Google: First Indexed Does Not Mean That Content Is Yours

Oct 20, 2020 - 7:54 am 3 by

Race Google

Some feel that you need to ensure your piece of content is published first on your site and then syndicated later on third-party sites to ensure Google knows the original source of that content is from your site. That is not always the case said Google's John Mueller.

Of course, we have support for canonical tags that should be used by your syndication partners (good luck with that). But Google also understands that just because a spammer scrapped your content prior to Google indexing it on your site, it doesn't mean the spammer wrote that content.

John said on Twitter "Being indexed first doesn't make a site the owner of the content. There's no need to try to squeeze your pages in early in that regard. Spammers are sometimes very technically smart & fast, but that doesn't make their content original or useful."

It is a good question and a question some SEOs are concerned about.

Google has said scrapers only can outrank you if your site is penalized or has quality issues.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 14, 2025

Mar 14, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google March Core Update, Google AI Mode Concerns, Google 22% Growth & AI Search Engines Wrong

Mar 14, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Updates

Google March 2025 Core Update Is Rolling Out - Here Is A Deeper Dive

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads WhatsApp Messaging For PMax

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Tests Accommodations Carousel For Hotel Results

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests New Copilot Answer Interface

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Still Supports Data-Vocabulary Four Months After It Was Deprecated