As most web developers know, you have to be very careful not to plagiarise information from the Internet without permission from the owner or a link to where it came from giving the author the recognition they deserve for a well written article. Of course, without this you wouldn't be wanting to put it on your website.

So, if you visit a website or are having one created and there are articles on it that you are not sure if they are the real deal or not, it's easy to check where that article came from, either by taking a copy of the first paragraph and dropping it into Google Search or running it through a software program to check if it is plagiarised. If it does not appear anywhere else or gets the green tick then it is probably written by the author of the page.  Well done, you have engaged an honest developer.

If it is found to be from another website, that website should be informed that their article is being used with or without their permission. When it is a repeat performer it is guaranteed to be plagiarism in most cases but not all. Usually a little footnote to say this has been authorised by the owner of the article helps or this has been supplied by .....

It is a bit like the use of images for websites. Unless you have bought or been given the images then you should not be using them. You should be stating where they have come from with a link back to the website giving full credit to the owner.  Copyright has a similar affect on the written word as it does on images.  There are a number of well known places, eg shutterstock, where you can purchase images, if you have none of your own.  Although, I do recall that using Shutterstock images on a political website is a bad idea as the public want the real deal when it comes to our politicians.

So what does one do if they are not confident in writing the articles for their website? Well, you can engaged a writer to write the articles you want. Many journalist do this as a side job to bring in a little extra cash.  A quick search of the Internet will find you someone to create some content for you or your developer should be able to find a content writer and ad it to the cost of the website. Better to be safe than sorry.

So what do you do if your web developer has used other material from other websites? Hopefully, it is not one of your retailers who supplies your product as they will surely quickly cut off your account. Firstly, ask your developer to remove the information or give you access to remove the articles yourself. Or, as a last resort, contact the company and ask them to ask your developer to remove the articles. If all else fails, discontinue using the developer that has created the website and hope you have not paid in full for it.

It is all about trust. Can you trust your developer to not put you in this situation? Take care when using someone new to you who has not yet earned a healthy, long standing reputation.  Enquire  about how much control your developer has over your website and if you have personal access for editing purposes.  Everyone should have access to their websites. If you're inexperienced and not up to scratch regarding altering things yourself you can usually find someone who is. All a measure of security in case something goes wrong or in a worse case scenario, the developer just might disappear.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of helping people to understand the web.
Domains, URL's or web addresses, what is what.