A Google Webmaster Help thread has someone who is claiming his site was created completely by a web designer he hired, from the design to the content and discovered the content was stolen from other sites. The thing is, from the wording of this person’s complaint, it seems the web designer used boilerplate content to fill the pages so that his client can re-do the content themselves.

This is the complaint:

As many of us know, designers need content to insert into the site’s design to see how it may look. If the client won’t provide it, often they will use gibberish or content from similar web sites just for drafting purposes. I am not sure if this person paid the designer to also do the content on the site, I suspect the person feels like he/she did.

Now she is worried that Google will penalize the new site because the content is stolen.

I like most of the replies in the thread, but Google’s JohnMu replied, so I have to quote him. He said:

Love how John ends with, “you will have learned a lot about the details that you’ll need to know then.”

Bottom line, the site should not be live until the site owner approves it. It should be on a test domain, locked down, until it is approved. Once approved, then well…

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.