--- title: "Duplicate Content Statistics: 39.5% of Small Business Sites" url: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites description: "Our duplicate content statistics show 39.5% of small business websites have near-identical pages, rising to 78.2% of fashion store sites. See the data." lang: en --- Share Share on X: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fnear-duplicate-content-websites&text=39.5%25%20of%20Small%20Business%20Websites%20Have%20Pages%20With%20Near-Identical%20Content Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fnear-duplicate-content-websites Share on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fnear-duplicate-content-websites Share on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.suffdigital.com%2Fresources%2Fdata-studies%2Fnear-duplicate-content-websites&title=39.5%25%20of%20Small%20Business%20Websites%20Have%20Pages%20With%20Near-Identical%20Content **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. 1. **39.5%** of small business websites have at least two pages with near-identical content within their first 20 pages. Copy stat 2. 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. Copy stat 3. 3. **49.4%** of small business websites with 20 or more pages have near-identical content, about half. Copy stat 4. 4. **14.8%** of all small business website pages are near-copies of another page on the same site. Copy stat 5. 5. Small business websites with near-identical content have **5.5** affected pages on average out of 20 or fewer. Copy stat ## 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 78.2% of fashion store websites have pages with near-identical content. 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. Websites with near-identical pages by industry Fashion store 78.2% Beauty store 73.3% Jewelry store 71% Auto dealer 66.7% Home goods store 61.4% Furniture store 61.2% Mattress store 59.6% Pet groomer 26.5% Funeral home 26.3% Nonprofit 26.2% Veterinarian 26% Insurance 24.1% Orthodontist 22.7% 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. Websites with near-identical pages by group All small business websites 39.5% Websites with 20 or more pages 49.4% Wix 30.1% WordPress 35.2% Platform not named 43.3% 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 (https://www.suffdigital.com/seo/seo-content-writing-services) write distinct content for each service, location and product page, so every page has its own reason to rank. ## Embed this research Paste this on your site to embed the charts. It links back to the source automatically.

Source: 39.5% of Small Business Websites Have Pages With Near-Identical Content - Suff Digital

## Cite this study APA 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 Plain link 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 ## Frequently asked questions ### How many websites have duplicate content? ### Which types of businesses have the most duplicate content? ### What share of website pages are near-duplicates? ### What causes near-duplicate content on small business websites? ## Related studies - SEO 26.9% of Small Business Websites Link to Their Own Redirects vs 0.9% With Redirect Chains: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/small-business-technical-seo-housekeeping - SEO 16.1% of Small Business Web Pages Can't Appear in Google Search: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/non-indexable-pages-small-business - SEO 88% of Small Business Websites Have Backlinks From Likely Spam Pages: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/spammy-backlinks-small-business - SEO 42.6% of Small Business Web Pages Have Fewer Than 300 Words: https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/thin-content-small-business-pages ## Structured data ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization", "name": "Suff Digital", "alternateName": "Suff Digital Marketing", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "contentUrl": "https://www.suffdigital.com/logo.png", "caption": "Suff Digital" }, "image": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#logo" }, "description": "Suff Digital is a full-stack digital marketing agency that turns websites into predictable revenue engines, SEO, paid media, content, CRO, and web design built around revenue, not vanity metrics.", "slogan": "Digital marketing built for what's next.", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "foundingDate": "2022", "founder": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Suffoletto", "jobTitle": "Founder & CEO" }, "contactPoint": [ { "@type": "ContactPoint", "telephone": "+1-629-236-0099", "email": "hello@suffdigital.com", "contactType": "sales", "areaServed": "US", "availableLanguage": [ "en" ] } ], "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Nashville", "addressRegion": "TN", "postalCode": "37219", "addressCountry": "US" }, "areaServed": { "@type": "Country", "name": "United States" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/suff-digital/", "https://www.instagram.com/suffdigital/", "https://www.youtube.com/@suffdigitalmarketing", "https://www.tiktok.com/@suffdigital" ], "knowsAbout": [ "Search Engine Optimization", "Pay-Per-Click Advertising", "Paid Social Advertising", "Conversion Rate Optimization", "Web Design", "Digital PR", "Link Building", "Website Migration", "Website Maintenance and Support", "Technical SEO", "Local SEO", "AI Search Optimization" ], "hasOfferCatalog": { "@type": "OfferCatalog", "name": "Suff Digital Services", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/ppc" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Paid Social Advertising", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/paid-social" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/cro" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Web Design", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/web-design" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Digital PR & Link Building", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/digital-pr" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Migration", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-migration" } }, { "@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": { "@type": "Service", "name": "Website Maintenance & Support", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/services/website-maintenance" } } ] } }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#website", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/", "name": "Suff Digital", "inLanguage": "en-US", "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites#article", "headline": "39.5% of Small Business Websites Have Pages With Near-Identical Content", "description": "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. 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Among fashion store websites the rate reaches 78.2%.", "url": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites", "creator": { "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/#organization" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-24", "dateModified": "2026-09-24", "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "measurementTechnique": "Websites listed on US Google Business Profiles in 56 industries, up to 20 pages each" }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "@id": "https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/near-duplicate-content-websites#faq", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "How many websites have duplicate content?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "39.5% of small business websites have at least two pages with near-identical content within their first 20 pages, and 49.4% of those with 20 or more pages do (September 2026)." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which types of businesses have the most duplicate content?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Retail. 78.2% of fashion store websites have near-identical pages, followed by beauty stores (73.3%) and jewelry stores (71%). Orthodontists have the lowest rate at 22.7%." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What share of website pages are near-duplicates?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "14.8% of small business website pages are near-copies of another page on the same site, about one page in seven." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What causes near-duplicate content on small business websites?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Templates: service pages cloned for each town, product pages that differ by one line, and category pages listing the same items. The six industries with the most near-identical pages are all retail, led by fashion stores at 78.2%." } } ] } ] } ] ```