What to do About Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement, what can you do? Have you found your website content on another website? Found others using your trademark name? Found a website that has snatched your own personal images?

How to resolve copyright infringement

It is smart to look for your copyrighted content on other websites and take action.
It is smart to look for your copyrighted content on other websites and take action.

There are several things you can do to get the offending site owner’s notice and protect your own copyrighted content.

The first step is to send a notice with a formal takedown request. Give the website owner 10 days to take action or respond. Make sure you keep copies of your email or written correspondence.

Be specific in your request, but reasonable. Ten days to remove content or images is about the norm.

At the end of your time period review if the copyright infringement has been resolved. If not, now it’s time to contact the webhost.

Go first to Who Is Hosting This, and do a search on the site’s domain name. Then contact the web host and ask that the site that is infringing on your copyright be taken down. Make sure to mention the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and ask for a DMCA site takedown.

The host will typically take immediate action and take down the entire website, contact the site owner, and demand the offending content be removed before the host will relaunch the website.

You’d better believe that this gets quick action from the website owner who may have initially disregarded your removal notice. Don’t just take copyright infringement, protect your own intellectual property.

Web Authority – How Do You Built It?

Web authority with search engines is built based on authoritative content that is unique and informative. The content you create for an authority site should not only clearly and transparently detail your services, but should provide more in-depth informational content on topics that dovetail with your service offerings.

Search engines reward large content-rich websites with organic search placement. This depth of content is not built over night, but should be considered a work in progress with new pages added on a monthly basis. For new websites we recommend that a client start with a minimum of 25 pages of content and immediately start blogging three days a week on site launch.

Over time as your website grows, you naturally establish authority on your selected topic as you build keyword density. For many websites, in a year or less, they will start to see good organic improvement. Continue that process for years and your website can grow to over several thousand pages of interesting unique informational content that is targeted around your service offerings. Not only does this make a better website for readers, but search engines reward these sites with better organic placement.