WMT geo targeting for US-only to reduce content theft?

[Terabytes]

ok...I'm at the point where I have to do "something"...

I frequently have issues of content theft, attempted hotlinking, and a slew of other issues from places like India, Russia, China etc...

Over the years, I've let most if this slide noticing that the sites that base themselves on stolen content dont last very long, and eventually they simply fall away into the mist...This is what keeps me from filing DMCA's with G for all this, it usully takes care of itself after a short while. (a couple months...)

Now multiple sites are hotlinking, and using certain parts of my website every month, where it was 1 or 2 new sites a month for the last couple of years.

If I opt in to WMT Geographic Tageting for the United States, will that remove my listings "eventually" from all the other G serps except the US? I'm hoping to at least eliminate the main pipeline for my site content from other countries.

Thanks!
Tera

[tedster]

That's an interesting approach - my guess is that it will probably help (but not eliminate) the problem. One reason for this is that scraper types often are scraping the top of the SERPs - so even if your urls only fall down the list in other countries, that will make them "less likely" to be scraped.

However, that said, a lot of scraping occurs through US based proxy servers - so the more sophisticated scraper will still get you, no matter what country they are based in.

[suzukik]

from places like India, Russia, China etc...

There are ways to block unwanted traffic by country with specifying its range of IP.
I know a site to create that .htaccess according to a country you want to block. But I'm not sure I can post it here because of the policy.

[Terabytes]

Well, after a little digging....
(and trying to set the site up in WMT)

I'm not able to set the site for US only, it won't allow me to do it. It may already understand that the site is US based, and the option may only be useful if your trying to target a country that's different than your TLD (.fr, .de, etc).

As far as blocking countries, I'm sure there are a bunch of proxies that can get around that list...no?

[tedster]

I'm not able to set the site for US only

Is your site on one of the international TLDs, such as .com. or .net? The option to geo-target the US is there for me in those cases. It's just grayed out until I check the box next to it.

[edited by: tedster at 8:11 pm (utc) on Mar. 15, 2009]

[Terabytes]

yes...the TLD is .com

I just wnat back to try and change it again and lo and behold it took the changes...

So I guess I'll just sit on it for a while and watch...
Hopefully I won't show up in the the results overseas...

We'll have to wait and see I guess....
Thanks everybody!

[johnnie]

Hotlinking is easily preventable in .htaccess

[g1smd]

For hyper-local sites, I use a DENY FROM directive to block most of Asia from ever getting in.

[Terabytes]

yes, and I do prevent hotlinking via htaccess already, however it seems that some people don't check to see if their hotlink is working and the request from their page is still made for the graphic. They don't get it, but my server still has to deny it.