Yes, duplicate content can cause confusion for search engines, making it unclear which version of a page to rank. For local Essex SEO, you might be tempted to create near-identical pages for each town you serve—such as Basildon, Brentwood, and Billericay—by just swapping out the place names. This practice can dilute your overall SEO efforts, as Google may see it as spammy or redundant. Instead, ensure each page offers unique, genuinely helpful information—like specific testimonials, local imagery, or targeted service descriptions tailored to that area. If you do have content overlaps, consider using canonical tags to point Google to the “master” version of the content. Cleaning up duplicates improves user experience, ensures your site architecture is clear, and helps search engines correctly index and rank the right pages for location-specific searches.