What is Content Scraping and How to Prevent it on a WordPress Site?
15 October, 2023
Many creators of websites face a lot of problems regarding stealing website content. A lot of time it is seen that other website owners randomly steal content from websites. It is completely illegal to steal any content from a website. But still, now a major number of people are doing this. Thus, it is only your responsibility to avoid content scraping. There are many steps that you should follow when you are thinking about preventing your website from content scraping. Before knowing how to prevent content scraping, let’s first know what is content scraping-
• What is content scraping?
Content scraping is a particular process, where anonymous users steal content from random websites and publish it in a different one. A website content helps to create individuality among everyone. Thus, if anyone steals any kind of content from your website, then you will not succeed in your mission. Many times it is seen that people use the content on their website and don’t mention yours. And various times, they just add a link to your website, which can be redirected to your website. In both ways, it is equally offensive and frustrating. Content scraping is illegal and no one has the authority to take the content for their own use. According to the law, it is a violation of copyright laws and intellectual property rights. Thus, it is a very sensitive issue that no one should ever do. Along with that, all these can affect you in a great manner. A lot of time it is seen that it decreases your reach and affects your organic traffic. These are all the things that you should know about content scraping. Now let’s find out how to prevent content scraping on any WordPress site-
1. Make a few changes to your RSS feed:
If you want to prevent your WordPress website from content scraping then you can take a few simple steps. You can make a few changes to the website then you will be benefitted in various ways. It is seen that, when someone copies the content, it relies on the website’s RSS feed. Therefore, if you change your feed then you will get the chance to prevent your website from content scraping. If you only put the summary of your content in the RSS, then the scraper would be only able to steal the metadata of the content. It is a great way of preventing stealing and giving protection to your website.
2. Block IP address of the scraper:
Another useful method of preventing content scraping is that you can just simply block the IP address. By blocking the IP address, the person wouldn’t be able to copy the content. You will get to create a barrier between the content and the scrapers. There are applications like Web Application Firewall that can help you to prevent any kind of content scraping. Another fact is that the website can automatically do all the procedures and provide you with safety. Along with that, an application like this would help you to monitor all the website visitors. Thus, you will get to understand, what kind of visitors are visiting your website.
3. Copyright notice:
Displaying copyright notices can be a useful method of preventing content scraping. Copyright laws have the potential to provide property rights, website content, and logo of the brand. All these are very much sensitive topics of a website, which need to be secured at any cost. By displaying copyright notices, you will be able to make sure that this act is completely illegal and whoever is doing so, can get punished. A person would only get to use the content if you give permission. So, it is a helpful measurement that you can use for your website.
4. Add many internal links:
If you want to prevent content scraping on your WordPress website, then you can use the strategy of adding multiple links to your writing. By doing so, you will get many benefits if anyone scrapes the content. According to the data, if anyone scrapes your content ad you have already added a lot of links, then all the internal links will gain you many backlinks from the scrapers' websites. It is one of the biggest advantages of adding multiple internal links to your content.
5. Insert watermarked photos:
You can protect your content by using photos. In a scenario like this, it is advised you use watermarked photos in your content. Scrapers might take the writing but they won’t be able to take the photos if you disable hotlinking and add watermarks. Hotlinking is a great way of preventing content scraping. It is coming to know that if you do hotlink, and the scraper use that photo in their website then the photo will be only displayed from your website. Thus, if anyone wants to open the photo, they will be redirected to your website. It is an effective method that you can use for your website.
All these are the major strategies to prevent your WordPress websites from content scraping. Therefore, if you are a website owner, then you should follow these steps. It will be very much helpful to maintain originality and gain more attention from potential audiences.
