How to Easily Find and Remove Stolen Content in WordPress (5 Ways)

Are you looking for a way to find and remove stolen content in WordPress?

You’ve worked hard on your website, but now your content has been stolen, published, and is taking traffic away from your brand.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can find and remove stolen content in WordPress, no matter if it’s a single post or your entire site has been copied.

How and Why is Website Content Stolen?

One widespread method for stealing content is blog content scraping. This is where content is taken from your site, usually via your RSS feed, and republished on another site.

Sometimes your content will be simply copied and pasted directly to another website, including your formatting, images, videos, and more.

Other times, your content will be reposted with attribution and a link back to your website, but without your permission. Although this can help your SEO, you may want to keep your original content hosted on your site only.

Usually, the main motivation for content theft is to profit off of your hard work.

Having your content stolen is a stressful experience that a lot of WordPress site owners unfortunately experience.

Just know that you’re not alone, and it’s a problem that can be fixed.

Here are the 5 most common ways to find and remove stolen content in WordPress.

1. Set Up Automatic Content Theft Notifications

Sometimes your loyal visitors will alert you that your content has been stolen, or they saw it somewhere else on the web.

Luckily, you don’t have to wait for a helpful reader to notify you.

Google Alerts is often used for brand name notifications. You enter the name of your website and get email notifications whenever you’re mentioned online.

But, this same feature can be used to alert you of content that’s being used without your permission.

Simply navigate to Google Alerts. Next, enter the name of your website, your URL, or use a portion of your article.

For example, if you end every blog post with the same CTA, then you can get notifications whenever this appears online.

After that, you’ll choose the ‘Sources’. Select ‘Blogs’ and ‘Web’ from the drop-down list. Then, click ‘Create Alert’.

Now, you’ll receive an email whenever your content appears on the web or your website is mentioned.

2. Manually Search for Stolen Content

Copyscape is a plagiarism checker tool that can also be used to find stolen content published elsewhere across the web.

All you have to do is navigate to Copyscape and enter your website URL. You can also enter a page or post URL to see if one of your blog posts or site pages have been copied and stolen.

The free version of the tool gives you the top 10 results, which should be enough for smaller WordPress blogs.

If you have a bigger website, or you want results of every single mention of your copied text, then you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version.

The paid version of the tool lets you check up to 10,000 pages with a single click. If you publish a lot of content on your WordPress website, then this could be very useful.

Another manual tool you can use is Grammarly. Grammarly is a popular online grammar checking tool.

The premium version of Grammarly has a built-in plagiarism checker. You can copy and paste your content into the tool, and it’ll run a scan to see if any matches turn up online.

3. Contact the Offending Host or Registrar

So, you’ve found stolen content, now what?

The simplest way to take down stolen content is to file a DMCA complaint against the website.

Usually, if it’s a spam website, or a site that’s scraping your content from your RSS feed, then it can be difficult to find contact information.

However, you can use the IsItWP lookup tool to find out where the domain and website are hosted.

Simply enter the domain that’s published your stolen content and click ‘Analyze Website’.

The tool will pull up any available information, including the web hosting company and registrar.

You’ll notice that the host and registrar are shown, even if the website isn’t using WordPress. You can contact the host and registrar directly to try and get the site taken down.

Since stealing content is an illegal activity, web hosting companies don’t want to host websites that are breaking the law.

Most reputable web hosting companies take DMCA requests seriously and will work with you to resolve the situation including removing the pages in violation.

4. Submit a Takedown Notice to Google

Another way to remove stolen content is to contact Google directly.

You need to be careful using this method because it requires a lot of proof, and if you do false reports, then it can get your account in trouble.

There are a few different ways to file a DMCA complaint with Google, but we recommend using the one inside Google Search Console.

First, you’ll need to have your site linked with Google Search Console. If you haven’t done this yet, then see our guide on how to add your WordPress site to Google Search Console.

Then, you can use the Google Search Console Copyright Removal Tool.

Simply click ‘Create a new notice’.

This will bring up a screen where you can enter all of the relevant information including your contact information, what posts were stolen, and the location of the stolen material.

The more detailed information you’re able to provide, the better the chances of the offending site getting taken down.

If you need to gather more information for your complaint, then you can use a tool like Wayback Machine.

This tool takes takes snapshots of your website at different points in time.

So, you can compare the date you published the article to the offending site who later stole your content.

