For years I always did 100% original content, long-form, factual interesting etc. Then the blogger groups came and took it all away. Not only have these "private" groups copied my content and then reworded it, but they then link to each other and bounce up the ranks. In the process of copying they still don't always get the facts right. example I've a 2500 word page on a topic. Everything about it is listed out. H1 H2 H3. Mobile friendly, photos etc. It ranked No 1. A friend in the industry took a photo of it being used as an example in one of these blogger group meetings. 6 months later I'm half way down the page. The bloggers swarmed all over it, chopped it up, linked to each other and bounced it up the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Moreover, they have paid links in the content. Even one of my own unique spellings or phrases was copied over. I look at that page with utter depression. I filed so many Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy (DMCA)'s. Some work. It's time consuming and difficult to track. Once you file one, another two posts appear. The type of thing you'd expect an algorithm could detect. But, no. I showed my page with this information at a meeting last week. Everyone was very happy that this was available. Then one guy said it wasn't number one on Google. He showed the one that was (one of the blogger herd). I pointed out my information was far more in depth and had what was needed + the blogger link has paid links. Meeting over, they'd invite the blogger to the next meeting WTF. After the meeting I met the guy who arranged the meeting. Nice guy who apologised for what happened. I said to him that if they read the two pages carefully you'll see the one ranked as number 1 got the information from my site. It didn't matter. Game over. This is not so much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it is business and their tactics. I remember a group of us talking about it 10 years ago as we were wondering where the business was going. The consensus was Google's algorithm would fix it. And we should take the moral high ground producing quality content. 10 years later there are only 2 of us left. The others all went bust. Google's algorithm did not save the day. It rewards people like that. Content is not king. Linking groups are king. Bottom line is 100% great content doesn't mean jack. Nobody links to anything anymore in ways that count. An FB or tweet link doesn't mean jack. Odd traffic boosts etc yes. But for SERPs social media is dire. These blogging groups link to each other in full do follow swarms. I've tried reaching out to other websites (rather than these blogs) but they do are trying to rank in the same industry and don't want to link. I learned that the hard way 8 years ago when I linked to similar sites. Nobody links back, aside from the odd exception. The blogger groups? Pay to play. I'd rather blow my server up than join up with these people who look and sound like they'd eat their own children to rank 1. Now today, I'm at a loss on what to do. Today, I honestly just feel like turning the whole site off or become a bitter old man who fights one step forward, two steps back for the rest of his life. Turn it off, pack it in, go get a job stocking shelves before the robots come and take that. Utterly exhausted folks and don't know what to do. 40 💬🗨
416wingman I feel for you. Genuine content is still King to me but unfortunately not always to algorithms. Have you tried posting this issue on Moz's forum or a similar SEO forum? I wonder what other experts have to say for this. I've been told blog networks are black hat SEO and they eventually get caught. This is a classic case of if you can't create it, hack it.
photonasty Private Blog Networks (PBN)s get caught when they're obvious and not done properly. Unfortunately, a lot of companies and agencies with big budgets do get away with having PBNs. When done correctly, PBN sites are largely indistinguishable from "genuine" websites. In terms of linking, there are ways of covering one's tracks to avoid detection.
vtography I can empathize with this, as the exact same thing happened to me. I had two articles in the social media niche that ranked number one for their respective search terms. Each was around 2000 words. I was the first person to talk about one of these topics and even popularized a nickname for that topic. And then the bloggers came. Dozens of them. They copied and reworded my articles and over time eventually were able to rank higher than me. They sprinkled unproven theories, guesses, and outright lies into their articles to pad the word count. They stuff keywords and somehow aren't penalized. I gave up. I don't know where my articles rank any more because I haven't checked in a long time, but I'm pretty sure they're not even on the first Search Engine Result Page (SERP) page any more. Duplicating the best content and then trying to outrank that content seems like a shitty business model, but I guess it's working otherwise they wouldn't do it. Not optimistic Google can or will ever do anything about it. Nose_Grindstoned To adjust to the new playing field, would you say that creating content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could be two different jobs in the company? The one person creating the original content wouldn't have the obligation to make their content rank. Meanwhile the SEO person would do white-hat, black-hat, whatever in needed to make the company rank. If your SEO person were also an organizer of one of these blogging groups, that could be a strategy that works.
dtheme ✍️ It's the same company, so it would get hammered by google. The blackhat side. One blog in a Private Blog Network (PBN) get's hammered, the hive still lives. I'm only one, they are many.
Thefieries Totally agree, the "content is king" mantra is bullshit. Have watched several sites over the years completely white hat wait to "catch up" with the 10x better content only to be beaten time and again by shitty, shoddy content doused with links. It's easy to say "content is king" when you already have a ton of links or established years ago – otherwise it's a fallacy to think that great content trumps everything.
newusertg This is the problem with the subreddit. People come in ask for help and the "content is king" people come out in force. I know cause years ago i listened to them. Worst seo decision I ever made was that. Best decision I ever made? Listening to blackhat seo and purchased niche blogs creating my own PBN. Managing it with rewriters and infinite WordPress. My competition owns a PBN and has been number 1 for years. He makes no secret of hiding it and even lists all the sites he owns on one of them. My estimated figures based on his advertising prices are hes making around 30k a month now. That's not including fees from other sites he owns. I've quickly raised my ranking now and its taking notice. Our traffic and conversions are great and i have a few tricks to use still as well. Sometimes i wonder if people keep saying "content is king" so they don't need to worry about competition.
