Mark twain once said there’s no such Thing as a new idea it’s impossible we Simply take old ideas and put them into Some sort of mental kaleidoscope That’s as true today as it was a hundred Years ago most ideas that marketers have Are not their own at least not entirely And there’s a fine line between being Inspired by others ideas and straight up Copying them if you’ve been running a Site for more than a year you’ve Probably come across people who are Copying parts or even all of your Business sometimes it’s straight up Copyright theft where they steal your Images or use your content other times Though it’s a little bit more subtle Like for example when they go after your Keywords since every site owner has to Deal with this at one point or another Today gail and i are gonna go through What to do with copycats and how to Fight back against them [Music] Hey everyone welcome back to the Authority hacker podcast today we are Going to go back on the podcast with Mark and i as we promised and as we Always do when mark is here we’re going To ask mark how is going mark because i Think people have missed that Uh i certainly haven’t missed that um it Is going good i’ve actually been to the First conference first in-person
Conference In what two years or something uh down In london So Uh no uh So far so good Although you wouldn’t know there was a Pandemic in london uh judging by the way Everyone’s going around but uh there you Go any other news for subscribers or Anything else so can we jump into the Podcast um did we mention on the podcast That we sold our website last week uh no We haven’t mentioned that so go ahead Shall we shall we tell people We didn’t but Clearly we do enjoy planning Um No this is this is gonna come out sooner Or later uh because we’re doing some Marketing material around it but yeah um A website which we we built four years Ago something like that um we sold it For uh a six-figure amount Uh towards the lower end of the spectrum I think the the interesting part is it’s The first site we built for the first Version of your toyota system yeah Um i kind of like we kind of let it sit Around for a while mostly because a lot Of people were copying it to be honest Because it was like the main site And Because we released new versions of the
Course there’s been two new versions of The course since then right and every Time we do a new version of the course We do a new site people had kind of Forgotten about it so like last year we Were like oh let’s pick that side up and Actually Uh fix it and you know apply all the Test stuff and like go back to Essentially what we’re teaching people So that we know we’re not full of [ __ ] And we actually do with the stuff that We teach and we see a real life result And we took that site from you know as It was an example site and we were not Pushing it i think it was making like 200 bucks a month or something we just Had built it for the example and not Really pushing it And yeah i think we took it to like Around like five kilometers or something In a year and a half or something like That yeah and then we sold it And then we sold it happy days um So there will be more of a case study Coming out actually what’s going to Happen is you know we had that webinar We were promoting to People that we wanted to subscribe to Our email list so if you go on the home Page of a toy hacker etcetera you see That webinar i am in the process of Refreshing that will be now based on That case study so that it’s kind of
Like a new interesting and also it Allows me to refresh a lot of tactics Who are showing in there etc like Everything’s still working but there’s Still some like tweaks that i want to Add to this uh therefore i am working Quite hard right now on re-recording That training and that is going to be 100 free will not charge you for this And you’ll be able to access all the Details of the case study so that’s Coming up uh in a few weeks i would say There’s still quite a bit of work on the On the webinar but there is a piece of Content related to that cell that i Think you guys are going to be enjoying Uh but for now i suggest we jump into The podcast topic because that’s what People clicked on the youtube video for On the podcast for and today’s episode Is all about what the hell do you do When people are copying your [ __ ] and And that’s that’s a problem in online Marketing um we are definitely a cause Of the problem as well like when i teach Keyword research i tell people to go and Check out the websites the hour ranking And stuff like that so well in essence That yields to like people that are Copying you if they follow tactics that We would be teaching etc um but it is an Inherent thing in any competitive Industry right it’s like you see for how Example when you go on social media
Right at the beginning it was just Snapchat having stories and now every Single social media has stories and They’ve essentially copied each other Because they realized it was a great Engagement feature and now tick tock is Doing really well so like you know Facebook’s trying to do something like Tick tock and youtube’s trying to do Like youtube shorts etc And you can see that it does happen in Every industry it’s not just specific to The online marketing industry anything Competitive there is a degree of like Copying and that’s essentially how Innovation works like you come up with Something and then someone just kind of Like makes it five percent better etc And over time things get better for the End user but for the people who run the Companies they have to deal with people Essentially catching up um so Let’s go ahead and what we’re going to Do is we’re going to take different Things that people might be stealing From you and how we would react to it or How we would uh and give you some Stories as well of things when it Happened to us et cetera because i have A few stories When uh people did that i think i think That the thing i want to say is that uh If you’re just starting out as well you Should expect this to happen at some
Point one of these things will Inevitably happen uh it’s quite rare That a business like never has to deal With this stuff Yeah i mean also if you’re starting out I would expect you to submit to some Extent copy someone else as well so it’s Like yeah you’re not always on the Receiving end of this like you will be Looking at sites indonesia trying to Rank for if you if you’re trying to do Seo and you’re not looking at a single Competitor site to get any inspiration You’re probably doing seo wrong um so You will also be on the giving end of This but like that’s why it’s going to Open all sorts of like interesting Debates etc this podcast um and the First one i want to talk about which is It’s definitely a debate of whether That’s a problem or not and i’ll explain To you why and i want to know what you Think uh it’s when people copy your site Idea right um so It happened to us several times right It’s like usually the way it works is You have a site that’s starting to do Quite well and like For us we hang out with quite a few Marketers in real life etc and i expect Quite a few people would like have some People around them that they might be Able to talk about that would have some The power of like competing basically
