Why Disable Right Click on Your Website?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sites with original content, like photography sites and designer portfolios, build their success on the high quality and uniqueness of the content they produce. So, the idea that anyone visiting a site can steal that content and imagery to use for their own purposes without paying for it can be frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disabling right click helps protect your original photos, graphics, illustrations, videos, and other media files from being harvested by those who would use them without permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disabling right click for your content can also help prevent plagiarism. Because it\u2019s much harder for users to manually copy your text word-for-word, they\u2019ll be more likely to use your content as a source for information and paraphrase it in their own words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This can also save your search engine rankings as Google will drop the rankings of sites that show duplicate content. So, if someone copies an article from your site and reposts it elsewhere, Google might see this behavior as a way to manipulate search engines and reduce your site\u2019s ranking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Typically, this will not happen as long as your site was properly indexed by search engines before your content was copied, as the search engine will recognize your content as the original source. Still, the possibility of penalization remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While workarounds that allow tech-savvy users to harvest your content even after you\u2019ve disabled their ability to right click do exist, this small action can dissuade the average user from collecting your branded imagery and content without permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does Disabling Right Click Affect SEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In short, no, disabling right click will not affect your SEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The slightly longer answer is that disabling right click has no effect on your site\u2019s content other than to give it a base level of protection against those who would manually mine your content. It does little to affect your site in any other way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, as John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, hinted in this 2017 tweet, disabling right click will not affect your SEO, but it also won\u2019t do much to deter those who are intent on stealing your content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the average internet user may not be technically proficient enough to steal your content if right click is disabled, there are plenty of strategies to work around and gain access regardless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of this, the best way to protect yourself against content theft is to both disable right click and register a copyright<\/a> for any original content you want to safeguard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two most common ways to disable right click in WordPress are to install a plugin or edit your site\u2019s code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few plugins available in the WordPress Plugin Repository<\/a> that make it easy to disable right click across your entire website. Here are five of our favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember to make a backup of your site and test all changes and new plugins in a local development environment before deploying changes to your live site.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This plugin disables right clicks to prevent cut, copy, paste, save image, view source, and inspect element actions for front end users. It also disables the ability for users to highlight text or drag-and-drop images, and it\u2019s entirely free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This plugin will only disable right click on images across your site, leaving the functionality for end users to right click and view your source code or highlight and copy\/paste text. It\u2019s great for sites with lots of imagery but less of a focus on unique copy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This plugin disables right click functionality, but it also disables common keyboard shortcuts your visitors might use to circumvent disabled right click functionality, including source (Ctrl+U), F12 function key, and save the page (Ctrl+S) shortcuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This plugin will disable right clicks and the copy\/paste function on your site and display a \u201cdisabled\u201d message when the front end user attempts to use these functions. It also disables common keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL+C, CTRL+X, CTRL+V, CTRL+U, \u2318+C, \u2318+X, \u2318+V, \u2318+Option+I, and \u2318+Option+U.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For image-heavy sites that don\u2019t require a lot of unique text, like photography sites or eCommerce sites, the No Right Click Images Plugin can help deter image theft. The plugin owners do warn that this plugin can, on occasion, interfere with clickable images, so make sure to test this plugin in a local development environment before implementing it on your live site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disabling right clicks in WordPress is as easy as opening and making a small edit to the functions.php file of your theme. We recommend using a local development environment, such as Local<\/a>, when making any widespread changes on your site to avoid disruptions or unintended consequences in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019re working in a safe environment, you can use these steps to disable right click with PHP code:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please note that this code may not work to disable right click on all browsers and devices, and users will still be able to access the right-click menu using keyboard shortcuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few other strategies you can implement to protect your content from those who would harvest it without your permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first and most effective way to protect your content is to add a copyright tag. This will make it easier for you to challenge those who would copy your original content and give a legal standing on which to build your case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, simply adding a copyright tag alone may dissuade someone from stealing your work, but it\u2019s ultimately useless unless you have actually registered your work. For U.S. companies, you can learn more about how that process works here<\/a> or get straight to registering your content here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also use a tool like Copyscape<\/a> to monitor the web for unauthorized copies of your work. Copyscape provides a free plagiarism checker, and the premium version even comes with a WordPress plugin<\/a> for your website. The plugin adds a \u201cCopyscape Check\u201d button to your interface that allows you to check your pages any time and provides a full report of any duplicate content found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re not ready to go the copyright route just yet, simply adding a watermark to your original imagery can dissuade potential content theft. A watermark is <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, one easy way to find out if your content is being used without your permission is simply to search large portions of your text or do a reverse image search for your original images to check for copycats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, these results may not identify all instances of image theft, especially for pages that haven\u2019t been properly crawled or indexed, but it\u2019s still a good first step in your fight against intellectual property infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disabling right click functionality on WordPress is one easy way to deter content theft and help protect your WordPress site. The best way to protect your site and its content is to register copyrights for your original content and choose a high-quality WordPress hosting provider with a proven track record of top-notch security<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Find out more<\/strong><\/a> about industry-leading WordPress hosting, including award-winning 24\/7\/365 support at <\/strong>WP Engine<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You work hard on the code, content, and imagery used on your website. Unfortunately, the ability for anyone to harvest that information is just a right click away. Because of this, many site owners will disable the end user\u2019s ability to right click on site elements in an attempt to better protect their content. In…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":318,"featured_media":141717,"template":"","resource-topic":[909,910,901],"resource-role":[1397,896],"resource-type":[916],"class_list":["post-141708","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"tweet](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/JohnMu.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow to Disable Right Click in WordPress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Use a Plugin to Disable Right Click in WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/disablerightclickforwp.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDisable Right Click for WP<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/disablerightclickimages.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDisable Right Click Images<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/disabledsource.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDisabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/contentcopyprotection.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nContent Copy Protection & Disable Right Click<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/norightclickimages.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNo Right Click Images Plugin<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Add Code Snippets to Disable Right Click in WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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function disable_right_click() {\n echo \"<script>document.oncontextmenu = function(){return false;};<\/script>\";\n}\nadd_action( 'wp_footer', 'disable_right_click' );<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n
Alternative Solutions to Protect Your Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n