So How Can You Best Check Your Site For Duplicate Content?

There are several ways to check for dupe content, many of which have been discussed here and elsewhere, but I’ve recently found a very good tool to do the job. It’s free, comes with ZERO requirements (in other words, you don’t even have to subscribe or give up your email address), and it works well. It’s called Un.Co.Ver, which stands for Unique Content Verifier, although I tend to think of it as “uncovering” duplicate content issues.

You can download it at http://www.textbroker.com/uncover/. The download is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can use it in several ways. Paste in some text and check it (this is great for checking that a guest post isn’t duplicate content before publishing it on your site). Have it check just one URL (one page that is online). Or have it check an entire website (but they recommend only going 2 levels deep, especially if it’s a large site).

I checked a site that consists of about 150 pages. It took less than half an hour to check all the pages. I didn’t time it, so I don’t know exactly how long it took, but it was somewhere in that time range. It also lets you choose to only do sections of a site at a time, so that would be useful for really large sites.

The results were outstanding. There’s no way I could check all those pages, even given a month’s worth of time, and come up with such detailed results, telling me exactly how much of a page’s content was duplicated and where the dupes were. Here’s a screenshot from their site showing it in action.

After Uncovering Dupe Content, What Next?

Once you know who is scraping and using your content, you can begin the process of getting them to take it down. Here’s an article we’ve published here on this site in the past regarding how to handle this problem. Basically, you’ll end up needing to file a DMCA for the best results.

Hope this helps. I really recommend that everyone check their sites for duplicate content every once in a while. I’m happy to have found such a great tool that is totally free (in fact, it’s freeware that can be used and distributed freely), that I can run on my own computer. Nice….

Note: If you want to know more about the Panda update, check out the storyline I created for it here.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: duplicate content
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

Hi, my name is Brandon and I’m addicted to link building. Now that we got that out, let me start by telling you that I see opportunities all over the place. One of my favorite methods for building links is to give a full RSS feed on established sites. I know there is still debate on whether or not full RSS feeds are a good idea, but I have good reason to put an end to the debate.

1. Source Content Vs. Duplicate Content

There is a good reason why Ezine Articles ranks #1 over other article directories and Ezilon Web Directory does great with Central and South America search results. The reason is they have the source content. They are the first to publish something so Google knows they created the content. Every other directory has duplicate content. Since you’re the first to post, Google knows you have the source content, so don’t worry about someone else duplicating your content.

2. Free Links!

Like I said, I’m addicted to link building and one of the easiest ways is through creating great blog content. Once you get a great piece of content up (pics, video, or content) make sure and link to your site somewhere in the body. When someone steals your content, it’s usually not personal – it’s automated. Since these content thieves aren’t reviewing each stolen post, it’s fair game for you to link to whatever you want. Of course you will find some that strip all HTML out before it gets posted, and there isn’t much you can do about that.

Want the Stolen Content Removed?

If someone is stripping your HTML and not providing you with value, and you want to remove that stolen content, you can start with some time consuming steps that often get expensive with legal fees or come to nothing because the content thief is in another country. If you’re still insistent on trying to remove your stolen content you should start by sending a letter to the website owner. Find the name and address through a Whois search. If that doesn’t work, contact their web host. Still no luck? You can file a DMCA.

Here are two links for help with filing a DMCA.

How to File a DMCA Complaint
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Google)

Good luck with DMCA. I’ve been down this road twice, both of which just wasted my time.

Brandon Hopkins does Madera website design. Contact him for a web design quote.

Note from Donna: I’ve actually had good luck with the DMCA process, but it’s time consuming, and only worth the effort if the thieve’s content has a chance of outranking your own. This rarely happens, but once in a while, the dirty scoundrels actually have a powerful site that is capable of out-ranking source content. For those rare instances, do try the DMCA route. But 99% of the time, Brandon’s method of letting the content thieves provide backlinks to your site is very good advice. I also totally believe in using full RSS feeds. Full feeds are what users want, and if full feeds also enable us to acquire a few backlinks from content thieves, that’s good for us as well.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Brandon Hopkins, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, duplicate content, Link Building
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.