The Right Way to Report Spammy, Duplicate, and Low-Quality Ranking Content of Your Competitor

There were times around 2011 when websites used to thrive by copying the content and pasting on their website because there was no check and balance system on Google’s side. Website owners used to take advantage of that and rank well on Google. Then came the Panda Update and the scene changed after that. Everyone started writing unique content after that.

The same thing is valid in 2023 as well because nowadays as well people steal content from one website and publish it on them. They install canonical tags after that to tell search engines that they are the original source of it.

Confused?

Let us assume we have two websites. Website A with high authority and Website B with low authority. Website B wrote a well-researched article and published it. As soon as Website B was published, Website A copied the content and used it on their website.

Now we find that Website A is ranking not Website A when the clear owner of the researched content is Website B. What options does the Website have?

Well till now Website B was not having the option but to bear the burnt, but now Google has given the power to such websites, which are the origin of the original content.

How Website B Can Tell Google About the Spammy Content of Website A

Website B must follow the following steps:

1. Go to the Spammy Content/Low-Quality Content Reporting tool of Google
2. Feed the URL to the tool with Spammy/Low Content
3. Choose the Wrong activity done on the specific URL
4. Click on Continue
5. Tell the tool what happened on that URL
6. Feed the additional details if required
7. Submit

What Can be the Possible Reasons to Report Any Link?

1. When Some copies content from the original sources of the content
2. When you feel a lesser worthy page is ranking above your content
3. When you know that your competitor is purchasing the backlinks to manipulate the rankings
4. When you know that the page is of very low quality and still ranking
5. When you know that page has irrelevant links
6. When you know that page has offensive content/abusive content
7. When you know the page is not providing any value to the relevant users

Can this Tool be Misused?

In my opinion, this tool can be misused. One classic case is that someone wants to corner all your competition for a specific keyword. So, someone can try to add all of their ranking competitors through this tool.

Also Read: March 2024 Core Algorithm Update

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great initiative from Google’s side to give power to the original content creators. But Go like any other tool, this also has loopholes in it. But Google is smart, so we can safely say that Google is aware of these misuses. Google will check these URLs well enough before punishing them.