In the process of optimizing and promoting a WordPress website, webmasters face a wide variety of problems. From small, frivolous, to critical ones, sometimes leading to the termination of the website's functioning. One of the fairly common and serious problems for many websites is content theft. However, you can take the assistance from a custom WordPress development company that can assure enduring ways to protect the content from theft. 

The vulnerability of any text website is content because it should ideally only be unique on one website. But copy-pasters do not sleep, they need to complicate the task, to protect the text from copying on the website.

Theft of content is understood as its illegal copying from the original WordPress website and passing off as one's own intellectual property. Formally, these actions can be interpreted as criminally punishable, but in most countries, such crimes on the Internet are not prosecuted at all, giving rise to impunity.

The only arbiters between primary sources and content thieves are search engines, which advocate unique content and preserve copyright. 

Before we start talking about the protect content from theft methods, it is worth noting that there is a completely legal (from the point of view of search engines) way to copy content: 

You need to put a link at the end of the page indicating the source of the information taken. Consider such content as acceptable, but in the search results, the original source is always higher. It is for this reason that content thieves do not like this exit.

Protect Content‌ ‌Theft‌ ‌in WordPress

Every WordPress website holds private or confidential content which is for specific users only.  However, there are some premium products that can only be accessed by the paid customers.  Indeed,  you do not want any unauthorized user to get access to that data. So, it is vital to secure it to limit the chances of theft.  Every website owner does not know the methods to protect content from theft.

Hence, to give you assistance on the same, we are providing you the leading ways. Keep on reading!

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#1. Protect the WordPress content with Passwords

Password protection gives a more secure method for protecting WordPress content. In simple terms,  lock the private content with the password.  The accessibility of the content is to those who have the accessibility of the same. 

Users can protect some private web pages by making the rest of the WordPress website accessible to the public.  If you like to make the website completely private, then, you can set the password.  The downside is that it is tough to manage the password for every page. Moreover, there is no simple way to share the password with several users without the risk of sharing it with unwanted users. 

1.a Password Protect your content Now

Basically, You can easily protect the WordPress content with passwords by editing the "Content Visibility". If you want to password-protect the overall website or by users' roles, there is a Password WordPress Plugin that proves to be beneficial. 

1. Download and install the WordPress Password Protect Page Plugin from WordPress.org.
2. When editing the post or page, there is a “Password Protect WordPress” section on the right-hand side. Just enter the password for protecting the content.
3. If in any case, you like to protect the full website, then, redirect to Plugin settings, and enable the "Password Protect Entire Site” option from the Advanced tab. 

#2. Disable‌ ‌Right‌ ‌Click‌ 

The trick of stealing the content is known to all. This implies, searching for the right keyword, getting the content, right-clicking on the mouse, and selecting a copy.

Definitely, disabling the right click is an obvious solution when it is about to protect the content from theft.  This easy action makes it challenging for the normal user to copy and download the images.  

Also, this technique restricts the users with technical knowledge from checking the page source codes. Perhaps, use the website coding loopholes and vulnerabilities.

2.a Disable the Right Click Now

Install the WordPress Plugin and allow it to do its work:

1. Download and install the WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click Plugin on the blog's "Plugins" Admin Screen.
2. Redirect to "Settings" -> WP Content Copy Protection.
3. Turn on the Premium Right-Click Protection tab. It allows you to choose which custom posts you like to protect. 
4. Always remember to save the changes.
5. Switch on the Premium Right-Click Protection tab where you can select which custom post types to protect. Don’t forget to save the changes.

Those who know coding can choose to disable the right click with jQuery code as defined below:

$(function() {

    $(this).bind("contextmenu", function(e) {

       e.preventDefault();

    });

 });

#3. Consider the Membership Plugin

Similar to password protection, with the membership plugin, the user can protect the WordPress content effectively. The membership plugin is considered one of the leading and preferred choices. In general, you can include premium services, digital products, content after login, and authentication. It can be said that the users are asked to sign in to check the private content. 

3.a Membership Level

With the membership plugin, you can convert WordPress to the Membership website where the various membership levels can be set up. The authorized and non-logged-in users without the appropriate permissions cannot access the premium content of authentication. Like, the "Standard" customers can check specific pages whereas the "Elite" one can access the premium content.

