Is Code to Text Ratio a Google Ranking Factor?

You probably already know that the way your website is coded can affect your search engine rankings.

You know that adding snippets for SEO, like a meta description, alt tags, and title tags, can greatly improve your search engine visibility.

But you may not have considered how the amount of code compared to the amount of text on that page can affect your ranking.

It’s a concept known as “code-to-text ratio” that can dramatically impact user experience, page indexing, and page speed.

But what makes a good code-to-text ratio? And more importantly, how much does it affect in your search ranking?

The first question is easy to answer but has a complex execution. A page should have exactly as much code as it needs and at the same time have as much content as users need.

Focusing on the exact ratio is not necessary in most cases.

The second factor requires a deeper dive.

[Recommended Read:] The Complete Guide to Google Ranking Factors

The Claim: Search engines value code-to-text ratios when ranking websites

There’s no question that your code-to-text ratio affects how visitors experience your site.

Websites that are too code-dense have slower load times, which can frustrate and drive users away.

And websites with too little code may not provide enough information to a web crawler. And if search engines can’t determine what your page is about, they can’t determine its content.

But do these problems also negatively affect your ranking?

The Proof: The Effect of Code-to-Text on Search Engine Results Pages

In a 2018 Google Webmaster Hangout during office hours, Google Webmaster Trends analyst John Mueller was asked if the ratio of HTML code to website text plays a role in determining rankings. He answered unequivocally: “No”.

That’s it; case closed, right? Not so fast.

While Google doesn’t directly account for the code-to-text ratio itself, several factors of this ratio support SEO best practices, meaning that a poor ratio can indirectly affect your placement in search results.

Your code-to-text ratio can tell you which pages on your site need improvement to give crawlers more information. If your code is too sparse, Google may have trouble determining its relevance, which can cause the page to drop in search results.

On the other hand, websites overloaded with code can have slow loading times. Bloated and redundant HTML is particularly problematic when it comes to page speed on mobile devices.

Faster load times mean better user experiences, which is a key ranking factor. You can use Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console to see how SEO and UX work together.

Likewise, cluttered or disorganized code can be difficult for web crawlers to navigate when indexing. Clean, compact code is much easier for bots to traverse, and while it doesn’t have a massive impact on your rankings, it does take it into account.

[Ebook Download:] Google Ranking Factors: Fact or Fiction

How to fix your code-to-text ratio

Ultimately, the main reason for improving your code-to-text ratio is to create a better user experience.

And that starts with validating your code. A tool like the W3C validator helps ensure that your website is responsive and accessible while adhering to coding best practices.

It helps you identify invalid or redundant HTML code that needs to be removed, including all code that is not required to display the page as well as code that has been commented out.

Next, you should evaluate your page load time and look for ways to improve it. Google’s PageSpeed ​​Insights reports are great tools for this task.

Once you’ve identified problem areas, it’s time to fix them. If possible, avoid using tables in your pages as they require an excessive amount of HTML code. Use CSS for styling and formatting, but place these elements in separate files wherever you can.

If you use Javascript or Flash, you should remove these elements. Finally, remove all hidden text and large spaces. Resize and compress your images and keep your page size under 300 KB if possible.

Conclusion: code-to-text is not a ranking signal, but it is still important for SEO

Do search engines directly consider your HTML code-to-text ratio when deciding where your page will appear on search results pages? no

But the quality of your coding, page load speed, and code-to-text ratio play an indirect role in search engine optimization. More importantly, it affects how users experience your site.

Keep your code-to-text ratio within the 25-70% ratio to ensure code bloat doesn’t negatively impact your site.

---

Featured image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal