Copied Word for Word: What to Do When a Competitor Lifts Your Website
A competitor copied your website word for word. What Google actually does about it, how to get the copy delisted, and the evidence to gather first.
·11 min read
IO
Ian oversees Web60's hosting infrastructure and operations. Responsible for the uptime, security, and performance of every site on the platform, he writes about the operational reality of keeping Irish business websites fast, secure, and online around the clock.
Areas of Expertise
Hosting infrastructure and uptimeServer operations and monitoringSecurity, backups, and complianceWordPress platform managementIncident response and disaster recoveryGDPR and Irish data sovereignty
Background
- ✓Operations Director at Web60 / SmartHost
- ✓Specialist in managed WordPress infrastructure
- ✓Responsible for platform uptime and security
Articles by Ian O'Reilly
80 articles · Page 1 of 3
Changing Your Business Name: What Moves With You and What Does Not
Changing your business name? Your rankings, links and listings do not follow you automatically. The sequence that protects what your website already earned.
·14 min read
Your Website Changes Are Not Showing Because You Only Updated One Copy of Your Site
You changed the page and customers still see the old one. Several copies of your site hold the old version. Learn which you can clear and which you cannot.
·13 min read
A Hacked Website Is Bad. What Google Does Next Is Worse.
Cleaning a hacked WordPress site is the easy part. Removing Google's 'this site may be hacked' warning and rebuilding the search visibility it wrecks is the real cost.
·10 min read
A Broken Link Sent Her to a Dead End. A 404 Page Would Have Kept Her.
A dead link should not cost you a customer. A custom 404 page turns a not-found error into a second chance to keep visitors on your site and off a dead end.
·9 min read
Your New Website Is Live but Invisible on Google. One Setting Is Usually Why.
Your website is live but nowhere on Google? Before you blame slow SEO, check the one WordPress setting that quietly tells search engines to stay out.
·10 min read
You Are Not the Only Person Who Can Log Into Your Website
Former staff, freelancers and old agencies often still have live logins to your site. Learn how to audit who can access your website and revoke stale accounts.
·10 min read
Comment Spam: The Case for Closing Your Business Website's Comments
Comment spam floods business websites with junk links while real customers stay silent. Why closing your comments section is the smart operational call.
·7 min read
Adding Video to Your Website Without Wrecking Your Page Speed
Embedding video the wrong way is the heaviest thing on most business websites. See how a YouTube embed hurts Core Web Vitals and four faster ways to add video.
·12 min read
Internal Linking: Why Your Blog Post Ranked and Your Booking Page Still Got No Clicks
Internal linking tells Google which WordPress pages matter most. Learn how orphan pages lose rankings, and how to audit and fix yours in an afternoon.
·11 min read
Accessibility Overlay Widgets Do Not Make Your Website Compliant
An accessibility widget promises EU compliance for one line of code. The FTC fined the largest vendor $1m for that exact claim. See what genuinely works.
·12 min read
Your Homepage Can Pass Core Web Vitals While Your Website Fails It
Google often scores Core Web Vitals for your whole website, not one page at a time. Here is how origin-level grouping works, and what actually fixes it.
·11 min read
A Strong WordPress Password Is Not the Same Thing as a Safe One
A strong WordPress password means nothing if it is reused elsewhere. Credential reuse, not weak passwords, is the real risk to your admin login.
·9 min read
What Happens to Your Website When Your Hosting Provider Goes Out of Business
Your hosting provider can be sold, struck off or wound down with little warning. This covers what happens to your website next, and how to stay protected.
·12 min read
The Broken Link That Cost a Business Six Weeks of Enquiries Before Anyone Noticed
A single broken link can quietly cost a business real enquiries for weeks before anyone notices. Here is how to find and fix dead links on WordPress.
·9 min read
No, an llms.txt File Will Not Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT
You have probably heard that adding an llms.txt file gets your business cited by ChatGPT. Here is what OpenAI and Perplexity's own documentation actually says.
·12 min read
The Font on Your WordPress Homepage Might Be Slow, and It Might Be Breaking GDPR
Google Fonts can slow WordPress pages with layout shift and, per a German court ruling, breach GDPR. Here is how to check your fonts and fix both issues.
·11 min read
WordPress Page Builders: The Hidden Weight Behind a Slow Business Website
Elementor, Divi and other WordPress page builders add real weight to every page load. See what it costs your Core Web Vitals score, and how to check yours.
·13 min read
Your Google Traffic Dropped Overnight? It Is Probably Not the Algorithm.
Your Google traffic fell and the algorithm feels like the obvious culprit. Search Console usually tells a different story. Here is how to find the real cause.
·13 min read
What Are Your Customers Actually Searching For? A Free Keyword Research Method for Business Owners
Most business owners guess what customers search for, then write copy around the guess. Here's the free-tool method for finding the real phrases instead.
·10 min read
Bot Traffic Now Outnumbers Your Customers, and It Is Not Free
More than half of all website traffic is now bots, not people. They slow your site, distort your data, and probe your login. Learn how to keep the bad ones out.
·13 min read
Interaction to Next Paint: The Core Web Vital Most WordPress Sites Are Quietly Failing
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is the Core Web Vital most WordPress sites quietly fail. What it measures, why plugins wreck it, and how to fix yours.
·12 min read
Your New Page Went Live Weeks Ago. Google Still Has Not Indexed It.
A live WordPress page is not the same as an indexed one. Here's why new pages go missing from Google, and the fixes that actually get them found.
·10 min read
Why Duplicate Content Won't Get You Penalised, But Still Costs You Rankings
Duplicate content won't trigger a Google penalty, but it can quietly split your WordPress rankings. Here's what actually happens, and how to fix it.
·10 min read
Featured Snippets: Why Position One on Google Isn't the Prize Anymore
Featured snippets and AI Overviews now decide who gets the click, not just who ranks first. Here's what Irish business owners can actually control.
·7 min read
Schema Markup Explained: How Rich Results Give Your Business a Bigger Presence in Google Search
Schema markup puts your star ratings, opening hours and FAQs directly in Google results. Learn which types matter and how to implement them on a WordPress site without touching code.
·14 min read
Google Analytics Changed Mid-June. Your Business Data Has Been Wrong Since.
Google's mid-June 2026 Analytics consent change is stripping visitor data from Irish business websites. Here's what changed, what it means for your numbers, and what to do about it.
·8 min read
Your Core Web Vitals Score Is Not a Google Ranking
Passing Core Web Vitals won't put you on page one. Learn what these scores actually signal for Google rankings, and what moves the needle for Irish businesses.
·8 min read
Website Downtime Is a Google Ranking Problem, Not Just a Technical One
A short outage feels harmless. But repeated website downtime quietly cuts how often Google crawls and ranks you, and sends customers to a competitor.
·8 min read
WordPress User Roles: Who on Your Team Should Be Able to Change What
WordPress user roles decide who on your team can edit, publish or break your business website. Here is how to set access so one wrong click cannot cost you.
·15 min read