perthguppy What's a PBN? newusertg Private Blog Network. I own about 25 blogs now and growing. JamesFannin If someone makes a PBN, does this mean you network with other blogs or you personally create a bunch of different blogs (25 in your case) then link to each other to help out? newusertg Its a little more complicated then that. I still link to some outside sources. They cant all link back to your site. Some link to each other as well. Some sites that I know the owners help me out as well. Building a PBN isn't easy. You have to watch for expired domains with domain authority then research them. Find out how much history is on wayback machine. Use the wayback downloader to rip and create the site. Then clean the site and get it converted to work for you. It doesnt have to be perfect but its not an easy task. But definitely worth it. The advantage is i control the work and everything on my PBN. Each week trying to add one more site. JamesFannin Interesting! So you'll actually purchase expired domains that have domain authority and then rebuild them? I'm really new to this so that sounds a bit confusing on "Rip and create the site and clean it" but I definitely need to look into this. And you also say I shouldn't link all sites back to me or vice versa? I assume that means a link for link type swap between two sites is ok but it's not ok for EVERY site. It should sometimes just be one way? Thanks so much for the info means a lot!
CritiqueMyGrammar I gave up on the Content is King thing six years ago. It was a constant fight to beat the next guy. Then six months later that link doesn't rank anymore and you're off to the races again. Instead, I focus on on-page, getting our citations right, maintaining our social media presence, and getting blog posts out at regular intervals. I haven't written a blog article in over 4 years with the goal of seriously ranking. I still do research and write website copy, but the days of grinding blog posts all day to rank is over. As you soon as you rank, the competition will take your work and spin it to beat you.
alexdenne Can't help but feel this will be downvoted but can you please explain the difference between your original and their copied content in terms of page load times, calls to action on the page, cookie (or other) pop ups and article length? I'd also like to know the publishing date of both articles and when you last updated yours. Lastly I'd like to know if his page is AMP or not. I know it's frustrating but these things are worth knowing before you throw the towel in completely. The internet is a free market which means copycats are rife. If there is ANYTHING you can do to please Googlebot, I'd suggest you do it! Be proud that you ranked number 1 for so long, and be careful of anyone who wants to publicise this content to copycats in the future! Sorry you have been cheated and not credited :(
dtheme ✍️ Zero pop ups from me. V fast page load, compared to them. My length it about 2 -3 x their's. I've studied this and the trends and issues over the years. I've SEO'd to perfection. Content 100% sourced written and structured. It's 100% links. They have a self supporting circle. I've had the analysis done. It's definitely links Google looks at. Which totally sucks. I read something recently about how to get links for a dry industry. Take, garbage collection. Who wants to link to that! So, yea, if you own a garbage collection industry and want dominate it, just get PBN because nobody else is going to link to it and Google will take notice. Like I wrote, 10 years ago there were a group of us. We all went the route of content is king. While one can hold one's head up about that, the sharks ate all but 2 of us. They went down slow or fast. But they went down. In their place, fluff. I really don't get that with Google's massive algo that they can't scan a webpage and go – 4000 words. Wow, originally content cross reference with encyclopedias etc, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and go — this page has it all. But no, they go to a page scan it. Go, okay not much about this, list it. Next page, yea, less content but wow 8 people linking so it must be better, put it at number 1 … :(
sonar_un The worst part of this is if you are a consumer and you are looking for good relevant information on a subject. I know that when I am searching for an article on something, I have to wade through pages and pages of search results to find the relevant information. The smaller guys with the good articles are being crushed by blog networks and it is killing the usability of search. I am finding that Google is giving us less and less relevant information and it is extremely frustrating. We want Google to win the whitehat game, but unfortunately is it is not happening. They have to kill the value of links or find a new way to devalue them.
newusertg I wish Google would implement a voting system of sorts. I've found alot of content on known sites are that are just plain wrong. Also it sucks when you Google a problem and only posts from 2012 show up.
Just_WoW_Things I don't understand your logic dude. It sucks to have your content thieved by the grabby communists who insist your stuff is their stuff. What I don't get is why you refuse to play the linking game, because it obviously works. It just seems like you're trying to fight against the tide out of stubbornness. Don't hate the game. Play the game.
dtheme ✍️ Something to do with honesty. I'm not going to publish a sponsored post nor link to people that do. The fluffy stuff. Someone once gave this analogy. PBNs are like tabloids. Everyone is drawn to the first page but you never remember them the following day. A book, you keep on your bookshelf. The problem is of course, todays work means people enjoy fluff a lot.
Johno413 Not being 100% immersed in this and not doing it full time (but as a part of a larger digital marketing effort), I still have the impression this has become the top complaint over the past few years. And Google doesn't seem to either have much interest or to have an answer. I guess from the company's perspective, whether a well-masked plagiarist or an honest content producer generates revenue, it's all revenue. Some solutions I have seen include expanding a website to simply outdo the plagiarists with higher frequency original content. A few have joined with other more honest people in their fields. The other solution I have witnessed is to become a part of a bigger operation. In one case, for example, I saw a website that was focused on DIY home improvements stay juicy to Googlebot by getting cross-posting agreements and links from some high profile product and services websites. A few of the arrangements had a sponsorship or affiliate feeling to them.
