Near-duplicate content: the town pages that seemed like a good idea.
A duplicate check catches identical titles. It does not catch ten pages that each say "RV park near [town]" with the same three paragraphs and a different town name. Google catches that, and it has been marking the pattern down for years. It is the most common self-inflicted wound on park sites built by an agency in the last decade.
IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Near-duplicate content is pages that are mostly the same text with small substitutions. On park sites it is almost always location pages: one for every town within an hour, each with the same paragraphs and the town name swapped. Google recognizes the pattern, treats the pages as low value, and can reduce the whole site's standing. Titles and descriptions may all be unique, so the duplicate-metadata check passes. It takes reading the pages, or a comparison tool, to see it. The fix is one good page for your town and one per kind of guest, not one per town you are not in.
What near-duplicate means
Pages whose text overlaps heavily, differing only in a name, a number, or a few words. Google compares page content, not just titles. When it finds a cluster of pages that are substantially the same, it picks one to index, ignores the rest, and may lower its opinion of the site that produced them. The pages do not have to be identical; the town-swap pattern is enough.
What it looks like on a park website
- "RV Park near Salida," "RV Park near Leadville," "RV Park near Nathrop," "RV Park near Poncha Springs," each with the same intro, the same amenities list, and a sentence about the drive.
- A page per amenity where each is a heading, a stock sentence, and the same call to action.
- A rates page and a specials page that repeat each other.
- A blog where every post has the same three paragraphs of boilerplate around one new sentence.
Why it was built
Because it used to work, a little, and because agencies could sell it by the page. A dozen town pages felt like a dozen chances to rank. Google closed that door with a series of updates aimed at exactly this, and the pages went from mildly helpful to mildly harmful. Many park sites still carry them because nobody went back.
What it costs a park
The town pages do not rank, which is the least of it. Google's judgment of the site as a whole drops, so the pages that should rank, the homepage and the sites page, rank a little lower too. And the pages are a maintenance burden: twelve pages to update every time the rates change, and they never get updated.
How to check your own
- List your pages. If you see the same page name with different towns, that is the pattern.
- Open two of them side by side and read. If they differ only by the town name, they are near-duplicates.
- In Search Console, check whether those pages get any impressions at all. Usually they do not.
What we do about it
We do not build town pages for towns the park is not in. We build one strong page for the park's own town and one page per kind of guest, each with its own real content. When we take over a site with a town-page cluster, we forward the cluster to the relevant real page, which removes the pattern and keeps whatever links the old pages had. When a location page is legitimate, and when it is not.
Questions about this.
Are location pages bad for SEO?
A page for a town you are actually in is fine. A page for every town nearby with the same text and the name swapped is near-duplicate content, and Google marks that pattern down.
How does Google detect near-duplicate content?
It compares the text of pages, not just their titles. Pages that overlap heavily with small substitutions are recognized as a cluster and mostly ignored.
We have a dozen town pages. What should we do?
Forward them to the real page they were imitating, usually the homepage or the sites page, so any links they earned carry over, and replace them with one page per kind of guest.
Will a duplicate-title check catch near-duplicate pages?
No. Town pages usually have unique titles and descriptions. Catching near-duplicates takes reading the pages or comparing their text.
Want this checked on your park site?
Send us the address. We run the full check and tell you what we found, in plain words. SEO for parks starts at $250 a month.
Part of the RV park SEO guide, section: What a script cannot see. Previous: Redirect chains: what happens to old addresses when a park site is rebuilt.