Linking Websites/ Plagiarized Content Ranking Above Original Content

[Jessica711]

Hey friends!

Sooo this article was originally published in December 2016: https://www.realwealthnetwork.com/learn/best-places-to-buy-rental-property-2017/

It has been consistently ranking in positions 2-3 for long tail keyword "best places to buy rental property 2017" (and related keywords) since January-ish. It's been getting about 2000-2,500 unique views per week, until last week when it completely dropped off the internet (it's now ranking 51+).

We just did a site redesign and changed some URL structures, but I created a redirect, so I don't understand why that would affect our ranking so much. Plus all of our other top pages have held their rankings -- in fact, our top organic article actually moved up from position 3 to 2 for much more competitive keywords (1031 exchange).

What's even weirder is when I copy the sections of my article & paste into Google with quotes, our websites doesn't show up anywhere. Other websites that have plagiarized my article (some have included links back to the article, and some haven't) are ranking, but mine is nowhere to be found. Here are some examples:

https://www.dawgsinc.com/rental-property-the-best-places-to-buy-in-the-year-2017/

http://b2blabs.com/2017/08/rental-property-the-best-places-to-buy-in-the-year-2017/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-places-buy-rental-property-year-2017-missy-lawwill/?trk=mp-reader-card

http://news.sys-con.com/node/4136506

Is it possible that Google thinks my article is newer than the copycat articles, because of the new URL, and now I'm being flagged as spam? Does it think these are spam websites we've created to link back to our own content?

Also, clearly my article is higher quality than the ranking articles. Why are they showing up? I double checked the redirect. It's good. The page is indexed...

Ahhh what is going on?! Thanks for your help in advance!

[EGOL]

I would wait a little longer before getting really worried.  Sometimes redirects can take time.

Meanwhile, I would make a decision about complaining directly to the infringer or filing a DMCA complaint.  If you are not familiar with DMCA, fair use and copyright, there can be some risk in doing these.  I consulted an attorney about these types of problems when I first started having them.   Now, I usually act on my own to file DMCA and consult him when there are questions.

If the infringement is on a strong and wild competitor and I fear retaliation, the attorney might contact them for me.  If the infringement is on a respectable website of importance, I contact them myself and tell them the problem.  They usually respond.  If it is simply a spammer grabbing my stuff, I go straight to DMCA.

If you file DMCA and Google approves, things will happen quickly.  Within a few days your request will be reviewed and BAM, the infringer will be gone and your site will usually be back.