Duplicate Content Checker

Two pages can look similar for many different reasons. Product variants may share specifications. Location pages may use the same service descriptions. Syndicated articles may reproduce the same body text with permission. Templates can add repeated boilerplate around otherwise distinct content. A copied article may also be genuinely near-identical to the original.

A similarity score can help you see the overlap, but it cannot tell you why the overlap exists or whether a search engine considers it a problem.

The Wild Creek Content Similarity Checker compares the vocabulary in two texts. It gives you a numerical measure of shared words, shows longer phrases that appear in both versions, and highlights the overlapping vocabulary side by side. You can then decide whether the similarity is expected, useful, accidental or worth investigating.

What the tool measures:

• A Jaccard similarity percentage based on unique normalised words.
• Word counts for both texts.
• The number of unique words shared by both texts.
• Shared phrases from two through five words.
• A side-by-side view highlighting shared vocabulary.

What the score does not measure:

• Google’s view of the pages.
• Whether either URL will rank.
• Whether Google will choose one URL as canonical.
• Whether a page has received a penalty.
• Plagiarism, copyright ownership or publishing permission.
• Content quality, usefulness, factual accuracy or originality beyond word overlap.

Two input modes:

URL mode fetches two public HTML pages and extracts readable text for comparison. Navigation and other non-content areas may still influence the result depending on the page structure, so use the output as an approximation of page-level overlap.

Text mode lets you paste the exact passages you want to compare. This is the better choice when you want to isolate article bodies, product descriptions or another specific section from surrounding templates.

How to Interpret a High Score

A high percentage means the texts share a large proportion of their distinct vocabulary according to this method. It does not automatically mean you should redirect, canonicalise or rewrite one of them.

First ask why the pages exist. If two URLs serve the same visitor need and contain almost the same information, consolidation may make sense. If the pages serve different purposes but rely on large blocks of reused copy, improving the distinctive information on each page may help users. If the overlap comes from required legal language, product specifications or deliberate syndication, it may be completely expected.

The right action depends on page purpose, canonical strategy, internal linking, audience needs and the source of the shared text.

Why Jaccard Similarity?

Jaccard similarity compares two sets. In this tool, each set contains the distinct normalised words found in one text. The number of words shared by both sets is divided by the total number of distinct words present across either set.

That makes the method easy to understand and useful for broad vocabulary overlap. It also has limitations. Word order has little influence on the main score, repeated use of the same word does not increase the unique-word intersection, and common topic vocabulary can make two independently written texts look more similar.

The shared-phrase view adds useful context by showing consecutive phrases that occur in both texts.

When the Tool Is Useful

Use it when reviewing product or location templates, comparing an old article with a proposed rewrite, checking how much syndicated copy was retained, investigating suspected scraping, or comparing two pages that appear to compete for the same purpose.

Do not use a single percentage as an automated threshold for deleting, redirecting or canonicalising pages.