Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. Sites Copying my Content Ranking Higher

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Sites Copying my Content Ranking Higher

    Technical SEO
    6
    23
    3022
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • ben1000
      ben1000 last edited by

      A number of sites are copying - either 100% word for word, paragraphs, or sentences of my content and are ranking higher.

      Some sites are doing this with permission/properly and are linking back to my article Others are not linking back or giving credit.

      Some of these sites, in some cases are ranking higher than me in Google results.

      What can I do?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • diywm
        diywm @ben1000 last edited by

        It will make an impact. I have had authorship set up for months now and it has made a difference to click-throughs.  Basically I have more traffic now than before.  And I believe this is partly due to the photo in the SERPs.

        We put an authorship plugin together for WordPress as we needed to implement authorship on our own sites and client sites.  It's free - you can try it if you feel you can't or don't want to do it manually.  http://www.authorsure.com.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • clotairedamy
          clotairedamy @ben1000 last edited by

          Ben, you can read this thread.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ben1000
            ben1000 @ben1000 last edited by

            Thanks. Is that an automatic thing if I meet the guidelines? Cant see how to sign up for it..

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • clotairedamy
              clotairedamy @ben1000 last edited by

              Take a look at First Click Free from google.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • ben1000
                ben1000 @ben1000 last edited by

                Thanks.

                I'm going to try to set up the author profiles and see what happens with that. I gain something from most of the people sharing my content (not as much as I lose from them ranking above me) so I'd rather just find a way to get myself above them 9 times out of 10 and that seems like a great option. Hopefully that will reduce any impact of Panda changes?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Paul78
                  Paul78 @ben1000 last edited by

                  Hi EGOL,

                  I am having the same issue also, these websites are not out ranking me for a particular keyword, however if I copy and paste the first few paragraphs of text into Google on one of my product pages lots of other websites are above my listing that has copied my content, even though my page has higher authority and PR.

                  Should I be worrying about this?

                  Kind Regards

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • clotairedamy
                    clotairedamy @ben1000 last edited by

                    do a search for "wp content protect",   you'll have to be cautios because those plugins can harm your seo strategy.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • avassa
                      avassa @ben1000 last edited by

                      Agreed, he needs to evolve a strategy that is based on 2 things:

                      a) Claiming authorship of his original content

                      b) Devising ways to prevent content theft

                      At the same time, if his site was inflicted with a Panda-penalty, he will make a lot of gains using authorship.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • EGOL
                        EGOL @ben1000 last edited by

                        One of the easiest ways for you to rank higher than those sites would be to setup author profiles and claim yourself as the author of the original content.

                        I believe that this is a very good idea.  However, I am confident that it will not solve the problem.  Google is not giving strong weight to claimed authorship at this time.

                        Your strongest weapon is DMCA actions and to stop giving others permission to use your content.

                        Your site could be suffering from Panda ranking reductions as a result of your own content being wild on the web.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • ben1000
                          ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                          Ok. Thanks... you think this would make a big impact in general with search engine results?

                          diywm 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • avassa
                            avassa last edited by

                            That is correct.

                            ben1000 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • ben1000
                              ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                              Headshot and real persons name?

                              Thx

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • avassa
                                avassa last edited by

                                It wont work without a proper headshot.

                                ben1000 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • ben1000
                                  ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                                  But is there a way to set it so that it wont show my name/picture?

                                  Thanks

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • avassa
                                    avassa last edited by

                                    The author profile is just a way to authenticate yourself to Google. If you have the ability to set profiles for other people of your company, you should be fine.

                                    ben1000 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • ben1000
                                      ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                                      Can I do author profile without using my name? I have stuff written by other people/don't include my name on the site.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • ben1000
                                        ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                                        It must look different where you are. I get the exact match domain, haaretz.com, then a couple of copies of mine, and then mine.

                                        I'll look at the author profile.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • avassa
                                          avassa last edited by

                                          There is not a simple solution for your particular case. Your site ranks below an exact match domain and another site that is haaretz.com. It would be very difficult to rank above chriscornell.com as it is an exact match domain.

                                          Haaretz.com has a domain authority of 91, while your site's domain authority is 40. Until you tell the search engines that the content posted on haaretz.com is originally yours, it would seem difficult for your site to outrank haaretz.com

                                          As a first step, I will setup an author profile using g+. That should give you more visits since your author profile information should include headshot as well.

