Rob Floyd

We all need to understand the impact of posting our content (in full) on other sites or in multiple locations on our own site. I also want us to understand the impact that other sites have when they steal/scrape our content off of our site with or without our knowledge and ultimately how to respond to it.

First - we need to understand that users by nature are browser and for the most part are interested in instant gratification.

Second - we need to understand that where search engines (like Google) are concerned our content is just content. Google is concerned with who owns the content but in the end their systems are non-discriminatory about where the content is hosted.

Third - if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. There’s no free lunch and a multitude of other cliches.

Fourth - you can take action to protect your content from illegal, unscrupulous or counter-productive use on other sites (or on your own as the case may be).

The key thought  we need to understand is there needs to be a singular source for your content. If a user finds your content on another site why should they care or need to visit your site?  They have what they want. While Google will address sites who steal your content eventually – the process is long and tedious and the net result is that content found by Google on other sites perpetuates the problem.  Again – if users find your content elsewhere why should they go to your site? So make sure your site is the only place your content can be found and don’t post multiple copies of your content on your site (more on that in a moment).

From a search engine perspective sites like Google and Yahoo do not like to find multiple copies of your content in more than one location (on or off site).  They consider it spamming and will punish all sites that are spamming by de-listing them or moving them way down in the search results. The long and the short of it is your site could be damaged in the search engines by multiple copies of your content. (this is really more complex than what I just wrote but it’s a consideration meant to motivate you to take action)

From a competition perspective you can become your own worst enemy (knowingly or not) if your content is being used elsewhere. Again – if someone finds your content somewhere else why would they go to your site? In addition a ‘scraping’ site can out-perform you on the search engines taking traffic away from you.

From a user perspective it creates confusion for your users.  If they find your content elsewhere they’ll be confused about who owns it and where they should go (for another visit) to get more information.

What to Do About Scrapers/Thieves
There are a number of actions you can take to find out if people are stealing your content and address it. First – you want to focus on your own site.  Clean it up and make sure you don’t have multiple copies of content. Second – use some of the websites out there that can help you find stolen content. Third – when you find stolen content then take action.

I will follow up this post to some comments that will provide links to resources that will help you address this issue.

In conclusion it’s one thing to syndicate your content (where you’re hopefully getting paid) and there are ways to share parts of your content forcing users to read a little and click to your site if they’re interested. It’s another entirely when you give away your intellectual property.  Keep your content on your site.

Rob

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