. You can use robot.txt files to block these bots' IP addresses. These files tell search engine crawlers which addresses can be accessed by the crawler. They are mostly used to avoid overloading your site with requests.
Set Up RSS Feed
Finally, an RSS feed showing post recaps can offer additional protection. It will keep scrapers from using feeds to access your text.
