rescendent - 2:52 pm on Mar 25, 2005 (gmt 0)

I have a site and most of the raw HTML between pages it identical (SSI) for the top, the left and bottom of the pages (i.e. template style).

This is the general site boilerplate like the logo on the top a navigation strip under for the main sections; (e.g. Home, search, Forums, polls, about us etc.) a navigation strip down the side for links to sub-sections; and a copyright notice on the bottom with links to a site map and privacy links.

The main viewable body of all the pages is different depending on where the user is. However the boilerplate is about 50% of the pages raw HTML though a very small portion of the visible text (about 50 words), which just sets up all the layout of the pages ensuring a constant feel to the site. Most of this is front loaded as tables are used to handle this layout.

Also for each page again most of the HTML in the body is identical, ensuring a consistent layout for each page. The reason the boilerplate is c.50%+ of the page is most of the pages are kept small so that the pages fit onto a single screen; with a link to a second page, related articles, etc. as necessary. Also because of this most of the links are identical, other than the ones relevant to particular article you are reading.

However the text for all the pages is different as they are all about different things.

So my question is as most of the HTML and links are identical for every page, even though the text is always different will these pages be marked as duplicate content? i.e. does Google use the page text or the entire page (HTML and all) to determine duplicate content?