Nothing worse than taking the time to put together informative content for your web site and then find out that someone has decided to either plagiarize or even worse duplicate it on their site.

When this happens you do run the risk of having your site's content being labeled as duplicate content by the search engines. This can result in search engine sand-boxing, the banning of the page or even the entire site.

The first step in combating content plagiarism is to find sites that are doing it to you! Copyscape - www.copyscape.com - provides an easy to use FREE solution that will help you find those who are duplicating your site's content.

Once you have located the offending sites it is time to send them an email. Outline within the email that you found their site on the Internet and that they are using Copywrited material from your site. Set a time frame for them to remove the content before you follow-up with a registered letter.

If they are either non-respondent or come back with an unsatisfactory response it is time to send them a registered letter. When drafting this letter for the first time it would be a good idea to have a lawyer do it so you can get some 'Legal Lingo' in there. :)  Be sure to have it written so you can easily re-use it when the need arises.

Since we are looking for an impact it is recommended that you print the letter on your company's letterhead and use a printed label in place of handwriting the information. Finally you will need to send the Registered Letter to the company. By registering the letter you will ensure that the person received it and signed for it.

What happens if they don't respond after all of this?

Get in touch with their hosting company :) Let the hosting company know that one of their clients is using plagiarized content and that you have sent both and email and registered letter with no response / action from the site owner.

It has been my experience that most hosting companies will then notify their customer that there is a complaint against their site. If the customer is non-respondent then they will most likely disable the client's account and effectively take the site off-line until the issue has been resolved.


About the Author

Kyle Rodeck Merchant Corner http://www.merchantcorner.com Kyle has navigated through the Internet for over 11 years and has a strong understanding of Shopsite, Search Engine Optimization and how to take businesses to the next level!