Meta tag theft

[peblaco]

I found a site that has copied word for word title and meta tags of a site I built (just changed the company name) and copied text from another site I know. (By the way the site owner is an Actinic registered designer / forum member so they should know better! mentioning no names).

I wouldn't mind since it's a huge form of flattery. But I mention it because their seo rankings have taken a giant jump up (in certain keywords above site I built) purely because of picking up words in the title/tags they copied. Any suggestions on how to approach this? Do I have a case with meta tag copying and contact the owner about it? or do I just leave it and would the search engines eventually pick up on it and sort it out? (or is that just duplicate text and doesn't apply to meta tags).

[completerookie]

flattery is very nice, but.....
voice your concerns directly to the owner/designer and give them an opportunity to explain, and change the website

if that doesn't work, name and shame them

Youv'e put all the work in for them to simply reap the rewards

[Duncan Rounding]

I would think that anything published, be it meta tags, code or content may be copyrighted if specified, but of course enforcing that is another story.

Initailly an email stating the facts with examples, and a phone call perhaps may sort it out.

[guccij]

When this happened to me a couple of months ago (not meta tags, just chunks of my carefully hand crafted copy :D), I got a stiff lawyer's letter courtesy of my union sent across to the person in question. They backed down immediately and changed the wording.

We claimed damages too, but haven't yet followed through on that. We also got them removed from a major charity's listings and notified our mutual suppliers of the copyright issue.

He's still in business but we haven't noticed any negative impact on our sales, quite the opposite.

[Mike Hughes]

I tend to agree with the others.

Contact them directly and ask them to change it. If they don't then follow up by naming and shaming, official letters, etc. You might also want to contact the owner of the other site and let them know what's going on.

In terms of the SERPS their better position is almost certainly down to other factors than having copied the title and meta tags. If that was all it took to rank above you then you really need to do a bit more SEO.

Mike

[los_design]

Louise

Were these keywords copyrighted?

If not then I am afraid there is not a lot you can do apart from appealing to their moral background...failing that, name and shame (but beware of saying too much about him/her in an open forum or you could end up in court), but legally...no path open I am afraid.

As pointed out, the meta's alone would not give them a massive boost in SEO.

Good luck

[RuralWeb]

words in the title/tags they copied
They cannot be held responsible for using the same words as you. If SEO principles were followed by the third party then they would naturally find the same keywords as you did - competitive analysis would also show the words and as they are competing in the same field then you have no right to stop them using them.

If the words are not trademarks or copywrited then you have no legal grounds to stop them IMO. Its all part of the SEO game;)

[peblaco]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Were these keywords copyrighted?
Depends how you mean. Theres a copyright statement in the meta tags immediately below the tags and there's a copyright mention in the terms. However they aren't trademarked words.

As pointed out, the meta's alone would not give them a massive boost in SEO.
I thought so too but it has on a certain search engine - not Google I might add so that's something as it's most used.

they would naturally find the same keywords as you did - competitive analysis would also show the words and as they are competing in the same field then you have no right to stop them using them.
Granted if they were just using the same words and had a different order I've seen lots of sites do that. But in this case they have copied word for word entire lines including punctuation and even stranger - they have left in the keywords for products that they don't sell and the site I done does sell - just because they copied the tags. :D

[RuralWeb]

left in the keywords for products that they don't sell
OK - your next step is to report them to Google and the other SEs for spamming. Legally I dont think you will get anywhere BUT getting them penalised in the SEs will have far more impact on the website and its more likely that they will then change the tags when thier rankings start dropping.

[jont]

Send a 24 hour notice to change prior to reporting to Google et al as spam - this will probably have more impact than threat of legal claims especially if you outline the consequences of getting black listed.

[george]

*wonders if the guilty party is reading this....*



*waves*

[Mike Hughes]

*wonders if the guilty party is reading this....*

No. probably too busy changing their meta tags.

Mike

[peblaco]

No. probably too busy changing their meta tags.
I've called and emailed them several times and several people there know about it and I've had promises someone would get back to me.. but they haven't.

[jont]

Time to get the gloves off and play nasty Louise.

[Mike Hughes]

I say name and shame them.

I'm sure we all want to know who the lazy sod is that copies other peoples stuff, even when they end up flagging their site as spam to Google.

Mike

[RuralWeb]

You can also report the SEO company direct to Google and if they are found guilty then G may ban them and all thier client list not just the one you are concerned about.

[jont]

if they are found guilty

Trial by Google. Dunking is probably a better proposition.

[TraceyHand]

Trial by Actinic Community!
any better?

[Darren B]

Hmmmmmmmmmm spill the beans, come on spill the beans :D

[Cheapprices4u]

give us some keywords so we can play detectives

or as darren said

spill the beans ;)

[Mike Hughes]

spill the beans

and then of course we'll all say "I knew it was her all along!"

Mike

[jont]

and then of course we'll all say "I knew it was her all along!"

"her" .... that is starting to narrow the field a little ......

[TraceyHand]

"her" .... that is starting to narrow the field a little ......

:eek:

well don't y'all be looking at me!
:p

[Darren B]

hmmmmmmmmmmm

"HER" now then who have we got