You search for a sentence from your own service page, just out of curiosity, and there it is on someone else’s website. Not similar wording: your wording, paragraph after paragraph, sometimes with your business name still in it. It might be a competitor across town, a site in another country or a page of spam stuffed with text taken from many sites.
If someone copied my website content, what can I do? That is a common question, and the answer is usually calmer than the first reaction. This guide covers how to find copies, how to check and record them, how to ask for removal, the general takedown routes when that does not work, and what Google tends to do with copied pages. It is general information, not legal advice. Checking your own writers’ work for plagiarism is a different subject and not covered here.
First, do not panic about search rankings
Copied content is annoying and sometimes unfair, but it is not usually a disaster for your search visibility. Google’s systems generally try to work out which version of identical text came first and which site is the more trustworthy source. Scraper sites, which copy text from many places automatically, tend to be filtered out or ranked poorly.
Where it becomes a real problem is when the copying site is strong and well established, when your site is new and has little history, or when the copy is used to impersonate your business. In those cases, acting on it matters more.
So before anything else, check whether the copy is actually affecting you. Is it appearing in search above your own page? Is it confusing customers? Is it pretending to be you? The answers decide how much effort to spend.
Someone copied my website content: finding every copy
- Search for exact sentences. Pick a distinctive sentence from your page, one that is unlikely to appear by chance, and search for it in Google inside quotation marks. Try a few sentences from different parts of the page.
- Exclude your own site from the results by adding a minus sign and site: followed by your domain, so only other sites appear.
- Check your most valuable pages first: the main service pages and the articles that bring you the most visitors.
- Use a plagiarism or copy-detection tool if you want a broader search. Several online tools check text against the web.
- Look at Search Console’s Links report. Some copying sites keep your internal links in the text, which then show up as links to your site from an unexpected domain.
- Notice customer confusion. If customers mention seeing your offer on another site, or calling a number that is not yours, investigate.
Checking and recording the evidence
Before contacting anyone, collect a clear record. If you need to make a formal complaint later, you will want it.
- Screenshot the copying page with the address and date visible.
- Save the page addresses of both the copy and your original.
- Show your page came first. Your WordPress revisions record when you wrote and changed the page. Public web archives, such as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, may have dated snapshots of both pages.
- Note what was copied: text, images, product descriptions, the whole layout.
- Check you really own it. If your text came from a supplier, a template or a previous agency, confirm the rights are yours before claiming it.
Content stolen? Start by asking for removal
Many copies are made by people who do not understand that web content is protected, or by a web designer who reused text without telling their client. A polite, clear request often works.
Find the right contact
Look for a contact page, email address or phone number on the copying site. If there is none, a domain lookup (often called a WHOIS search) may show the registrar or a contact, though many registrations are private. The hosting company is often identifiable too, and most hosts have an abuse contact.
Write a short, factual message
- Identify yourself and your business.
- Give the address of your original page and the address of their copy.
- State that the text is yours and was published on your site first.
- Ask them to remove it, or replace it with their own text, by a reasonable date.
- Keep the tone calm. Threats tend to delay rather than speed things up.
Keep a copy of every message you send and every reply.
Formal takedown routes, in general terms
If a direct request gets no response, there are more formal options. Exact procedures and rights depend on your country and theirs, so treat this as an outline and consider legal advice for anything serious.
The website’s hosting company
Most hosting companies prohibit copyright infringement in their terms and have a process for complaints. Send them your evidence through their abuse or legal contact. They may ask the site owner to remove the content or take the page down.
Copyright notices such as the DMCA
In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act sets out a notice-and-takedown process that many hosts and platforms follow, including many outside the US. A notice typically identifies the original work, the infringing copy, your contact details and a statement that you believe the use is not authorised. Other countries, including India and those in the EU, have their own copyright laws and complaint routes.
Asking Google to remove the copy from search
Google has a legal removal request process for copyright complaints, which can lead to the copying page being removed from Google’s search results. It does not remove the page from the internet, but it stops people finding it through Google. You can find it by searching for Google’s copyright removal request form; it sits within Google’s legal help pages.
Do not file false or exaggerated claims. Takedown notices are legal statements, and misusing them can have consequences.
What Google does with copied pages
In general, when several pages carry the same text, Google picks one to show for a search and filters out the others. It usually tries to choose the original or the most authoritative version. Copying sites do not normally gain from your text, and your site is not normally penalised because someone copied you.
There are exceptions, which is why it is worth watching your key pages. If you notice a copy ranking above your page, or your page dropping after a copy appeared, take action sooner. If your rankings fall for other reasons, our guide on what to check when rankings drop walks through the usual causes in order.
Copying between pages of your own site is a different issue, handled with canonical settings and redirects; see duplicate content inside WordPress.
Reducing the chance of being copied
You cannot stop copying completely. Anyone can select text in a browser. Scripts that block right-clicking annoy genuine visitors and do not stop anyone determined. A few things help:
- Write content that is hard to reuse. Pages full of your own details, examples, area names and business specifics make poor copies, because they do not fit anyone else.
- Keep internal links in your text. If a scraper copies them, the copy links back to you.
- Add a copyright line in the footer. It does not create rights, but it reminds people the content is owned.
- Check your key pages occasionally with an exact-sentence search.
Original writing is the basis of everything in the content marketing guide for small businesses. For the other channels that sit alongside it, see digital marketing for small businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Someone copied my images, not my text. Is that handled the same way?
Broadly, yes. Photos you took or commissioned are protected in the same way as text, and the same steps apply: record the evidence, ask for removal, then use the host or a formal notice. A reverse image search can help find where your photos have been reused.
Should I rewrite my page so it is different from the copy?
Usually not. Your page is the original, and rewriting it can throw away the history it has built in search. Keep your page, pursue removal of the copy, and only consider improving your page if it needed improving anyway.
What if the copying site is a former web designer or agency I worked with?
Check your agreement first to see who owns the text they wrote or supplied. If the content is yours, contact them directly and in writing. If ownership is unclear, a lawyer can advise on your position before you escalate.
If you need fresh, original pages, or want your existing content made more specific to your business so it is less worth copying, our content writing services can help with that side of the problem; formal disputes are a matter for a lawyer.
Next in this series: Measure Blog Performance With Search Console and GA4
