Is Copying Titles Plagiarism?

1. 69

   eugbugposted 20 months ago

   If I rank low in SERPs when I search for a string of words, can I copy or use a similar title that ranks near the top of results?

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      AliciaCposted 20 months agoin reply to this

      I was surprised to learn from seemingly reliable sites that copying a title in the United States is not plagiarism. I think it’s verging on unethical, though.

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         MizBejabbersposted 20 months agoin reply to this

         When I studied copyright law in journalism, I don't recall duplicating or copying a title being brought up, so I'm not surprised. But I do know this, if the duplication of a title is unintentional, it wouldn't be unethical because intent must be present. There are a lot of unintentional duplications of titles in the writing world because so many people write on the same subject. Also, to sue for duplication as plagiarism, the offender would be given the chance to change the duplicate title and, if necessary, issue an apology. If that happened, a lawyer would not file a suite for the plaintiff.

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            Miebakagh57posted 20 months agoin reply to this

            I've seen book title of same subject or topic, by more than two arthors. I'm taking note of that.

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      Kenna McHughposted 20 months agoin reply to this

      I researched this area because plagiarism happens more nowadays, particularly in the lower levels of writing. I found that academia is super harsh and unforgiving regarding plagiarism and copyright—the most strict establishment. Other areas are gray, though publishing has become more uncompromising.
      
      Similarities in titles affect SERPs. Google will change its algo in the future to consider them unnecessary.

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2. 83

   Kenna McHughposted 20 months ago

   I would look at what is consider plagiarism.

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3. 77

   theraggededgeposted 20 months ago

   It would be impossible to sue someone for repeating a phrase, which is essentially what a title is. Especially if it were something generic like 'How to Bake Bread'.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 20 months agoin reply to this

      Yes, if you're chasing keywords or phrases then you're often limited in what titles you can choose if you're planning to be competitive.

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   2. 83

      Kenna McHughposted 20 months agoin reply to this

      News media would have a title less generic, "Baking Bread to Ward Off Snobs."

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      1. 77

         theraggededgeposted 20 months agoin reply to this

         Well, yes, but it was just an example to make a point
         
         It would be impossible to copyright generic titles as they are so prolific. Even the good old BBC has a couple, "How to Make Bread", and "Easy White Bread Recipe".
         
         I noticed another hubber had the same title twice, a book review (same book) that looked as if it were written by different people. I thought HubPages prevented duplicate titles?

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            MizBejabbersposted 20 months agoin reply to this

            I thought so, too. There have been a couple of times that HP rejected my title because it had already been used. I don't know how one would get around that. Anyway, I chose a new title so there was no problem.

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            1. 69

               eugbugposted 20 months agoin reply to this

               If a title is the same as the one on a Hubpages network site it causes problems because of the Google Site Diversity changes that were made a few years ago. This limits the number of pages that Google will list in search results for any one domain if the same keywords or combination are used. They say they may list two, but my experience is that they frequently list only one. I've run into problems with this several times and have even had to get articles moved from one network site to another because the articles were excluded from SERPs. Changing the title wasn't really feasible because some of the keywords were practically essential.

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4. 67

   PaulGoodman67posted 20 months ago

   In the broadest sense of the word, any form of copying could be interpreted as plagiarism.
   
   However, you're not going to get dinged for merely copying a title.
   
   I've noticed that Google appears to like showing a range of different titles, though, in the SERPs. Copying a title may be counterproductive if the algo doesn't prefer your piece to the article that you copied from. However, the world of keywords, algorithms, and SEO is generally a different area from plagiarism.

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5. 69

   eugbugposted 20 months ago

   Anyway I used the first five consecutive keywords of a title from an article at the top of the search results, then added on another five relevant keywords at the end. This is an article amongst several that has lost 80% of pre-pandemic traffic.

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6. 82

   Brenda Arledgeposted 20 months ago

   I've recently noticed that I have written a few pieces that use the same title.
   
   I didn't realize it at the time and they are all different.
   
   Plus, they are published in different places.
   
   I guess a Title really doesn't matter.  I remember seeing book titles that are the same.
   
   But in my case...
   I honestly didn't even think about it.
   
   I just chose a title for the poem I was writing at the time.

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