Do you think some of your content is scraped? If you have been creating content for a while, there are chances that your content are being stolen.
Content scraping threatens the ranking and credibility of the website that you have invested with time, money, and resources. Your search engine optimisation and web authority ranks are jeopardised. According to experts, web scrapers easily outrank original content on Google.
What is Content Scraping?
You can simply say that content scraping is copying unique and original content to another website and publish it. Content scrapers repurpose the content for malicious purposes. As it violates copyrights, it also attacks the search engine optimisation of websites and steals its organic traffic.
Common Types of Content Scraped
On a basic level, content scraping is done by copying and pasting content manually. However, content scrapers are now using a sophisticated crawling website technique and copying their pages within seconds.
Content scraping bots can scape anything posted publicly on the Internet, whether HTML code, text content, image content or CSS code. These are the most common types of content targeted by manual or bot scrapers, but it is not limited to these:
- New articles
- Opinionated pieces
- Technical research publications
- Comprehensive product reviews
- Directory listings
- Product catalogue and pricing information
Search engines, even the largest ones, do not have a comprehensive solution yet in distinguishing unique content from scraped content. Content scrapers use the scraped data for several purposes, and some do it to steal the website’s search engine ranking or deceive users.
Is Content Scraping Illegal?
Definitely not. Scraped content is copied and published content from copyrighted ones. Thus, it is a punishable offence.
However, even if there are definite copyright laws and emphasised the website’s terms and conditions, original content is still under threat. Today, scrapers are not easily detected. More so, they can quickly shift your content to a different website.
Content scraping brings too much headache for website owners and business owners. It threatens their production of rich content on the web. Thus, some of the websites these days are protected with a robust real-time bot prevention solution.
Find Out More
If you are dealing with content scrapers, would you leave them alone or fight back? There are tools and services to determine if your content is scraped. More so, you can use preventive measures to block content scrapers from stealing your unique content.
