It has emerged that Google has announced updates to its search ranking systems. From now on, websites who are gaining a false start on competitors by using pirated content are likely to be penalised. 

Google’s Amit Singhai said: 

"We will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results.” 

But what does this mean for you? 

The good news is that if your site is chock-full of cracking content that’s yours and yours alone, then you’ve nothing to worry about. In fact, these updates could help your rankings if your competitors use content that infringes copyright law. 

But now more than ever, it’s clear that if you’re going to be ranking well in Google, you need to be featuring content that’s definitely yours. Make sure that your website uses copy, pictures and videos that are purely yours or used with permission. 

Help! I’ve been slapped by the updates and it’s not my fault! 

Fear not. Nice Mr Singhai will allow you to state your case, and any unjust removals will be reinstated:

“We’ll continue to provide ‘counter-notice‘ tools so that those who believe their content has been wrongly removed can get it reinstated. We’ll also continue to be transparent about copyright removals.”

Phew. 

If you are worried that your content may have been copied, or that the person who wrote it may have ‘lifted’ it from elsewhere, then one handy tool for checking duplication from Copyscape can be found here.

Would you like to make your business more visible on Google? Does your website need original, compelling content? Find out how we can help by contacting us today on 029 2076 6467 and have a chat with our friendly SEO and copywriting teams.