5. Use an All in One Scanner and Takedown Tool

You can also use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) tool to help you find duplicate content across the web.

Just enter your URL into the tool and it’ll scour the web for sites that have stolen your content.

Once you’ve found a site that plagiarized or stolen your content you can click ‘Launch Managed Takedown’ to start the takedown process.

Note that the results won’t always be stolen content. Sometimes it’ll be infographics, backlinks, unlinked brand mentions, and more.

The discovery and takedown process is similar to the tools above, but instead of having to use multiple tools, you can take care of everything in one place.

DMCA offers premium takedown tools and templates for $10 per month. Or, you can purchase a full service takedown for $199, where their team of experts will get your stolen content removed for you.

Final Thoughts on Dealing with Content Theft

Content theft is a real problem that every website owner deals with. Unfortunately the larger your website gets, the more people will copy you.

Some will do blatant content theft by using automated content scraping tools while others will take inspiration from your content and paraphrase.

As a website owner, it’s extremely frustrating to have your content stolen. We deal with this regularly on WPBeginner. The automated bot sites are easy enough to take down with DMCA complaints.

However since we’re the largest WordPress resource site, many other WordPress bloggers, theme companies, and even some hosting companies routinely copy our headline word-for-word. They may paraphrase the content to make it unique, but we know that inspiration was driven from our articles.

We take this imitation as a form of flattery, and it further validates that we’re continuing to lead in the right way.

If you have a competitor that’s always copying ideas from you, but it’s not blatant copy, then there’s not a lot you can do about it. Don’t let that bring you down, but rather continue to focus on your mission to serve your audience.

We hoped this article helped you learn how to find and remove stolen content in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to prevent image theft in WordPress and learn how to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Find and Remove Stolen Content in WordPress (5 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

March 24, 2021 at 03:30PM

How to Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress

Do you want to disable image attachment pages in WordPress?

Image attachment pages can look like incomplete pages on your site. If a visitor views these, then it can leave a poor impression.

In this article, we’ll show you how to disable image attachment pages in WordPress and redirect it to the parent post.

Why Should You Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress?

By default, WordPress creates a single page for every media attachment you have on your site.

This includes images, audio/video files, pdfs, and more. Some users might find this functionality useful, however, most WordPress websites don’t need it.

For example, a photography theme could use the attachment page to display EXIF data. This could show the camera model used, the camera settings, and even the image’s location data.

Often we get complaints from users who accidentally linked their images to the attachment pages, and they don’t like the way it looks.

This is a big issue because many themes don’t have special templates for the image attachment pages.

Sometimes an image on your website can become popular, and people might start landing on the attachment page directly from Google.

Ideally, you want visitors to land on your post and see the image in the context you have used it.

This is why we always recommend users to disable image attachment pages on their WordPress blog.

How to Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (2 Methods)

There are two ways to disable image attachment pages in WordPress.

The first approach uses WordPress plugins, while the second involves adding custom code to WordPress.

You’ll want to choose the method that’s best suited for your skills.

Method 1: Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (with a Plugin)

The easiest way to disable image attachment pages is to use a WordPress plugin. This method is beginner friendly and requires no coding.

We recommend using All in One SEO. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress used by over 2 million sites.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the plugin. To do this, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll have a new menu item called ‘All in One SEO’.

Navigate to All in One SEO » Search Appearance. Next, click the ‘Media’ navigation tab.

The first setting is ‘Redirect Attachment URLs’. You can disable the setting entirely, redirect to the attachment page, or the attachment parent page.

We recommend redirecting to the ‘Attachment Parent’ page. That way, when a user lands on the image attachment page, they’ll be redirected to your article instead.

Once you select your preferred setting, make sure to click ‘Save Changes’ before exiting the screen.

If you aren’t using the All in One SEO plugin, you can still disable image attachment pages and redirect users to a parent post using a plugin called Attachment Pages Redirect.

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin. It’ll automatically start redirecting users that land on attachment pages to the parent post.

If no parent post is found, then users will be redirected to your homepage.

This plugin works out of the box and has no settings page. Simple and easy.

Method 2: Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (with Code Snippet)

Another option is to add a code snippet to WordPress that accomplishes the same goal as the plugin above.

If you don’t want to use a plugin or feel that you’re already using too many WordPress plugins, then you can use this method.

