A Site Has Copied 42% of Our Homepage Content - Couple of Questions

Good Afternoon All

First of all, thank you in advance for any assistance here.

I’ve used copyscape and a random website from a different area of the country (so not a direct rival) has used 42% of our homepage content. I’ve been reading up on the process of asking them to change the content and suggestions for doing so.

Before I embark on this process I just wanted to ask two questions if at all possible.

  1. First of all, how damaging would this have been to our existing SEO efforts? We are currently improving in the rankings, and we’re up to number 4 for our main search term. Would changing this copied content make a big difference?
  2. The second question I wanted to ask, I take it that if the company do not get back to me or assist then I will simply need to change my page content?

Many Thanks For Any Assistance

  1. First of all, how damaging would this have been to our existing SEO efforts? We are currently improving in the rankings, and we’re up to number 4 for our main search term. Would changing this copied content make a big difference?

There are several factors at work here.

First, if you change your content, would the new content be better optimised for SEO than the old? If so, then you should change it in any case. If not, then don’t.

Is the infringing site ranking above you? If so, then you need to work harder to get the site to remove the infringing content - or get the search engines to de-index it (which should be easier).

If the infringing site is not a competitor, and if they are not stealing your rankings, then it might be reasonable not to take any action. But keep in mind that you have no way of knowing for sure if they are stealing your rankings, especially the rankings that your potential customers see, which is what’s important.

Finally, keep in mind that rankings are not the most important metric. If you’re running a business, it’s sales that are important. Is the fact that your copy is being infringed likely to have an effect on your sales?

  1. The second question I wanted to ask, I take it that if the company do not get back to me or assist then I will simply need to change my page content?

I wouldn’t. I would file a report with Google, Bing, etc, and ask them to remove the site from their index. That’s much more likely to lead to a result. (But see also my first point above.)

Edit: I just noticed the title of your post. You said that the site has stolen 42% of your home page. Is that the only page they have copied? If so, then it’s presumably a small fraction of your total site. In that case, the whole thing is much less serious.

Mike

  1. As far i know it will not heart you because Google crawlers not mad.They can easily identified which site copied or not.

  2. If you change you content and it will better then your old content. Now your new content will also copied from another then what should you do?
    So dnt change your content if you have copyscap proof then you can mail to SE and tell them that these sites are copied my content.

Good Morning All

First of all, sorry for the delay. I need to change my registered email address, I setup email notifications but didn’t receive any to my main mailbox.

Thank you for all of your help and comments Miki and Robbie.

First of all, thank you for the assurance that this may not be too much to worry about. From what you both are saying, I will not change the current content of my site. Just to confirm, the website is not a competitor, they are based in a different area of the country.

Having read the blog post and these comments it seems that these should be the next two steps

  1. Contact the website owner.
  2. Contact google and bing etc if no response.

Thank you again

Didcot84

That’s right. But take care to phrase your requests correctly. In the case of Google and Bing, there are supplied forms that you should use.

You might like to read this article*, which gives step-by-step instructions for dealing with this type of infringement:
http://www.hexcentral.com/articles/copyright-theft.htm

Mike

  • Full disclosure: I help edit the site on which the above article appears.

Changing content of the site might lead to change in rankings as well though there is a very small probability of it. File a DMCA against that site as well.

M agreed with rankwatch… You can file a DMCA complaint against them, No need to change your content

 I disagree, for two reasons.       First, a DMCA notice should be a last resort. Start by contacting the webmaster, and write a polite message, pointing out the infringement, and requesting removal of the offending content. Remember, in many cases the webmaster published the content in good faith, not knowing it was a copyright infringement. The material might have been supplied by a contractor, or submitted by a user, for example. Only if the friendly first approach fails should you resort to legal notices.       The second reason is that the DMCA only applies in the USA, and has no force anywhere else. We do not know which country the OP is in, or, more importantly, in which country the infringing site is based.       Mike

Thanks for the information Mikl… :slight_smile: