It is not entirely uncommon for websites to duplicate some of the text and/or images from your site and use them without even crediting the source. These sites may be getting traffic from the content that your website would have otherwise received. Some search engines penalize the rankings of pages with duplicate content, possibly harming your search ranking because of someone else’s actions. It is not always possible to determine if this is happening, but getting a duplicate content checker is useful for identifying sites which have copied your material. A different type of content checker can determine if you have accidentally put duplicate or very similar text on different pages of your own site.

You can utilize such services as Copyscape.com or ArticleChecker.com to locate content which has been duplicated to other websites. Copyscape can be used for free, but a Premium account is necessary to go beyond the first ten checker results (of potential duplicate pages) or search for copies of pasted text that isn’t on your website. Article Checker, which can be used for free, utilizes Yahoo and Google to detect how many instances of each phrase (in pasted text or from a URL) can be found on other web pages. Sometimes photos or other graphics will be copied along with the text; otherwise, it is difficult to find unauthorized duplicate images.

Also make sure you haven’t duplicated the same content on to multiple pages of your own website, as this will also be penalized. For example, this could happen if you re-designed the site and left some of the old pages in place (or created a large number of pages on rather similar subjects). Various websites offer services or software to help find such problems. With regard to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it is generally more important not to have duplicate content on different pages of your own website than to stop others from putting it on their sites.

After successfully locating unauthorized copied text with a duplicate content checker, consider contacting the website administrator or owner to request that it be removed. It is more practical to avoid getting angry, rude, or threatening; such people sometimes remove the content in response to a polite e-mail (because they know further action might be taken if they don’t), but may feel that they are “giving in” to remove it in response to a harsh, insulting message. Keep in mind that a user or employee might have posted the content, so an administrator may not be aware that it was duplicated if you don’t let them know.