When it comes to technical SEO, few issues are as misunderstood — and overhyped — as duplicate content.
Many site owners panic at the mere thought of having duplicate content. But in reality, it’s often a non-issue — and when it is a problem, it’s easily fixed.
The key question is: is the page actually being filtered by Google? You can check this by doing a site search. If you see a message at the bottom saying “Some results have been omitted because they are very similar…”, and your page is among those hidden results, then yes — there’s a duplicate content issue.
Otherwise, there’s nothing to worry about.
Even if you do need to make changes, it doesn’t take much. In past tests, changing just 1 out of every 11 words was often enough to avoid being flagged as duplicate by Google’s filter.
So don’t let duplicate content scare you — understand how it works, and focus on what actually moves the needle.
When it comes to technical SEO, few issues are as misunderstood — and overhyped — as duplicate content.
Many site owners panic at the mere thought of having duplicate content. But in reality, it’s often a non-issue — and when it is a problem, it’s easily fixed.
The key question is: is the page actually being filtered by Google? You can check this by doing a site search. If you see a message at the bottom saying “Some results have been omitted because they are very similar…”, and your page is among those hidden results, then yes — there’s a duplicate content issue.
Otherwise, there’s nothing to worry about.
Even if you do need to make changes, it doesn’t take much. In past tests, changing just 1 out of every 11 words was often enough to avoid being flagged as duplicate by Google’s filter.
So don’t let duplicate content scare you — understand how it works, and focus on what actually moves the needle.