The membership plugin could be used for protecting the premium content even if you are selling online courses, IaaS (Information as a Service), or digital products. 

However, the membership websites offer an agile method for protecting the content. It is tough to create huge websites, with more users and content. 

3.a.1 Method of using the Membership Plugin

• Download and install the Paid Membership Pro from the “Plugins” page.
• From the dashboard, redirect to the Memberships and move to the "Settings" Tab for creating the membership level. 
• You may even have to create the pages for the membership website, like, Levels Page. From here, the customers can choose and register to the membership account.

Additional Information

Always remember that the membership plugin is not liable for protecting the file attachments on the private content. You have to install the Prevent Direct Access Gold plugin for blocking the search indexing and having direct access to every WordPress file.

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#4. Consider Shared Private Links

The shared private link offers other compelling methods for protecting and sharing the content. The intent is to save the content from indexed and accessed by the search engines directly, like, Google and Bing. Rather than practicing the original page URL, you can make the custom private link with the click or time restriction, and, then, share it with specific users. 

From the shared private links, others do not need to hold an account and sign up to the website for accessing the private documents, which are useful for many. The customizable access permission, collectively with time or click restriction, converts these private links as a secure, simple, and quick way for sharing meaningful content with others. The leading storage services, like Dropbox and Google, hold their private link versions. 

#4.a Steps for creating the shared private links to the content

• Download and install Protect WordPress Pages & Posts from the Plugin page.
• Below the "Pots" and "Pages", choose the “Configure protection” of the web page that you like to protect and just select “Protect this page”.
• For creating the shared private links, you can select the “Customize new link and “Auto-generate new link”. Do not forget to fix the access limit and expiry of these links to protect them from abuse. 

#5. Block high-level content

Nowadays, the content lock is practiced by several bloggers and popular online news publishers like New York Times and Financial Times. Rather than saving every article as in the password protection and membership, the high-value content can be blocked.  

The major difference between membership protection and content lock is that you can enable visitors to read some part of the premium content. That is to say, only first sentences,  title, or the article paragraphs. 

From the lede and the title, you are letting visitors access the quality content. It is a great practice that creates interest and ends up in more email sign up and using conversations that block the content pages. 

Also, you can enable the readers to go through the limited premium articles for free and then, suggest to them to pay or subscribe to read more.  As compared to the membership plugin, the content lock is productive when you create the content or begin the blog for the membership website.  It,  therefore, saves, indexes, and makes the content appear in Google search results. However, make it accessible to the possible leads and customers.  Hence, Google grants its customers the "Flexible Sampling" that functions less or more like the content lock.

5.a Steps of blocking a part of the content

The password protection or lead generation plugin can be used for protecting some part of the article content.

• Download and install the  OnePress Social Locker from WordPress.org.
• From the Admin Dashboard, redirect to the social locker and choose the locker or make the new one.
• Leverage the shortcode, like, [sociallocker] your content [/sociallocker] from the Edit page for protecting the important content.

#6. Block the IP addresses

Consider if you are operating the online stores that are selling the customers from some particular country. You probably want to open the door for the visitants from those countries by blocking the others accessing the store. Blocking the traffic according to geo-blocking or geography is an easy task.

In addition, the spammers, bots, site scrapers, and unauthorized users regularly hit the website and give an unfavorable impression on the user experience and server bandwidth. 

So, you would like to block these users from accessing the website content also.  IP address blocking can also protect the content and website from DDoS and brute force attacks and limit fraud purchases. 

6.a Method of blocking a particular IP address from accessing the website

The unauthorized users and bad bots can be blocked by countries or IP addresses considering the WordPress plugin or .htaccess file.

6.a.1 Using htaccess

# Allow all access except those stated below

Order Deny, Allow

Deny from 12.34.11.1

deny from .*example\.com.*

# Deny everyone access except those specified below

order deny, allow

deny from all

allow from 123.23.24.5

allow from .*example\.com.*

6.a.2 From the Plugin

If you are operating the WooCommerce store, then, there are chances that you like to block the users from sharing their order page and the product filters after buying.

