Content creation is at the core of the internet’s success. After all, who would care about the internet if they couldn’t find the information, entertainment or resources that they need? For 25 years, the internet has been serving up a seemingly limitless amount of content to billions all over the world.

As more and more brands have realized that content truly is king, more and more have embraced nefarious tactics to ensure they’re churning out said content. An increasing number of content thieves are scouring the internet, looking for low-hanging fruit in the form of content to steal and take as their own.

If you’re like most, then you don’t want this to happen. Below, we’ll look at some steps you can take to minimize the risk of having your content stolen and repurposed.

Perfect Your Unique Writing Style

The best proactive defense in the fight against content theft is to make your content stand out from the rest. Many of the best writers have distinct writing styles, which allows them to identify their content even if it has been substantially edited. Whenever these writers start pinging servers with fresh content, they know that their content can’t be easily duplicated by others without immediate red flags from search engines.

As such, consider how you can best differentiate your writing style from others. This can vary: from punctuation styles to word choice, you can easily develop a writing style that will be immediately recognizable by you in the event you stumble across a thief.

Brand, Brand, Brand

With any post or piece of content you make, it is imperative that you slap your name on as many elements as possible. This can help thwart potential theft due to the presence of your name in so much of the content. Would-be thieves will need to go back and replace these elements, and they also run the risk of missing instances of your branding – which will immediately harm them in SERPs.

It also can make it very easy to quickly search Google or Bing for instances of your name/branding: if you find any mentions outside your site, then you know to inspect them as potential thefts.

Don’t Forget the Multimedia

Content thieves won’t just steal simple text and try to replicate it as their own: they’ll take videos, photos, infographics and any other form of content they can grab. As such, it is imperative that you make it as difficult as possible for would-be thieves to seize your assets.

One very common tactics is to add watermarks to both images and videos. By placing these in the center and surrounding areas of each element, you can make it nearly impossible for them to remove the watermarks without compromising the image.

Another tactic is to utilize the branding mentions above and mention yourself or your brand as many times as possible throughout videos and/or images.

There is no full-proof way to prevent thieves from snatching your content, but you can make it much more difficult for them. This often will be enough to discourage them, since they are pinging servers as quickly as possible to find the lowest hanging fruit in terms of content. If you take these three steps, you’ll protect yourself as much as humanly possible from this 21^st century form of theft.