This is an article “Protecting Your Content From Cyberthieves” by Marc Primo Warren
It’s pretty surprising how today, only 5% of companies have their internal content protected by security tools considering that it only takes an average of 39 seconds for hackers to breach a company’s cyber security protocols. While having a blog or website filled with great and relevant content for your followers is good for business, making sure that your materials are safe from plagiarism or theft is absolutely essential, especially these days.
Being creative with how you manage your content to boost your online presence is the first step to establish your brand and gain a substantial following. However, content theft is nothing new with how many bogus blogs and websites there are online today. Day by day, you should be more aware of developments in cyber security so you can protect what you own and make sure all necessary precautions are in place against hackers.
Aside from the necessary tools and programs you need to ensure your content security, creating your own rules and performing a thorough research on existing laws and regulations about intellectual property is also required for effective content management. This not only protects your art and copies for your websites but your followers’ data as well.
Review copyrights
Content theft can sometimes be pretty difficult to control and many are quick to disregard (either inadvertently or intentionally) the copyright notices at the bottom of every resource page. If you are looking for relevant research materials to draft or rewrite for your website’s content, make sure you comply with copyright notices first. This also works the other way. Setting up permission on the use of your original content at the bottom of your own blog or website makes you the legal owner of the materials contained on your site, with each post protected by the government.
Similarly, you can file for copyright protection from the U.S. Copyright Office which prevents cyber content thieves anywhere in the world from using your materials in their own blogs or websites, regardless if they are written in English or translated into another language.
Up the ante on your SEO
Every digital marketer knows the importance of SEO in boosting a brand’s online presence and traffic. They also know that using SEO to develop original content for blogs or websites is the surefire way to go when posting unique and high quality materials online. Better SEO means higher rankings on Google’s search engines while protecting your content from cyber thieves who are looking into common keywords that match what they need for their own gain.
Speaking of Google, its algorithms carefully monitor plagiarism within the platform which can backfire for those who steal your content and post them on their own sites. The higher you rank up the results page, the more protected your original content will be from being stolen.
Weigh the consequences of content theft
Believe it or not, there will be instances when you can allow your content to be stolen (or in this case, borrowed). But you have to review the pros and cons of such instances first.
Some blogs or websites can turn the reuse of content to their advantage by being more lenient with their copyright rules and letting their original materials get republished in other sites provided that they are credited as a source.
Oftentimes, it would be much easier to be transparent about how other content managers may use your blog or website materials and pass them as their own. Simply embedding a code on your content posts that clarifies how you want your materials to be used by others or credited to you would do the trick. Aside from giving you the opportunity to tap a wider reach online through other websites, it also gives you an organic backlink which can boost your SEO chances.
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