                                          Besides this, I don't thin there are many options that are available off the table. You will need to work on improving your site's overall authority.

                                          ben1000 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • ben1000
                                            ben1000 @clotairedamy last edited by

                                            Thanks. I'm using Wordpress, what would you suggest?

                                            clotairedamy ben1000 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • ben1000
                                              ben1000 @avassa last edited by

                                              Thanks for the reply. The site url is www.touristisrael.com and an example is if you Google:

                                              "Chris Cornell in Israel" or

                                              "Chris Cornell in Tel Aviv"

                                              Do you mean author profiles on Google +?

                                              EGOL avassa Paul78 ben1000 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                              • avassa
                                                avassa last edited by

                                                Do you mind sharing your site's URL? One of the easiest ways for you to rank higher than those sites would be to setup author profiles and claim yourself as the author of the original content. It would be a way to tell Google that it's your content.

                                                It may take a few weeks time for things to settle down.

                                                ben1000 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                • clotairedamy
                                                  clotairedamy last edited by

                                                  Try using some plugins to protect your content if you're using any cms, it's not enough but it's a start...

                                                  ben1000 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                  • 1 / 1
                                                  • First post
                                                    Last post

                                                  Got a burning SEO question?

                                                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                                                  Start my free trial


                                                  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.

                                                  • See all categories

                                                  Related Questions

                                                  • nezona

                                                    Site Audit Tools Not Picking Up Content Nor Does Google Cache

                                                    Hi Guys, Got a site I am working with on the Wix platform. However site audit tools such as Screaming Frog, Ryte and even Moz's onpage crawler show the pages having no content, despite them having 200 words+. Fetching the site as Google clearly shows the rendered page with content, however when I look at the Google cached pages, they also show just blank pages. I have had issues with nofollow, noindex on here, but it shows the meta tags correct, just 0 content. What would you look to diagnose? I am guessing some rogue JS but why wasn't this picked up on the "fetch as Google".

                                                    Technical SEO | | nezona
                                                    0
                                                  • melen

                                                    Staging site and "live" site have both been indexed by Google

                                                    While creating a site we forgot to password protect the staging site while it was being built.  Now that the site has been moved to the new domain, it has come to my attention that both the staging site (site.staging.com) and the "live" site (site.com) are both being indexed.  What is the best way to solve this problem?  I was thinking about adding a 301 redirect from the staging site to the live site via HTACCESS. Any recommendations?

                                                    Technical SEO | | melen
                                                    0
                                                  • pugh

                                                    Mobile site ranking instead of/as well as desktop site in desktop SERPS

                                                    I have just noticed that the mobile version of my site is sometimes ranking in the desktop serps either instead of as well as the desktop site. It is not something that I have noticed in the past as it doesn't happen with the keywords that I track, which are highly competitive. It is happening for results that include our brand name, e.g '[brand name][search term]'. The mobile site is served with mobile optimised content from another URL. e.g wwww.domain.com/productpage redirects to m.domain.com/productpage for mobile. Sometimes I am only seen the mobile URL in the desktop SERPS, other times I am seeing both the desktop and mobile URL for the same product. My understanding is that the mobile URL should not be ranking at all in desktop SERPS, could we be being penalised for either bad redirects or duplicate content? Any ideas as to how I could further diagnose and solve the problem if you do believe that it could be harming rankings?

                                                    Technical SEO | | pugh
                                                    0
                                                  • FDFPres

                                                    Google ranking my site abroad, how to stop?

                                                    Hi Mozzers, I have a UK based ecommerce site, that sells only to the UK.  Over the last month Google has started ranking my site on foreign flavours of Google, so I keep getting traffic coming to my site from Europe, America and the far east that we could never sell to, and as a result bounce is going up and engagement is going down. They are definitely coming to the site from google searches that relate to my product type, but in regions I do not service. Is there a way to stop google doing this?  I have the target set to UK in WMT, but is there anything else I can do?  I worried about my UK ranking being damaged by an increasing overall bounce rate. Thanks

                                                    Technical SEO | | FDFPres
                                                    0
                                                  • franchisesolutions

                                                    What is the best way to find missing alt tags on my site (site wide - not page by page)?

                                                    I am looking to find all the missing alt tags on my site at once. I have a FF extension that use to do it page by page, but my site is huge and that will take forever. Thanks!!

