28 replies to this topic

[jonbey]

Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed and increasing number of websites/blogs copying all of my content - links included. They just get the latest article and publish direct to their site.

I first wondered why, as I rank first. Then today I reviewed one of the site that is copying me and their content is now all gibberish. They have run it through a re-writer of some sort to make their content unique.

So it is an automated blog copy and re-write scheme. The links still remain. As in the rewrite process they seem to replace the good keywords with nonsense phrases that nobody will ever search for, then maybe this is still a good thing for me while the links remain?

I do now make an extra effort to place more internal links in my content - something that I always knew to be a good idea for the user, buy laziness makes me forget!

I wonder what that software is then....

[Wit]

Clever eh?

[jonbey]

Yes, I guess I should sit back and applaud there ingenuity. Not sure what else I can do.

Block robots looking at RSS? is that possible?

[bwelford]

What's in it for them, jonbey. Are they monetising this in some way so they get a return, however small? I guess it could be Adsense for example.

[jonbey]

Yep, Adsense, ebooks, other affiliate stuff. Usual things.

[AbleReach]

Or go to excerpts?

[jonbey]

What do you mean?

[AbleReach]

You can tell WP's RSS to send out full posts or excerpts. If they're getting you from a feed, choosing excerpts will limit what they get.

Subscribers might not like it, but if you get more results from Search or other sources it might be worth it. If your niche has a lot of email & RSS subscribers you might want to go gently - check your stats.

[jonbey]

Hmmm, already set to excerpts. I guess they are just following the links to get the full post.

[A.N.Onym]

Personally, I wouldn't limit my subscribers, who like full feeds (research showed most prefer full feeds and its a trend), just because of a small shady bunch of scrapers. Especially, when those links might positively effect your website.

Whether they have optimized pages or not does influence the power of links, but a nonsense page doesn't lose all the power altogether. Unless the site is a total dump, practices shady tactics and has no other incoming links - then the value of a non-topic link on that very site is probably close to nill.

Once they've scraped your site, Google still knows you are the original, so you don't lose much if any traffic from people scraping you, unless they rank above you. Once they've rewritten the pages, but kept the links, they essentially eliminated themselves from your SERP competition, but still pass the minimal weight to your site.

So, in this case, I'd rejoice due to getting a few links for nothing or have mixed feelings, if I had a strong site, was sure I wasn't losing any traffic to them - in this case, them having optimized pages might've passed more incoming link value to your site.

Edited by A.N.Onym, 19 August 2010 - 11:51 AM.

[AbleReach]

I wonder what they're using. Are you blocking web site copiers like HTTrack?

Aside -- one of my sites was getting scraped by someone in Guam, so I blocked their IP. Pretty soon they were back at it w/ another IP, so I blocked Guam.... I only had one visitor from Guam, as far as I could tell, but I should probably still see if I can figure out &/or block what they were using, and let Guam back in.

[A.N.Onym]

IP blocks can be easily overcome by proxies, Elizabeth. Any reasonable scraper/spammer/other knows it and can use proxies. So I wouldn't block countries by IP. The security reasons are another matter, of course, and should be solved by strengthening the site security, not by hiding behind IP blocks.

[AbleReach]

You're right, of course. It was a quickie bandaid solution.

[A.N.Onym]

Any solution has its place, but I'm sensitive to country IP blocks, since I've been on the other side of the block a number of times for no reason

Edited by A.N.Onym, 19 August 2010 - 12:17 PM.

[jonbey]

Lol, yeah, I thought about blocking Russia once. Sorry.

[AbleReach]

...and I have had friends from Guam. :duh: :embarrassed:

[jonbey]

One idea I had.... which is a bit silly...

If their content becomes meaningless drivel after the re-write, but still contains all those links to my site, maybe I should do some SEO for them......

[iamlost]

As an idea that is a lot silly.
Go sit in the corner and hit your head against the wall.
THAT is how good an idea that is. :pieinface: :rofl:

[A.N.Onym]

I second iamlost. If you can get links to spam, you can get links to your site: why not do just that?

Though while getting links for 3d party sites with links to your sites, you can use less effortful (greyer) efforts, it's still not very practical, unless you are partnering with a publication in the long run.

Edited by A.N.Onym, 19 August 2010 - 05:51 PM.

[jonbey]

true, my thinking was simply that if the site has nothing, then the links are worthless, but a couple of links may give them some value. And yeah, it would be grey all the way.