Your content being used without your permission is an increasingly common concern for website owners. Fortunately, there are ways for you to find that stolen content and remove these copied versions to maintain unique content on your website.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to 2 ways you can identify the content that has been used without your permission, as well as 3 methods to report stolen content to Google.
How to find stolen content
In this section, we’ll look at 2 methods you can use to find out if your content is being used somewhere outside of your website. Let’s start with a free tool from Google itself.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is completely free to help you quickly find copied content. All you need to do is:
- Navigate to the Google Alerts website.
- Copy and paste your content into the search query field.
- Specify how often you want to receive the alerts.
When you set this up, Google Alerts searches for all words that you paste into the search query. Below are some tips on how to get the most accurate alerts.
- Create alerts with sentences in the body of your content. Content thieves often rephrase the beginning and end of the content, while leaving the main body unchanged or making only a few adjustments.
- Use quotation marks to ensure that search results only return exact matches.
While Google Alerts helps you monitor new instances of copied content, there are other useful tools that can help you check if your existing content has already been duplicated.
Copyscape
Copyscape is another popular tool for finding duplicate content. With this tool, you can check an existing URL for duplicate content on the web. Simply follow our steps below:
- Go to the Copyscape website.
- Enter the URL of your page in the search box.
- Press “Go” and view the results.
In the free version you will only get 10 results. If you want to see more search results, sign up for the premium account.
How to report and remove stolen content on Google
When you discover that your content has been copied without authorization, you’ll probably want to remove it from the website in question, and from Google.
This is not easy to do, but the first step is to contact the website owner directly. Most websites and blogs have a contact form, an email address or a telephone number on the website.
First and foremost, you should contact the website owners, inform them of the stolen content and provide them with a link to the original source.
Some website owners are not aware that they are using your content without authorization and are willing to remove it at your request. Addressing content theft typically follows a three-tier approach, beginning with direct communication. If direct communication fails to resolve the issue, it’s time to escalate your efforts.
Contact the hosting provider of the website
If the website owners refuse to cooperate with you, you should contact their hosting provider directly. You can use free platforms like Who is Hosting This to search for the website’s hosting provider.
Once you have the web host’s information, contact their support team and provide as much information as you can about the stolen content.
Reporting Stolen Content to Google
Even if the content remains on the original site, you can request Google remove it from search results:
Using Google Search Console (Recommended Method)
Ensure your site is verified in Google Search Console. If you haven’t already done this, add and verify your website through Google Search Console
- Access the Copyright Removal Tool – Navigate to Google’s Legal Removal Request form, or access it via Search Console under “Security & Manual Actions” → “Copyright removal”.
- Create a new notice – Click “Create a new removal request” and then choose “Web Search” as the Google product.
- Complete the detailed form with:
- Your full contact information
- The nature of your copyrighted work
- URLs of your original content
- URLs of the infringing content
- Required legal declarations confirming your rights and the accuracy of your claims
- Your electronic signature
- Submit supporting documentation when possible: this includes screenshots showing publication dates, copyright registration information (if applicable), and any previous correspondence with the site owner.
Alternative Google Reporting Methods
For broader issues or if you have multiple instances of stolen content:
Use Google’s Legal Troubleshooter: For general copyright issues at https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905
Submit to Google’s DMCA Dashboard: For managing multiple removal requests at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-dashboard
While these reporting methods can help address existing violations, a proactive approach to content protection is even more valuable.
Protect your content from the outset
You may have heard the quote “Prevention is better than cure”. To prevent content from being stolen, you can protect your content from the outset.
In this section, we will show you how to protect your content from unwanted users by creating copyright notices or password protecting your premium content with the PPWP Pro plugin.
Create a copyright notice and terms of use for your website
Sometimes you may find your content has been quoted or re-used on another website. While this is not illegal, you may want the content to be on your website only.
If this is the case, it is important to create a clear copyright notice and terms of use on your website. This will let others know whether it is possible to use your content elsewhere.
Password protection for premium content with PPWP
If you want your premium content to be accessible only to certain users, you should try the PPWP plugin.
With this plugin, you can instantly protect your content with just one click. Only those with the right passwords will be able to access your premium pages.
It’s the best choice if you want to prevent content thieves from accessing and stealing your content. The plugin is available in a free version in the WordPress plugin repository, which can be found within the Plugins section on your WordPress dashboard.
If you want advanced features such as restricting passwords by time or usage and protecting multiple sites at once, you can sign up for the Pro plans.
Conclusion
Content theft is a growing issue for website owners. We’ve looked at 2 methods you can use to detect whether your content is being illegally used, as well as some ways to remove this copied content from the offending websites and Google.