                                                    Technical SEO | | franchisesolutions
                                                    1
                                                  • RightlookCreative

                                                    Redirecting Entire Microsite Content to Main Site Internal Pages?

                                                    I am currently working on improving site authority for a client site. The main site has significant authority, but I have learned that the company owns several other resource-focused microsites which are stagnant, but which have accrued significant page authority of their own (thought still less than the main site). Realizing the fault in housing good content on a microsite rather than the main site, my thought is that I can redirect the content of the microsites to internal pages on the main site as a "Resources" section. I am wondering a: if this is a good idea and b: the best way to transfer site authority from these microsites. I am also wondering how to organize the content and if, for example, an entire microsite domain (e.g. microsite.com) should in fact be redirected to internal resource pages (e.g. mainsite.com/resources). Any input would be greatly appreciated!

                                                    Technical SEO | | RightlookCreative
                                                    1
                                                  • dsexton10

                                                    Content loc and player log tags for XML video site maps

                                                    I need a little help understanding how to create two of the required tags for a XML video  site map for Google. 1. video:content_loc2.<video:player_loc< p=""></video:player_loc<></video:content_loc> Google explains their Video XML Site map requirements here:
                                                    www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472
                                                    Using the example on this Google Web Master Help page (where they explain all six of the required tags) , here are examples of the two  tags I need help with: video:content_locwww.example.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc> <video:player_loc allow_embed="yes" autoplay="ap=1">www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=12...video:player_loc></video:player_loc> The video I am trying to optimize is located on a page on my site:
                                                    www.mountainbikingmaine.com/races/bradbury_hawk.html
                                                    This page has an embedded Vimeo video. So I don't have the video file on my domain. It is on Vimeo. Here is source code from my page that I think provides the information I need to create the two tags that Google requires. <iframe src="<a rel=" nofollow"="" href="http://player.vimeo.com/video/24580638?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0"" target="_blank">player.vimeo.com/video/24580638?title=0&...amp;portrait=0"</a> width="400" height="533" frameborder="0"></iframe> [vimeo.com/24580638">Bradbury](<a rel=) Mountain Maine Hawk Migration Count from [vimeo.com/user3219915">dan](<a rel=) sexton Using this source from my site, can you suggest what to put in the two tags? Thanks! Dan

                                                    Technical SEO | | dsexton10
                                                    0
                                                  • Weerdboil

                                                    Delete old site but redirect domain to a new domain and site

                                                    I just have a quick query and I have a feeling about what the answer is so just wanted to see what you guys thought... Basically I am working on a client site. This client has a few other websites that are divisions of their company. However these divisions/websites are no longer used. They are wanting to delete the websites but redirect the domains to their name main website. They believe this will pass on SEO benefits as these old division sites are old and have a good PR and history. I'm unsure for DEFINITE, which way is correct?

                                                    Technical SEO | | Weerdboil
                                                    0

                                                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                                                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                                  Start my free trial
                                                  Products
                                                  • Moz Pro
                                                  • Moz Local
                                                  • Moz API
                                                  • Moz Data
                                                  • STAT
                                                  • Product Updates
                                                  Moz Solutions
                                                  • SMB Solutions
                                                  • Agency Solutions
                                                  • Enterprise Solutions
                                                  Free SEO Tools
                                                  • Domain Authority Checker
                                                  • Link Explorer
                                                  • Keyword Explorer
                                                  • Competitive Research
                                                  • Brand Authority Checker
                                                  • MozBar Extension
                                                  • MozCast
                                                  Resources
                                                  • Blog
                                                  • SEO Learning Center
                                                  • Help Hub
                                                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                                  • How-to Guides
                                                  • Moz Academy
                                                  • API Docs
                                                  About Moz
                                                  • About
                                                  • Team
                                                  • Careers
                                                  • Contact
                                                  Why Moz
                                                  • Case Studies
                                                  • Testimonials
                                                  Get Involved
                                                  • Become an Affiliate
                                                  • MozCon
                                                  • Webinars
                                                  • Practical Marketer Series
                                                  • MozPod
                                                  Connect with us

                                                  Contact the Help team

                                                  Join our newsletter
                                                  Moz logo
                                                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                                  • Accessibility
                                                  • Terms of Use
                                                  • Privacy

                                                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.