Near-duplicate content
Near-duplicate pages share almost all their content with only minor changes, offering little unique value.
What it is
This check flags pages that are highly similar to each other (boilerplate with a few swapped words).
Why it matters for SEO
Near-duplicates compete with each other, spread thin signals, and rarely satisfy distinct search intents.
Example
/ville/paris and /ville/lyon - 95% identical boilerplate
How to fix
- Add genuinely unique, topic-specific content to each page.
- Consolidate pages that cannot be differentiated.
- Use canonicals for unavoidable variants.
- Re-crawl after differentiating content.