How to Fix Text-to-HTML Ratio for SEO

In the world of website optimization and SEO perfection, you’ve likely encountered a multitude of tasks, from perfecting metadata descriptions to image optimization and keyword integration. However, a seemingly elusive metric known as the Text-to-HTML Ratio often lingers as a mysterious challenge. In this blog post, we’ll demystify the significance of this ratio, explaining what it means and why it’s crucial for your website’s SEO success. If you’re striving for a flawless 100% SEO performance, rest assured that comprehending and addressing your text-to-code ratio could be the final puzzle piece you’ve been seeking, allowing you to confidently mark it off your SEO to-do list and enhance your website’s SEO prowess.

What Is Text-to-HTML Ratio?

The text-to-HTML ratio refers to the amount of text compared to the HTML code on your web page. A low text-to-code ratio means you have a large amount of HTML code for a small amount of text. For instance, if you require 10,000 characters of HTML to display only 200 characters on the user’s screen, your text-to-code ratio would be 2%. This is considered a low text-to-HTML ratio.

Alternatively, if you only need 500 characters of HTML to display the same 200 characters, your text-to-HTML ratio would be 40%. This ratio is much better.

To calculate the Text-to-HTML ratio, you can use tools like SiteGuru that automate the process. However, if you prefer to calculate it manually, divide the text size on the page by the total size of the entire webpage. Then, multiply the result by 100 to convert it into a percentage.

SEO Value

The text-to-HTML ratio may not directly affect SEO, but it can still be beneficial to compare this ratio across your pages:

• Enhanced User-Friendliness. Web pages with a higher text-to-code ratio are more readable and appealing to your target audience, prioritizing their experience over search engines’ requirements.
• Quicker Loading Times. Websites with fewer lines of code load faster, resulting in improved user experience. It’s important to note that page load speed is also a ranking factor.
• Improved User Experience. Search engines like Google prioritize better user experience as a key ranking factor. Since a higher text-to-code ratio indicates better user experience, striving for an improved ratio is logical.
• Enhanced Page Indexing. A cleaner and more concise code and a higher ratio of plain content make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website. It’s important to remember that achieving a better text-to-code ratio will be relatively easy for your rankings.

What’s A Good Ratio?

To achieve a good ratio, it is important to balance the HTML code and text on the page. Ideally, the ratio should be between 25% to 70%. It is recommended to keep the size of the HTML code above 300KB. Clean code plays a crucial role in the overall quality of a webpage. However, in some cases, large websites have been developed over time, making it impractical to start from scratch with clean code. To structure elements, CSS is suggested instead of using tables.

If you are working with existing code, try to condense it. Then, add enough text to achieve a balanced ratio within the 25% to 70% range. This means incorporating additional copy into the webpage.

How to Fix Low HTML-to-Text Ratio

To fix a low HTML-to-text ratio, follow these steps:

1. Place CSS and Javascript in separate files instead of using inline code.
2. Validate your HTML code using the W3 HTML Validator or similar tools.
3. Remove any unnecessary HTML elements that do not contribute to displaying the page.
4. Identify and remove any commented-out code.

In conclusion, the HTML-to-text ratio is vital for SEO. Ensuring clean code, condensing it when possible, and adding relevant text to the page can improve the balance and enhance your website’s SEO performance. We hope these tips have been helpful to you.