Plagiarism? Not Me!
Do you plagiarize other peoples' work? Of course you don't. At least not knowingly. You may even be plagiarizing your own work.
"pla·gia·rism - the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own."
Did you know that you can be penalized by Google for accidental plagiarism? As you start to write more and more articles on your website you usually develop a specific individual writing style. It's very easy to use the same words, phrases and patterns in your writing, especially if you write in a specific niche. It's entirely possible that you can plagiarize your own work and not even realize it. After you write 30 or 40 articles, it's easy to forget what you've already written.
To ensure that I don't plagiarize anyone's work, to include my own, I run my work through a plagiarism checker before I post it. My favorite is Small SEO Tool's Plagiarism Checker (http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/). One reason I like it is because it's free. Another reason I like it is because you can either copy and paste content into it or you can upload an MS Word or text document into it. One thing I don't care for is that it has a 1,000 word limit, so sometimes I have to breakdown my article so it will fit.
Another concern as your website gets to be more popular is that someone may steal your content and you could be penalized by Google for it. I've even seen people comment that their entire website was copied and then the thief uses it to compete against them. Then to make matters worse, Google may decide that you are the problem and remove you from their search results. To check if anyone has copied your content, you can use Copyscape (http://copyscape.com/). Just type in your website URL and Copyscape will let you know if your content is found anywhere else on the net.
Another concern I've had is when I have duplicate content across different articles on my website, such as the typical stuff I put at the bottom of every article like my signature block and my call-to-action paragraph. According to Google (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359...) you won't be penalized for internal duplicate content on your website.
I hope this information helps you out as you develop your online business.
To your success, Kevin
If you liked my blog post, check out my tutorial on How to get Visitors to Trust My Website.
Recent Comments
103
I've noticed I have some post showing up in Google twice. I had changed few words in the header, do you think that's why? And will Google see that as duplicate post?
Great blog. I've saved both websites to my favorites and will definitely be using from now on. I'd thought about this but being new I haven't put much effort into checking this out. Thanks for putting that up front and on my checklist for all my new posts!
Thanks. There were two copies on topconsumerreviews that had been recently removed. I sent them an email.
It's definitely crossed my mind since joining that others may copy my content or website. Thanks for the checkers you included in your blog Kevin. This is extremely helpful for all in the community as we are all vulnerable to this sort of attack! Have a great day! Pauline.
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Kevin, this is a fantastic post! Thank you! I'll most definitely start using these tools for my content.