Protecting Your Unique Online Voice: As a blogger, content creator, or SEO expert, you’re constantly vulnerable to having your original online content stolen and replicated. Although search engines are working towards being able to better distinguish between duplicate and original content, it’s still not a foolproof method. There’s no guarantee that your content will always be identified as the original source, leaving the possibility for penalization.
This puts you in the unenviable position of competing against your own content and puts your original content at risk of being completely removed from search engines. Fortunately, there are several ways to verify the presence of duplicate copies of your content on the internet.
Navigating the Duplicate Content Landscape: Detecting duplicated content isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. With the vast number of websites that could potentially steal your content and the limitations of search queries, finding duplicates can prove to be a challenge. Simply copying and pasting a piece of your content into a Google search won’t always suffice. But with these tips, you’ll be able to keep your online voice original and protected.
Searching with Quotes
Did you know that you can make your Google searches more precise by using quotation marks? Most people aren’t aware of this trick. Typically, when you perform a search on Google, the search engine will return results that include all of the keywords you entered. But if you enclose your search terms in quotation marks, Google will only show results that match the exact phrase you’ve written.
For instance, if you search for “find duplicate content” on Google, it will show only pages that have the exact text “find duplicate content”. On the other hand, if you search for find duplicate content without quotes, Google will display results that contain any of the words find, duplicate, or content, in any order and combination.
So, to effectively check for duplicate content on the web, you can copy a section of your original text, place it in quotation marks, and run a Google search. This will help you discover any pages that have copied your work exactly.
Find Duplicates with the Intitle Operator
Blatant content theft often involves copying the title tag as well. To specifically search for titles, you can use the intitle search operator on Google. For instance, if you want to search for duplicates of a specific post, simply use the following query in Google.
While there may be instances where other webpages coincidentally have the same title but different content, this operator can assist in uncovering any instances of duplicated content.
Google Webmaster Tools Verification
Google will notify the original author of pages containing duplicate content once it detects them through indexing, but only if you have a verified Google Webmaster Tools account. This account grants you access to important messages, including any issues with your site or duplicate content found on the internet.
Although this feature is promising in theory, it can be unreliable as it may take a while for Google to discover the duplicate content and send a message. However, it is still a useful tool to consider as a starting point.
Searching with the inurl Operator
Similar to the intitle operator, you can also use the inurl operator to search for duplicate content. For instance, the query “inurl:how_to_check_for_duplicate_content” can be used. This approach is a reliable method for catching bots that copied the content, as they often include similar or the same URL structure. People may alter the title to throw off the original content creator, but the URL remains unchanged, making it easier to find the duplicated content.
Do you have any tips for quick and effective methods for detecting duplicate content? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
