Scrape

In the context of SEO, “scrape” refers to the act of using automated tools to extract or “scrape” content from websites. This extraction can be done for various reasons, both legitimate and malicious. For instance, search engines like Google use bots to scrape website content to index and rank it for search results.

However, there are also instances where unscrupulous entities scrape content to republish it on other sites without permission, essentially stealing the content. This latter practice can lead to duplicate content issues, where the same content appears on multiple sites.

For websites that fall victim to content scraping, it might result in a decrease in search rankings, as search engines aim to serve unique content to users. Thus, site owners should be wary of potential scraping and use the “noindex” tag or other methods to protect their content if they suspect it’s being misused.