A Competitor Copied Their Website. We Built the Response Into Their Admin.
Case Study · Custom WordPress Development
A client discovered that a direct competitor had copied their website content nearly word for word, including the owner’s own professional biography presented as someone else’s. They asked us for help getting it taken down. Instead of handling it as a one-time favor, we built the entire response process into their own WordPress admin: gather the evidence, send the complaints, and track everything that happens next.
- Built into the client’s own WordPress admin
- Takedown notice emailed to the host in one click
- Evidence preserved automatically with checksums
- Complete case file ready for an attorney
The Problem
Two Websites, One Set of Words
The client found the copying themselves: entire pages from their website appearing on a competitor’s site with only the business name swapped out. The copied material included the owner’s personal credentials and career history, now presented as the competitor’s own, and long passages lifted from their blog.
Copied content is more than an insult. Visitors who read the same story on two websites have no way to know which business actually earned those credentials, and search engines that find duplicate content across two sites can end up favoring the wrong one. The original author can lose rankings to their own words.
We verified the copying side by side, confirmed which pages were taken, and identified the company hosting the competitor’s website. Then the client told us what they wanted: get it removed, and be ready to involve an attorney if removal failed.
The Approach
A Tool, Not a Favor
Content theft is not a single event. A takedown notice has to be written, signed, and sent by the content owner. A Google removal request can only be filed from the owner’s own account. Evidence has to be preserved before the competitor quietly edits their pages. If it ends up in front of an attorney, everything needs to be in one organized file.
We could have walked the client through each step over email. Instead we added a new page to the WordPress admin they already log into every day. It holds each theft as a case, with every document, every piece of evidence, and every action recorded in one place, and it keeps working after the first takedown is over.
What We Built
Everything the Response Needs, in One Admin Page
- A case for every theft. Each copied page becomes a case: the original URL, the copied URL, the dates, the hosting company behind the offending site, and a running log of every action taken.
- The takedown notice, written and ready. A complete DMCA takedown notice is generated for each case, pre-filled with the client’s information and signed in their name. One click emails it to the hosting company’s abuse desk, from the client’s own email address.
- The Google removal, step by step. Google only accepts removal requests from the content owner’s own account, so the tool provides the exact walkthrough and copy-ready text for the official form. The client files it in minutes and marks it submitted.
- An evidence locker. Every case keeps dated snapshots of the offending pages: the full page as it appeared, the date and time, and a SHA-256 fingerprint proving the file has not been altered since capture. Files are stored outside the public web space and download on demand.
- Independent copies at the Internet Archive. One click saves the offending page to archive.org, creating a timestamped copy held by a neutral third party that neither business controls.
- A case file for the attorney. One click downloads a complete, printable case document: the parties, the URLs, the evidence inventory, the notices sent, the business impact log, and the full activity history. If the client ever sits down with a lawyer, day one starts with everything already organized.
Evidence
Proof That Collects Itself
The strength of any infringement claim rests on evidence gathered early and preserved properly. The tool handles that without being asked: every open case is automatically re-captured on a monthly schedule, so if the competitor changes or removes the copied pages later, the record of what was there already exists.
The page also carries a business impact log, where the client records confused callers, lost inquiries, and anything else the copying costs them as it happens. Damages are hard to reconstruct from memory a year later; they are easy to prove from a dated log.
The tool also explains, in plain language, what registering the copied pages with the U.S. Copyright Office would add to the client’s position, so the conversation with an attorney starts informed rather than from zero.
Going Forward
Ready for the Next One
The first two cases were opened the day the tool went live, with the original discovery evidence already preserved and both offending pages saved to the Internet Archive. If this competitor copies another page, or a different competitor tries the same thing, the client opens a new case themselves, in their own admin, and the whole process is waiting: notice written, evidence collecting, every step logged.
That is the difference between getting help once and owning the solution.
Work With Us
Has Someone Copied Your Website?
Your website content is your work and your reputation. If a competitor has taken it, the response is faster and stronger when it starts early, and it does not have to begin with a law firm.
NewSunSEO
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