Code to Text Ratio: Is It a Google Ranking Factor? - Search Engine Journal

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You’ve likely heard the claims that you want to have a healthy code to text ratio (a.k.a., text to HTML ratio) when it comes to displaying content – typically text – on a webpage.

To sum it up, it’s a ratio that tells you what percentage of your webpage should contain text.

It’s a notion that’s been backed up by many SEO professionals and my own experiences when figuring out the right word count or designing a new user experience (UX).

Anyone who has built a website knows the pain points your code to text ratio can have on the UX, indexing of pages, and page speed.

But does the code to text ratio really matter to the search engines?

Let’s break down the evidence to see whether search engines use code to text as a ranking factor.

The Claim: Code to Text as a Ranking Factor

Some SEO pros claim that code to text is used not only to improve user experience but as a key ranking factor for search engines.

Code to text is said to be used by search engines to determine the relevancy of a webpage. If you have a lower code to text ratio (less copy on the webpage), you spark confusion with crawlers.

Why?

Because crawlers don’t have enough information to determine the context of the webpage and what it’s all about.

The Evidence

Let’s start with the first...



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