And you end up telling them and then Like six months later you realize that Guy after you had that discussion Started a website in the exact same Niche monetizing the exact same way you Described when you had dinner together Or something and you’re like [ __ ] my Life why did i share this uh and and you And you just hate this and you’re like Oh that’s this is over i’m [ __ ] et Cetera um and So it has dramatic but yeah okay Slightly but like this is a podcast we Have to do like user like a viewer Retention so i have to overdramatize you Know that’s how it works Um but Anyway The thing is like you were probably not Alone in unish to start with right it’s Like you probably invent a brand new Niche or something of a brand new Product especially if you’re listening To this podcast you’re probably like an Affiliate or something so you need a Niche where there is products you can Affiliate therefore there are other Affiliate sites etc so In my opinion let’s say you guys you’re Competing for the same keyword that guy Literally checked your site pick some of Your keywords and ranks for them as well Let’s say you’re ranked number three and He ranks number five right something
Like that like something that is still Like yeah you’d be annoyed like you’d See it next to your listing on google et Cetera Actually virtually changes absolutely Nothing in that situation because If he wasn’t here like another Competitor would be here and whether you Know him in real life or not change is Absolutely nothing to your like to the Traffic to your site etc in my opinion This kind of competition only matters Where when four query you are number one And two let’s say there’s someone that You gave some competitive insight to and You end up on you know some kind of Obscure query you’re like oh this Keyword like nobody targets it but i’m Making a lot of money for it like that’s The kind of comment you probably want to Avoid in real life um and then you you End up being number one and two then yes There’s a chance this guy’s gonna Overtake you and that could really cost You quite a bit of money number one to Number two is quite a bit but in any Other situation number one and three Number one and four number two and four Etc in the end another competitor is Above you and is taking that traffic and You’re kind of competing with the guests That are above you anyway and it’s very Rare that these guys that you shared That idea with end up stealing direct
Traffic from your site even though it’s Frustrating because you know the guy and You know where his idea came from and It’s like well that’s that kind of sucks Um But it does happen um and um and one Thing that uh like i’ll give you an Example of the case where it could have Happened to us when we were in the Software niche that’s the other case Study that is on the authority hacker Site that i wrote like uh two years Something ago Uh and basically we’re in a in a Software niche and the way i found Keywords was not by looking at Competitors but by looking at the Support section Of these software we were affiliating And finding all the problems of Compatibilities that people had with Different brands of the software and i Would recommend a brand of the software That didn’t have this compatibility Issue so for example you’d be like oh This software doesn’t work on mac What do i do and then And then my article will be like well Yeah by default this software doesn’t Work on mac and there’s really nothing You can do but they have a 30 day money Back guarantee you can get a refund and You can buy this one that does work on Mac for example and then i when i would
Say this one it would be my affiliate And nobody else did that in that Competitive industry etc And If i had sharda in real life that would Have been the case where i would Actually have lost money which is why Even with real life friends I tend to not share like our best money Making stuff right now uh in very Explicit details because i want to avoid That and especially when it’s like kind Of sneaky and we’ve found some unique Angles and things like that which can Happen but in every other case you don’t Have to worry too much about it 99 of The time if someone if like you’re Competing on the best keyword together It really doesn’t matter unless you guys Are number one and two um but what do You think about the conundrum So i see there’s two types of people There’s people who share openly People who share openly like hey this is My site this is what i do it’s on their Linkedin profile or whatever and then People that you know You just will not get what their Business out of them you have no idea What they do it’s like yeah i i run Affiliate sites And that that’s how they introduce Themselves Um and i i get it
Why someone would be very protective About it because it stops people Copycatting or piggybacking or whatever You want to call it um at this this kind Of early stage Um based on based on your idea I’ll be honest i don’t know how many People go and start a successful Business based on You know a chat at the bar about hearing Someone else like oh i run a You know Paintball site or whatever um of course I do i don’t know i don’t know too many People that that that go and go and die Because it’s a lot of work right you’re Probably gonna do like some actual Research and and look at like what are The best best niches and and all that What what you find What i’ve noticed is that people who are Going and like pull like copycatting the Niche Uh they tend to be beginners and they’re Maybe like not sure how to do it Themselves or if this works and they Find out this person makes you know 10 Grand a month so like oh i’ll just copy Their site and i’ll also make 10 grand a Month or Half of that or whatever most of the Time it doesn’t work out most of the Time it’s small like you know it’s kind Of like a rock in your shoe you know
These people are not very good but they Can kind of like hold you on like one or Two keywords yeah so that’s more Annoying than actual Damaging Um I would say as well the downside of Being secret um is You you can’t get ideas from other People you can’t talk about your Business with other people you can’t Kind of market it as well you know if You go on like a podcast Or something yeah exactly Um and you know some people don’t don’t Like doing that anyway so that that’s That’s not a big deal um but i mean Personally As we we do it with authority hacker we Put ourselves out there and stuff but on The flip side with our other sites we’re Mostly somewhat more kind of reserved And stuff and i would say that’s Probably You know a large part due to past Experiences with With copy gang and uh It’s a bit different for us because Because we’re exposed like it’s like we Have yeah we’re exposed through these Podcasts through the content Etc like people want to know which sites We’re running And it’s like you know if nobody cared
