Duplicate content on my own site....
 

If I have text in sidebars with testimonials from clients and they show on every page on my website , is that duplicate content ? Does google penalize me? Also, if I have some important info on my homepage that I feel is necessary to show on another page and it is pretty much copied over, do I get penalized for that also? Thanks.

No need to worry about your own content.. I remember reading a blog post on the official google blog stating things clearly, for once, about the duplicate content.

If you caught by the google than you have to pay penalty because the duplicate content on site is always dangerous for the site , even you are using your own content .

Do not worry about that duplicate content, you want to shows clients FAQs on some pages of your site . Go for it it is not fall in duplicate content .

You may use Canonical Url to handle Duplicate content

Same content in sidebar is not a duplicate content issue . when a built a website than in every page we add some common things and if we will create a website containing different things for all the pages that it will not look like as a page of that website.

I think this is not duplication google will never penalize you, if that content is your own don't worry about it,read google webmaster articles daily there you can find information about the policies of google