First, you’ll need to create a new file in your WordPress theme folder and name it image.php. If your theme already has an image.php file, then you’ll need to edit that file instead.

After that, all you have to do is add the following code as the first line in your image.php file:

<?php wp_redirect(get_permalink($post->post_parent)); ?>

Next, you need to save the image.php file and upload it to your theme directory using FTP or your WordPress hosting control panel.

Now, when a user lands on your image attachment page, they’ll be redirected to the parent post.

We hope this article helped you disable image attachment pages in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide to image SEO and our guide on how to fix common image issues in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

March 23, 2021 at 05:00PM

How to Create a Client Portal in WordPress

Do you want to create a client portal in WordPress?

A client portal allows you to create a dedicated area for clients where they can login to access documents, files, support, and more.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a client portal in WordPress.

Why and Who Needs a Client Portal in WordPress?

A client portal allows you to efficiently manage client resources online. This reduces support requests, allows clients to help themselves, and provides them a better user experience.

For instance, if you run a photography website, then your clients can download or upload files via their client dashboard.

Similarly, if you run a graphic design or web design agency, then you can use a customer portal where clients can access all the files and information they need.

Any business that needs to communicate with clients online can benefit from creating a client portal in WordPress.

How to Create a Client Portal in WordPress

Each business has different requirements for its client portal. This is why you need a solution that is flexible, works with other WordPress plugins, and can be easily extended to match your business.

For this tutorial, we will be using MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market and allows you to easily create members only content, create an account page, login, and registration forms, and more.

It comes with powerful display rules, full membership management, and the ability to create different levels of membership plans.

First, you need to install and activate the MemberPress plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit MemberPress » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the MemberPress website.

Next, you need to switch to the ‘Payments’ tab and select a payment method to accept payments for membership subscriptions. You can also create free subscription plans if you want or manually add members by yourself.

MemberPress supports PayPal and Stripe. You can also use Authorize.net with their Plus and Pro plans.

After selecting your payment method, you’ll be asked to provide your account details. Once finished, click on the ‘Update Options’ button to save your changes.

Next, you are ready to create a membership plan. This is the subscription plan that you’ll add your clients to.

Simply go to the MemberPress » Memberships page and click on the Add New button.

On the next screen, you can give your membership plan a name and set a pricing option. Depending on how you manage your client-contracts, you can choose lifetime, expiring, or fixed expiring plans.

Next, you need to create access rules. This allows you to control which parts of your website you want to be protected and available to members-only.

Simply, go to the MemberPress » Rules page and click on the Add New button at the top.

On the next screen, first you need to choose which content you want to restrict under ‘Protected Content’.

MemberPress offers a whole range of options. You can select posts that match certain tags, categories, pages that are under the same parent page, single posts, or any URL.

For instance, if you use a WordPress knowledge base plugin to manage documentation for clients, then you can restrict those articles to the membership plan. Similarly, you can also restrict any post, page, category, or tag to clients only.

Below that, you need to select who will have access to the protected content. We have chosen the membership plan we created earlier for our clients.

After you have added the access rules, click on the Save Rule button to store your settings.

Creating a Client Account Page in MemberPress

MemberPress allows you to easily create and manage an Account page. This is the page your clients will see when they login to their client account.

First, go to MemberPress » Settings page and switch to the ‘Pages’ tab. From here you can select the page you want to use as the account page.

By default, MemberPress creates and uses the ‘Account’ page. You can use a different page if you want. After that, simply click on the Edit button to open the page and edit it.

You can edit the page just like you would edit any WordPress page. Any content you add here will be visible to everyone and not just your client.

However, you can add custom text here and use the ‘[mepr-account-form]’ shortcode to display the login form anywhere you want.

Customizing Client Account Page in MemberPress

One way to customize the account page in MemberPress is by simply editing it. However, any changes you add here will be visible to everyone and not just your clients.

To add content that is only visible to your clients, you can hide it using MemberPress shortcodes.

For instance, if you only want to show some content to the clients under the VIP membership plan, then you will wrap your content like this:

[mepr-active membership='186']

Client only content goes here

[/mepr-active]

Don’t forget to replace 186 with your own membership ID. You can view membership ID for any plans by visiting MemberPress » Memberships page.

Save the changes you made to the Account page and visit your website to see it in action. You’ll need to login with an account with access to the membership plan you created earlier.