About what i’m doing i wouldn’t mind at All putting my face on stuff Now it’s like when we start a new site We kind of have to keep it under wraps At least until which is a certain level Of authority So that people don’t just go ahead and Copy every single thing we do yeah Because they think there’s some kind of Like magic formula in what we do with Something a couple years ago we had uh Miles beckler on this podcast and he had That exact issue when he did a public Case study and when spencer hawes was on As well when we interviewed him we asked Him about this and he was like yeah i’m Probably i don’t know if we’re going to Do another public case study because of This issue um yeah it’s different when You’re you have you know hundreds of Thousands of people following you and Getting advice on Building sites um than it is if you’re Just you know a random person getting Started in in this you know i would i Would veer towards the Less uh let’s be open and tell people What i’m i’m doing side of things Yeah i agree um i i if if you’re not Public in this industry then i would say It’s not really an issue people don’t Care as much uh maybe what you can do is You can share what you do but not Necessarily sure how well he’s doing
Which i i would tend to prefer yeah and This way it attracts less people and Makes them want less want to copy it You’re like yeah he’s doing okay and Maybe you’re killing it or something you Know it’s it’s interesting i was just Just at this uh the the this conference And um It’s totally not like that at all but i Have been to other conferences in the Past where people try and sort of like Ego bait you to Um to sort of like reveal how to say What all sites are doing and and things Like that Um yeah so just just be prepared for for That kind of thing Um if you’ve done that right so you mean In chiang mai right uh no a different One actually Okay all right not in chiang mai then Okay let’s jump on to the next section Which is not necessarily when people Copy your whole site idea but they go Ahead and you know they put your site in Hrefs and they find your top pages and They start copying that and you see them Releasing page after page that’s like Your top pages and you’re like yeah i Know exactly what you’re doing here uh That’s quite annoying etc um and you end Up overlapping in rankings usually when You start seeing these people creep up In like you’re competing domain report
In ahrefs then you know they tend to do That so i’d like to like you know for Example like a good idea to identify the People who do that is you go in the Competing report uh the uh in ahrefs And you screenshot it every month and You see which domains are like creeping Up and you might catch the people who Are doing that basically um i mean first Of all It’s not going to be an answer people Want to hear but it’s part of the game Right when you when your business is Marketing material you cannot make it Private uh same way as like if someone Invents an amazing outreach template for Link building they kind of have to send It to website owners Otherwise otherwise it doesn’t work and That’s kind of the problem it’s like Well you when you’re doing marketing it Has to be public because the point is to Promote stuff um so there is some of That another thing to note is that I actually have done the test i took Google analytics side by side with Ahrefs and even semrush and i was Looking at our top 25 pages on three Different sites it was only 60 accurate Which means that quite often some of Your best pages are actually buried at Like top 50 like quite quite a lot below The top 10 or top 15 Uh and that allows you to kind of like
Hide your stuff quite a bit and they Won’t see everything basically um then There’s this concept Um that i like which is like usually the Site that copy you they won’t Necessarily have the exact same niche as You um like maybe One of you is like a paintball site and One is a outdoor recreation site for Example and they will start copying you Let’s say if you have the uh outdoor Recreation site or even if you have a Paintball site you start like what i do Is i i let them take over That hub and i start a hub that doesn’t Fit the scope of their site so let’s say I have this outdoor recreation site and This paintball site is copying me my Paintball hub for example then i’ll go And like you know I’ll do inflatable swimming pools or Something i’ll do i’ll go and focus my Uh yeah i know it’s a great hub idea Mark i see you like it um And and i i’ll go for something they Can’t copy and what i let them do is i Let them take the burden of what i call The r d of the hub which means like if They’re copying me they’re probably Around the same level of authority as me And what it means is like the rnd for me Is like When you have nobody else to copy you Kind of have to throw content at the
Wall and see what works and what doesn’t And you will tend to have more content That doesn’t hit than when you copy Someone else right so If that happens what i do is i let them I’m like okay fine you want to play that Game i’ll go focus my money somewhere Else like and you know maybe reverse Engineer someone else that doesn’t match What your site does and i’ll let you Catch that content but then you have to If you want to keep going you have to go Beyond and try keywords i haven’t tried And then i will go ahead and go back to Your site later and i will find the Stuff that has worked on the stuff that You threw at the wall and i will copy That and i will make you pay back for What you made me pay basically so it’s Kind of like a chess game right you’ve Got you’ve gotta like um and i’m and i Let them pay with their money Back In r d what they stole from me in r d b That’s kind of the idea uh That i i see i see you like the sneaky Tactics but that that’s definitely like Video game type uh mentality stuff when You’re doing pvp games etc um i think The the other thing with that is just The bigger your site gets like if you’re The biggest site in your niche you’re Just gonna get people doing this you’re Gonna have to try all the time like you
Will not be able to have like secret Keywords like people will copy every Single keyword you have but then the Next thing that you can do is you know You need to think like the person is Doing the acute research they’re Throwing your site in hrefs and they’re Looking at the stats right and then if The stats are good they will go for that Keyword and the stats are bad they will Not go for that keyword right so how About you manufacture stats that make The keywords look worse On your pages For example um If like you’ve done guest posting in the Past for example right let’s say you Have a page that’s already killing it It’s killing it with very few links You’re just ranking and authority was a Great keyword it happens right Go ahead and go back to all the sites You’ve already guessed posted to and get Some links to that page because if they Start seeing lots of linking root Domains to that page they’ll be like Well they’re ranking but they have a lot Of ranking domains therefore that must Be why they’re ranking it’s not such an Easy keyword though so i’m not there’s Less chances they will copy that on top Of you strengthening your rankings and Probably keeping them if things are Checking up anyway
