39.5% of small business websites have at least two pages with near-identical content within their first 20 pages, pages so similar that Google may treat them as copies. Among fashion store websites the rate reaches 78.2%.
Analysis of 4,295 small business websites and 62,440 pages · websites listed on Google Business Profiles, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.39.5% of small business websites have at least two pages with near-identical content within their first 20 pages.
- 2.78.2% of fashion store websites have near-identical pages, the highest rate of any industry, against 22.7% of orthodontist websites, the lowest.
- 3.49.4% of small business websites with 20 or more pages have near-identical content, about half.
- 4.14.8% of all small business website pages are near-copies of another page on the same site.
- 5.Small business websites with near-identical content have 5.5 affected pages on average out of 20 or fewer.
Summary
A roofing company wants to rank in eight nearby towns, so it builds eight service pages. Each one is the same text with a different town name dropped in. To Google, those eight pages say the same thing, so it picks one to show and largely ignores the other seven, and the company ends up ranking in fewer towns than it built pages for.
Near-duplicate pages are pages whose content is so similar that a search engine may treat them as copies. They usually come from templates rather than copied text: a service page cloned for each town, product pages that differ by one line, or category pages that list the same items. Every page built to rank ends up competing with its twins.
39.5% of small business websites have at least two near-identical pages within their first 20 pages, and among websites with 20 or more pages the rate is about half. Retail websites repeat themselves most: 78.2% of fashion store websites have near-identical pages.
What we measured
In September 2026 we took small business websites listed on US Google Business Profiles in 56 industries and loaded up to 20 pages of each, following links from the homepage. We kept the 4,295 websites with at least two pages, 62,440 pages in all, and compared the content of every page with the other pages on the same site. We grouped the results by industry and by the website platform each site names in its code.
A page is near-identical when its content matches another page on the same website almost word for word, apart from small changes such as a name or a place. A website counts as affected when any of its pages is near-identical to another. A website's platform comes from the generator tag in its code, which names the system that built it, such as WordPress or Wix.
Retail websites repeat themselves most
The six industries with the highest rates are all retail: fashion stores at 78.2%, beauty stores at 73.3%, jewelry stores at 71%, auto dealers at 66.7%, home goods stores at 61.4% and furniture stores at 61.2%. Product and category pages share layouts, filters and boilerplate text, so the part of each page that is unique, a product name and a few lines, is small next to the part that repeats.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 4,295 small business websites and 62,440 pages · websites listed on Google Business Profiles, September 2026
Service and healthcare businesses sit at the other end. Orthodontists (22.7%), insurance agents (24.1%) and veterinarians (26%) have the lowest rates, and even there about one website in four is affected.
Bigger sites repeat themselves more
Size raises the risk. Among small business websites with 20 or more pages, 49.4% have near-identical content, against 39.5% overall. More pages give more chances for a template to repeat.
Websites with near-identical content have 5.5 affected pages on average, out of 20 or fewer, and across all websites 14.8% of pages are near-copies of another page on the same site, about one page in seven.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 4,295 small business websites and 62,440 pages · websites listed on Google Business Profiles, September 2026
The platform matters too. Wix websites have near-identical pages 30.1% of the time and WordPress websites 35.2%, while websites that do not name their platform, including custom builds, reach 43.3%.
What this means for small business owners
List your service, location and product pages and read two of them side by side. If only the town or product name changes, they are near-duplicates. Give each page content that is specific to it: local projects and photos, prices, questions customers in that area ask, and reviews tied to that service or town.
Where two pages really cover the same thing, merge them and redirect the weaker address to the stronger one. For filtered or sorted product listings, use a canonical tag to point back to the main category page, and write a unique description for each product rather than reusing the manufacturer's text.
Our seo copywriting services write distinct content for each service, location and product page, so every page has its own reason to rank.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites">39.5% of Small Business Websites Have Pages With Near-Identical Content - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 39.5% of Small Business Websites Have Pages With Near-Identical Content. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites
39.5% of Small Business Websites Have Pages With Near-Identical Content - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites