Forums Forums White Hat SEO Someone copied my site title and description and now out ranks me, what can I do?

  • Someone copied my site title and description and now out ranks me, what can I do?

    Posted by seohelper on January 27, 2021 at 10:42 pm

    Hello guys,

    I have an affiliate site that ranks pretty good for a specific keyword. Ive spent quite a lot on google ads which lead me to this position.

    Now a new site, copied my general design, same placing of images, menu and so on, he also copied my description and site title 1to1 , and outranks me.

    A few weeks ago he changed the title of his site (to be different than mine) and dropped a few days later beneth me, now he put back my title and going up again.

    What can I do to stop this? Any suggestions? I’m using canonical in all my pages, but other than that not sure what to do .

    Thanks!

    Radio_Sudden replied 3 years, 2 months ago 1 Member · 19 Replies
  • 19 Replies
  • TheTempornaut

    Guest
    January 27, 2021 at 11:35 pm

    File a copyright claim with Google. Use wayback machine to show when your version was first up (if available). Google is likely to drop the infringing site from its rankings but can’t force bringing down the site. If the infrining party counterclaims I think the standard is that you have 10 to 14 working days to file a court order at your expense. I’m in a similar boat.

  • ClickedMarketing

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 12:28 am

    There isn’t really anything you can do about someone copying a title unless it includes a registered trademark maybe. There are tons of articles with the same title out there.

    The description could maybe be an issue, assuming that it is the actual description they listed on their site and not one Google is picking.

    You can file a DMCA notice with Google and their web host.

  • SaaSWriters

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 12:59 am

    It depends. If you want to succeed long term, you can spend your time and energy improving how you serve your buyers. Then, you won’t have to worry about someone copying your description and your title.

    > Ive spent quite a lot on google ads which lead me to this position.

    How did Google ads lead you to this position?

  • DennyBenny

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 2:04 am

    Google and Bing are supposed to see you were first and put you there. Whom ever is doing this to you is a schmuck. Check your structure content to the new person’s website source code.

    This has happened to me many times and I have sent firm email indicating ethics and what they are doing. Sometimes it works, other times it makes no difference.

    Since I now do all this via Gmail it seems if you add the domain name and what his happening with keywords Google adjusts sooner than later and I am not totally sure why this may have changed the timing. Wayback is your friend in these situation and a good reason to donate to them.

  • will_you_suck_my_ass

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 2:26 am

    Isn’t there some shady tricks to down rank website with obscure backlinks or something like that

  • duchoww

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 2:28 am

    It happened to me before

  • RussColburn

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 2:29 am

    Are we discussing google ads listing or organic listings?

    If it’s google ads – only thing you can do is bid higher.

    If it’s organic – I’d recommend viewing his source code and finding out how he’s doing it and then do it better.

    If you give us an example of a page from each site that this is happening on we can take a look at them and maybe offer some advise.

  • digital_vivek

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 4:02 am

    Go and check on Google Legal Action. Maybe it helps you.

  • Radio_Sudden

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 6:10 am

    Hey ! You can’t do anything legally but instead of cry, you should focus on the improvement of the page. Tweak your Title and Meta with additional keywords and English words. Apart from this increase the social visibility of your page. By this way, you can outranked him or get better position in SERP.

  • TysanSEO

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 6:43 am

    This is a common occurrence as many people have said. The only thing you can really do is try to make sure that the content below that title is better than your competitors. Your backlink profile and other web presence come into play here as well. If a “stronger” site comes along and copies your keywords your best option is to make your site stronger.

    It would be nice if google recognized originality, and in some ways they do. They can understand duplicate pages but not so much with copied titles. I believe this will change as AI (like Google BERT) gets smarter. AI is already doing a better job by the day, of understanding the internet and how everything is connected.

    The best advice I can give is just to keep adding content and improving your current content. Another thing I would look at is if your competitor has video on their page. Google has been very clear that video is becoming a much larger ranking factor this year. If your competitor does not have a video I would recommend posting a relevant video to that page. That might be all you need to get your spot back.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Tysan

    http://www.tysanseo.com

  • ConsiderationCute545

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 6:50 am

    I am not sure about the “copied description” but you can do the following to give your competitor a tough time by analyze his backlinks and find opportunities on the sites from where he gets backlinks.

    * Navigate to Link Explorer.
    * Enter your **competitor’s** URL.
    * Navigate to the “Inbound Links” tab.
    * Export **backlink** data into.
    * Compile **backlink.**
    * Sort all **backlinks** by Page Authority.
    * Review all linking sites for opportunities.

    For further knowledge about this strategy, check Moz Blog.

  • F5_Studio

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 7:21 am

    It happens everyday, but people still ask “What can I do?”

    First, you **can’t know** that competitor outrank you. Because it is a challenging task to measure positions. But you can notice the drop in website traffic. Well, that’s a sign. If it happens you need to react.

    Someone outranks you because someone created better site than you. In this case “better” means better for search engines (and maybe someone’s site better for people).

    To be honest most sites when you break them down to their layout and basic building blocks are just the same as a theme but with different images and most have similar layouts. What casn you do? Improve your content. Do it every day. Create a new content from time to time. You need to get ahead of competitors. You need to have a plan of your content growth.

    But you should focus on branding and message marketing.

    That’s all.

    Don’t waste your time with reading patently obvious advice. Do!

  • priscilla136

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 10:47 am

    This is why content is king, so time to add massive amount of content. Check out how many pages this other website has and x3. Drip it 2-3 times a week.

  • Allpurposelife

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 11:01 am

    Are they ranking higher than you and you aren’t getting traffic anymore? or you just don’t like how they are getting above you? Also, Blast em! Blast him with a ton of backlinks and put him in the sandbox. This is my advice, but I don’t know what kind of Karma it includes. I do see that they might blast you back. Hopefully, they don’t have a ton of site authority yet.

  • simulation_goer

    Guest
    January 28, 2021 at 1:22 pm

    I once had someone posting content I produced without attribution. I reached Google, produced the documentation (in this case, there was a Google doc with the original content, time-stamped), and they moved my request forward, de-listing the page that had stolen my stuff.

    This was a while back though (think 6-7 years ago), so I don’t know what would be the best way to handle it now.

    Good luck!

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