Especially if that page is valuable to You so that’s one thing that you can do You can start manufacturing the stats in The sub preview think about the stats You can see it’s like linking the Domains it’s domain rating and stuff Like that so another thing i like to do As well is You know for example we’re doing it for A few sites right now we’re pushing dr Quite fast like we’re trying to push dr Up quite fast so like we have a site That jumped up like 10 dr points or Something in the last tweak or something Like by pushing really hard link Building and that what it allows you to Do as well is it allows you to make the Stats well because when they open the The First of all people tend to copy low dr Sites that are ranking well so if you Stand if you if you’re able to push your Dr up with stuff like shotgun skyscraper Etc there’s less chances they will push They will copy you and also the stats Are going to look worse which means that It’s not going to work very well another Thing i like to do when i when a lot of People are actively covering me is um i Like to use my ability to understand the Flaws of keyword research tools in terms Of search volume and target keywords That i know will have such volume but Shows your search volume on the keyboard
Tool because again It will allow you to like lose their Attention like they’ll be like oh these Guys are doing [ __ ] now i’m not copying Them anymore and just jump onto the next You get to copy and then i’ll go back to That um And do that and another thing as well is If you’re lower dr Then the guy that you have noticed is Copying your keywords One thing i’ve done as well is while Doing keyword research i’ve held back The absolute gem best keywords until i Catch up with them in terms of site Metrics at least and i throw them off With all the the the Zero search volume type keywords etc and When i get to the point where i’m like Okay now we have the same metrics we Caught up with the the hour so i’m Saying that yeah push or something Now i’m gonna put the content that i Know is the real gems because i know It’s going to be a lot harder for you to Go ahead and snag that keyword for me Once i’m settled you know um so like It is it is that you got to be a little Bit sneaky you’ve got to go in the head Of the guys that are copying you and You’ve got to either manufacture stats Or like make it distractive through your Dr or understand the flaws or kill tools That many people will not understand
Basically back in the day we had a Health and nutrition blog and the it’s Changed now but the biggest site or one Of the biggest sites in that space at The time this is sort of like 2014-15 Was a doctorax.com and i remember they Used to block Ahrefs um You can block hrefs yeah you can block His but the only thing that it blocks is The links coming from your site to other Sites like describe google to get your Rankings Um so i don’t know how they got off Ahrefs but i actually was checking uh Before we when we were preparing this Podcast like how the hr’s block bot Works and how to block it and you cannot Do that actually like they say they will Only not show the links from your site To other sites if you block basically They will not show the information that Is on your site but they have no problem Showing data about your domain that is Not on your site like your rankings or Your potential traffic so it’s nice they Can find links to your site on other Sites which you can screen exactly from The serp so yeah you can’t really get Exactly around that actually yeah i’ll I’ll probably ping tim and i’ll ask him If it’s possible to do that and uh maybe I’ll update next podcast because this is A question i have like can you opt off
Ahrefs Even if you can you just use one of the Less well known Keyword tools and they tend not to be Blocked so The main use of self stat is to is to Literally get the data that is blocked By two hours you know because everyone’s Blocking hscm rush but nobody blocks Substance so it’s like If you’re if you’re a sneaky person in a Sneaky niche then a subscription to sub Stat is uh not a bad investment That’s all i want to say here including Links and pbns is a really good place to Find them as well all right let’s talk About uh content itself when when that Gets coffee because when we first got Started 11 plus years ago that actually used to Be quite a big problem where a big site Would copy the content of a small site And sometimes even even outrank them I think it was the Panda Panda update this was like again going Back probably nine years When google Changed it so that the first site i Don’t think it was panda i’m pretty sure It was no Maybe i think it was caffeine but i’m Not 100 sure I thought it was all about duplicate
Content panda and penguin So if someone is old enough in listening To this podcast then you can let us know Uh it’s one of these updates around that Time yes one of these animals anyway was The the change was the first site to Publish an article was credited as the Original source and anything else In theory would be discounted now there Are a few tricks and Peculiarities around that wasn’t Actually the first site to be pop to Publish it was the first site to have it Indexed and if your site didn’t get Indexed very often and another one did Then there was potentially some some Issues there but more or less it solved The issue and you don’t have to worry About people just copying your content And out ranking you from about 2011 Onwards One interesting case we had even after This is we had a writer that started Writing some content for us Uh and as it was going through the Publishing process so we would have to Edit it you know upload it find all the Images and stuff she actually published It on her blog this was a kind of Innocent mistake but she was she was Publishing it and it was getting indexed On her blog Before It was being published on on our site so
Essentially that’s how we paid her for Her content yeah so she did she didn’t Understand seo she didn’t know what she Was doing here didn’t know that was a Big deal but Yeah That that’s one thing that that happened To us so just be careful for little Little things like that and you know if You’re Have like a demo version of a site or Your what do you call it like a staging Area which it gets indexed you know There’s there are Be potentials With things like that so just be very Careful to make sure that the first time Google sees a piece of content Published on the site is is on on your Site On on that topic uh i don’t think people Know but if you use grammarly premium it Actually has a duplicate content checker And it shows you all the sites with the Sources where content may come from etc So grammarly is not only a great tool For like non-native speakers like me to Like actually fix stuff like that that Allows you to write the newsletter for Example like it helps me a lot Um But it also uh helps you follow that Kind of stuff to find this kind of like Duplicate content if a writer has been
