Copy & Paste "Competitor", how to handle?

animalstyle

animalstyle

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I just found some joker scraped my business database and used it as a site section on his weak .offbrand TLD domain which he is using to try to grab adsense and some travel affiliate rev. The styling and layout is a direct copy. He took the time to find all new images, so he knows I can't come at him with a copyright claim. I see him pushing in directions that I don't now because I know the money and traffic aren't there... heh

My gut says don't tell this guy I know about him. You guys agree that's the smart play?

Either way, I'll be keeping an eye on him in case I start to see some success in any areas and then Ill expand my authority and take that shit from him, flipping him the bird as a thanks for the free guidance.
 
Is he in the same niche? If so, I'd be upset, but at the same time we all draw inspiration from other content and repurpose it.

Sometimes it's better to not let him know that you know that he exists. This way he keeps playing his cards out in the open for you to watch and monitor.

If he has a blog that has anything worthwhile on it I'd might even help myself to a ton of cheap rewrites (with different images). The way I see these things is, I won't do a negative SEO attack. I won't get their hosting to shut them down 99% of the time. But there's always a cost. Even if they don't realize it, they are paying the cost.

You could do none of the things above, and instead hit up SEMRush and see what they are ranking for and go outrank them, even duplicating a lot of that pages profile from Ahrefs and Majestic, essentially starving that site of all of it's revenue. Taking his food and adding it to your own plate.

There's lots of ways to approach it but I wouldn't' create an enemy. I'd let him carry on unknowingly while I used my vengeance as motivation to get more while making sure he got less.
 
Thanks @Ryuzaki

Same niche, yes and it's very small. His site provides the same content categories mine does. He took a snapshot of my site and started building his own from there.

He's carbon copied (I'm talking down to layout/CSS) portions of my database.

The dude is a good scraper, but it shows when you browse his site. Thin content and image only pages etc. I am not seeing him in any SERPs currently.

I'm well established and his database is always going to be out of date compared to mine as he is a copy and paste behind, looking to me rather thank keeping his ear on the ground.
 
I set up tracking for my main keywords with his domain. If he starts showing up in any of them, it will be time to attack.
 
I've just dug into this further today and found that for each business listing he has copied my text and is displaying it. He's also using the same URL structure. Should I be worried about issues in the future due to this?

He is a little more active than I might like. I am starting to feel like it would be smart to take action now while it's early. Shove him off his feet before he gains his balance...

Any help would be REALLY appreciated.
 
The more I look through this, it looks like he started with a copy of my site and is going through and rewriting content. I think I should strike NOW and get him taken down before he looks any more original.

I'm starting to get really pissed....

Researching it looks like I can go:

  • Straight to him and ask him (probably won't do anything here)
  • To his host and ask them to shut him down.
  • Submit a DMCA complaint via Google

Any advice on what the best steps are?
 
If he's straight copy and pasting you can contact his host and registrar and have his site taken down. Here are some threads you can skim to see how it plays out:
The only concern I'd have is whether or not he'll retaliate. He's going to know exactly who reported him, unless he's stealing all of his content from various sources.

There's always the negative SEO path as well. I'd never recommend doing that to a true competitor or as a way to move up the SERPs. But there are cases like this where it's justified and you need to hide your movements.

Another thing you could do is do some research and see if you can find other sites he owns and which are doing okay with SEMrush. You could clone one of his sites on a shared server or even hurt one of his income earners. That's a little dirty but he's willing to do it to you. I wouldn't do this personally but it should be mentioned.
 
Thanks @Ryuzaki

I will be 100% above ground on this. I don't have any interest in hurting myself. I guess my question is if I get him shut down, can he really come at me and fuck me up? My site has been online for 2 years and running and I do everything absolutely white hat.
 
Another option, is he doing anything better than you at all?
If so, are his skills or ideas something you had not thought of or executed so well, could he/she an asset to you on your team?

Sometimes it makes sense to make friends and not enemies when it comes to business.

One thing I would do is add a canonical tag to all of your pages self-referencing themselves, you could also try the Google authorship route to try and get google to see your content first and attribute it to you first which if you are doing things properly you should be able to manage.

Is there anything unique about your content or is just stuff readily available in the public domain?
 
I have canonical tags across all my pages.

