Plagiarism is a widespread issue affecting websites that can both be frustrating and disappointing.
The thought of other people taking advantage of your content by copying it and labeling it their own is bad enough, there are numerous instances where websites that copied your content outranks your search results.
Why do people do this? Copying content saves people the time and effort in making it themselves. For instance, a well-crafted article that provides a lot of good information and insights are enticing enough for people to use it and catch the attention of those interested in reading and viewing it.
But there’s good news, there are ways that your content can be protected and stop unscrupulous people from copying and pasting it for their benefit.
How web content is grabbed
While it may be impossible to prevent anyone from grabbing or copying your content since it is available online for people to see. They can “steal” it such as subscribing to your RSS feeds and republish your content on their web or social media sites right away.
Another way of doing it is by using software that automatically rehashes the original article by replacing certain words with synonyms or rephrasing sentences to make it look different from the original texts.
Protecting your content
As they say, prevention is better than cure and while it may be very difficult to prevent people from scanning and copying it, you can make it more difficult for them to do so.
Image watermarks
Stunning images and photographs are commonly copied for use by others, especially when there are no marks on them that indicate ownership.
Make sure to add a watermark on your images or photographs used on content and make people think twice about using it.
Watermarking is a simple process and there are available apps or software online that can be downloaded to make the process easy and quick.
A word of caution, though, make sure you watermark those that only belong to you or ones that you have created or developed.
Disable text selection on your pages
Copying text and other forms of content are simple, all that’s needed is to highlight the text, images, etc.
Make it more challenging by disabling the text selection feature on your pages. For instance, when using the WordPress platform, you can use a plugin from the software to disable right mouse clicks, image and text drag, drop and save, source code viewing, and keyboard shortcuts.
Manage and monitor your RSS feeds
RSS feeds are often used by those who want to copy content and one of the simple ways to prevent people from taking advantage of it is to offer partial feeds.
While it may require readers to click on links to read or see the entire text of your content, it could turn off people from copying your material especially when there are multiple steps involved.
For instance, WordPress also has another plugin that can provide time-stamped and digitally signed content each time it’s published to prove that you are the original author and own the copyright.
It also adds more layers of authentication such as certification, licensing, and attribution notification after each post.
While there are no foolproof ways to protect your content from getting copied and used by others, making it more challenging for those who want to copy it may discourage and stop them from using your materials.