Adding Tabs to The Accounts Page in MemberPress

By default, MemberPress will show Home, Subscriptions, Payments, and Logout tabs. If you are comfortable with adding custom code, then you can customize this to add more tabs and show more client-focused content there.

Let’s add a tab with a contact form and another one to list documents clients can access from their dashboard.

Simply add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function mepr_add_some_tabs($user) {
  $support_active = (isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] == 'premium-support')?'mepr-active-nav-tab':'';
  ?>
    <span class="mepr-nav-item premium-support <?php echo $support_active; ?>">
      <a href="/test4/account/?action=premium-support">Premium Support</a>
    </span>
  <?php
  $documentation_active = (isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] == 'documentation')?'mepr-active-nav-tab':'';
  ?>
    <span class="mepr-nav-item premium-support <?php echo $documentation_active; ?>">
      <a href="/test4/account/?action=documentation">Documentation</a>
    </span>
  <?php
}
add_action('mepr_account_nav', 'mepr_add_some_tabs');

function mepr_add_tabs_content($action) {
  if($action == 'premium-support'): //Update this 'premium-support' to match what you put above (?action=premium-support)
  ?>
    <div id="custom-support-form">
      // your contact form shortcode here
<?php echo do_shortcode(''); ?> 
    </div>
    
  <?php
  endif;
  if($action == 'documentation'): ?>
  <div id="documentation">
  // shortcode provided by your knowledge base plugin to list articles or manually add content here
<?php echo do_shortcode(' [knowledgebase] '); ?>

  </div>
<?php
 endif; 
}
add_action('mepr_account_nav_content', 'mepr_add_tabs_content');

As you can see we created two tabs, one to display our contact form created with WPForms and the other one to display our knowledge base articles.

We used shortcodes provided by both these plugins inside the code. However, you can also manually add any other content you want here.

Don’t forget to save your changes and preview your account page. This is how it looked on our demo website:

Adding Custom Content for an Individual Client

MemberPress also allows you to manually modify the Account page for individual members and clients. Simply go to Users » All Users page and click on the ‘Edit’ link below the user you want to change.

Scroll down to the ‘Custom MemberPress Account Message’ and add the content you want to show to that specific client.

This area works like a regular WYSIWYG editor with formating toolbar at the top. You can also add images, links, shortcodes, galleries, videos, audio, and more.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update User’ button to save your changes.

Adding a Link to Client Area using MemberPress

Now that you’ve created and customized the client area. It is time to make it easily accessible for your clients.

Simply go to the Appearance » Menus page and add the Account page you created earlier to your navigation menu.

You can click on the menu item to change its title. For instance, here we changed it to Client Area.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Menu button to store your settings. You can now visit your website to see your client area in action.

Clicking on the link will take users to the account page where they can access client shortcuts after log in.

Extending Client Portal with MemberPress

MemberPress is an extremely powerful and highly flexible platform to build your client portal in WordPress.

It allows you to not only easily restrict access to clients only resources. It also helps you easily add any features you want to your client portal.

1. File Downloads

Want to allow your clients to easily download files from your website? MemberPress comes with a File Downloads addon that helps you manage clients only downloads easily.

For step by step details, see our guide on how to manage file downloads in WordPress.

2. Add Learning Courses

MemberPress is also the best WordPress LMS plugin on the market. It allows you to easily create online courses and associate them to your membership plans. This gives your customers easy access to learning resources on your website, while also allowing you to easily manage these resources.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to easily create online courses in WordPress.

3. Add Forms to Clients Area

MemberPress works with WPForms which is the easiest WordPress form builder plugin available.

This allows you to create feedback forms, testimonial forms, run customers surveys, or add support request forms.

Need clients to be able to upload files as well? WPForms allows you easily create file upload forms on your website. You can then embed this form on the account page, or any members-only page on your website.

4. Collect Payments and Upsell Products

As a business owner, you may want to promote other products and services to your existing and past customers.

Using MemberPress as your client portal allows you to integrate with the best email marketing services. This enables you to stay in touch with customers more efficiently and promote other products and services.

MemberPress also works with all popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. This way you can easily collect payments for other services by selling them as a membership plan.

Alternately, you can also add an online store using WooCommerce and sell any products you want on the same website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a client portal in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services for small business, and best chatbot software to offer better support.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Client Portal in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

March 22, 2021 at 03:00PM