🔍 Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

Plus, SMX gets the meme treatment Jan 22, 2021 Good morning, Search Marketer, and have you ever filed a DMCA takedown? In a video released yesterday, Google showed how to request removal of content from their index. (Check out the video link below.) One of the instances where it makes sense to file that request is copyright infringement. When I worked in tech and SaaS, one of our SEO strategies to help ensure that our original content outranked copycats was using the DMCA takedown. We’d scrape the web for plagiarism, reach out to the website owner to request that it was removed, and file the takedown notice with Google. It’s a fringe strategy, for sure, but it makes me wonder what happens when big names with more traffic and higher authority steal good copy from smaller, less “authoritative” sites–and get away with it. Carolyn LydenDirector of Search Content Legal Requesting content removal from Google Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Not when you see your content on someone else’s website. Google released a new video yesterday detailing how to request the removal of content from its index and other products when it violates legal copyright or your country’s laws. The legal tool also allows users to request the removal of content that may violate Google’s terms of service: “Behaviors like phishing, violence, or explicit content may also … qualify for removal from Google products.” If verified as violating the terms of service or copyright, the infringing content is removed from Google’s index and won’t be shown in search results. It can’t remove the content from the infringing website, however. The form and tools can be helpful for marketers who see others going beyond fair use to copy their content on the web. [Watch the video here.]( How to optimize SEO with user-generated content Learn why User-Generated Content (UGC) is one of the most effective ways to create a highly successful, long-term SEO and conversion strategy. This report from Shopper Approved will show you how to collect more UGC and use it to dramatically improve your organic and paid search results, including increasing your page rankings and Google Ads click-through rates. [Learn more »]( On the move Larissa Williams announces move to Workshop Digital In a LinkedIn post, Larissa Williams announced that she’s joined the Workshop Digital team as the new Director of SEO. With almost 10 years in search marketing, Williams most recent position was as SEO Director at Seer Interactive. In her announcement post, Williams also advertised that Workshop is now hiring both PPC and SEO analysts. [Check out the job openings here.]( Chatter SMX gets meme’d Bernie Sanders is no stranger to being meme’d, and his appearance at the inauguration on Wednesday provided another opportunity for the social media collective to take their creativity to the next level. Check out the latest Bernie at SMX meme from Andy Simpson. [Find it here.]( Measure search marketing success like a pro If your New Year’s resolutions include earning more organic traffic, executing stronger PPC campaigns, and generating greater profits, you can’t afford to miss the actionable tactics at SMX Report — online February 23. Check out the brand new SEO and PPC learning journeys you’ll unlock for just $99! [See the agenda »]( Content Video: Phillip Thune on finding good writers and writing good content In an interview with Phillip Thune of Textbrokers, Barry Schwartz covered the tactical elements of creating good content for users and search engines, how content creation has changed since Panda and Penguin released, and how to QA your content before it goes live. If you’re looking to outsource content, Thune recommends asking yourself, “How expert does the content have to be or how tied into your own company? And what’s the level of scale that you need?” Thune recommends hiring outside writers if you have infrequent large writing projects where you need a large team for a short period. [Watch the video here.]( Search Shorts Job training schema and robots rules. Most restrictive rule wins. Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter “[most restrictive rule wins](. One way to think of it is that the default = index, follow, and you only track the settings that are non-default (noindex, nofollow) to determine the final state.” Google job training schema change. Google has updated the job training structured data developer documents to say “[this appearance isn’t available on Google Search right now](.” What We're Reading We've curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader. [4 SEO Strategies for Programmatic Sites]( – Moz [Do Health & Medical Sites Rank Too Well For Non-Medical Queries?]( – Search Engine Roundtable [Google and French publishers sign agreement over copyright]( – Reuters [Google Now Shows Older Posts in the Knowledge Panel]( – Local University [The importance of SEO and developer relationships (and how to get it right)]( – DeepCrawl [Search Engine Land] [( [Additional Marketing Solutions for 2021]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. 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