• Download and install the WooCommerce Integration extension. 
• Write the maximum IP address that permits you to access the product files or order page after buying. 

#7. Begin the takedown

It is the last resort if the written content or the digital files are being stolen, used, and shared without any permission. In general, you ask Google or related search engines to exclude illegal copies of the content on the Internet to fulfill the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

7.a Copyright Removal Tools

DMCA.com shows a takedown solution that searches the content and quickly removes it. The process begins when the copyrighted content is discovered somewhere. The pre-takedown research is set up for confirming the case. However, Google allows you to remove the links to the copyrighted content from the search results and indexing.

#8. Content Theft Prevention Plugins

As is mentioned above, plugins are thereby helping to protect content from theft. These disable the functionalities or features on the website which enables the content to be stolen, copied, or hot-linked. The plugins disable the web browser functions and restrict the user to copy the content. Below an explanation of the important plugins has been given. Go-through them:

8.a Clearfy PRO

A set of problems is solved by the Clearfy PRO plugin from the WPShop team, which satisfies the text protection points. We see that nothing needs to be programmed, we activate the corresponding item and the restrictions in WordPress take effect. You can insert HTML tags with text, but do not forget to leave% a link%, otherwise, the address will not appear. Clearfy not only knows how to protect the text from copying but cleans, improves, optimizes WordPress itself in terms of SEO according to the requirements. 

8.b WP Content Copy Protection

A great minimalist WordPress plugin built with one goal in mind - protecting the content on your web pages. It has a filter that disables the action of the module for some articles, as well as users, categories, and tags, but this is in the paid version.

• Adding a message when trying to circle a piece of text.
• Filter by posts, pages, categories to disable protection.
• Disable restrictions for registered users or administrators; this function is by default included in the clear. It is useful when you are doing work on the website and you need the settings to be saved for everyone, but not for you.
• Additional shield for images.

8.b.1 Secure Copy Content Protection - Copy Security

Comprehensive development of content protection against copying in WordPress. If more fine-tuning is needed, then the tool will give all sorts of ways of implementation.

• There is everything that is presented in the previous two options
• Loading warning audio
• Prevent writing in WordPress input fields (search, comments)
• Disabling features by taxonomy
• Deactivates the f6, f12 keys to open developer tools,
• Prevents dragging
• Removes the ability to use search buttons
• Hides the print function
• You cannot perform any operations with images on mobiles
• Has a built-in old error value editor
• Blocking a separate section of an article using headers
• Support for your own shortcodes, you can select the text in the article and lock it with a password
• In the paid version:
  • IP blocking with countries
  • Connecting the ability to open content after payment
  • Add watermark, block images via REST API

This product is designed more to promote, sell and provide paid material than content protection. 

8.c WP-Copyright-Protection - Minimal Text Protection

The small WP-Copyright-Protection module protects the author's work only at the level of mouse manipulation and selection of copied text. Combinations like Ctrl + U will not remove, robots will quietly scan the blog. It can give access to authorized users and exclude pages from its action.

8.d WP Copy Content Protection

Also a tiny development WP Copy Content Protection, but it has slightly expanded functionality than the previous version, helping to expand or narrow the effect on blog information. The action becomes less aggressive with decreasing positions in the list, the latter is a link to the source when copying.

8.e Passster - Password Protection

Passster is not exactly for defense, but it is liked for its minimalism and fluidity. Protect a specific area of ​​the article with a password, when the visitor enters the correct combination, the module will open access for further reading. A good solution for selling popular, unique information that is not found anywhere else.

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Wrapping Up

We all put in a great effort in writing the striking method to protect content from theft. Seeing it being copied or stolen is a heart-break.  Hence, it is essential to protect it on time.  Considering the same, we have given the required information you might need for the same. A Dedicated wordpress programmer for hire can also be a choice for you if you are unsure about doing it yourself.

Do not let anyone take the leverage that you deserve. Reduce the risk of information leakage and remain stress-free!

Do share your thoughts regarding this article. Besides, if there is any query, let us know in the comment section below.  Thanks for reading!