Submitting content that was published Somewhere else and stuff like that so I highly recommend chrome melody premium Because all together it’s a pretty good Tool uh it’s not too expensive at all so Yeah And another issue which happens a lot is Scraping sites i don’t know why half of These sites do it but You will have if you go into your ahrefs For for your own site you will have Hundreds of sites which Scrape the content on your site and Publish it on on their own site as a Blog post not sure what exactly what They’re doing half the time i i really Can’t understand the business model uh Here it’s mostly automated but it Happens I would say just in general like don’t Worry about it it’s generally not gonna Affect you some people freak out when They see um sites doing this for the First time it’s not that big Yeah um if The so that’s kind of like the the Direct wholesale copying which generally You don’t have to worry about these days It’s not gonna affect your seo there are Some more indirect ways of copying Though so For example if you have an article 10 10 Things about paintball 10 beginner Paintball tips um you can have someone
Come in and Not only copy your keyword but go Through your article and all their tips Are the same as yours all their examples Are the same as yours their conclusion Is the same as yours They’ve essentially re rewritten the Article Uh so it’s unique in the eyes of google It’s not not um the same and they’re not Going to be penalized but They’ve Still kind of like stolen from you Intellectually speaking and you know Patel did a few times to us actually i Mean I’ve heard like a lot of stuff that he’s He’s done i have actually i actually Have a story about this people people Love these kind of stories i know it uh It’s i and i’ll tell you which blog post It wasn’t a toy hacker it was the one on Freshness about updating the publish Date you know that i did uh it was like That plugin i had found at the time Which i don’t recommend anymore um but You know at the time it was it was kind Of good it allowed you to update the Schema data on on your post i would just Like i showed like the [ __ ] crazy Bumps in rankings from just changing the Public date right um so i wrote that Story it was pretty unique like nobody Was talking about this etc literally two
Weeks later I’ll just say his name like Bloggingx.com This guy literally just writes the exact Same thing with the exact same plugin The exact same examples the exact same Everything And actually ends up outranking us and Then comes to me I think two months later like oh i’m a Huge fan i would love to like work Together etc i’m like [ __ ] off you just Copied our content et cetera so yes it Does happen to us it will happen to you Too and people will do that um but i Think one thing that is interesting with That is not necessarily this kind of Tutorial i was giving you but rather These posts Because i think something’s very Specific is happening with list post With search intent which is More and more In these posts it tends to be the the Post with the most links That uh that the most items rather in The in the list that tends to rank Higher it just ends up becoming a list Arms Yeah exactly it’s like you start like You know top 10 things and then it’s Like top 12 things and then top 15 and You end up like we have some some Keywords so it’s like top 120 and stuff
Like it’s just like Insane right and it’s like uh lists i’ll Be coming at that and so they’re a very Very good opportunity for people to go Ahead and go and steal your your points You know so like you just still like the The sub points because eventually uh you You cannot and so Again it’s one of these things where I now Let people Go ahead but barely you know it’s like i I monitor the page and every time they Change the page And they update the list items let’s say They copied us like we were at 12 and They were at 10 and they did like 14 Let’s say you know like to try to update I let them get to 14 and then the day They update the article i let them do The work and i go and take their points After they stolen from me and i just let Them do all the research and then my Writer like has twice less work and can Update you know within 48 hours and Really the effect on rankings is minimal At that point whether if you’re fast Enough you know i i know one guy um i’m Not going to say which niche because It’ll probably reveal who it is but had That arms race going on and he he wrote Like you know 22 things about whatever Um And he actually then also had his writer
Write like 35 or 44 things about it so It’s written it’s in draft format ready To go so as soon as the competitor did Like 30 things about it he published it And it was like you know yeah so so it Kind of dissuaded people there but you Could argue that that just makes the Whole thing worse you know uh yeah i Mean in the end like lease posts Eventually what happens is then you hit A too high world count to the point it Starts to be to be detrimental to your Uh page on time and stuff like that Which eventually you lose rankings so Then the list items have to get shorter And shorter and shorter and then you end Up with literally just a giant bull Bullet list and that’s the post you know And that’s The Nonsense that is google search intent uh Not relying on link matrix but rather Relying on this kind of stuff And also because numbers in title tags Is what makes people click so when There’s like 120 versus 100 or something People will click the highest number Because they think it’s better but That’s essentially the the arms range Nonsense that google search intent has Introduced to some types of query and i Am amazed that they haven’t identified That and i would not be surprised that If the next few years there’s some
Reversal of such intent to some extent Actually Um sometimes sometimes with this as well You know it can be we’ve had like Friends of ours do this to us and stuff And it’s it’s not necessarily like done Out of evil like the the person at the Top think ah let’s get mark and gail but You know their editors looked at it and You know that’s that’s the way you beat People you look at their keywords and You do better than them so like I would just say like don’t take this Stuff too personally when it when it Happens it’s part of the game of seo um It’s a competition at the end of the day Um and and you have to play it in order To to succeed i i do have one really Interesting case uh where someone went a Little bit far with this so they had Basically done this with their writer They’d uh they said you know Rewrite mark and gayle’s content make Try and make it a bit better Um and they They did that i wouldn’t say they didn’t Made it any better it was at best like 80 is good but they’d actually use the Same images which we had used as well And I think they tried to argue that oh They’re just generic images from from The site but was it hotline it was uh no It wasn’t hot linked um sometimes it was