He is new and not currently competing with me in the search results. Every site section he has made, I have a corresponding section on my site. He has a different monetization strategy and his main content promotion is in a different direction than mine.

Essentially he is copying and pasting (with maybe a small edit here and there) a good chunk of his site content. Be it from me or from others.

All that being said, I wouldn't consider working with someone who blatantly stole and used my work to create his foundation.

The business database I've created is a couple years of work manually gathering info that's scattered across the web. I realize it's not 'mine', but he has copied my hand written content that displays on those pages. The main listing even looks exactly like mine, he didn't even re-style it.
 
animalstyle said:
if I get him shut down, can he really come at me and fuck me up? My site has been online for 2 years and running and I do everything absolutely white hat.
Click to expand...

yes he can still fuck you up real bad, in a shit ton of ways.
maybe you shouldn't focus on bringing him down directly, but insted going after his monetization, go to the affiliate offers he has and read their terms, if he violates them report him, sounds to me like he sure is violating adsense's terms more specific their content policy.
just a thought though.
 
Thanks lion, I've calmed from before. I've got home dude tracking on the Woo and if I see some movement in an upwards direction I'll take action.

Unless there is some merit to just contacting the guy with a kindly worded "WTF"

I clearly have no idea what to do.
 
Have a look into 'compilations'. A direct copy & paste could still be infringing your copyright. I'm not sure about US law, but many places take into consideration 'sweat of the brow' which is the investment (time, money, skill) gone into building a database.

Database copyright law is pretty interesting. If you have time, check out the court cases between Yellow Pages and smaller companies who scraped their databases.

EDIT: Here's some night time reading (p3-17)
 
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I have to open this back up as this freaking joker is now starting to rank for some terms... I just cant believe it. He is copy and pasting whole articles from other sites and 'crediting' them.

I emailed him from my domain asking to talk. I think I even found him on FB... I just can't freaking believe the nuts on this guy or the fact that he can so quickly rank with freaking zero work... FUCK
 
There is a guy in my niche who does the same thing. His site is pretty big. He just copy/pastes entire articles, credits with a link at the bottom and calls it a day. He does that with about 10 articles a day.
 
Is it time to file a complaint? I am thinking a DMCA with Google and if that doesn't work go to his host?
 
If he's copy & pasting articles from other websites too, then perhaps anonymously inform those site owners - as a "concerned reader" - that this guy is copying their content. Maybe also link to instructions on how to file a DMCA with Google and the copier's host provider so they know what to do about it.

That way, he will see those other site owners trying to take him down over their articles instead of you. This would hopefully damage his income, etc and if he's inclined to be vengeful about it, you won't be a target.
 
Thanks. I ended up messaging him, he spit some bullshit about using shareware software, wordpress something somethin trying to talk to me like a child and then said hes always up to work together.

He even slipped up and left some code from my site when he did the scraping job. I've documented that to hell and back, even doing a video so I've got that in my back pocket if i need it down the road

I explained that I know he stole my shit and asked nicely to remove my content. No response and I don't think he will. The only way ill be 'fighting' this is by building continuing to build a far superior product. If hes copying me hes a big step behind and that won't change.

Speaking to your advice @SteveGG I actually did reach out to a site that had their content copied. As Ill be keeping an eye on things, ill make sure to keep doing this if I spot any more opportunities.

Thanks for the response
 
All you've done by speaking to him is paint a target on your back. You're not going to turn cutthroat into a teddy bear nor stop him from being a turncoat. A snake is a snake and will always behave that way. You know what he is going into this. Don't be surprised if it gets worse. This is a world of injustice, not lollipop rainbow world. The longer you wait to take serious action, the more invested he gets into his project, and the more vengeance you'll receive for letting him know you're aware. He's going to take his anger out on someone. Now you have a real existence in his mind.
 
@Future State You're right, I agree. but I've done what I've done. Maybe I wouldn't do the same again, but today is today.

The way he is doing things he has covered his ass so I really only have a thin chance of getting any serious action taken on him. Trying to start a fight and failing would be exponentially worse than where I am now.

The only way to reduce my presence in his mind is to not contact again and that's what I plan to do. I can't be scared of rash actions he might take or ill just sit in the corner sobbing all day. All I can do is continue to stay two steps ahead and watch for suspicious movement.
 
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