After over ten years of assisting WordPress users, one of the most frequent concerns we encounter is content theft.
Content theft can have a significant negative effect on your business – it confuses your audience, damages your search engine rankings, and undermines your efforts. The good news is that you don’t need to be a legal expert or a tech whiz to address it effectively.
In this article, we will guide you on how to identify and remove stolen content from your WordPress site, whether it’s a single post or your entire website that has been duplicated.
Understanding the Reasons Behind Website Content Theft
A common technique for stealing content is known as blog content scraping. This occurs when content is extracted from your site, typically through your RSS feed, and then republished on another website.
In some cases, your content may be directly copied and pasted onto another site, including your formatting, images, videos, and more.
At times, your content might be reposted with credit and a link back to your website, but without your consent. While this can enhance your SEO, you may prefer to keep your original content exclusively on your own site.
Typically, the primary motivation behind content theft is to profit from your hard work.
Having your content stolen can be a frustrating experience, and sadly, it’s a challenge that many WordPress site owners face.
Keep in mind that you’re not alone in this situation, and there are effective strategies to tackle the problem.
Here are five effective methods to identify and remove stolen content from your WordPress site. You can use the links below to navigate through the article:
- 1. Enable Automatic Content Theft Notifications
- 2. Conduct Manual Searches for Stolen Content
- 3. Reach Out to the Hosting Provider or Registrar of the Offending Site
- 4. File a Takedown Notice with Google
- 5. Utilize a Comprehensive Scanner and Takedown Tool
- Conclusion on Addressing Content Theft
- In-Depth Resources on Content Theft and Copyright Violations in WordPress
1. Enable Automatic Content Theft Notifications
Often, your dedicated visitors will inform you if they notice your content has been copied or found elsewhere online.
Fortunately, you don’t need to rely solely on a kind reader to bring this to your attention.
Google Alerts is a useful tool that helps you monitor mentions of your brand online. By setting it up, you can receive email alerts whenever your website is referenced on the web.
This feature can also notify you if your content is being used without your consent.
Begin by visiting Google Alerts. Input your website’s name, URL, or a distinctive phrase from your article.
For example, if you consistently use the same call to action at the conclusion of your blog posts, you can set up alerts to notify you whenever this phrase appears on other websites.
Next, select ‘Sources’ from the menu and choose ‘Blogs’ and ‘Web’. Then, click ‘Create Alert’.
You will receive an email notification whenever your content is found online or when your website is mentioned on other platforms.
2. Conduct Manual Searches for Stolen Content
Copyscape is a useful tool for detecting plagiarism, allowing you to see if your content has been published on other websites.
Simply visit Copyscape and enter your website URL. You can also check a specific post or page URL to see if your content has been duplicated.
The free version shows the top 10 results, which is usually sufficient for smaller WordPress blogs.
If you manage a larger site or want to ensure you catch every instance of copied content, consider upgrading to Copyscape Premium.
The premium version allows you to scan up to 10,000 pages with a single click, making it ideal for websites with extensive content.
Grammarly is an excellent online grammar checker that not only helps identify grammatical errors but also detects instances of plagiarized content.
The premium version includes a plagiarism detection feature. Simply paste your text into Grammarly, and it will search the web for any duplicate content.
3. Reach Out to the Hosting Provider or Domain Registrar
Upon discovering that your content has been plagiarized, the next step is crucial.
A straightforward approach is to file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint against the website that has stolen your content.
This legal notice formally requests the removal of copyrighted material that is being used without your consent.
If the site in question is spammy or pulls content from your RSS feed, locating contact information may be challenging.
However, you can utilize the IsItWP lookup tool to determine the hosting provider and registrar for the domain.
Input the domain that is hosting your stolen content and click ‘Analyze Website’.
This tool will provide information such as the web hosting service and the domain registrar.
You can access the hosting and registration details, even if the website is not built on WordPress. Contact them directly to request the removal of the stolen content. Since content theft is against the law, most web hosting providers are reluctant to support such activities.
Reputable web hosting companies take DMCA requests seriously and will assist in resolving the issue, potentially removing the infringing content.
4. Submit a Takedown Notice to Google
If you wish to eliminate stolen content from search results, you can reach out to Google directly.
Exercise caution when using this method, as it requires substantial evidence. Submitting false reports may lead to complications with your account.
There are multiple ways to file a DMCA complaint with Google, but it is advisable to use the option available in Google Search Console.
First, ensure that your website is connected to Google Search Console. If it isn’t, refer to our guide on how to link it.
Once linked, you can utilize the Google Search Console Copyright Removal Tool.
Click on ‘Create a report’ and select ‘New US DMCA report’ from the dropdown menu.
This will bring up a form where you need to provide information such as your contact details, the posts that were copied, and the URL of the stolen content.
The more detailed information you provide, the higher your chances of having the infringing website removed.
To gather more evidence for your complaint, consider using the Wayback Machine.
This tool archives snapshots of your website over time, enabling you to compare the publication date of your content with the date it was copied by the infringing site.
5. Utilize a Comprehensive Scanner and Takedown Service
You can also leverage the DMCA tool to identify duplicate content across the internet.
Simply input your text or URL into the tool, and it will search the web for sites that have misappropriated your content.
Keep in mind that the results may not exclusively show stolen content; they could also include infographics, backlinks, unlinked brand mentions, and more.
Once you identify a site that has plagiarized your content, you can initiate the takedown process using this same online tool.
DMCA provides premium takedown tools and templates for $10 per month, or you can opt for a full-service takedown for $199, where their expert team will handle the removal of your stolen content.
Concluding Thoughts on Addressing Content Theft
Content theft is a challenge that nearly every website owner encounters at some stage. As your site expands, it’s likely that more individuals will begin to copy your work.
Some individuals may openly steal your content using automated tools, while others might take inspiration and rephrase your ideas.
As a website owner, it can be extremely frustrating to have your hard work taken without your consent. At CanadaCreate, we encounter this issue frequently. Automated bot sites are typically easy to manage with DMCA complaints.
As the largest resource site for WordPress, we often notice that our headlines are directly copied by other bloggers, theme developers, and even hosting companies. They may modify the content to make it appear original, but we can still see the influence of our articles.
We view this imitation as a form of flattery; it reinforces that we are on the right path in our endeavors.
If a competitor frequently draws inspiration from your work without outright copying, there may be little you can do. Don’t let this discourage you. Instead, concentrate on your mission to serve your audience and continue innovating.
Comprehensive Guides on Stolen Content and Copyright Infringement in WordPress
We hope this article has helped you learn how to identify and eliminate stolen content in WordPress. You may also want to explore additional guides related to stolen content and copyright infringement in WordPress:
- Essential Tips for Protecting Your Blog Content from Scraping in WordPress
- Easy Methods to Disable Text Selection and Copy/Paste in WordPress
- Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Image Credits in WordPress
- How to Disable Right Click on Images in WordPress
- A Complete Guide to Trademarking and Copyrighting Your Blog’s Name and Logo
- How to Automatically Update the Copyright Date in Your WordPress Footer
- Top Identity Theft Protection Services for Small Businesses
- Comprehensive WordPress Security Guide: Step-by-Step Instructions
If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress tutorials. Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook as well.