Even like cropped and changed and the Arrows were different and stuff but they Had used the source images it was like a Elementor review or something like that And It had my login in it so like we were Logged into wordpress um and like my Photo was in the profile at the top Right and i think it was even like our Website and and the picture as well so They hadn’t really thought this through Particularly well now there’s nothing You can do if someone’s rewriting your Content and You know doing this legally speaking There’s nothing you can do Um but if they are using your images That’s different so i want to talk about That now because i have a trick for Images too after going images well any Image you create you hold the copyright For and people cannot or they’re not Allowed to use that without your Permission it happens all the time but The law says they’re they’re not Supposed to do that You can identify this Mainly through reverse image search so If you take any image go to google Images and you just drag and drop the Image or upload it there google will Find where that image is on the web and There are tools like tinai and there are A few other ones which will do this
Automatically so it kind of monitors it Whether someone someone’s doing this you Can upload all your all your images There We had stacy mcnaught on this this Podcast um some time ago and she talked About doing this as a way of Link building so whenever this happens Whenever someone’s using your image you Can reach out to them and say you know Hey Don’t do this you know you’re not Supposed to but um it’s okay if you link To me In a nicer way but essentially that’s The message you’re yourself Communicating and she builds quite a lot Of links um that way we’ve tried it a Little bit haven’t had too much success With it but i i think we haven’t like Properly optimized it yet um if you Actually don’t want them using your Image though for for whatever reason um Then you have the right to get it taken Down and there are a few different ways You can you can do this More if it’s a reputable site if you Just ask them to take it down they Probably will because you know they’re The law-abiding citizens and they they Don’t want to get sued Um Interesting case though um there’s a There’s a company called getty images
And if you’ve been running websites for Any amount of time you probably had an Email them from them at some point Threatening to sue you and there are a Few other companies do do this as well They they own the copyright to millions Of images and they’re constantly Searching for people who Who use them It can be something innocent like Someone’s downloaded it from a stock Site and then uploaded it to a free Stock site and then you’ve downloaded it From the free stock site thinking it’s Free but it’s not and then you get an Email saying hey you’re damaging our Reputation and brand pay us ten thousand Dollars Um if you ever are on the receiving end Of something like that don’t respond Because it’s it’s one of those things Where the people who respond get milked Um there’s so many people doing it that The people who don’t respond You know they tend not to not to follow Up and i even heard of one case with This where it’s like shotgun lawsuits You know it is that’s exactly what it is Shotgun shakedowns with um with uh Copyright and i even heard one case Where someone someone paid Not the whole 10k but like a couple Grand And then
They hit them immediately with like 10 Other Um demands for payment as well For other images which they that they’d Used and they hadn’t had their lawyer to Make sure that they wouldn’t get sued And that was at the end of it that was The final settlement then they just done All their stuff so just be very careful With with images and this kind of stuff And the final thing you can do is called A dmca Digital millennium copyright act um it’s A law which was passed uh To basically protect against napster i Believe uh which is one of the first Music sharing sites but also all the Young people here Yeah you know this is this is the how i Got my first mp3s in i don’t know 1995. We’ll go after you now um yeah But the dmca takedown notice is a very Quick way that a copyright holder can Notify A hosting company or most likely it’s Going to be google and if they send it To google then they will remove your Your article your your link from A serp now it’s not going to take down Your your whole website but if your Article has um copyright images on it um Someone sends you dmca google removed That url from from their index So yeah just be be very careful of that
As well okay i have another trick if you Want to like annoy people who hot link Your images uh if that’s i mean first of All there is a tool to prevent hot Linking in cloudflare so if you’re using Cloudflare perfect to turn that on Because this uses your bandwidth as well If you’re using like a high quality host Or something you’re going to pay for People’s bandwidth if they steal your Images which is quite annoying um but Another thing you can do is like we Actually have a plugin that we use to Manage our images on toyhaka and some Other sites called wpmedia folder And that also gives you the opportunity To replace an image so like update an Image will keep the same url right So you see where i’m going here You can literally make an image that is Just like a giant ad for your site or Something like that and replace that Like any image that gets stolen too much You can replace that image with like a Big url to your site or even a url to an Affiliate author like you can make an ad Whatever you want right And if you replace that image then Everyone who is hot linking to that Image is now going to start showing that Little ad that you put together and all You have to do is go back to your Original post re-upload the image with a Different url and change it in your post
And you get a bunch of free advertising So if people are stealing your images You can either block them with Cloudflare or you can use their Impressions to advertise whatever you Want i’m really learning a lot about you Gail i’m so glad i never Got on the wrong side of you like I feel like you’d be like very um Like formidable foe in like some kind of Vendetta Well i it’s like it’s all the online Gaming and like you know trying to find Every little strategy to like outdo your Opponents in pvp and stuff like that It’s the same mentality that you can Apply to online marketing um so yeah It’s like obviously when i think about You know More let’s say ethical tactics obviously The less ethical ones also comes through My head So it’s like i’m sorry these ones are Like not very bad and plus in the first Place these people are telling your Stuff so it’s like i don’t feel bad About that um yeah i i would say with All of this stuff with with copycats Like it’s very easy to get drawn into Like an emotional like oh they yeah I should hurt them Most of the time you’re better off like Ignoring them and just focusing on like Doing well with your own business rather
Than trying to like hurt someone someone Else’s um most of the time uh there are Exceptions of course but i i’m sharing All this stuff but i i you know it’s the Stuff i’ve done once or something like More for like does this work or Something you know like just to like you Know the hotlinking i was like okay can I really just control the content on Their site now that they’ve had linking To my image it’s like it was just like Interesting to try but like most of the Time it’s not was it i just triggered That option in cloudflare and that’s it You know um Yeah so like it’s just fun i want to Talk briefly about uh company names and And branding and that kind of stuff Because when you’re starting your site This is a something which a lot of People overlook they don’t look to see If a company exists already with a name Or similar name And if that trademark has been Registered something’s very important When you’re Trying to come up with a domain name There are multiple like millions of Cases where Companies have had to change their name After they got to even a reasonable Reasonable size Um it happened to perrin you know like When perry installed
