How To Protect Your Business Content Online

There are many great benefits to having content online as a business and the internet in general is a useful source of information. However, when it comes to your business existing online, particularly the content you create, it’s often at risk of being stolen or reused by other businesses.

Of course, a lot of this is something you can challenge and acquire justice for. However, with not much in the way of policing online, it’s hard to seek this vindication, and therefore a lot of content that some businesses create ends up being taken without any consequence to those that steal it.

There are a number of ways in which you can ensure the protection of your content online as a business. With that being said, here are some top tips that might help your business protect the content you create in 2023.

Understand the rights you have online

Just like in the real world, you do have rights as a business, which you’ll be able to action against these individuals or organizations that are stealing your work without consequence.

Educate and equip yourself with the knowledge of what rights you have and how others may be able to legally interact with your content. What counts as infringement and what falls under the category of creative license?

Identifying the red flags that could indicate the content has been misused will certainly be helpful for your business.

Set up Google Alerts

The internet is vast and knowing whether or not any of your content has been used inappropriately or illegally can be hard to track. Not every business has the financial ability or resources to have someone manually scour the internet every day, looking for signs of your content being used by others.

With Google Alerts, it’s a smart method to help get notified whenever your content pops up online. You could use strings of text from the content itself, as well as your brand name and any notable pieces of content that you own.

It’s a small addition to your weaponry when faced with online theft but it’s something worth having regardless.

Register and display a copyright notice

Enforcing your own rights as a business and protecting your content online is certainly a lot easier when you have your copyright registered and displayed.

Most countries will already provide the processes needed to protect your rights over the work you’ve created whether it’s in-person or online. 

You’ll want to know what paperwork is needed to file, which is why it’s worth seeking the help of a legal expert in most cases. 

When you’ve jumped through the necessary hoops, you can then display your copyright notice on the website. This will prevent people from copying your work or doing so freely because there’s more risk to them if they’re caught. It will also help to enforce your rights if and when it’s needed.

Watermark your content

When it comes to publishing images and video content, consider adding a watermark to protect your brand and business rights. Of course, it’s not beneficial or suitable for every piece of content you churn out. However, adding a transparent symbol once or that’s repeated and covers the image or video ever so slightly, will help ensure you are always credited for the work.

It’s easy to add watermark to video or images, with plenty of applications available to do it without needing experience. Make sure that the watermark is discreet enough so that it’s not offputting to anyone who is engaging with the content. 

Disable the ability to copy content on your site

A good way to help ensure your content is protected is by disabling the ability to copy it on your site. Typically, when someone wants to use your content for their own benefit, whether that’s landing page content or entire blog articles, they’ll be able to simply copy and paste.

However, there is certain coding that you can introduce or plugins for your site, that allow you to disable the ability to copy the content. That means no one, not even yourself, will be able to copy the content that’s been posted on your website. 

Unless they want to screenshot and then copy it down word for word, it makes the ability to copy website content, a lot harder and more time-consuming.

Protect your data internally

When working with people outside of the business, it’s useful to ensure everyone you work with, understands what rights they have to the content and what rights you have. That means liaising with freelancers, contractors, and any external workers to ensure that your business rights are being protected when content is created by others outside of the workplace.

It might be that you have a contract put in place, as well as an NDA that helps outline the rights of both you and the party you’re working with. It protects both your data and mitigates any risks that come with breaches of information you didn’t want to get out before a certain time.

Use other monitoring tools where possible

There are some useful monitoring tools beyond Google Alerts that are worth using to help figure out what content has been used. For example, Copyscape is a great option that can conduct regular scans on the internet to search segments of your text or use the URL to your site to discover any pockets of the internet where it might be reused.

It can also serve as a great plagiarism checker for your own content before you end up publishing it on the internet. That’ll save you the problem of falling into trouble yourself!

Take action where needed 

Finally, make sure that when it comes to protecting your business online, you’re taking the relevant action needed. It’s important to do this because if not, then you could be in a position where you’re losing reputation and the content being used elsewhere could be sabotaging your own efforts of success.

If the content is being misused, then it’s worth filing a notice under the DMCA, or your country’s equivalent which would prompt the individual or organization to take down the content. Otherwise, further action could be placed upon the offender(s).

Be sure to protect your content and your rights online by using these tips to take action where you need to.