It’s an unfortunate thing to think about, however plagiarism is a problem online. And when you’re asking others to create content for your site, via guest blogging or ghostwriting, it’s important to make sure you’re publishing credible and original information. Let’s first take a look at the definition of plagiarism and then we’ll offer some tips and tactics to make sure everything published on your site is 100% original.
What is Plagiarism?
Put quite simply it is taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own. It’s different from copyright infringement which literally means stealing someone’s content and putting your name on it. Plagiarism is a bit more subtle. For example, if you copy a paragraph from another blog post and then you rewrite that paragraph, that’s plagiarism.
In a world where there are literally thousands of articles written on just about every topic under the sun, it can be difficult to recognize plagiarism. It’s easy to avoid when you’re writing content – cite your sources and make sure to give credit where credit is due. However, when people are writing for you, identifying plagiarized content can be tricky. The following tips and tactics will help.
#1 CopyScape – CopyScape is a simple tool to use. They offer a Professional Plagiarism Search. This search costs just five cents per search and it helps identify content that has been plagiarized. They also offer a free tool that compares two blog posts, web pages, or articles.
#2 Google Search – Sometimes you may simply be suspicious about a phrase or paragraph. Using Google simply cut and paste the suspicious content into your search bar. Google will deliver a list of results of content with that phrase or paragraph. If you see the content word for word in your search, it may likely be plagiarized. Dig a little deeper to make sure the content you have isn’t original before you contact the writer.
#3 ArticleChecker – This free service allows you to cut and paste your content into a form. You can also search for others who have plagiarized your content by comparing online content with content found on your URL. You can check either Google or Yahoo.
If The Content is Plagiarized…
Okay, so what if the worst happens and you discover that your guest blogger plagiarized. Now what? You can take several approaches. You can let the writer know that the content just doesn’t meet your needs or standards and leave it at that. You can also let them know that you ran it through a plagiarism checker and cannot publish the content. You do get penalized by the search engines for duplicate content so there are more issues at play here than copying ideas. Plagiarism hurts your business and your credibility. Make sure your guest bloggers provide you with quality, original, content.