Stolen Content and a Panda Penalty
-
Hey Folks
Question for those folks that have spent some time helping people with the recent penalties and the like.
I have a client who has a clear Panda Penalty, huge drop in traffic on the initial Panda date and a further drop on the second date. Much smaller incremental drops on subsequent recent updates as well.
From digging in it seems fairly cut and dry - copyscape shows another 250 or so sites with content from this site and there are nearly 2000 external URLs with duplicate content across these sites.
We are talking complete, shameless copies of all of the text, sometimes the images as well.
The client claims the content is all 100% unique and is his content and that the other blogs must have stolen his content resulting in the penalty - which, if it is true, and I have no reason to suspect otherwise, kind of sucks.
Now, many moons ago, way before Penguin or Panda (maybe around 2006) I had a client that had suddenly lost all traffic and their historical rankings. No funny business, it was a small company, had been online since around 2000 and they were pretty much the first of their kind and always did very well from organic search.
As it turned out, the content from the site had not really changed since it was set up and as lots of companies had sprung up offering a similar service they had seen their content copied wholesale, across many sites, all over the world.
We attempted to contact many of these sites and got some results but many were just old, abandoned copy cat sites on advert supported hosting that had ceased to trade so we maybe got rid of about 20%.
Well, in the end we just decided to rewrite the content, we did this and sure enough, the site bounced back to it's previous standing and has been pretty much there ever since.
Now that was kind of easy, the site had maybe 20 pages, and it needed a sprucing up but in this case the site has around 500 pages so doing a rewrite is not going to be so easy.
Problem is, I don't see removal requests being particularly successful either.
So, I see the options and steps as being.
- Contact all the sites and request the removal of the content
- use the Google content removal facility:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals - File a DMCA takedown for anything remaining
- Report Scraped Pages to Google:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGM4TXhIOFd3c1hZR2NHUDN1NmllU0E6MQ&ndplr=1 - Submit a spam report for all sites involved ?
- Submit a reconsideration request to let Google know what we have been doing (unlikely
In a nutshell, do everything we can to get this content removed and then documenting this to Google in the hope we catch hold of someone who hears our plight.
Interestingly enough, this is a sensitive one, so no URL but I would welcome any thoughts or experiences any of you may have had with similar problems.
There is a little extra info here from Matt Cutts + Barry Schwartz that kind of tallies with my approach above but would really like to hear any feedback.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-stolen-content-13243.html
Cheers all
Marcus
-
Hey, I used copyscape to locate all the content and have suggested copyscape sentry going forward. The problem is for this site the scale of the copying, it seems to go back several years and is pretty widespread.
Cheers!
Marcus
-
Hey Egol
Well, this was kind of my initial suggestion to the client. I simply don't think that the pain and suffering and ultimately waiting to get this resolved is worth the effort and a rewrite is likely the easiest (if still painful option).
I guess, I just want to give this guy all of the options, and my advice so if they want to have a shot at getting the content taken down then they can have at least have a go. This way, I can advise, show the various pathways and my experience but they can choose how to tackle the issue.
At times, this job is a lot like dealing with my kids, I give advice based on years of painful experience, they choose the difficult path, what can you do?
For some folks, the fact that this happens is too much for them to take on board and despite it being exactly what it is - I do understand the 'digging your heals in' approach to wanting to get other sites to take it all down - i also from painful experience know that sometimes you just have to take your punches and get on with a rewrite.
Thanks for the input!
Cheers!
Marcus -
Well DMCA will hurt more than help. (the time you lose) but what you can do is to grad a copyscape account, upgrade it at pro and keep track of all your unique content. If your sales are based on this factor is worth trying. Also have a look at the hosting providers, they may have the same rules.
Act as fast as copyspace announce you there is a problem. Now you may ask me how to act? Well all the steps are listed above. Google rules still apply for filling a DMCA request at chillingeffects they can remove content from google search results.
Take a look at this screenshot Is in romanian, but it says that Chillingeffects took actions are removed x pages/websites duo to DMCA.
-
Glad to hear. Please give us updates on how everything is going.
-
I sell a few specialty outdoor sport items that are branded by a US company but manufactured in China. Several years ago I wrote unique, detailed descriptions for these items that were much more detailed than the brand owner's.
My pages used to rank really well for the generic item names (similar to "rock climbing shoes"). Then at least 100 "made in China" websites grabbed my descriptions and posted them verbatim. My rankings tanked in Google. I didn't even get much long tail from google.
I felt that it was a waste of time to contact all of those websites and try to get them to stop using my content. They are outside of the USA and they would probably laugh at a DMCA.
So, I have a choice of rewriting that content or discontinuing sales.
-
Hey, great advice, many thanks. The hosting provider is a great idea, allows us to go in via the back door, I like it.
-
I may not be a guru, but if the story is true (uniquer content), there are several steps you can take to regain the traffic and lose the penality. I'm glad to see the steps already listed on your comment, but there are too many and I would recommend you to focus on this 3 steps +1 extra step.
-
Remove any website which stole the content from your client using the link you have provided.
-
File a DMCA - This is a must! Stolen content is stolen so you have all the rights to file a DMCA.
-
Report the scrapped content. Now here is the catch. Give clear informations. Google staff will not sit to check the original post dates, names of who made the content or anything else so besure to offer this informations, even screenshots if you/your client have. Also have a look on waybackmachine and if the pages are stored there be sure to give the link to it!
