Dental Marketing - Trefoil™ Content Theft & Letting The Competition Defeat Themselves
I wrote the first piece of patient-facing content for Nobel Biocare’s new Trefoil™ product and now other dental marketing agencies are stealing it.
Posted on 4/23/2018 by David Day, Editor and SEO Team Lead |
 It's true! Also true - we aren't up in arms over it.
Let me be clear, this was about a year ago and Nobel Biocare had some information about Trefoil™ that they were providing to their target market - dentists. However, there was no content written about Trefoil™ for the patients who would be buying the product from dentists. There is nothing particularly special about this content and it's being used as our stock copy for clients who offer Trefoil™. The interesting thing about authoring the first piece of patient-facing content for any product is what happens to it once you publish it online. It get's copied over and over again!
Who Is WEO Media?
I work for WEO Media, a dental marketing agency that builds websites, manages online marketing campaigns, and provides ongoing SEO services to our clients in the dental industry. We use stock content like the piece I wrote on Trefoil™ to fill in pages on client sites until we can swoop through and write them totally unique copy, which distinguishes them from everyone else in the world who offers this product. Because we consider ourselves an above-board marketing agency, we write all of our own copy and pay licensing fees for any pictures or video content that is not unique. There are many marketing agencies and SEO outfits that see our content and say, "I can use this for my clients!"
"OH MY GOSH," you might say, "They are benefiting from your hard work! You should serve them legal papers and get them to remove this content from their client's sites."
Let me explain to you why we aren't up in arms when others copy our content.
As anyone worth their salt in this industry will tell you, the SEO benefits of copy on a website begins and ends with uniqueness. Google wants to give users the very best experience they can with every search they perform. One of the ways they do this is by checking every page for duplicate content. If a page has substantial blocks of duplicate content, they receive no benefit from Google for the content. They aren't punished for having duplicate content, they just don't see any benefit in the SERPS (search engine results page). So, if you do have unique copy on your webpage, you essentially receive a gold star from Google. They factor the uniqueness of your pages into the search results, and your page will do better than those who use duplicate or thin content.
So when our competitors use our stock content on their client sites, that's great news for us! Not only are they giving their clients (who compete with our clients) no SEO benefits for their page, they give me a great topic for a blog that directly calls them out! This even extends beyond our stock content.
When one of our competitors copies non-stock, totally unique copy from one of our client's websites, they gain no SEO benefit, and our unique page continues to reap the benefits of being "unique" in the eyes of Google! Google realizes that the publisher can't help that others choose to steal their unique content, so it continues to credit the original publisher as being unique.
Now, we do take copyright laws seriously. It's a bit of a conundrum because, on the one hand, we have to notify those who plagiarize us that they are infringing on our copyright but at the same time, we enjoy that our competition is giving their clients such lackluster service.
What Your Dental Practice Should Do
If you own a dental practice and you have a page on your website about Trefoil™ you should take the following steps:
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Find out who manages your website – |
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if it's WEO Media, you are in the clear! Feel free to reach out to your SEO manager with any questions you have about your site.
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If another agency built or maintains your website, run your Trefoil URL through Copyscape.com.
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If Copyscape shows that the page is unique, celebrate! You employ one of the good guys and even though they aren't us, they have integrity.
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If Copyscape shows that the page is copied, I probably wrote it, which should be slightly alarming to you. |
Nobel Biocare's Partnership with WEO Media
Since 2014 Nobel has trusted WEO Media as their recommended marketing company to help their customers grow their practices, and increase the amount of dental implant patients. Nobel Biocare Territory Representatives often refer their doctors directly to WEO Media Marketing Consultants so they can perform an assessment of the practice website and online marketing efforts. Based on this analysis WEO consultants will provide a proposal of recommendations to help the practices improve their online marketing performance, and generate more patients. In addition, Nobel Biocare offers promotional packages where practices can purchase dental implants and receive marketing credit with WEO Media. This partnership has produced true synergy for the practices, Nobel Biocare, and WEO Media.
Reach Out To Us – You Will Be Glad You Did
So if you are the owner of a dental practice and you have a page on your website about Trefoil™ there is a good chance that I wrote it. If you are not a client of WEO Media, and your Trefoil™ content is not unique, there is a really good chance that your webmaster or SEO company is not as scrupulous as you might like them to be. The silver lining here is that WEO Media is happy to work with you to build you a new site and maintain it for years to come! For more information, contact us. |
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