Thoughts on copying other websites designs?

[tipsavvy]

As title says.
If you saw a nice website design layout, would you ever save the stock images (think online animations from a theme) and recreate it on your own page with different wording for use in a different country?

I did this recently and the owner of the page contacted me saying to remove it or he’ll use negative SEO on my website.

curious to hear your thoughts.

 

[seochris96]

Hah, are you serious? The one and only time you ever did it and the guy found out? You must have REALLY copied his site and instead of moving the content to your site you were still linking to his content and he saw the unusual traffic queries and that's how he spotted you.

My mentor/guru who initially got me started down the path of coding once told me something I'll never forget: all developers are professional thieves. It's just people who aren't devs don't realize it.

There's not much true originality out there. Everything is a spin-off of a spin-off of a ... well you get the idea. The only thing you have to truly be careful of is stock photos, as there have been severe civil penalties for illegal usage of those and if you're going to use someone else's code, just at least remove anything that links back to them. Comments, links, etc. Images are much easier to prove unverified use; code is another beast altogether though.

 

[tipsavvy]

Hah, are you serious? The one and only time you ever did it and the guy found out? You must have REALLY copied his site and instead of moving the content to your site you were still linking to his content and he saw the unusual traffic queries and that's how he spotted you.

My mentor/guru who initially got me started down the path of coding once told me something I'll never forget: all developers are professional thieves. It's just people who aren't devs don't realize it.

There's not much true originality out there. Everything is a spin-off of a spin-off of a ... well you get the idea. The only thing you have to truly be careful of is stock photos, as there have been severe civil penalties for illegal usage of those and if you're going to use someone else's code, just at least remove anything that links back to them. Comments, links, etc.

Actually it was just one of the service pages, but the guy came for an seo audit since he’s a seller and I forgot that I used his design there. Lol.

Hiccup on my end.

but i didn’t use any of his code, I recreated the layout from scratch using a page builder and modified it to keep the parts I was interested.

 

[Zoekban]

Basically, if it doesn't have copyright protection from him / the company that created this design for him, so you don't need to fear too much. But I guess I would recommend you to buy a template/change design because if he's competitive enough in the market that you're trying, it could give you a bad start.

 

[bladee4r]

As title says.
If you saw a nice website design layout, would you ever save the stock images (think online animations from a theme) and recreate it on your own page with different wording for use in a different country?

I did this recently and the owner of the page contacted me saying to remove it or he’ll use negative SEO on my website.

curious to hear your thoughts.

I've copied a lot from sites that are medium sized but in a different niche, and never had a problem. I also rebuild websites based on a nice theme I found. By theme, I mean there is often websites where someone has 100 different themes pre-built for your niche, and you pay them to implement your info onto the theme. But in this case it's better to just make it yourself.

 

[tipsavvy]

Basically, if it doesn't have copyright protection from him / the company that created this design for him, so you don't need to fear too much. But I guess I would recommend you to buy a template/change design because if he's competitive enough in the market that you're trying, it could give you a bad start.

I don’t even plan on competing at the same scale as him, I just use it for a local market.

negative seo can be annoying but I know I just have to disavow the links if he’s serious about it.

 

[Zoekban]

Actually it was just one of the service pages, but the guy came for an seo audit since he’s a seller and I forgot that I used his design there. Lol.

Hiccup on my end.

but i didn’t use any of his code, I recreated the layout from scratch using a page builder and modified it to keep the parts I was interested.

Well, it's more a morality issue here, just change the design you took from this specific seller or any other seller you're working with and start your journey in a good way , if the guy comes from the field and knows a few things, you will find your self disavowing links more than dealing with the idea.

 

[tipsavvy]

Well, it's more a morality issue here, just change the design you took from this specific seller or any other seller you're working with and start your journey in a good way , if the guy comes from the field and knows a few things, you will find your self disavowing links more than dealing with the idea.

yeah I just don’t really see any type of copyright on the way that people design their layout or place their images aligned with the text, but I hear you. I’ll probably just delete the page and create one myself; let’s see.