Hip-hop uh actually you know his dog is Called chewie and He called it chewy says uh which Obviously chewie.com wasn’t very happy With yeah and he got hit By uh you know a trademark infringement And he had to hand over the domain to Them And he I think now i think he he redirected i’m Not sure like he either redirected or Handled over the domain but yeah he had To she’s in the assist under that Trademark basically and so like uh yeah It happens to people even at a small Scale and it happened to someone that You might have followed if you’ve been Following this for a long time And that’s where hip-hop came from Initially the rules with this stuff are Basically whoever was doing it first Uh has the has the first use trademark Now In most countries most western countries Like united states united kingdom the Company using the name first Is the legal owner of the the trademark Essentially and registering the Trademark just really cements that fact In in law other countries like china you Can be using a name for 10 years and if Someone comes along and registers that Trademark they’ve never used it before They own the trademark so you have to be
Careful in which country you’re in and And whatnot but that’s generally how Trademark law works there’s a very Interesting case with nissan.com Which is not the website for a very Large car company but it’s the website For a small Computer repair shop somewhere in the us And they were actually using the name Nissan computers i think it was before Nissan used the the name nissans nissan Used to be use the brand datsun or Something like that when it first first Came to the us i believe Um and they they still hold the the Domain name but it’s been like a Horrible experience for them because They’ve been had to pay millions of Dollars to defend uh their case in in Court and fight various legal battles And stuff so generally Even if you’re on the right side of this Stuff if you’re going off against a Large corporation it’s not worth the Time and hassle like just be be careful That you’re not infringing on anyone’s Trademark with your your name Um there is a there is a process to Fight against this for uh cyber Squatters and people who are are Like buying similar domains to to yours We’ve actually Um we didn’t end up going through with It in the end because we we managed to
Get the domain another way but someone Registered authority hackers The plural.com Um and quite a few people actually Thought we were called authority hackers Because Two of us so authority hacker authority Hackers the the authority hackers And they they registered that domain Name And they copied our home page the design Logo images everything Uh they changed the text just ever so Slightly and then they redirected it to A sales page for another affiliate Training course that the guy had made it Was like some russian dude Um which was Bizarre i’m not sure if anyone ended up Buying that or or whatever but we i Think he was getting traffic though like Some try some research for sure i mean Look we’re losing ahrefs and they’re Actually getting some links you know People had mistyped it and things like That Um So basically we we had to do some Internet detectiving and find out who he Was i remember that um ended up like Sending him a bunch of letters like to His address and like uh where he worked Didn’t he say to his job as well didn’t You know
Yeah Uh i mean it was like it was clear There’s like cyber squatting you know Just holding a domain and then there’s Like you know real cyber squatting like What he was doing pretending to be us Basically um so He ended up like not renewing it and we We managed to get it so that that’s good But it’s a cautionary tale you know once You get to a certain size you’ll start Encountering problems like this so It’s a good idea to acquire you know The.net and the Um dot uk and uh like all sorts of Different tlds the plural authority Hyphen hacker We we’ve got now um and it’s not like When you spend like 200 bucks a year on Domain names for authority hacker um Which is which is crazy but you know you Got to do That to sort of protect your brand Uh we did we do have a trademark Register for authority accur and that Helped us in the next example which is Social media handles now i remember that Social media handles are different from Domain names in that companies like Facebook instagram snapchat they don’t Like people buying and selling them And creating like a digital real estate Market in them i believe it’s against Their their terms of service to to buy
Or sell a username However there are some cases when people Are using it in in bad faith Someone when we first started authority Hacker Someone had the twitter handle um so our Twitter handle was authority hacker Without the e like h a h-a-c-k-r uh Which was a bit [ __ ] but there you go That’s always available um and then that Person somehow maybe they they dropped Their account and then someone else Picked it up I was an indian guy and he Contacted us first of all trying to sell It to us for like five grand or Something Yeah and then shortly after he changed Like the image on it to be us Um basically the bio was was linking to Our website pretending to be us posting Content Uh like posting stuff from our site so a Lot of people actually followed him and Not a lot but like people started Following him thought thought it was us And we’re not that he ended up Redirecting or like linking to some like Affiliate offers and like just dodgy Stuff So twitter have a process Where if someone’s trying to impersonate You you can file a dispute and in order To file that dispute you have to have
A registered trademark so we had a Registered trademark in the united States which was handy and Filed dispute present in dollar evidence That he tried to sell it how he was Pretending to be us all that stuff and Then they awarded the Twitter account to us which you can go Follow now at twitter.com forward slash Authority hacker Um you need a lot and we didn’t have to Pay 5000 for it yeah so you need a lot Of you need a lot of document documented Proof and Have everything in place how do you get The Trademark like how does it work so it’s Very simple uh you you can do it Yourself on the the uh patent and tr Patent and trademark office is it pto i Think it’s called in the us can we link To this or something we will do yeah uh If you’re kind of not like comfortable With that stuff like i wasn’t the first Time we did it because you know we’re in The uk and it’s different system and all That Actually i believe now if you’re outside Of the us you have to use a lawyer to Use it then they change their rules on That Um so we went um with What was uh We i actually had him on the on the
