Duplicate Content Checker
Duplicate Content Checker: Brief summary
Copying from someone else is never a good idea. Whether you’re a student in the classroom or a politician giving a speech, it’s not socially acceptable to adorn yourself with plagiarism’s ‘borrowed feathers.’ This behavior is similarly discouraged on the internet – though it’s particularly easy to copy content. However, it’s often very difficult for victims to check whether someone has replicated their content on another website. Luckily, there are duplicate content checkers for this purpose, which can help to track down plagiarism on the online.
Detailed summary:
Plagiarism can become a serious problem for a website operator – regardless of whether others copy their content or whether they unwittingly use texts that aren’t original and are therefore not publishing unique content. Google and other search engines are very insistent that websites must only use unique content. When Google discovers that a page is using copied content, it’s penalized in the rankings and slips down the SERPs – putting the site at a competitive disadvantage. A duplicate content checker is highly recommended for SEO and online marketing considerations. This type of software can help when there is a dispute about the origin of any piece of content.
For example, if a company invested a large amount in the optimization of its website to improve its ranking with content, it would be more than annoying if that success did not occur due to duplicate content. Though this can be the result of mistakes in the website SEO, it can also happen because others have copied and misused the content elsewhere. The company must then decide whether to accept this infringement – which also has legal implications – or try to defend itself. In the latter case, the company has another problem: It must prove that its own content is the original.
This problem can be solved quite easily with a duplicate content checker because some variants of this software keep a permanent record of each plagiarism check. If you check your own content as soon as you upload it, there are two benefits: One, you can ensure that you do not inadvertently use copied texts, and two, it’s easy to prove exactly when your content was put on the web – and thus show that yours is the original content and not the version used by your rivals.
How does a Duplicate Content Checker work?
Basically, plagiarism software works in a similar way to search engines such as Google. It samples certain text passages, or an entire text, and compares it with other content available on the internet. As a rule, a duplicate content checker accesses Google’s index to do this. If a match is found, the software displays the URL of the page under which the content is located. It also shows which passages are actually duplicated.
The precise functionality available will always depend on the software used. For example, many duplicate content checkers allow you to specify the actual length of the passages that the software should investigate. It’s often useful to experiment a little because the checker is not supposed to find every little coincidental repetition, but it must also not be too “generous” because obvious plagiarisms would otherwise pass unrecognized. The models available on the market also differ in terms of the audit intervals and the type of review documentation provided. For example, some duplicate content checkers will regularly and automatically check content while others will only perform the task once and require a manual start. Before deciding on a purchase, you should definitely make yourself familiar with the functions available as well as confirm the cost.
The limitations of a duplicate content checker
A plagiarism software check is intended to give the user the assurance that he or she is not using any third-party content and that no one is using his or her own content. If you look at the way a duplicate content checker works, you might think that such software represents a reliable protection against plagiarism – an impression that is reinforced by many software vendors.
Unfortunately, this is a misleading impression. This is not least due to the heuristics used to track down plagiarism. Here, the user or provider must decide on a delicate balance. If the software hits too severely, it becomes very difficult to use because no one has the time to check dozens, or even hundreds, of possible plagiarisms every day. However, if the software parameters are too vague, then plagiarism may remain unnoticed. This, in turn, would result in a poorer ranking, and costly SEO and marketing measures may be rendered ineffective.
In addition, most duplicate content checkers have one fundamental problem: They access Google’s index to find copied text. Though this covers a large number of pages, Google does not include all available websites in its index. This means that if a page has not been indexed, it will also be missed by any plagiarism check.
Therefore, a duplicate content checker is a useful measure to prevent copying of your own content. However, the software cannot offer complete protection, and you should always be aware of this.
What duplicate content checkers are available?
As in most other software contexts, the range of duplicate content checkers is immense and, at first sight, very hard to grasp. The following tools are among the most popular and well-known examples available on the market:
- Copyscape: This software is probably the most used on the internet, and not without reason. It is very simple to operate, and the plagiarism detection algorithms are very reliable. If larger page volumes need to be checked for unique or duplicate content, a paid premium version is available. In addition, the tool can send notifications when copied content has been found during an automatic scan.
- Article Checker: This tool can not only check websites for duplicate content, but also for individual texts that are simply copied and pasted to the corresponding window. The numerous settings that the program offers give this product an advantage over Copyscape. However, its disadvantage is that the algorithm used for plagiarism checks does not function quite as reliably as Copyscape.
- Plagium: This is a paid-for tool that offers a second search method which is more expensive but also much more thorough. In addition, the user can decide whether to search the entire internet or whether to restrict the search to media portals or social media pages. Shorter texts of up to 5,000 characters can be checked free of charge with this tool.
- Copygator: This software is mainly aimed at blog operators because it searches RSS feeds, not the internet, for copied content. If plagiarism is discovered during a check, the tool automatically sends a message to inform the user.
Conclusion
A duplicate content checker cannot offer absolute protection against plagiarism, but such a software is recommended nevertheless. Copied content is generally detected very reliably. In addition, an appropriate tool can provide proof of when your own content was uploaded, thus showing which content is the original and which has been copied. In addition, a duplicate content checker can prevent SEO measures from being compromised due to the effect of copied content.