You need to do all this work to prove your client content is unique and it was scrapped/copied.
Extra Step: Try to find where are that websites hosted and file a DMCA to the hosting provider (fastes way). Let them know they are hosting website which have copied/scrapped content and that you are going to take all the actions against them if they do not take that website/page down. 95% of the hosting providers have a rule which says "no illegal content allowed".
This is how I normally act with this kind of situations.
I may not be to helpfull in your situation, but this is how I normally act.
-
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Reusing content on different ccTLDs
We have a client with many international locations, each of which has their own ccTLD domain and website. Eg company-name.com, company-name.com.au, company-name.co.uk, company-name.fr, etc. Each domain/website only targets their own country, and the SEO aim is for each site to only rank well within their own country. We work for an individual country's operations, and the international head office wants to re-use our content on other countries' websites. While there would likely be some optimsation of the content for each region, there may be cases where it is re-used identically. We are concerned that this will cause duplicate content issues. I've read that the separate ccTLDs should indicate to search engines that content is aimed at the different locations - is this sufficient or should we be doing anything extra to avoid duplicate content penalties? Or should we argue that they simply must not do this at all and develop unique content for each? Thanks Julian
Content Development | | Bc.agency0 -
Cornerstone Content?
Yoast keeps pestering me about Cornerstone Content. Is it really a ranking factor? Ryan
Content Development | | drdougweiss0 -
Where to order content?
I have a number of clients struggling with publishing frequent blog content. Can anyone recommend any content ordering services? - I've seen Constant Content and a couple of others. I'm just wondering if these are effective?, SEO-friendly? (completely safe from duplication, etc.)? - and if anyone can recommend the best choices based on experience. In the past clients I've been fortunate in working with clients who are writing themselves, or connecting with a copywriter and going through the process of creating content. However I'm looking for an alternative solution to solve content drought with some clients which simply don't have the time to go through that process and need to see results.
Content Development | | GregDixson0 -
Reviving a (very) old blog - is it worth shifting the content onto a new blog?
I look after a few ecommerce sites, one of them doesn't currently have a blog, we are setting up a wordpress blog now for the site. Going way back in time the site did have a blog which was on a separate Typepad domain. What I'm wondering is whether it is worth redirecting this whole blog to the new blog section of the site and copying some of the content over to the new blog as historical posts? I don't think it will be possible to redirect each individual post to a new one so it will just be a straight redirect of the old blog domain to the new one with the same (most of anyway) content. Do you think it is worth doing this for the value of this content which is relevant but dated (many of the links are now expired)? Doing this will take some time to do so it's not 'free' content we'd be getting We have a lot of new content planned out so we won't be short of content, just would be nice to have some historical content on there too Thanks
Content Development | | PeterLeatherland0 -
Could this be an issue with duplicate content?
Hi everyone, I am working with a business consultant in the HVAC industry and doing SEO for 8 of his clients (all HVAC businesses from around the US and Canada). Each website is essentially a mirror of the business consultant's website with really the same information-- it applies perfectly well to each individual website, but it IS nearly, if not, identical. I'm getting ready to implement a blog on the original HVAC page and have been considering using the same content (customized to reflect each business-- but still the same information) for blogs for my other 8 clients. My questions are: 1. Is the mirroring of the website a duplicate content problem? Example if you're interested: http://www.mcair.com (original) and http://www.jpsheating.ca/ (client). 2. Is using the same blog across 8 different website (customized for each client but the same basic information) a duplicate content issue? For example-- a blog about getting your air ducts cleaned... the information is going to be the same (and relevant) with each business and each business could benefit from sharing that information with their customers. Thanks so much for your help and explanation
Content Development | | KaitlinNS0 -
Duplicate content problem
Hi, i have a serious problem. I work in joomla and sometimes it can be annoying. When you set up a category, you need to give it a name and maybe this is a huge error on my part as i did not really think about the names beforehand. The situation i have now is, all my sections are in front page mode, but because you have to name the categories in order to write articles, i am now left with a load of blog sections such as http://www.in2town.co.uk/benidorm/benidorm-news Now i have a main section called Benidorm news so i have duplicate sections, i want to know if i can redirect the http://www.in2town.co.uk/benidorm/benidorm-news to go to the main benidorm section or if there is a better way of doing it. i have left this blod layout the way it is to show you, but the others i just have it where it shows the title and then goes to the article. I work in k2 and would be grateful if anyone can let me know the solution to this as semoz is showing that i have many duplicate titles and content many thanks
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Should I put the date on a new content page to show users when it was written or updated?
I've been asked this question at work and not certain of the answer. Personally if I see an 'old' date in a meta description on Google I often scan for more recent articles. In other words it can act as a deterrent. We are a very big social networking site with a large content section. For some of our content the date might be relevant, such as legal information, but often it isn't. Are there any SEO factors in dating content?
Content Development | | CecilyP0 -
Article Distribution - Duplicate content or not?
Many SEO's disagree on this subject so I wanted to see what everyone thinks. Producing an article and then distributing to multiple article directories. In the eyes of Google is this considered spam(duplicate content) or it is not? As I understand unique content is good SEO. However, I also understand that visibility of the content on multiple sites is very important. What do youthink?
Content Development | | DmitryP0