Podcast uh his name was randy so we’ll We’ll link to that show uh up up here It’s probably not going to be on youtube Actually it was but before we did video Um but he he came on and he he sort of Did it for us i think you paid like 400 Bucks 300 bucks or something to So what is it Like well in that case when you uh you Have a domain issue but Like Once your business starts getting Towards a certain point like i don’t Know mid Mid six figures like you start Encountering like issues like this People who want to take advantage of People trying to take advantage of you Definitely you know when you’re you’re Starting this brand new you know brand New website you don’t have to bother uh Forking out 400 bucks to to do this but Once you once you get going it’s Something you should seriously consider It protects your brand and also when you Sell your website if you have a Trademark that’s it’s not a big deal but A buyer will potentially value your site Slightly higher so you’re probably going To get your money back um In that case eventually um just just From that I’d say if you’re like going for like The very branded aspect of things et
Cetera if you’re like a thin affiliate Site probably not lost it yeah um but if You’re going for something a bit more Branded you have photos of people around And personalities around your site etc Then I would maybe consider it And uh this brings me on to our next Point which which happened to us Relatively Soon after we launched uh authority Hacker pro is that people started to and This will happen if you have an info Product this will will happen to you i Guarantee it people started downloading Copying ripping the product and then First it appeared on some like torrent Sites it was on reddit for for a little Bit Um and then People started reselling it and this was This is new to me i didn’t know this This industry existed but there’s an Entire industry of uh sites which uh Copy info products and resell them for Like 20 bucks 50 bucks whatever and it’s Absolutely infuriating the first time You you come across this i’ve seen People who Run info product sites discover this is Happening and give up doing info Products because because of it because It’s it hits on like such an emotional Nerve for them
I would say It’s it’s a bit annoying but at the end Of the day this is a business problem There’s business solutions to this so Try and approach it with a with a level Head By the way if you’re a buyer of info Products be very careful uh with these Sites because um some of them especially The ones that charging crypto don’t Actually deliver anything they just Steal your money yeah some of them are Like ps campsites actually yeah yeah Uh and often you don’t get the full Course or it’s like a five-year-old Version Whatever okay yeah Um There are a few ways to go after them You can go after their payment provider But basically tell them what they’re Doing Show evidence that they’ve stolen your Content you can go after their hosting The same way but the most common way is Go after them in the serp so no one can Find them by issuing a dmca takedown Notice um and google will respond like Very quickly usually within a few hours If you if you do that and Yeah people generally won’t be able to To find them Now this process of dmca takedowns is Very effective but i’ve seen the reverse
Of it also happen Uh a friend of youtube dmc yeah negative Dmca A friend of mine had written a review For a uh affiliate marketing course not R1 and another one and it was a pretty Bad course and we wrote a pretty bad Review And then uh suddenly someone made a Brand new site it was like basic WordPress theme they copied his article Wholesale Pasted it on their site and then they Issued a dmca against him saying hey i Wrote this article and this this Person’s copied it and so they google Took down uh his site Uh or that article um based on that and Like the guys who they did it down like His name was on it his photos were on it Like i’m so-and-so this is my site um So it was like yeah horrendous kind of Situation had to fight back about it but You know filed the camera claim and and It was it was gone if anyone’s getting Any bad ideas about like trying to do This to people it’s actually like a Really Serious crime um i think it’s like a Federal crime in in the us which is like A more serious one that’s like perjury Or something Um so Yeah don’t do it uh but it’s a thing you
Have to can’t think about sometimes yeah I’m wondering if you’re helping people Or hurting people right now Uh anyway So how did he fix it When they file the claim um you get the Option to respond so he responded showed Evidence that he was in the right and Then it took them a couple weeks but They restored it yeah Can you imagine doing that during like The holiday season or something yeah Yeah and You know this is this okay that’s my Evil side coming up again this is Something which um we haven’t really Encountered it too too much because We’re not in any like Really like cutthroat competitive niches But The guys in like gambling and cbd i’m Sure this stuff goes on like all the Time Can you imagine like mattresses for Black friday yeah like that must be like The [ __ ] dmca fiesta to like get Number one two three four five out you Know yeah yeah Okay well that was that’s interesting i Hope google does something about it Doesn’t just like remove results because Like what’s the point otherwise like It’s it’s kind of useless um Yeah anything to add to this podcast yes
As i said before copycats and everything That goes around it’s something which You’re gonna encounter multiple times as Your business grows the bigger you get The more it’s gonna impact you don’t Take it personally though just approach It logically calmly And do what’s in your best interest not In the best interest of hurting the People who do this to you yeah i think That’s the main thing it’s like don’t Get don’t become that like revenge Person that needs to like like wants to Get it back because they were not nice So you should not be nice to them it’s Like most of the time your time is Better spent Just keep doing what you’re doing if They’re copying you’re probably doing Okay Uh and therefore do more of that and if You came up with the original ideas You’re still ahead of them because They’re just looking at what you’re Going to do next and you can [ __ ] with Them with the stats i talked about et Cetera So so there’s a ways to kind of recluse Them etc But most of the time doing nothing is The best course of action and i think um Yeah don’t It think it should be the main message Of this podcast is it’s going to happen
To you but most of the time it doesn’t Matter um so all these are very wise Words which is quite right from my side Um we’re going to leave you we thank you For coming to join this podcast if you Enjoyed it don’t forget to like and Subscribe below so that you don’t miss Any of our future episodes and we have Some youtube videos that are pretty cool Are coming too so join in there drop us A comment let us know what you want us To cover next on the podcast we’re Reading all the comments we don’t reply To all of them but read them thank you For joining in have a good week [Music] You